
Show HN: I made a Hacker News for podcasts - podcastrank
https://podcastrank.co/
======
personlurking
I'm half-joking, but I could use a "not just two guys joking around" tag.
There's so many podcasts out there where I check them out because the topic
sounds interesting but most of the episode time is given to 'two guys joking
around'.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
While we're at it, some kind of "Does not interrupt the speaker" tag would be
great. It absolutely drives me nuts, listening to stuff like This American
Life or Radio Lab, where the person being interviewed never gets more than
half a sentence out before the narrator overdubs themselves correcting or
summarizing what the speaker is trying to say.

I find it incredibly obnoxious. You brought this person on to tell a story:
let them tell their story, goddammit!

~~~
navls
I feel the opposite. With those two shows the primary focus is telling a
story. They aren't really conventional interview shows. It seems to me like a
lot of the time, a narrator dubbing over the interviewee can help maintain the
pace and focus of the show.

------
prawn
Maybe change "0 comments" to something like "Start a discussion" when there
are no comments. Makes it seem like a graveyard when they're all empty.

~~~
jingwen
I really like this. How does one go about learning more about improvements
like these?

~~~
patrickmclaren
Try thinking a long the lines of "get the ball rolling", when designing
interfaces where some regions must start from a blank slate, e.g. use
placeholders, prompts, etc.

~~~
drumdance
In my experience even seasoned designers do a poor job of this. They show you
comps of with the perfect set up -- everything populated, beautiful photos
uploaded by the user that are perfectly square, 100 comments on very post (or
whatever the analog is for your app).

I've gotten a lot more insistent that designers show me "empty" designs where
the user has just signed up and various corner cases like a photo that is
really tall.

------
diimdeep
This is neat idea, killer feature would be RSS for all sections, so we can
subscribe to it in podcast app. Wow. Meta podcast, user aggregated.

~~~
jobigoud
An RSS feed would be killer indeed.

Something like this maybe: anytime an entry pass a certain threshold of votes
for the first time, add it to the feed. Each user can define the threshold in
his account and get the feed from there.

------
elcapitan
First impression (Macbook Air 11"): 2/3 of the page are header and filters, I
can view only 2 posts at first glance. That's pretty different from the
functional design of HN.

~~~
guy_c
Yep that stood out to me too
[http://postimg.org/image/kho7l7pyl/](http://postimg.org/image/kho7l7pyl/)

~~~
elcapitan
Oh, when did you take that screenshot? That looks more compact than here:
[http://postimg.org/image/mcg0ql7ij/](http://postimg.org/image/mcg0ql7ij/)

~~~
guy_c
Sorry, I should have made clear. That was my 1 minute of CSS tweaks.

------
tedmiston
I love that it's by episode and not the entire show.

While I don't know that I'd be a regular user or start discussions (I usually
listen to episodes weeks after they come out), it's a cool tool for episode
discovery.

------
pablosanta
I could really use something like this. It's a recurring problem I have:
finding interesting podcast material to listen to while working out.

Podcast suggestions should remain on the front page longer than articles do in
HN though. Since listening to a podcast is way more time consuming than
reading an article.

Thanks for sharing!

~~~
podcastrank
I agree! that's why I included the other filters as well. A good podcast is
still valuable a long time after creation/recording, unlike a news article..

------
empressplay
You should scrape Reddit eg
[https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasts/comments/4e9idv/weekly_pod...](https://www.reddit.com/r/podcasts/comments/4e9idv/weekly_podcast_post_submit_your_links_here/)

------
jere
Very cool idea. I often struggle to think of a podcast when I really need one.

One of the challenges here is that, apparently, podcasts don't have very
descriptive names. Maybe it's because HN has the same regular topics floating
through, but I feel like I get a lot more of a preview from titles on HN than
I do by things like...

"The Archers"

"Hello Internet #60: The Beautiful Game"

"Harmontown"

I suppose there's an expectation that podcasts don't need explanatory names
because, well, they're not always about a specific thing and because they're
expecting regular listeners to tune in. Perhaps find a way to automatically
include the description of the podcast itself and/or encourage users to do the
same manually?

