
Show HN: Left Buzzfeed to launch this - cmb320
http://getrather.com/
======
bambax
Using an ordinary English word with no capitalization for your product's name
makes the marketing copy hard to read.

I first parsed "Why rather kicks ass" as "Why rather kick ass" and thought
"yeah, why not go kick some ass (?) instead of sitting behind my computer like
I've been doing all day".

Then I realized you meant "Why our product (which is named "rather") kicks
ass".

~~~
AznHisoka
This might also be a sign the copy is focusing too much on themselves, and why
they kick ass... rather than why you can kick ass if you use it. A subtle
difference.

~~~
lesterbuck
A subtle but crucial difference. Kathy Sierra gave the canonical presentation
on this in 2009

[http://businessofsoftware.org/2010/05/kathy-sierra-at-
busine...](http://businessofsoftware.org/2010/05/kathy-sierra-at-business-of-
software-2009/)

------
mathewsimonton
I'm sure people can find the team page fun, but I saw it as uninformative; I
see three co-founders and all I know at a glance is that one guy used to be
with BuzzFeed. The front page of the site is also fun, but it's also
informative.

I was also a little confused about why the LinkedIn URLs don't point to the
public page but rather the URL used by those already logged into LinkedIn. I'm
thinking this was probably just overlooked. I happened to be logged out,
clicked on one of the icons, was required to log in, and because I use the
2-step authentication I wanted to just get back to browsing HN because all I
had was just a low level of curiosity about the people behind the product.

Example: The icon for Peter Marquis links to
[http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=32333289](http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=32333289)
while it could have been linking to [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pete-
marquis/a/9b3/489](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pete-marquis/a/9b3/489) (or
better yet the /in/ URL which would give all users the information, whether
they're logged in or not.)

Bookmarked the site. I'll check it out soon enough. Good luck!

------
danso
Not to downplay the OP's product (the launch page is very well done, btw), but
this reminded me of the well-publicized winning TV-themed hackathon entry
earlier this year by a teenager:

[http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/meet-17-year-old-
sa...](http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/meet-17-year-old-saving-you-
game-thrones-twitter-spoilers)

Again, it's not a downplay of the OP's achievement, but a remark on how such a
seemingly simple service is in high demand, such that a total underdog could
win a hackathon with it. With some more work and thought to its features, this
could be a real product for highly-social-networked people, and obviously not
the kind of thing that the social networks will themselves create.

~~~
cmb320
Yeah. Rather is based off this, which we made EVEN before the 17 year old
awesome spoiler chick. [http://ilovechrisbaker.com/unbaby-
me/](http://ilovechrisbaker.com/unbaby-me/)

------
WesleyJohnson
A few suggestions and issues:

I can't figure out how to add my own keywords. All I can do is choose from the
predefined lists like "popular" etc.

The scroll bar is very faint, almost to the point where I didn't realize I
could scroll and thought the UI had broken when the "replace content" box was
pushed off screen by kill list selections.

On Facebook, when you replace content I see the rather logo and an "undo"
button. I'd like to see a "why?" link or text description explaining what kill
list was matched for that particular content to be replaced. I had a friends
post, seemingly about nothing, replaced and I couldn't figure out why.

~~~
cmb320
1\. type in the large box what you want to block. The box says, "What do you
want to block?"

2\. We're rolling out that feature soon.

~~~
WesleyJohnson
Thanks for number 1. I read that box several times over and just assumed it
was a header. I never saw the cursor blinking until you told me I could type
there.

------
dl_terp
What is the eventual revenue model for this? It seems this is going to take
quite a bit of computing to remain a free chrome extension for too long.

~~~
pearjuice
Revenue? What are you talking about? Big Exit™ is where it is at these days.

~~~
chrisgd
Big ExitTM's Big ExitTM will come from suing everyone who says Big ExitTM. I
have no idea how to superscript

~~~
pacaro
Unicode 0x2122 ⇒ ™

------
the_watcher
I sent this to someone who complained on Facebook about not being able to
block Buzzfeed posts. I then made a joke that I now am seriously disappointed
in the Buzzfeed/Bleacher Report SEO team about: How is there not a Buzzfeed
about blocking Buzzfeed? Even if it's just something like "1500 Reasons
Blocking Buzzfeed Won't Make Your Facebook Better."

