

HackerFollow: Follow HN Users - treblig
http://hackerfollow.com/

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copper
Just so you know, clicking on Signout gives me this:

Message: MySQL Query fail: SELECT * FROM follow WHERE user_id = MySQL Error:
You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to
your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1 Date:
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 8:53:41 AM Script: /index.php Referer:
<http://hackerfollow.com/>

Great idea, though!

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erickerr
More context would be great (browser, page you were on, page you were
redirected to). I think I uncovered the problem so you'll need to clear your
cookies. Let me know, thanks!

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symkat
Database Error Message: MySQL Query fail: SELECT * FROM follow WHERE user_id =
MySQL Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ''
at line 1 Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 4:02:06 PM Script: / Referer:
<http://hackerfollow.com/>

Clicked from the news item here, entered a pass phrase (it's a secret, I'm not
telling you!) and clicked the sign in button.

Screen cap: <http://i.imgur.com/rBx5l.png>

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webwright
I love the idea. The "secret phrase" method of creating an identity seems
downright awful.

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erickerr
We're not creating another identity for you. There aren't any profiles, it's
simply a utility. I agree the messaging could be cleaner and I'll rework some
of it when I have time later today, but we dont really need your email or a
password for anything so there's little reason to require it other than being
the norm.

~~~
SkyMarshal
I appreciate you trying to make it easier for users to remember their
login/identity/site key/access code/whatever, but this may actually be making
it harder.

Since we have all had years to figure out how to manage logins across many
different sites that do not coordinate, we've all solved this problem in one
way or another, but the solutions are based on finding efficient ways to
manage userid's and passwords.

Mine for example is that I use a set of three userid/pwd pairs. Pair 1 is
simple userid/simple pwd, for throwaway accounts I don't care about. Pair 2 is
moderately complex userid/pwd for sites I use frequently but could afford to
lose/be hacked/whatever. And Pair 3 is highly complex userid/pwd for online
banking and other secure things that need the highest penetration barrier.

Since I can easily keep three in memory and apply each one based on how I
categorize the website in question, I never forget my logins to any websites,
no matter how frequent or infrequent I use them. Nor do I ever have to write
down or otherwise record my login info, anywhere, since it's easy to remember
just three. Further, if one my lower level userid/pwd pairs is cracked, it
doesn't compromise the critical one.

For your site I would have simply use Pair 1 or 2, problem solved. However,
your pass phrase method presents a problem - I can use one of my passwords in
plain text, which I'm obviously not going to do, or I can think up some pass
phrase that is unique to your site, not part of my system, and hence easily
forgettable.

I have no idea what other systems people use to manage their logins across the
tons of websites in use these days, but I'd suggest relying on your users
(especially since they're 100% savy HN users) to have already solved this
login problem. Leverage their solutions by using the norm. Or use OpenID,
which is another solution to this problem.

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kgermino
For me (since there is no content generation) I just used my username. I agree
with the creator that this method is worth trying since there really is no
reason to need the security of a password. This solution eases the effort
spent coding and the effort spent signing up at virtually no cost. Sure it's
not perfect but for a site like this I think it was certainly worth trying.

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latentflip
Nice idea, and I can see myself using it but...

The "come up with a secret phrase" thing is a nice idea, but I must've sat for
10 seconds trying to work out what was actually being asked for, and then I
had no idea what phrase I could use that I wouldn't forget, but that nobody
else would have chosen.

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paraschopra
I actually entered patio11 there thinking it is asking me to enter the name of
user to follow.

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joshwa
I did that with another user, and it turns out he used his username as his
secret phrase! (name withheld to protect the guilty). At least now I know who
he's interested in!

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vyrotek
So what happens when I pick a secret phrase that someone else already uses? I
can technically sign in as the person who originally created it now.

Yes, if you do it right the chances are slim. And perhaps it doesn't matter
because there isn't any sensitive data.

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Ygor
Can't you say the same about the regular username + password implementation?

Or are there smaller chances of that happening if you separate the login data
into two different parts, like username and password?

Is it just a psychological difference, or is there something more there?

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JangoSteve
The logistics of it are different. With username + password, 2 people can have
the same password. So you only need to warn someone if the username has
already been taken. But in order to warn someone that a secret phrase has
already been taken, you've just given them all the info they need to login as
that other person.

That being said, if you were to enforce that the first _half_ (or some
undisclosed portion) of the secret phrase couldn't be taken, then you'd be
closer to comparing apples to apples.

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ronnier
If you are interested, I'm charting the load (non-cached requests to HN) on
the iHakcerNews API which hackerfollow is partly using.

<http://api.ihackernews.com/load>

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adrianwaj
"Retrieve Comment Threads for a user" if you offered this as an rss feed,
there'd be users.

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ronnier
I can do that. I'll add it to my todo.

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akkartik
At least show what story the comments are on. I came up with a nice way to
show the context around a comment without needing the entire tree:
<http://hystry.com/newsyc/follow/about> (Slide 4)

Make it easy to add users from the stream page.

I'm usually in an 'open' mindset when I think of hacker news. HackerFollow
enforces a 'closed' mindset; I only see stuff from those I follow. Can you
leaven the stream with suggestions like somebody else asked on this thread?

I could see myself using this.

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messel
This has a nice feel to it. Sort of like how I use disqus to follow my
favorite commenters. Great job.

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ritonlajoie
I built a similar small service to follow HNers by e-mail, located at
<http://nasr.ath.cx> Feel free to use it a report problems !

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jeromec
Not bad. You should add the title of the thread along with the user's comment
to give context. Also please position the user's name to the left. Most HN
users are in the U.S. where people read left to right. That way I can glance
at the stream and recognize who said what faster.

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devmonk
I was only able to see recent posts/comments. I'm not sure if the API supports
it (haven't looked) but would be nice to see older posts/comments as well, and
agree with others about an RSS feed being a good idea.

In addition, an aggregate RSS feed of higher ranked HN'ers would be neat.

And clicking on the following without specifying a user to follow first
("logging in") doesn't work: <http://hackerfollow.com/?filter=devmonk> but as
soon as a specify a user ("log in") it works. It should just work if it is
essentially public, imo.

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lotharbot
Suggested future modification:

the "follow" page lists most followed users. How about adding a section to
show who, outside of the top 10-15, has gained the most new followers over the
last week or so? (Obviously this is more meaningful once the service has been
running for longer than a week.)

This would give us a way to be introduced to up-and-coming users.

EDIT: also, the "most followed" page currently has a user (osuburger) who has
1 karma, 0 posts, and 0 submissions. Already being gamed?

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resdirector
Good idea. Maybe a drop-down suggestion box (sometimes I don't know the exact
name "jacquesm...?"). And currently it allows me to "follow" any gibberish I
type in e.g. "kljarlkfejl".

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mortenjorck
Feature suggestion: "Follow me" URLs that users could put in their HN
profiles. This would greatly ease in-context following:

 _Read insightful comment › Click username to profile › Click HackerFollow
link_

Alternatively, the best solution (though much more time-consuming to
implement) for in-context following would be a browser extension that adds an
HF link next to everyone's name.

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erickerr
This already works though it isn't mentioned anywhere yet:

<http://hackerfollow.com/follow.php?add={hn-username}>

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mahmud
Suggestion. Show the title of the story that each reply belongs to: it puts
everything in context.

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erickerr
We'd love to do that but the data isn't readily available by scraping. We
could continuously fetch the parent_id post until we reach the root story, but
that would result in a lot of extra curl requests.. V2 : )

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mahmud
Instead of crawling by #id, crawl by new posts from the /newest page. For each
post, split it into multiple pages, setting the parent id/title that way. Not
that you _have to_ , but a future suggestion.

