

Show HN: Obsessively follow a news story - danvesma
http://beset.me/

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bane
You know, this reminds me of some old Web 1.0 services that would kind of do
the same. You'd register an address, and if the site changes any content,
you'd get an email. I used to have dozens of pages registered, mostly news
type sites and always kept up-to-date with things.

At some point they went away, I think RSS killed them, but RSS never seemed to
work quite as well for me for some reason, too granular I think.

I'm really glad to see something like back again.

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dvcc
So the idea is that you add a link, it watches for changes to the article's
content and alerts you if a change. Sounds good, but it seems rare for sites
to update existing articles, when another could be posted.

Ever thought about watching the parent site for updates with similar content?

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x1798DE
Yeah, I'd second this. If it's really targeted at following news stories,
watching a given page change is not as useful as some sort of tag-based or
curated per-topic subscription.

One thing I'd find this useful for would be when you're waiting for something
to be released - point this at an author's website (or a subpage related to a
book you're looking forward to) to be automatically notified when the page
changes. Similarly, I think that Overdrive (e-book and audiobook lending
through public libraries) has a page where it lists the libraries carrying a
given book. If you're hoping that your library starts carrying a given book,
you could imagine following a page like that.

Another feature suggestion - maybe put in an option for a reminder to check
back even if the page hasn't changed either on some interval or after some
period of time. I could see using that as a tool to try to keep kickstarters
and the like honest ("You said there'd be an update after 14 days, it's been
18 days, no update...").

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mazuhl
An alternate take on this would be for websites/services that have a splash
page but no signup form/RSS feed or a non-news/blog site such as a bakery,
local restaurant, etc.

From the name/HN prompt, I thought it'd be something that gave you updates as
a story was developed. For example, you hear about a criminal being captured,
but you don't always hear about the trial/sentencing. A few months later
you're asking "What ever happened to that guy who..."

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scrumper
This is cool, thanks for sharing.

I hoped when I saw the title that this would be a service to let me find out
what happened in a story some time later. I often find 'developing' stories of
great potential import seem to disappear from the world's media later on, and
I never get to see how things actually turned out.

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danvesma
The really obsessed never stop watching their news providers to see if new
stories are breaking. I think Beset works well for watching specific articles
to see if they change, even if that's six months after they're published.

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dimitar
This is great! I'm going to put a few pages there that I obsessively follow
anyway. RSS isn't available (or good) often and I don't want to create social
media profiles to get updates.

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danvesma
A really big thank you for everyone who's commented, it's great to have
helpful feedback when you throw an idea out there.

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deepsun
Thin white text on bright red background at the bottom is just unreadable and
user-hostile.

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danvesma
I did wonder about that when I was building it, but I liked the BREAKING NEWS
lower thirds metaphor and only want the user there for a couple of minutes.

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sergnech
I think the design is really great