------
mccolin
I'd like to see something that makes people more comfortable with the idea of
unfriending folks that overpost annoying things, rather than covering up and
hiding content over and over.

That said, the technology behind this looks like it could have a lot of
practical uses. I especially like the example with TV show spoilers.

~~~
kriro
I have a pretty unusual spoiler avoidance routine for which this would be
great. I live outside the US and have an account for NFL Gamepass and love
football. There's essentially no spoilers here at all which is great but my US
bound friends on Facebook tend to spoil stuff.

I typically watch the early games on Redzone live and then all the late games
on Monday (as 30 Minute cuts) and the SNF+MNF game on Tuesday (+Thursday game
on Friday)..basically I avoid FB on Mondays (and sometimes Tuesdays)

------
larrys
The writing on the site is creative and funny and the tag line at the top is
to the point which is great:

"Replace anything you want in your social feeds with things you'd rather see,
like cats."

Rarely do you see something like that which is so easy to understand.

One thing I would do (in addition to [1] below) is to have other words quickly
replace "cats" perhaps by striking the word "cats" and overwriting with the
new word. People get the joke with cats but it's probably not a bad idea to
intersperse some serious stuff (right their in the tag line) as well.

[1] The word "rather" as others have mentioned needs to be distinct in
typography so people understand it's the branding. Bold, different typeface,
different weight, a graphic etc.

------
jqueryin
Cool concept. I toyed with a similar concept on Pinterest when my wife got
sick of seeing things for workouts, abs, core excercises, and the like. It's
only a proof of concept bookmarklet and they may have changed up their source
since I created it, but feel free to check it out and run with it:

[https://github.com/cballou/Pinterest-Keyword-Removal-
Tool](https://github.com/cballou/Pinterest-Keyword-Removal-Tool)

It searches for cards containing specific keywords and removes/hides the
entirety of the card from the DOM so you don't have to look at it. It worked
seamlessly with their infinite scrolling from my initial testing.

------
USNetizen
So much for changing the world, making a dent in the universe and all that,
eh? How can someone build a COMPANY around a feature that does something so
inconsequential and is basically "cute" at best? This is neither revolutionary
nor innovative in my book.

I don't get it. No offense, but if this gets funding, then the Silicon Valley
echo chamber has officially spread east and legitimate tech companies are
doomed.

There are too many of these fly-by-night half-baked apps out there that people
think they can become a millionaire from.

I can't wait until all this hype ends so people working on REAL problems can
get back to doing REAL work.

~~~
pvnick
Well that was a pretty mean thing to say. Not everything needs to be a cure
for cancer or fix peak oil. We need some room for leisure. If the author had
fun making something that provides him with some cash, I don't see what the
harm is. That just leaves more easy "real" problems for people like you to go
out and solve.

~~~
USNetizen
It's not mean, it's the truth. How many of you are going to pay for this?
Honestly. This is a feature, not a COMPANY. Plain and simple.

------
CisSovereign
Just a note. Im using a large browser window and your main container width
being 1158px is really big for a non responsive site. I opened the window and
both ends were cut off.

Other than that, cool concept. I'll install.

------
kmfrk
Interesting project, which might help serve to mute my Twitter feed the same
way Tweetbot does.

Unfortunately, its filters make a really obvious mistake, which is to include
very normal queries; I mean, c'mon, I hate baseball and everything, but does
it seriously make sense to filter tweets with the words "yankees, tigers,
indians(!), pirates, and giants"?

I'd really love a way to save and export filters, so I could use them in, say
Tweetbot. Maybe you could set up a platform that allows user-created filters.

