

Better Ways to Read "Hacker News" - rokamic
http://mashable.com/2010/12/01/improve-hacker-news-ui/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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frou_dh
Really, calling out a site as ugly via one packed top to bottom with a
ridiculous zoo of disjointed elements: <http://i.imgur.com/0SUYk.png>

HN is the pinnacle of beauty compared to that mess. Boy, I sound offended, but
I'm just struck by the obliviousness of the author.

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nikcub
online journalism today: <http://i.imgur.com/HDQxM.jpg>

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iwr
You forget the full-screen flash ads, with music and no X in the corner.

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ElbertF
I'm looking forward to "5 Better Ways to Read Mashable." They have more
Twitter buttons above the fold than paragraphs with content.

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DanielRibeiro
They forgot twitter special accounts: <http://twitter.com/newsyc150>
<http://twitter.com/newsyc100> <http://twitter.com/newsyc50> and
<http://twitter.com/newsyc20>

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wwortiz
There is also cperciva's <http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/>

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nikcub
Oh no, HN is being promoted on Mashable..

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AlexBlom
Bunker down, my friend.

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steveklabnik
It's not even September!

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PStamatiou
background for those scratching their heads (a friend just asked me what this
comment was about):

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September>

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duck
Thanks Paul, I hadn't heard of that before.

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grinich
I built a popular Hacker News iPhone (and soon to be iPad) app. It lets you
browse stories, explore comments and threads, and open links with an in-app
browser (with built-in Readability). You can even log-in and vote up/down and
post your own comments. The last update also added support for sharing via
Twitter, Instapaper, Facebook, etc.

Check out a demo video here: <http://michaelgrinich.com/hackernews/>

Currently I'm working on the next update, which will add full iPad support. If
anyone has suggestions for what to add, feel free to email me.

(posted on mashable as well)

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michael_dorfman
I've been using this app for a while, along with a few other HN apps. What's
stopping me from using it exclusively is that it only shows the top stories,
not the "new" feed.

Add that, and you've got a clear market winner.

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grinich
Yep. This is another feature I've been looking at implementing. Other paths:

    
    
        /news
        /newest
        /best
        /active
        /classic
        /bestcomments
        /noobstories
        /noobcomments
    

Any others? Email me your UDID and I'll send you a build to test.

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colkassad
I like the hacker news android app, which is the app I use the most. Since I
don't talk on the phone much, it's arguable that I spend $1500 a year just to
read hacker news on the go...

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alain94040
Can someone give me a Hacker News that is based on the last time I saw the
home page? So if I haven't been around in a week, it shows me the top articles
of the last week, but if I was around one hour ago, it focuses on what
happened since then?

Imagine I have been out the week of Thanksgiving. What did I miss? A site
should be smart enough to adapt the top stories to my rythmn. Store a cookie.

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wvl
Well, it's not automatic, but <http://hckrnews.com/> does have that
functionality, since that's why I built it. I do store and highlight the last
visit time, which is useful for visits of a day or less. For a longer
timespan, filter down (top 10 or top 20), then "Get Next Day" lets you page
back through days you've missed.

It's an interesting idea to make it adaptive, but I see a number of
challenges. For example, you want just the highlights if you've been gone for
a while, but perhaps someone else wants to scan through everything? Then there
are the UI challenges -- making it obvious what is happening (and being able
to change the default behavior) could be a challenge.

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dekz
I really enjoy <http://hackurls.com/> and Claudio if you're here, thank you.

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mbpr
i threw this together a while ago, when i was spending too much time reading
comments <http://hackskimmer.heroku.com/>

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justinchen
Nice! How about some keyboard shortcuts to navigate articles without clicking?

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AtTheLast
"The only problem is the interface. It’s simple and easy to get used to, but
it’s also a trifle — dare we say it? — ugly"

Since when did an interface that was simple and easy to use become a bad
thing? As a designer, I would take usability over aesthetics any day. Besides,
most people go to websites for the content, not the design.

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kingsidharth
Only if they knew design from decoration.

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brianwillis
Not really sure if any of these are better. Different maybe, but not better.

hckrnews.com, which the article bills as "a minimalist Hacker News
alternative" is IMO more cluttered than the original homepage. HN is already
plenty minimal anyway - why would you want to get into a minimalism pissing
match?

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wvl
The point with <http://hckrnews.com> wasn't to get into a _"minimalism pissing
match"_ , but to read the frontpage items sorted by time (and archived).

However, I did strive for minimalism and readability as a goal. I'm not sure
why you think it is more cluttered than the original, since every item has
less -- one line vs two, repeated words and the submitted user's name omitted.

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Semiapies
I like the look of it. I may have to try it and the extension out.

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tdupree
You could also give my Hacker News OnePage extension for Chrome a try (It's
also a greasemonkey script for Firefox). It's what I use everyday and I like
it, someone else might too :) <http://tdupree.com/extensions/>

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scrrr
I kinda like HN the way it comes by default, even on the phone screen. It
loads quickly and can be easily navigated. However, I use
<http://searchyc.com> to look up some older stuff, from time to time.

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AndrewDucker
I read it via an RSS feed that makes the articles inline:

[http://andrewtrusty.appspot.com/readability/feed?url=http%3A...](http://andrewtrusty.appspot.com/readability/feed?url=http%3A//news.ycombinator.com/rss)

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gkelly
me too. This usually does a great job of pulling out the full text, but on
occasion I have to click through to the actual site.

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da5e
I tried those 5 methods and liked some of the features, but I prefer the
methodology I've developed over time for using the page as it is. And I prefer
the current format. Eyes are faster than clicks.

