5 ms·

Show HN: Updated Hacker News Chrome Extension

59 points by tommoor 14y ago

graiz 14y ago
Very cool. I like some of the stuff you've done but the css conflicts with another HN extension that I enjoy (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readable-hackernews/jnnojalnifmaekkfknejbppafnaiepjl https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readable-hackernew...) I think their css is easier to read but I really like what you're doing in the menus.
nicksergeant 14y ago
I really like this but the hover actions make it pretty annoying to casually browse. After just a few minutes of use, I accidentally triggered the user hover actions a few times.
- tommoor 14y ago
  That's a shame... I can't say it happens for me, perhaps I've subconsciously learnt not to scroll in the vertical band where the usernames live! I'm using a hoverIntent plugin so you do need to hover for a few hundred milliseconds before it's triggered too.
  - jcomis 14y ago
    I'm in the same camp as nicksergeant. I also don't like having to click outside the tooltip to dismiss it. Nice work regardless, thanks for building it.
michaelmior 14y ago
Really digging this. For those who prefer light on dark (such as myself), I made a few minor tweaks. It's not perfect, but mostly usable. You can get a copy at http://github.com/michaelmior/HackerNew http://github.com/michaelmior/HackerNew. Just clone somewhere and go to chrome://extensions, click "Load unpacked extension" and select the folder you cloned to.
- tommoor 14y ago
  nice, glad you could tweak to your liking!
dylangs1030 14y ago
I like the functions you added in. Here's a few constructive criticisms: 1. I don't want to use this because it doesn't feel like I'm on Hacker News. I miss the orange. This is obviously subjective. 2. It's mildly annoying to have a hover bubble crop up when I trail the mouse across a user name without meaning to. It's distracting. Maybe you could add a higher threshold for registering the hover? This way it's deliberate most of the time. 3. The endless scrolling isn't as seamless as I would hope. I find this is a common problem with "endless" pages - it never loads before you reach the end of the page, which gives a slight refractory period where you've very aware you've reached the "end" of the page. I mean overall I'd use it if it still fit the color scheme. Just some food for thought. Good job :)
- BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
  Agreed on all counts; It would be great to see these things toggleable on a basic settings page for the extension.
- lucaspiller 14y ago
  I would like to see the orange in the extension too. Other than that I have no complaints.
  - tommoor 14y ago
    People you follow are highlighted orange, as the only orange is your own stuff, the logo and these people it makes sure they stand out :-)
- marknutter 14y ago
  I agree completely with #1, although I disagree with most people that HN is a pleasant design. It's ugly as sin, as is Reddit, but they are link sharing sites, so it doesn't really matter what they look like so long as they make it easy to share links. People have grown used to the way it looks (as have I, despite hating the way it looks) so deviating from that is always met with resistance. If this were my plugin, I would not alter the look and feel of the site at all (much like the Reddit Enhancement Suite does not) but I would provide the ability to toggle the current design alterations on for those who want a more pleasant experience. That would increase your adoption rate, I'm sure.
jlogsdon 14y ago
I just installed this for the first time and my favorite feature is relative font-sizes, hands down. I have a larger default font-size on my laptop and I didn't realize how many sites don't respect that until I switched.
signed0 14y ago
Would it be possible to add a retina favicon as well?
DustinCalim 14y ago
I use Hacker News <I>because</I> it doesn't have those features...
- tommoor 14y ago
  It doesn't have html comments either ;-)
  - sebkomianos 14y ago
    And I guess he probably wanted to underline "because" instead.
killerbat00 14y ago
For anyone interested, here's a version that highlights the original poster in comment threads: https://github.com/killerbat00/HackerNew https://github.com/killerbat00/HackerNew
nwienert 14y ago
Nice to see progess! I used this extension for over a year. I've since switched to HN Enhancement Suite because it fixes my biggest gripe: horizontal scrolling in comment threads. I just tried this out and it doesn't fix this. I'd love to switch back, perhaps if I get time I'll submit a pull request.
nightwolf 14y ago
FWIW, when I try installing the extension, it says "Manifest file is invalid" and the installation fails.
- daGrevis 14y ago
  The same for me.
- martinp 14y ago
  Same issue here. Chrome 25.0.1364.160 on Linux.
- tommoor 14y ago
  Strange, it's definitely valid according to the docs and Google also processes the manifest on upload - are you all on Linux?
  - nightwolf 14y ago
    Chrome 25.0.1364.160 on OS X. I think I also tried installing it on a Windows computer, too, though, and got the same error.
nshankar 14y ago
I would like you to add a facility to let us see the linked web page on the right hand side.
moyajaya 14y ago
No love for Firefox? Could someone repackage this to work on Firefox? Please!
marknutter 14y ago
One of the features the Reddit Enhancement Suite provides is the ability to collapse all child comments for an entire thread, and I find it immensely useful. In fact, that and the "view all pictures" features are really the only two I find useful in that extension. OP should add the former to this plugin.
- tommoor 14y ago
  I could definitely provide this, if you wanted to open an issue i'll get round to it soon enough...
jrajav 14y ago
Is there a reason recent Chrome extensions never have desktop notifications? Is non-user-initiated scraping banned or discouraged?
ibu 14y ago
Nice work! As said by others; would be nice to be able to switch between dark and light themed CSS though.
tilltheis 14y ago
I really like the extension but what I'm missing is auto refresh and opening links in new tabs (both comments and articles). That functionality is offered by another extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackemup/abjhkncpebiaepcpeopknaghepekbnpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackemup/abjhkncpe...) but sadly both extensions seem to be incompatible (after browser restart).