~~~
cmb320
We currently allow you to add any keywords you want. We'd like to eventually
allow rather to communicate with things like tweetbot, so tweetbot can just
pull from what you hate, etc.

~~~
al1x
I think what he's suggesting is that a topic-based filtering system would be
more ideal than a key work based one. I don't want to have to spell out "block
yankee's, tigers, indians, pirates, and giants". I just want to say "block all
baseball", or "block all sports", and have the system know that posts about
the yankee's, tigeers, indians, pirates, or giants are inclusive in these
categories.

------
gamache
Great idea! How much of my data are you mining?

EDIT: Not much, it seems! [http://getrather.com/privacy-
policy.php](http://getrather.com/privacy-policy.php)

~~~
surreal
If it's just "some of it", they're doing something wrong.

------
allworknoplay
I think it's a great start. Some immediate thoughts that struck (you prolly
already know these anyway):

\- more suggestions! let me just click to make the list longer or look for
suggestions related to other things I've picked

\- suggest replacement content too (e.g. themed image rss feeds that you know
will generate good replacement content)

\- allow me to right click on a word or piece of content or something and add
it to my 'replace' list

------
basch
One of your product quotes is "Whoever made this deserves the friggin nobel
prize" which is a response to a person who said "what will these azn's think
of next" and linked to [http://www.geekstudent.com/index.php?tag=bubble-
wrap](http://www.geekstudent.com/index.php?tag=bubble-wrap)

Are you sure "some chick" on twitter actually said that?

~~~
cmb320
hmmm. Maybe I got my links screwed up. I'll fix that. Anyway, here's another
one:
[https://twitter.com/CLAYMOORE/status/306965801494257664](https://twitter.com/CLAYMOORE/status/306965801494257664)

------
Synergyse
Nice extension! Small suggestion to get more installs:
[https://developers.google.com/chrome/web-
store/docs/inline_i...](https://developers.google.com/chrome/web-
store/docs/inline_installation) \- We use it on
[http://www.synergyse.com](http://www.synergyse.com)

------
adamb0mb1
Congrats on taking the leap.

One quick thought though: A fun side-project does not a company make.

Good luck, and let us know how we can help. But I'd start thinking real hard
about how to make money (companies that want to block porn, but not all of
tumblr (or reddit))

~~~
buckbova
Replace spoilers with ads like:

"Don't get SPOILED. Use ziplock bags for freshness".

~~~
cmb320
Replace breaking bad spoilers with low winter sun. AMC would eat that up.

~~~
buckbova
Yes, context driven adverts. Not sure how much that's worth, but it's worth
pitching to someone like Fox Sports or AMC.

------
djtriptych
Love the concept. Good luck :)

~~~
kriro
+1 there is some pretty annoying stuff I'd like to zap (annoying "go pray
now", "Jesus 4 the win" etc. stuff mostly)

~~~
pearjuice
Atheism. So edgy.

~~~
al1x
It has nothing to do with being "edgy". It has everything to do with not
wanting to be flooded with Bible verses, prayer requests, and mindless
proselytizing. It's obnoxious.

------
6thSigma
I rarely browse social media on browsers, but if I did I'd use this to help
block spoilers. I turned my phone off the night of the Breaking Bad finale
because I wasn't able to watch it live.

------
pilooch
interesting but why is this a remote service that needs to parse in-browser
content? if filtering is keyword based (as opposed to ml based), why not
filter locally instead ?

------
apgwoz
Very similar to Jeter Filter
([http://www.jeterfilter.com/](http://www.jeterfilter.com/)), but more
general! I like it.

------
chrisjlee84
Seems similar to a concept something i helped work on in 2009:
[http://mymentalspace.com](http://mymentalspace.com)

------
joelgrus
You had me at "Left Buzzfeed".

~~~
markdown
That's where he lost me.

He didn't leave because he could no longer live with himself for working for
those bottom-feeders, he did so because he saw a profit opportunity elsewhere.

~~~
al1x
What's wrong with Buzzfeed?

~~~
joelgrus
"43 Things That Are Colossally Stupid But That We've Gussied Up With Click-
Bait Headlines To Trick You Into Viewing Them"

------
pwnna
Is this a company or a fun side project?

------
the_watcher
The team page is enjoyable.

------
kbar13
you had me at leaving buzzfeed