~~~
solipsism
I used to have this problem. It's solved 100% with a good podcasting app. You
spend the time now and then to look for podcasts (not episodes) that might
interest you. When you actually want to listen, they're already downloaded to
your phone and ready to be browsed and listened to.

~~~
spoinkaroo
What podcasting app do you use?

~~~
davis
I use Overcast and it works really great for this. Right now I have a bunch of
episodes queued up but I still can see the latest.

------
studentrob
Has anyone else tuned in to Chris Gethard? His podcast "Beautiful Stories from
Anonymous People" is great. It's like an evolution of "This American Life".
Unedited, one hour discussions with random people, and Chris is a _really_
good interviewer of random people. My favorite is his interview with " Ron
Paul's baby" [1]. If you can get to the part where he starts talking about a
carnival baby (15 or 30 mins in), it is hilarious from there forward.

[1] [http://www.earwolf.com/episode/ron-pauls-
baby/](http://www.earwolf.com/episode/ron-pauls-baby/)

~~~
nfd
That's a new favorite of mine.

------
jv22222
Awesome job.

It seems you're missing a trick by not adding a player directly on your site.

No good reason to leave your site and listen to the podcast that is
discovered.

Also, you could have a url that would auto play the currently highest rated
podcast:

[https://podcastrank.co/best](https://podcastrank.co/best)

And also a radio version that cycled through the front page from top to
bottom:

[https://podcastrank.co/radio](https://podcastrank.co/radio)

~~~
podcastrank
thanks for your suggestions! by adding the player you mean embedding if
possible?

------
raulk
This is awesome! I'm an avid listener of podcasts, because I can learn stuff,
listen to great people and interviews, broaden my ideas... All during what
would otherwise be downtime (walking the dog, grocery shopping, driving, etc.)

There are some podcasts which I consider vital, but for most I don't care
about the podcast itself but for the content of a given episode.

This app is awesome because it detaches content from podcast and helps
discover cool episodes.

Wish you lots of luck!

~~~
podcastrank
thanks!

------
charlieegan3
Getting 500 errors on podcast comment/show pages. I get the idea though, I'm
just not sure this is the best way to discover podcasts. To checkout a podcast
takes quite a bit more time relative to a news article / blog post.

I think that this has the same issues as
[https://www.producthunt.com/podcasts](https://www.producthunt.com/podcasts),
for me at least.

~~~
podcastrank
fixing some stuff, thanks for the feedback!

------
eddd
How did you implement scoring system? Is it simple: select max(score) from
casts where submit_time > NOW - 7days; or something more sophisticated
[https://medium.com/hacking-and-gonzo/how-hacker-news-
ranking...](https://medium.com/hacking-and-gonzo/how-hacker-news-ranking-
algorithm-works-1d9b0cf2c08d) ?

~~~
podcastrank
it's indeed ordered by score, nothing fancy

------
solipsism
I like this idea, but there's no interactivity (AFAICT) with my podcast app. I
use the Pocket Casts app exclusively for all my podcast listening. I'd love if
clicking one of these links could open the podcast in the app for me. I have
no interest in browsing some podcaster's blog or listening through my browser.

Obviously I could look up specific episodes in my app after seeing it on your
site, but that's annoying enough that I don't think I would keep it up.

An alternative idea is to build an app from this idea. I know that's a lot of
work, but I might pay for that if it is a really good podcasting app. Look to
Pocket Casts for inspiration.

~~~
podcastrank
thanks for the feedback, I'll have a look into integration with other services

------
ajackfox
I've been looking for something like this--podcast discovery is severely
lacking right now(or I don't know where to look!). Excited to try this out--
thanks!

I'll be sure to get to send you some feedback once I've used it for a while.
:)

------
dumbguy
Awesome, though I'd love to see a line or two under the title with the show
notes (if they have them embedded). For those not already knowing about the
hilarious podcast, The title is precious little to go on.

------
stevetrewick
Immediately discovered at least a half dozen 'casts I was unaware of and will
now listen to. Thank you!

