

Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles - MichaelApproved
http://skimthat.com?launch

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mcknz
I'm sure this is on your list, but design could use some work -- visually it
seems a lot like one of those regurgitate-press-releases-as-content type of
sites.

A new header and actual logo (not text-based and losing the &trade;) would
probably take care of that. The highlighter-on-text look is apt, but doesn't
come out very cleanly. Perhaps a logo that captures the "highlighter" idea,
rather than physical mimicry.

Excellent idea.

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MichaelApproved
Thanks for the feedback. Do you think just changing the logo will make it look
less like regurgitated press releases?

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mcknz
That would definitely help -- could also be that the header looks like a
generic "news" or "publishing" template. Maybe you don't need both a logo and
the background photo.

Also you might consider condensing to one column if possible, or at least
using a layout that would collapse to a single column. I could see using this
a lot on my phone, but I only get about 2/3 of the screen for content. Maybe
there's a good wordpress mobile layout out there?

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MichaelApproved
For mobile users, the site entire site is shown but it initially zooms in on
the content portion, leaving the side columns off the screen.

I'll work with my designer to tweak the design.

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wccrawford
Nice. I watch the RSS feed and rather like the full flow, but if I didn't,
this would be a great substitute.

The only concern is the comments there... Doesn't that seem to take away from
the comments here? It would be better if you could pull the number of comments
here and link here.

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MichaelApproved
I thought the same thing but I doubt it'll take away from the HN comments
since I link to it in the summary. I'm hoping the comments on the site can
help me build my own community of people who favor this style of writing.

I was thinking of pulling comment count and also vote count. I've got to make
sure it's done in a way that's not too taxing for either site.

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masnick
Who are the writers? I read a few summaries and they seemed pretty good.

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MichaelApproved
Thanks. I got a team of writers with a job post on ProBlogger.net. It's a
great source to find good writers. $50 and I got a ton of responses.

Here's the post <http://jobs.problogger.net/view/4718>

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petervandijck
Great. It would be better if the summaries were even shorter though, and had
more links.

For example:

"Developers using the Lean Software Development model compare the writing of
software to a manufacturing process where project requirements are considered
inventory. The focus should be on the code as it is the real inventory. Like
all inventory there is a cost to carrying code. Competitive advantage can be
achieved by strategically deleting code and focusing on profitable features."

has a lot of cruft and could be summarized like this:

"Lean software says code is inventory - and carrying inventory costs money."

That way you get the main idea and you can click for more.

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MichaelApproved
I like how you're thinking but in this case Lean software generally considers
features inventory. The author of the source article is suggesting it should
be inventory instead. The transition is needed from the general perception to
what is being proposed.

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petervandijck
So perhaps:

"Lean software says features are inventory and carrying inventory costs money,
but perhaps code itself should be considered inventory instead."

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giangbiscan
Awesome! Congrats, Michael.

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MichaelApproved
Thanks Giang!

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oliviakuhn
Michael, this is excellent. Congrats!

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joshuafcole
Seconded. This'll help to cut down on the amount of material I wade through
myself trying to keep up with the full feed! Maybe I'll even be able to get
some code written again! =]

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nullsub
what are your criteria for identifying popular articles? also, is there any
NLP involved in the summarization process, or is it all manual?

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MichaelApproved
It's all manual for now but I'm exploring tools to help with the process.

Popular article is defined by reaching the top 5 with about 40 votes.

