
Show HN: We just launched our MVP, a new RSS Reader - spxdcz
http://subpug.com/
======
voidfiles
RSS isn't ever going to be a big deal. If you are thinking in terms of market
size it's never going to be really big. Facebook, and Google+ have both taken
the subscription model in a direction that is more consumer friendly.

If you accept that premise, you are building a product for informed, longish-
term computer users, and you are treating them like they are beginners. If my
intrest was piqued by RSS I probably already use an RSS reader, and have a
bunch of feeds I want to use.

You are missing the ability for me to organize my feeds into folders. I have a
lot of feeds, and I need folders to triage my reading into a sliding scale
from important to least important.

After all of this keep it up, because I am, and I think many others are,
willing to pay for an app that does RSS reading well.

~~~
rohitarondekar
Fair point. But if this supported adding and managing feeds of my choice I
would certainly give it a try. I'm guessing that this is a test of their
reader and hence an MVP.

P.S I currently use Google Reader and am looking for alternatives.

~~~
guga31bb
Try newsblur: <http://www.newsblur.com/>

As discussed on HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1834305>

It has folders, hotkeys, and I think I like the layout more than Google Reader
(I'm still in the early stages of switching over).

~~~
conesus
Also open-source (<http://github.com/samuelclay>), actively developed, and
social features coming soon (within the next 2 months). And of course, a
history of shipping.

------
wonnage
It's a pretty app that looks like it's taken a lot of design inspiration from
Google Reader. Which is a good thing, I think they nailed it in terms of UI.

That said, I was really hoping you'd have your own sharing mechanism. The
major thing Google Reader lost in the transition was the ability to share and
comment in a unified manner - having to go to Twitter or Facebook to read
comments on something you shared elsewhere is a pain.

Also, doesn't look like there's any tracking of read/unread items.

~~~
MichaelGlass
Google reader user. Agreed: If someone could restore the features google
reader killed, I would start using their product immediately.

Specifically:

sharing, comments, bookmarklet for non-rss content.

Float (float.com) has an interesting idea of removing everything except
content from facebook/twitter/etc, which I like, but they are still missing a
usable webapp and the aforementioned features.

------
gorbachev
Great start.

However, as a heavy RSS user, an MVP isn't gonna cut it for me.

Couple of specific things are going to prevent me from using your product:

1\. Your UI shows way too few feed items on a page. Compared to Google Reader,
for example, you display maybe 30% as much content on a single page. That
makes reading RSS feeds slow on your product.

2\. There is no ability to group RSS feeds in any way. I'm not a single
interest kinda of a person, so my RSS subscriptions contain all kinds of
content. I don't read all that content the same way, and I don't feel like
reading some of the content all the time.

I like the filtering capability you have on the feeds. This is something I've
been missing for some time. I wish you'd expand it from simple keywords to
maybe regular expression based. Look into how killfiles in Usenet clients used
to work for inspiration maybe.

------
webwanderings
You know what I really like my RSS reader to do? Zoom in and out on command.
Show me birds eye view (readable view) of everything, let me scroll fast, but
then let me zoom in to the headlines which I may find interesting and then let
me zoom in more for details without making me click to visit the site. By
zoom-in and zoom-out I mean the way Prezi does it, i.e, the camera zoom in/out
and not the Ctrl+ font increase of browser.

------
DanielRibeiro
Looks really nice, but I'd like to know more about its unique value
proposition (what makes me use it instead of Google Reader, where I have all
my stars and shares, and great search).

It looks really great and it has some quite comprehensive features. Which
actually sends me back to what one of LinkedIn's founder once said[1]: _If
You're Not Embarrassed By The First Version Of Your Product, You’ve Launched
Too Late_

If this is the first MVP of the idea, it might be worthwhile checking out Ash
Maurya's great post[2] on the subject.

