
HN Notify - josephwegner
http://hnnotify.com/
======
oblique63
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
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
> 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...

~~~
rcfox
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.

~~~
xerophtye
came here to say that

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bryanh
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=yo...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?&q=your_term_here&sortby=create_ts+desc)
(which is of course hnsearch.com's API). You can get them delivered via
SMS/Twilio, IM/Gtalk/Jabber or plain jane email.

~~~
adamnemecek
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.

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siong1987
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).

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Mithrandir
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004254](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004254)

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

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

------
Jugurtha
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
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
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
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...

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DjangoReinhardt
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! :)

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wpietri
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.

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hayksaakian
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

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pfarrell
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
Well a little ddg-ing and I got my answer. Looks like notifo is no longer.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
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’.

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

~~~
DjangoReinhardt
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
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
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
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

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davidgerard
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 ...

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scrrr
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) .

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zbruhnke
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

