
Show HN: Browser Extension to Refine the HN Experience - plibither8
https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news
======
plibither8
Hello everyone, OP/developer here!

If you are already using the extension, you can see the "[op]" beside my
username too! ;)

There are many extensions out there that add quite a few features to Hacker
News, but they also always do one thing, which I have realised, is a slippery
slope: changing the minimalistic design and style of Hacker News.

I created this extension with one thing in mind: I am NOT going to mess around
with the overall design or style of Hacker News. It's sacrosanct.

There are quite a few feature additions and interface tweaks that are
implemented, a few of the important ones being:

* Reply to a comment or edit/delete your comment without leaving the page (do it inline)

* Navigate through items and comments using your keyboard (vim keybindings)

* Sort/hide stories and auto-refresh periodically

...and many, many more. The GitHub README details all of them.

The extension is available on both Chrome and Firefox. Hope you all enjoy it!

~~~
newscracker
> I created this extension with one thing in mind: I am NOT going to mess
> around with the overall design or style of Hacker News. It's sacrosanct.

I wish you would do something about the voting buttons and the expand/collapse
buttons. They're way too tiny and way too close to other elements in the
default scheme used by HN. This is a big deficiency I see with the default HN
interface, which makes it less usable as well as less accessible.

Edit: I also see a 3/28 counter and a spinning icon on the top left of the
page that doesn't change regardless of which post I'm browsing. Sometimes it
disappears if I navigate to another post or page, but it looks like it starts
with 0/28 for every post. [This is on Brave right now; no issues with
connectivity or connection speed; dropdown menu from the username works.]

~~~
DarkStar851
For expand/collapse, one of the very few things I've liked about "new" Reddit
is being able to click the indent bar alongside comments to show/collapse.
Something like that in this for HN would be helpful.

~~~
plibither8
Hey! I think what you want is already implemented in the feature "click-
comment-indent-to-toggle".

------
dang
We have a browser extension that we use for moderation. A few of the features
here overlap surprisingly with what that one does. One of these years I want
to open-source it, but I need to factor out the moderation-only features,
which is one of those tasks that never makes it to the top of the stack.

~~~
lettergram
I wonder... at one point I wrote an extension (for the moderators) which had
the ability to essentially follow users. Think of it as a news feed for HN.

Really wish I could make that open source if no one is using it lol I use it
personally to follow people on HN which post interesting comments (still works
after 4 years with no edits)

~~~
dang
Is that a question for us? I'm not aware of what you're referring to.

~~~
lettergram
It was, But the lack of knowledge of said system is probably indication it’s
not being used :)

------
Raphmedia
This is going to sound like nitpicking but is there a way that you could avoid
the flicker on the listing page?

Perhaps adding the <div> on load with a static height and then filling it with
the filters? Another option could be to allow the user to show / hide the bar
and remember the setting. That way, one could open it when needed only and it
wouldn't flicker on every load.

Same thing for the "toggle all comments" button in a thread.

I get nauseous with such flickers. I really like this extension but won't be
able to use it unless this changes.

------
nestorherre
Related: I use [http://hckrnews.com/](http://hckrnews.com/) and since
discovering it, I've never gone back to the HN main page. Might be useful as
well to someone.

~~~
mslm
Same here, this is my go-to for Hacker News content now. But of course it's
only a curator, it doesn't offer anything like what this refined-hacker-news
project does.

Side note if author/host is reading: can you redirect HTTP to HTTPS? :)

------
tbirrell
I like it so far, but J to navigate down and K to navigate up is not intuitive
at all. It should be flipped to match our Left-to-Right-Top-to-Bottom
understanding of layouts

~~~
plibither8
J and K are vim's keybindings for up and down, which I figured would fit well
with the community and users.

What are possible alternative mappings to make it more intuitive to non-
developers?

~~~
infokiller
May I suggest adding an options page to configure the keybindings (and store
them in browser.storage.sync)? Happy to send a PR.

~~~
plibither8
Sure, let's discuss this on a GitHub issue first :)

------
Fiveplus
This is very very nice! May I ask what language did you code this in? Is it
JS? Or just how did you get started? Yeah I'm just an average Joe who is
getting started and loves learning new stuff. Hopefully that not too
intrusive, thanks.

~~~
plibither8
Hi! Thanks for your kind words.

Since this is a browser extension, it's almost completely written in
JavaScript only. You can check the entire code on the GitHub repo itself! Feel
free to email me anytime :)

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throwaway413
This is wonderful work, and done in a respectful way that doesn't get in the
way of the original site while adding quite a lot of really useful stuff.
Great job with this. Now if only we could get HN to merge this into core...

------
spookyuser
Very cool!

I noticed that the extension is inspired by Sindresorhus. I think he's totally
nailed the way to architect and structure extensions now. Especially if you
look up a lot of guides on how to build extensions, they really don't tell you
anything about how to include npm packages, or distribute the extension in an
automated way. Refined github does all of this in a really clear way that, I
think, works very well. I recently used it's structure to rewrite an extension
of mine and it helped so much.

------
joshstrange
I've been using HackerNew [0] for years now (probably 5+) and love it. It does
change the style a little bit but I quite enjoy it. It appears to be missing
in the chrome store right now though for some reason.

[0]
[https://github.com/tommoor/HackerNew](https://github.com/tommoor/HackerNew)

------
dandigangi
This is dopeeeeeeee! Great contribution. Thank you for sharing. The favorites
is very useful for me.