[1]
[http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-11-13/strategy/3006...](http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-11-13/strategy/30067340_1_pros-
and-cons-philosophy-product)

[2] [http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/11/from-minimum-viable-
product...](http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/11/from-minimum-viable-product-to-
landing-pages/)

~~~
cageface
_If You're Not Embarrassed By The First Version Of Your Product, You’ve
Launched Too Late_

Sort of OT, but I'm not sure this is really broadly useful advice. In the
world of iOS apps, for instance, that first impression is often the only one
you'll get before people move on. Hard to say which is the correct approach
for an app like this but sometimes it pays to polish the hell out of 1.0
instead.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
Apple does make iterating your MVP harder. Not impossible, just harder.

But don't forget that MVP is primarily a tool for learning with the least
amount of effort. Not less. So, if you are making something nobody wants, why
make it very polished? You will just waste more time learning this fact. Time
that could be used changing the product/trying something new entirely.

And even on app store: you can iterate with different product names, and
different brands. So you can lunch different iterations, possibly A/B testing
app name, logo and description, without much extra overhead, all at the same
time.

~~~
cageface
I think it has a lot less to do with release delays in the App store than it
does with the attention span of the typical customer. You can iterate all you
want but if they've already formed an opinion of your product based on a first
impression they're unlikely to give it a second look. All the apps I've
released have had a big initial sales spike over the first week or so and
never again climbed back anywhere close to those numbers, despite a large
number of functional and aesthetic improvements.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
You can release multiple products with different names and even different
brands (you use different accounts if needed). It may not be cheap, but it is
possible. This way you will have the huge spike over and over again (you may
change name/logo for different experiments). And please don't use vanity
metrics[1] for measuring the outcome.

[1] <http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/30/vanity-metrics/>

~~~
DanielRibeiro
This interview directly talks about iphone apps and MVPs on its first 5
minutes:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zo6JYfLFEVQ)

------
tlack
Looks great, congratulations. Three comments:

1\. On Chrome in Windows, the smaller fonts look a bit scrunched in a way that
makes my eyeballs hurt. Is this configurable?

2\. I notice that you say to bookmark the URL, and I presume my user id is
stored in a cookie. What happens if I want to read from another device or if I
clear my cookies? It would be awesome if you could generate a unique URL for
each user. Bonus points if it's easy to say over the phone or type in by
hand/from memory (I use at 4-5 devices to browse the web daily - 2 x laptops,
Playbook, and my BB).

3\. That Tweet sidebar thing is interesting but feels a little laggy. Is there
a way to turn it off?

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pauljonas
1\. Formatting is FUBARed when zooming in (Chrome browser).

2\. OPML import? Already have a set of RSS subscriptions, need to be able to
import existing feed list, don't wish to reenter all these in…

/goodluck on the venture.

~~~
voidfiles
In edit subscriptions you can do an OPML import. I had the same first thought.

What is broken though is they don't seem to support folders.

~~~
pauljonas
/thanks, found it! Cannot believe I did not see it there earlier.

Though I do not expect it to work after importing… …I have A LOT of feeds -- I
see the subscription titles showing but it seems to be stuck on "refresh"
right now…

------
jedbrown
1\. It doesn't seem to remember whether I have seen something before. I have
over a hundred items per day in my feeds and I read them erratically, so I
don't want to have to remember myself.

2\. It would be nice to have a more integrated sharing feature. An ideal
method for my group of computational science friends (since migrating off
Google Reader and being dissatisfied with long threads on G+) would be linking
into a (possibly private) reddit. It would be nice to at least see if the item
has been shared yet.

------
sixQuarks
I really like what you guys have done here. Ever since Google Reader switched
over to the Google+ design, I've been looking for a replacement.

This is a great MVP, but for me, there is one feature I would NEED before I
would consider switching.

Google Reader shows you a count of how many posts are unread, and as you read
them, it removes it from the list. That feature is the most important for me.
Any plans on addressing this? Or do you already have this and I'm just not
seeing it?

