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HN Notify

120 points by josephwegner 13y ago

bryanh 13y ago
Very cool! Any chance to open source it? I've been running HN alerts via Zapier (my startup) + a webhook polling trigger with a URL like http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?&q=your_term_here&sortby=create_ts+desc http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?&q=yo... (which is of course hnsearch.com's API). You can get them delivered via SMS/Twilio, IM/Gtalk/Jabber or plain jane email.
- adamnemecek 13y ago
  It's super simple to write your own. Periodically check https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments and when a new comment appears, get the parent's author and send a notification.
zbruhnke 13y ago
I was just thinking the other day how much I missed notifo doing this. would be nice if it could send notifications via one of the HN iphone clients or at least text message though
pfarrell 13y ago
Ahh. I had a similar desire to code something like this up, but didn't because I found there was some sort if service available on your account called notifo. Wonder what happened to it... Gl with this service. I definitely wanted it when I've done "ask hn" type things. How sure are you that the message will get to the notified's inbox? Email delivery is not easily done.
- pfarrell 13y ago
  Well a little ddg-ing and I got my answer. Looks like notifo is no longer.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    Thanks for taking the time to check up on it. Also, I love DDG, but I haven’t found an appropriate verb to describe the action yet. So far, I’ve been using ‘duckducking’.
- keeperofdakeys 13y ago
  Notifo was around two or so years ago, and I believe it was a startup that went through ycombinator, designed to be a "central notification center". It worked quite well for the short while I was using it. They didn't take off though, and after saying they couldn't afford to keep servers running much longer, became silent. Any decent message notification system would require integration, so there is definitely an area left open.
bgar 13y ago
Just wanted to say, thank you for this! I've been using it for a while and it's so useful :)
- marquis 13y ago
  Thanks from me also to the author, I can't remember since when I've been using this - super useful.
Mithrandir 13y ago
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004254 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004254
siong1987 13y ago
I created HNMention (http://www.hnmention.com/ http://www.hnmention.com/) a while back. It will notify you when someone mentions you in comment like how mention works on Twitter (@username).
hayksaakian 13y ago
was literally just thinking about this earlier today would be nice if there was a chrome extension that added this via reddit-like functionality instead of having to send me an email
oblique63 13y ago
Surely I can't be the only one wondering why this kind of functionality isn't just built-in already (with option to enable/disable accordingly)? I mean, the site has been around for about 7 years now, and the whole 'community' aspect seems to be a big selling point, so it just seems odd...
- nodesocket 13y ago
  An interesting thought. Perhaps users constantly coming back and checking their comments for replies, increases time on site, and the possibility users will interact further and view other posts. But, the reality is probably that pg is just super busy and does not have the time and bandwidth to build features out. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Reddit does not send notifications on comment replies either.
  - oblique63 13y ago
    > But, the reality is probably that PG is just super busy and does not have the time and bandwidth to build features out. I totally get that, it's the reason I mentioned the 7-year time window though. You'd think that something like that would've been done at some point during all that time by some interns or something by now, even if it was a super low priority. I'm guessing that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy must just be really strong with PG in that case. Or possibly have some deeper reasoning like you mentioned. > Reddit does not send notifications on comment replies either. It doesn't send out notifications to your email or whatever, but it does still have a little inbox notification that lights up when you get new replies. Does something similar to that get unlocked here with enough karma? If that's the case, then I wouldn't know...
    - krapp 13y ago
      > Does something similar to that get unlocked here with enough karma? not... yet...
    - rcfox 13y ago
      There's no little indicator, however you can click the "threads" link up at the top to see all of your comments and their replies.
scrrr 13y ago
I definitely don't need more notifications! :) I don't, but I like projects that expand the functionality of an application. For example things like https://www.hnsearch.com https://www.hnsearch.com .
Jugurtha 13y ago
Nice! What would also be cool would be the following: -1- Being able to follow a thread you haven't commented on. -2- Being able to follow a comment that is not yours. The reason behind number 2 is that sometimes, you see an interesting comment and you'd be interested to know what people think about it, so you'll follow it and be notified whenever people reply to it.
- bambax 13y ago
  From the form, it seems you can "subscribe" to any HN handle, not just your own...? I don't know if you can use the same email for different handles, but with gmail for example you can produce an infinity of different email addresses.
  - Jugurtha 13y ago
    I tried to put my e-mail address and "bambax" as HN Username, it returned "bambax is already a registered user of HN Notify." So you can't use it if the person you want to "follow" is already registered. Now, I tried "pg" and it subscribed me. The result of this is that if "pg" wanted to subscribe, he wouldn't be allowed. I tried to unsubscribe. Unsubscription is e-mail based and not handle based. i.e: You can't unsubscribe from just one user, you unsubscribe from all the users, since you're taking out the root (e-mail address). Now I have to subscribe again to get my own replies. PS: Been notified of your reply by HNNotify :)
    - bambax 13y ago
      Ok, so obviously it needs work! I just subscribed while making the parent comment BTW, and find the service useful. It would make a lot of sense to allow handles to be monitored by many different people; some users are super popular and I guess many people would like to "follow" them...
DjangoReinhardt 13y ago
This is truly super! I did something similar for RSS feeds and twitter: http://update-me.herokuapp.com http://update-me.herokuapp.com - it is an RSS reader via Twitter. It DMs you post updates to feeds you subscribe to. Could I request access to your API? I'm thinking of adding a HN subscription feature to @updt_me, something along the following lines: 1. User sends a tweet subscribing to thread ID, e.g. @updt_me START HN 6499036 2. @updt_me pings hnnotify with a callback to setup a subscription for the thread. 3. hnnotify pings @updt_me with thread-updates via the callback. POST payload, I think? 4. @updt_me DMs update to the user's twitter inbox! YAY! I'm sure there's a simpler process than the one I outlined above. If you have any ideas, I'll be glad to hear them! :)
tomasien 13y ago
You should make one for Stack Overflow: when you ask a SO question, you're literally stuck until someone answers it.
- DjangoReinhardt 13y ago
  Do SO questions come with their own RSS feeds? If yes, then try using http://twitter.com/updt_me http://twitter.com/updt_me to 'follow' the questions - you'll get a DM whenever there are new answers in the RSS/Atom feed! :) It's a self-learning project I built over a weekend, so it's kinda rough around the edges, apologies in advance! Do let me know what you think.
  - tomasien 13y ago
    They do! Also, it turns out you can turn on email notifications to your answers for any question at any time, but only every 3 hours, ever day, or every week. I want them the second they happen, so I'm gonna try your RSS function!
    - DjangoReinhardt 13y ago
      Well, to be honest with you, I poll feeds with an hourly cronjob. So you may not get the DMs the second they happen, but you'll get them within the hour for sure... :-) Good luck and tell me what you think. Also, any feedback would be truly really appreciated.
      - tomasien 13y ago
        Appreciate the feedback - I still may try it, but that's not going to cut it for me. I'd still love to see it working though, so next question I ask I'll hook it up
wpietri 13y ago
Say, what's the etiquette with scraping Hacker News? I thought it was forbidden, and I've seen HN-based tools that closed down because they got blocked. But if this tool is going to crawl HN regularly, presumably they've got that figured out.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
davidgerard 13y ago
Nice service, well done! Needs a verification email, though. I get people signing up my email for pissweak revenge, and I have someone who signed up to iTunes using my email addres by mistake, and Apple spam doesn't have an unsubscribe link ...