~~~
plibither8
Thank you very much!

------
stiGGG
>Highlight new, unread comments on subsequent visits

sold!

------
vinceguidry
My prayers have been answered. Thank you so much for adding keyboard shortcuts
to HN. It was getting to the point where I had a project on the roadmap to
build an API application myself. Thank you so much!

------
joering2
Great job. What I miss is weekly email roundup of comments made by people I
like on HN. Its interesting that you cannot "follow" people on HN just to
specifically read their comments.

~~~
michaelwu
I kind of like it though. The lack of the usual "social network" features
makes it much easier to focus on the merit and content of each comment.

------
stinos
Can you make it so that I can upvote this multiple times :)

Really good job.

Editing comments is a bit funny though: after clicking Update it takes me to
the standard update page on HN instead of staying inline (on FF).

~~~
plibither8
Yeah, that's a backend issue, it's how Hacker News handles the forms after
they have been submitted. Nevertheless I will look into this, please consider
creating an issue on the GitHub repo too! :)

------
hagreet
Could somebody please explain the selection of required permissions to me? For
example, why does it need: "Access browsing history", "Access browser tabs"?

~~~
plibither8
To "hide read stories", the extension needs to check whether the link has been
opened in the past, ie, if it is present in the history.

To open links in new tabs, but in the background, and to communicate between
the popup and active instances of Hacker News, the extension requires the
"tabs" permission.

All code is completely open-sourced on the GitHub repository, too!

------
MH15
I love how it fits with the theme of the original site!

~~~
plibither8
Yes! I have tried my best not to modify the site's theme at all, and stay
consistent with it whenever adding any new elements.

------
sambe
I always want the ability to skip the entire thread I'm currently viewing (as
opposed to collapse the sub-thread I'm currently viewing). The official Reddit
iOS app does this with a floating button, for example.

~~~
plibither8
Hey, could you elaborate a little more on "skipping the entire thread"? I
don't quite understand. Please consider creating a feature request in the
GitHub repo's issue, it'll allow me to track the issues better. Thanks!

------
mrunseen
This is like RES for HN, RFN!

~~~
plibither8
I believe you meant "RHN". Nevertheless, thank you so much!

~~~
joshstrange
Wouldn't it be HNES? RES = Reddit Enhancement Suite so RHN would be? Reddit
Hacker News? And I have no clue that RFN was supposed to stand for.

Edit: Actually it looks like there is already a HNES [0]

[0] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
enhanc...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm?hl=en)

~~~
mrunseen
RHN = Refined Hacker News

~~~
joshstrange
Oh duh, thank you!

------
queercode
I'm liking the auto refresh feature, but it'd be nice to have a setting to
refresh to the main page, not the page I left off at.

------
leshokunin
Is there a way to hide all, and hide the currently highlighted item via
keyboard?

~~~
plibither8
You can hide the currently highlighted item by pressing _shift_ \+ _H_.
Currently, there is no way to "hide all". I believe this is a common request
among many, so it'd be great if you could create a feature request on GitHub
for the same so that it'll be easier to track issues. Thanks

------
enraged_camel
This is fantastic. Can you add a way to sort stories by comment count?

~~~
plibither8
Seems fairly simple to do! To track these feature requests, it'd be great if
you could open an issue on the GitHub repository, so that we can discuss it
there too! Thanks :)

------
kitten_smuggler
Slick, nice work!

------
rammy1234
why would need access to browsing history ? I am tryin to install the add-on
for firefox

~~~
majewsky
Probably for the "hide read posts" feature.

~~~
plibither8
Yup, that correct.

------
dbancajas
you still in highschool? nice.

~~~
plibither8
Yup, thanks!

------
jackalo
The hero that we deserve!

------
snarfy
Feature request: hide-paywalled-sites

Removes all links from wsj, nytimes, bloomberg, etc.

~~~
plibither8
Hmm, this feature seems very aggressive. Nevertheless, please consider
creating a feature request on GitHub to push it forward and get greater
support for it! [https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-
news/issues](https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news/issues)

~~~
elliekelly
Perhaps instead of blocking threads about paywalled articles there could be
link to generate the outline.com version of the url?

~~~
mthoms
Deleted: Meant to reply to parent. Just getting used to this awesome "reply
inline" feature!

------
trpc
This is beyond awesome. Best HN extension I've ever used so far. Thank you.

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mlevental
you know what i can't understand as sorely lacking - an inbox/replies view on
hn. i was hoping this extension had it.