~~~
dorzey
If you choose the "Blank" starter pack then you can import your OPML file from
Google Reader.

~~~
sixQuarks
Yes, but that doesn't address the feature that I was looking for.

------
garethsprice
Too much whitespace in the list view, if I'm using RSS I want to scroll
through hundreds of articles in rapid succession and cherry-pick the
interesting ones.

Would be nice to be able to import my Google Reader subscription list so I can
instantly compare the two tools.

The Tweets and shared comments is an interesting idea, but took me a while to
find - this is the one thing that would get me to come back and use this over
Google Reader. Nice differentiator.

------
holman
Huge fan of the logo and its secret onclick event.

------
webwanderings
I typed cnn.com, nothing happened. I then typed www.cnn.com and I see that it
recognized. I then clicked the dog icon, it is still thinking....

I like the interface and the fact that you don't need to sign up. Not sure if
I'll remember to come back to this because it really isn't working for me
right now.

------
phasevar
I'm a heavy RSS user but this doesn't really fit my workflow. I may be
different than a lot of other heavy RSS users though.

I'm currently using Google Reader to keep track of things for me. I sync it up
with iReadG on my iPhone and then I scan through headlines on my iPhone and
star the ones I'm interested in reading. I do this while I'm out and about and
need to kill some time while waiting on things in life to happen. Just
scanning headlines from HN, Slashdot and TechCrunch usually fills all my
mobile downtime.

Then when I get back to the computer I go through the star items and read
them, unstarring them as I go.

Your interface would be nice if I could work it into my workflow but it
doesn't look setup for that.

------
tlow
_Subscription packs_ are the best part of your idea _so far_. I suggest you
keep them, but spend some time thinking about who your target user is, how
you'll tell them about how you'll provide them value, and how you'll provide
them value.

Here are some questions I had:

1\. what does a user expect to happen next when they click on a subscription
pack?

2\. why is your landing page dark while your app is light?

3\. why isn't there an action when a user clicks "All your favorite websites
in one place."

4\. why isn't there a clearer call to action?

5\. it seems like you're targeting users who don't currently use RSS at all,
will they even understand what your product does?

------
amitamb
Design is great! Who did it and how can average entrepreneur imitate it.

BTW I thought there will be easy way to import Google reader list but there is
none. (I first selected interesting then blank.)

~~~
dvillase
You can import using OPML. I also would like an easier integration method,
that and also explaining what OPML is. It took me awhile to figure and I have
good knowledge of GR, imagine someone that doesn't.

------
spxdcz
Hi everyone. We've been away from our computers for a few hours but wow,
thanks for the feedback (good and bad). We're going to go through all of your
comments (and those that have been submitted by email and Twitter) and
prioritize our efforts.

We know there are still lots of things that need improving (handling lots of
feeds, how new items are displayed, organizing feeds, etc) - we'll do our best
to get to these asap, but wanted to get this 'out the door' as quickly as
possible to get your feedback.

~~~
bbaker
It's a great start. Keep rocking it.

~~~
spxdcz
Thanks! I'm just going through all the comments again now and importing the
requests/issues into Redmine.

------
geuis
On iOS 5:

The design is nice.

Don't show the entire story when you visit one of the categories. Just show
headlines.

It rendered terribly slowly, scrolling was jerky, and page navigation was
completely unresponsive. Eventually the browser just crashed.

The first category I visited was Science. It showed science stuff.

The next category I visited was Film. It also showed science stuff.

~~~
bluena
about the science/film problem you're talking about: I had the same
impression. What's happening is that your feed is showing science and film
articles, but because there was only recent science articles, you had the
impression that your feed did not include film articles

------
sontek
Would be nice if you didn't remove the session id from the URL. I would like
to bookmark the URL so I don't have to keep the e-mail in my inbox.

Also, frictionless use is cool and all but it would be nice if I could just
create a username and password so I know I'll always have access to my feeds.

------
moustachio
I put together a usablity review of subpug.com using moustach.io. I hope you
find this useful.

[http://moustach.io/welcome/e/reviewed/YDtJ9-Su30Q3VH3VGotGnZ...](http://moustach.io/welcome/e/reviewed/YDtJ9-Su30Q3VH3VGotGnZhI1WUGf20J/kzNiYpDhRIM9MP2gkgz5dw)

Good luck.

------
jamesgeck0
It shows the same ten posts over and over again. This may be a bug. Want my
OPML file?

