

Makernews - modernerd
http://news.makerland.org/

======
skimmas
I'm really sorry that makernews does not have a "lame" layout like hackernews.
On hackernews I can scan for interesting articles really really fast, on
makernews it's SLOW. Also the design elements while cute might not appeal to
the more hardcore maker crowd.

~~~
yenoham
I completely agree. One of the main things I like about HN's simplistic style,
is that within a few seconds I can scan a dozen or so entries and filter out
what I'm going to look through.

~~~
kubindurion
guys, what's your method of scanning? how could we improve?

~~~
bliti
Links:

\- Color. Make it dark. Light blue on a white background is very hard to read.

\- Font size: Too big. Look at HN.

Layout:

\- Reduce the padding in between entries. HN is easy to scan because
everything is neatly packed. You only need to scroll a little to see the rest.

\- The header is too big. Kept it simple with a little logo. The focus here is
the content, not branding. The tweet button should go in the bottom of the
page.

\- The footer is nice, but a bit too big.

\- The subscription form is in the way of the "More News" link. Also, a lot of
people in your target market refrain from giving their name along with their
email.

~~~
Vektorweg
Font size on HN is too small. I wonder why every webdesigner uses 14px and
smaller. there is a reason why 16px is default size.

~~~
bliti
You can adjust it with ctrl (or cmd) +/-.

------
iktorn
It seems like HN might need to think about subHNs

~~~
SuperChihuahua
I'm running [http://www.trejdify.com/](http://www.trejdify.com/) which is like
HN but with business news only, and I have a modified spam-filter that sorts
the articles automatically in the different categories. Maybe HN needs
something similar?

~~~
krapp
How do you do the sorting?

I've thought about doing something similar with the metadata of posted urls
but obviously that might be ridiculously easy to game.

~~~
SuperChihuahua
I use the same spam filter as in the book "Programming collective
intelligence"

------
jonatron
Cool. The news starts a bit far right and far from the top for my liking, see
[http://i.imgur.com/WjoXblB.png](http://i.imgur.com/WjoXblB.png) for what I
mean.

~~~
kubindurion
thanks for the suggestion! we'll fix it!

~~~
jonatron
Oh and take a look at the subscribe bit near the bottom in FF & IE

~~~
kubindurion
we'll do!

------
sean13013
In your background image, the screws at the top are threaded anticlockwise,
but have a clockwise rotation arrow. Vice versa for the screw at the bottom by
the robot head.

------
krapp
In one of your scripts you appear to be missing an end bracket "}" \- also
there's no real reason to have them in separate script tags that i'm aware of
although i'm just being nitpicky at that point.

It looks nice - I like the graphics.

~~~
kubindurion
thanks! thank you for the kind words! and as far as typo is concerned we're
going to fix it asap, just not now.. we have 250 active visitors right now :)

------
kubindurion
Here is a link to the blog post with announcement explaining why it was
created:
[http://blog.makerland.org/post/62144777669/makernews](http://blog.makerland.org/post/62144777669/makernews)

------
jaggs
Desperately needs an RSS feed.

~~~
dawidwu
that's a great idea!

~~~
linker3000
Ah - I mentioned RSS a few threads back before seeing this one. Yes, good
idea.

------
veidr
In order to read this website, are you supposed to 3D-print yourself some
special glasses that render light blue text on white legible? Is that the
secret handshake?

~~~
kubindurion
hahah, yeah, we need to change this

------
ebbv
Am I the only person who really hates the term "maker"? It's awful, generic
and self-aggrandizing.

"Hacker" is a great term because it's fairly specific (you're working to alter
something/make something work) and it's self-deprecating ("I'm just hacking
away at it.").

~~~
Terretta
Went to Maker Faire NYC this weekend. Feel the same about the term.

It should have been called 3D Printer Faire. If not that, then Kit-maker
Faire. There was less "making" on display than at a typical arts and crafts
festival, and much more commercialization of RTA kits than I'd expected.

Also, I feel like Rasberry Pi should only come after Arduino which should only
come after one of these: [http://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-CK1000-Basic-
Electronic-...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-CK1000-Basic-Electronic-
Parts-Kit-/251343548006). (Not the 150 in one project kits, actual
components.) Start with hacking things from sensors and transistors before
programming chips.

As an example, on the linked "maker news" site, the home page currently has a
headline about flickering a household bulb like a candle with Arduino,
[http://flowcon.us/td/hwmach/](http://flowcon.us/td/hwmach/). This doesn't
need a chip. You could do it a variety of ways with the components above.

------
oelmekki
We definitely need such a place to gather news about 3d printing, not just
publishing projects. Thanks to the team.

------
OafTobark
Is there an RSS?

Edit: Nevermind, just saw its going to be added tomorrow

~~~
kubindurion
added!

[http://news.makerland.org/rss/](http://news.makerland.org/rss/)
[http://news.makerland.org/atom/](http://news.makerland.org/atom/)

------
davidcollantes
What is the engine behind it? Available somewhere?

~~~
olasitarska
It's python and django. We will probably release it as open source soon.

------
zengr
Deal breaker without a RSS feed.

------
abdophoto
I like.