~~~
jeromec
I'm guessing the info is currently scraped from the 'threads?id=username'
page, but the title to each story is already there after the word 'on'.

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indiejade
Museo, as in the font? Nice tagline! This is very funny to me for some reason.

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sutro
Nice job. Feature request: an "all except" option that lets you to enter a
list of specific users to ignore -- a HackerUnfollow feature, if you will.

Not that there are any annoying people on this site.

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dvk
Good idea. Nice design. Would you be interested in providing a stream API?

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adrianwaj
For an outlandish feature, try grabbing links out of one's follow stream, to
create a separate stream. Like this: <http://hackerbra.in/links>

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far33d
This has been on my "weekend project" list for a long long time. Excited that
someone else actually got it done.

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raphaelb
When I add someone to follow I just get a blank page (if I go back I see them
added)

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psawaya
Amazing idea. I may start using this more than the front page of hacker news
itself.

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jonpaul
Does everyone follow PG by default or did I just guess someone else's phrase?

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erickerr
Everyone follows PG so the first thing you see isn't empty and discouraging

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kloncks
So, it's basically like a Twitter for Hacker News?

Gorgeous implementation!

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adrianwaj
Great.

Just followed a user who doesn't exist.

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adrianwaj
An rss feed would be cool.

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shareme
Not bad..just some minor stuff:

-probably secret phrase should not be clear text in the entry box..