120 points by josephwegner 13y ago

Very cool! Any chance to open source it? I've been running HN alerts via Zapier (my startup) + a webhook polling trigger with a URL like http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?&q=your_term_here&sortby=create_ts+desc http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?&q=yo... (which is of course hnsearch.com's API). You can get them delivered via SMS/Twilio, IM/Gtalk/Jabber or plain jane email.

adamnemecek 13y ago
It's super simple to write your own. Periodically check https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments and when a new comment appears, get the parent's author and send a notification.

zbruhnke 13y ago

I was just thinking the other day how much I missed notifo doing this. would be nice if it could send notifications via one of the HN iphone clients or at least text message though

pfarrell 13y ago

Ahh. I had a similar desire to code something like this up, but didn't because I found there was some sort if service available on your account called notifo. Wonder what happened to it... Gl with this service. I definitely wanted it when I've done "ask hn" type things. How sure are you that the message will get to the notified's inbox? Email delivery is not easily done.

pfarrell 13y ago
Well a little ddg-ing and I got my answer. Looks like notifo is no longer.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Thanks for taking the time to check up on it. Also, I love DDG, but I haven’t found an appropriate verb to describe the action yet. So far, I’ve been using ‘duckducking’.
keeperofdakeys 13y ago
Notifo was around two or so years ago, and I believe it was a startup that went through ycombinator, designed to be a "central notification center". It worked quite well for the short while I was using it. They didn't take off though, and after saying they couldn't afford to keep servers running much longer, became silent. Any decent message notification system would require integration, so there is definitely an area left open.

bgar 13y ago

Just wanted to say, thank you for this! I've been using it for a while and it's so useful :)

marquis 13y ago
Thanks from me also to the author, I can't remember since when I've been using this - super useful.