~~~
jackolas
Same here. It also would be nice to have a selection screen after you do the
OPML import to verify if you still want all that crap :)

------
bbxxnicol
I love the UI. People have already mentioned this; it needs to keep count of
the number of unread articles. Looks very promising though!

I was curious as to what JS Frameworks you've been using besides jQuery.
Underscore.js? Backbone.js?

------
tmcb
As it is advertised, the subscription info is stored locally. How can it be
deleted? I tried to delete the cookies, but it didn't work. Please, don't tell
me you are using those naughty evercookies.

------
dwynings
I'm curious to know why you didn't just create a chrome extension like
<http://reederforchrome.tumblr.com/> or Helvetireader.

------
rhizome
Seeing some weirdness on chrome+ubuntu:

[http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12282011-065319pm.p...](http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-12282011-065319pm.php)

------
choxi
sick! the UI looks like it would feel better on a tablet, you should consider
pivoting to be an ipad app since it's oriented for media consumption

~~~
bbaker
good call

------
codedivine
Bug report: I am using Opera 11.60 on Linux (64-bit). When I click on "blank"
pack, Opera hangs and I have to terminate the application.

------
ch0wn
It feels very fast and I really enjoy the color scheme. One thing I noticed:
On small resolutions the top navigation bar wraps.

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bentlegen
Lose the transparency on the top action bar. It's distracting, and I'm not
realistically going to read text through it.

------
rb2k_
I really, really like the navigation using 'j' and 'k'. Thanks for having
that.

------
netlemurde
Really like the UI with the comments on the side Good job!

------
mike_ivanov
Very interesting. BTW, why there is horizontal scrolling?

------
desireco42
You know, I actually needed something like this, thanks

------
richardburton
RSS is alive again.

------
thiagoc
good job, it's a nice app!

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nirvana
Love the subscription packs and the friction free signup, but once I'd picked
a pack, I wanted to go back and add another pack to my set of subscriptions...
but couldn't figure out how, probably because this is an MVP.

When looking at my subscriptions I clicked on the pub in the upper left to go
to your homepage (to add a pack to my subscriptions) and what it does is
change the view in some way that's totally not obvious to me. I get a
different top story. Maybe its changing the sort order, but theres' no visual
indication of what has changed, only the story I was reading is replaced. I
click it again and it switches back.

Great MVP, and bonus points for the effortless signup.

~~~
greendestiny
Had the same experience but if you click on the original link from HN again
you can add other packs. Probably just needs a link back to that landing page.

------
drivebyacct2
Very cool. Sadly, scrolling performance Chrome/MBP+Lion is unacceptably
choppy.

~~~
netlemurde
same here. got better after everything was loaded

------
Punishker
What's 'your MVP'? It looks and sounds like an app...

How does your RSS reader beat the competition? Anything of note?

~~~
FuzzyDunlop
I believe it stands for 'minimum viable product'[1]. Basically releasing a
rough v1.0 that does the bare minimum, and then turning it into the real deal
in the next major iteration.

[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product>

------
suking
RSS is dead & google reader works fine.

~~~
dvillase
RSS is still alive and kicking. Seems like no service has been able to make it
gain as much traction as it should.

The recent Google+ integration into Google Reader made the product take a step
backwards. Then you have apps like Reeder (which was my favorite at some
time), Pulse (became my next favorite), and then Flipboard (which has won me
personally).

Except, I feel like something is missing from all of them.

Google Reader has this awesome Sort by Magic feature, but seems to have been
broken recently. If applications could use this sorting method and bring in
social better (the integration is lacking right now) it would be awesome!