59 points by tommoor 14y ago

graiz 14y ago

Very cool. I like some of the stuff you've done but the css conflicts with another HN extension that I enjoy (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readable-hackernews/jnnojalnifmaekkfknejbppafnaiepjl https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readable-hackernew...) I think their css is easier to read but I really like what you're doing in the menus.

nicksergeant 14y ago

I really like this but the hover actions make it pretty annoying to casually browse. After just a few minutes of use, I accidentally triggered the user hover actions a few times.

tommoor 14y ago
That's a shame... I can't say it happens for me, perhaps I've subconsciously learnt not to scroll in the vertical band where the usernames live! I'm using a hoverIntent plugin so you do need to hover for a few hundred milliseconds before it's triggered too.
- jcomis 14y ago
  I'm in the same camp as nicksergeant. I also don't like having to click outside the tooltip to dismiss it. Nice work regardless, thanks for building it.

michaelmior 14y ago

Really digging this. For those who prefer light on dark (such as myself), I made a few minor tweaks. It's not perfect, but mostly usable. You can get a copy at http://github.com/michaelmior/HackerNew http://github.com/michaelmior/HackerNew. Just clone somewhere and go to chrome://extensions, click "Load unpacked extension" and select the folder you cloned to.

tommoor 14y ago
nice, glad you could tweak to your liking!

dylangs1030 14y ago

I like the functions you added in. Here's a few constructive criticisms: 1. I don't want to use this because it doesn't feel like I'm on Hacker News. I miss the orange. This is obviously subjective. 2. It's mildly annoying to have a hover bubble crop up when I trail the mouse across a user name without meaning to. It's distracting. Maybe you could add a higher threshold for registering the hover? This way it's deliberate most of the time. 3. The endless scrolling isn't as seamless as I would hope. I find this is a common problem with "endless" pages - it never loads before you reach the end of the page, which gives a slight refractory period where you've very aware you've reached the "end" of the page. I mean overall I'd use it if it still fit the color scheme. Just some food for thought. Good job :)

BHSPitMonkey 14y ago
Agreed on all counts; It would be great to see these things toggleable on a basic settings page for the extension.
lucaspiller 14y ago
I would like to see the orange in the extension too. Other than that I have no complaints.
- tommoor 14y ago
  People you follow are highlighted orange, as the only orange is your own stuff, the logo and these people it makes sure they stand out :-)
marknutter 14y ago
I agree completely with #1, although I disagree with most people that HN is a pleasant design. It's ugly as sin, as is Reddit, but they are link sharing sites, so it doesn't really matter what they look like so long as they make it easy to share links. People have grown used to the way it looks (as have I, despite hating the way it looks) so deviating from that is always met with resistance. If this were my plugin, I would not alter the look and feel of the site at all (much like the Reddit Enhancement Suite does not) but I would provide the ability to toggle the current design alterations on for those who want a more pleasant experience. That would increase your adoption rate, I'm sure.

jlogsdon 14y ago

I just installed this for the first time and my favorite feature is relative font-sizes, hands down. I have a larger default font-size on my laptop and I didn't realize how many sites don't respect that until I switched.

signed0 14y ago

Would it be possible to add a retina favicon as well?

DustinCalim 14y ago

I use Hacker News <I>because</I> it doesn't have those features...

tommoor 14y ago
It doesn't have html comments either ;-)
- sebkomianos 14y ago
  And I guess he probably wanted to underline "because" instead.

killerbat00 14y ago

For anyone interested, here's a version that highlights the original poster in comment threads: https://github.com/killerbat00/HackerNew https://github.com/killerbat00/HackerNew

nwienert 14y ago

Nice to see progess! I used this extension for over a year. I've since switched to HN Enhancement Suite because it fixes my biggest gripe: horizontal scrolling in comment threads. I just tried this out and it doesn't fix this. I'd love to switch back, perhaps if I get time I'll submit a pull request.

nightwolf 14y ago

FWIW, when I try installing the extension, it says "Manifest file is invalid" and the installation fails.

daGrevis 14y ago
The same for me.
martinp 14y ago
Same issue here. Chrome 25.0.1364.160 on Linux.
tommoor 14y ago
Strange, it's definitely valid according to the docs and Google also processes the manifest on upload - are you all on Linux?
- nightwolf 14y ago
  Chrome 25.0.1364.160 on OS X. I think I also tried installing it on a Windows computer, too, though, and got the same error.

nshankar 14y ago

I would like you to add a facility to let us see the linked web page on the right hand side.

moyajaya 14y ago

No love for Firefox? Could someone repackage this to work on Firefox? Please!

marknutter 14y ago

One of the features the Reddit Enhancement Suite provides is the ability to collapse all child comments for an entire thread, and I find it immensely useful. In fact, that and the "view all pictures" features are really the only two I find useful in that extension. OP should add the former to this plugin.

tommoor 14y ago
I could definitely provide this, if you wanted to open an issue i'll get round to it soon enough...

jrajav 14y ago

Is there a reason recent Chrome extensions never have desktop notifications? Is non-user-initiated scraping banned or discouraged?

ibu 14y ago

Nice work! As said by others; would be nice to be able to switch between dark and light themed CSS though.

tilltheis 14y ago

I really like the extension but what I'm missing is auto refresh and opening links in new tabs (both comments and articles). That functionality is offered by another extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackemup/abjhkncpebiaepcpeopknaghepekbnpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackemup/abjhkncpe...) but sadly both extensions seem to be incompatible (after browser restart).