Mithrandir 13y ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004254 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004254

siong1987 13y ago

I created HNMention (http://www.hnmention.com/ http://www.hnmention.com/) a while back. It will notify you when someone mentions you in comment like how mention works on Twitter (@username).

hayksaakian 13y ago

was literally just thinking about this earlier today would be nice if there was a chrome extension that added this via reddit-like functionality instead of having to send me an email

oblique63 13y ago

Surely I can't be the only one wondering why this kind of functionality isn't just built-in already (with option to enable/disable accordingly)? I mean, the site has been around for about 7 years now, and the whole 'community' aspect seems to be a big selling point, so it just seems odd...

nodesocket 13y ago
An interesting thought. Perhaps users constantly coming back and checking their comments for replies, increases time on site, and the possibility users will interact further and view other posts. But, the reality is probably that pg is just super busy and does not have the time and bandwidth to build features out. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Reddit does not send notifications on comment replies either.
- oblique63 13y ago
  > But, the reality is probably that PG is just super busy and does not have the time and bandwidth to build features out. I totally get that, it's the reason I mentioned the 7-year time window though. You'd think that something like that would've been done at some point during all that time by some interns or something by now, even if it was a super low priority. I'm guessing that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy must just be really strong with PG in that case. Or possibly have some deeper reasoning like you mentioned. > Reddit does not send notifications on comment replies either. It doesn't send out notifications to your email or whatever, but it does still have a little inbox notification that lights up when you get new replies. Does something similar to that get unlocked here with enough karma? If that's the case, then I wouldn't know...
  - krapp 13y ago
    > Does something similar to that get unlocked here with enough karma? not... yet...
  - rcfox 13y ago
    There's no little indicator, however you can click the "threads" link up at the top to see all of your comments and their replies.

scrrr 13y ago

I definitely don't need more notifications! :) I don't, but I like projects that expand the functionality of an application. For example things like https://www.hnsearch.com https://www.hnsearch.com .

Jugurtha 13y ago

Nice! What would also be cool would be the following: -1- Being able to follow a thread you haven't commented on. -2- Being able to follow a comment that is not yours. The reason behind number 2 is that sometimes, you see an interesting comment and you'd be interested to know what people think about it, so you'll follow it and be notified whenever people reply to it.

bambax 13y ago
From the form, it seems you can "subscribe" to any HN handle, not just your own...? I don't know if you can use the same email for different handles, but with gmail for example you can produce an infinity of different email addresses.
- Jugurtha 13y ago
  I tried to put my e-mail address and "bambax" as HN Username, it returned "bambax is already a registered user of HN Notify." So you can't use it if the person you want to "follow" is already registered. Now, I tried "pg" and it subscribed me. The result of this is that if "pg" wanted to subscribe, he wouldn't be allowed. I tried to unsubscribe. Unsubscription is e-mail based and not handle based. i.e: You can't unsubscribe from just one user, you unsubscribe from all the users, since you're taking out the root (e-mail address). Now I have to subscribe again to get my own replies. PS: Been notified of your reply by HNNotify :)
  - bambax 13y ago
    Ok, so obviously it needs work! I just subscribed while making the parent comment BTW, and find the service useful. It would make a lot of sense to allow handles to be monitored by many different people; some users are super popular and I guess many people would like to "follow" them...

DjangoReinhardt 13y ago

This is truly super! I did something similar for RSS feeds and twitter: http://update-me.herokuapp.com http://update-me.herokuapp.com - it is an RSS reader via Twitter. It DMs you post updates to feeds you subscribe to. Could I request access to your API? I'm thinking of adding a HN subscription feature to @updt_me, something along the following lines: 1. User sends a tweet subscribing to thread ID, e.g. @updt_me START HN 6499036 2. @updt_me pings hnnotify with a callback to setup a subscription for the thread. 3. hnnotify pings @updt_me with thread-updates via the callback. POST payload, I think? 4. @updt_me DMs update to the user's twitter inbox! YAY! I'm sure there's a simpler process than the one I outlined above. If you have any ideas, I'll be glad to hear them! :)

tomasien 13y ago

You should make one for Stack Overflow: when you ask a SO question, you're literally stuck until someone answers it.

DjangoReinhardt 13y ago
Do SO questions come with their own RSS feeds? If yes, then try using http://twitter.com/updt_me http://twitter.com/updt_me to 'follow' the questions - you'll get a DM whenever there are new answers in the RSS/Atom feed! :) It's a self-learning project I built over a weekend, so it's kinda rough around the edges, apologies in advance! Do let me know what you think.
- tomasien 13y ago
  They do! Also, it turns out you can turn on email notifications to your answers for any question at any time, but only every 3 hours, ever day, or every week. I want them the second they happen, so I'm gonna try your RSS function!
  - DjangoReinhardt 13y ago
    Well, to be honest with you, I poll feeds with an hourly cronjob. So you may not get the DMs the second they happen, but you'll get them within the hour for sure... :-) Good luck and tell me what you think. Also, any feedback would be truly really appreciated.
    - tomasien 13y ago
      Appreciate the feedback - I still may try it, but that's not going to cut it for me. I'd still love to see it working though, so next question I ask I'll hook it up

wpietri 13y ago

Say, what's the etiquette with scraping Hacker News? I thought it was forbidden, and I've seen HN-based tools that closed down because they got blocked. But if this tool is going to crawl HN regularly, presumably they've got that figured out.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

davidgerard 13y ago

Nice service, well done! Needs a verification email, though. I get people signing up my email for pissweak revenge, and I have someone who signed up to iTunes using my email addres by mistake, and Apple spam doesn't have an unsubscribe link ...