Weirdly fascinating to see BBC Radio 4's long running agricultural soap 'The
Archers' on the list.

------
mcgrath_sh
This looks really interesting. One thing I noticed is that you do not have a
section for sports podcasts. Is that not your target demographic or just
nothing was submitted in that area yet?

------
jmadsen
Why is there no downvoting? Or do you feel your algorithm handles that?

There was an episode of on podcast I listen to I thought was really poor, and
would have voted down. left a comment instead

~~~
podcastrank
downvoting will be added soon!

------
ben_jones
Cool, I immediately registered and posted a link (The Ray Wenderlich podcast).
Two suggestions though, iTunes, Google, etc. already have decently robust
search around podcasts, do you have any plans to reach out to various dev
communities (reddit, iOS, Rails, whatever) and getting them to come to you?
And then I think the tag system is crucial, for instance tags can't be given a
space and custom tags are much less likely to get lots of content then
presets.

Awesome project!

~~~
podcastrank
I'm still working on the tag system but yes there could be lot's of different
types of communities and podcasts. The challenge is to get the filtering and
ux right!

------
redRanger72
Awesome site :) I get most of my HN info through the JSON feed. It might be
something to implement in the future - I'd be delighted to add it to my
script.

------
briancl
What about adding additional tags or attributes so we can filter by length of
time, date published (vs date submitted to your site), publisher (npr,
radiotopia, etc), guests (i.e., i liked this guest on Marc Maron's podcast,
where else can I find him?), or sub-genre (i like true crime podcasts and
sometimes I get that on Criminal, sometimes I get that on This American Life)

~~~
mblumberg
Totally agree, length would be hugely useful so you know what you're getting
into! :)

------
raulk
I'd buy you a beer if you could find a way to open the podcast episode
directly on Podcast Addict and other apps when you click on it.

~~~
raulk
Ah, found a way! If you click on Download in the Podbay page, Podcast Addict
recognises the file and allows you to open it.

------
vehementi
Does anyone have an efficient way to consume podcasts? If I want to quickly
read an article I can skim certain sections and skip others etc., but there is
rarely such indexing for a podcast and I would have to skip forward, listen
for a lot of seconds to get context before I know if it's somewhere to skip
past or not.

~~~
jhh
some podcasts have chapter marks.

They allow you to do just that. Anyway, check it out. I use the Overcast
podcast client (iOS), which supports this (among others).

Some podcasts even provide full transcripts (e. g, Freakonomics).

If the podcast provides neither of these then it's not feasible to skim it
efficiently, in my opinion.

------
harwoodleon
I like this, but I think it needs a little more emphasis on the UX of what you
are going to listen to and for how long. Perhaps even embed the player under
the link?

How about a play count as a measure of popularity instead of just discussions?
HN works because it abstracts user behaviour to a points score.

------
MistahKoala
It's halfway there for me - or at least, half of my expectations of what it
would be. I was hoping it would be more along the lines of (or additionally)
an HN for new podcasts. Over time, the front page will soon be a rotating list
of the same selection of programmes, won't it?

~~~
podcastrank
the front page is only for episodes submitted in the last week

------
pat_space
If only each one had a play button....

------
bananaoomarang
This is a great idea.

I wonder whether you could do the same for TV/movies currently on catch-
up/streaming.

~~~
thomasahle
I wonder if movies and certainly TV series are too much of a time involvment
to get a good ranking.

What about music?

------
maximegarcia
Nice. Always looking for discovering new podcast.

Having the duration of the podcast would be handy.

------
Mellowcandle
I'm not sure if it's intentional, but you can up vote your own posts...

------
wadewatts
Thanks for sharing your work.

Would you consider adding a "gaming" category?

Can you change the subscription confirmation email subject to include your
site's title?

From "Confirmation instructions" to "PodcastRank Confirmation Instructions"?

Looks great!

~~~
podcastrank
thanks for your feedback! will add those things

------
TheLugal
I really like this idea. But I find it somewhat annoying that the "new" tab
also sort by popularity. Shouldn't it only sort by posting date?

------
zegerjan
Maybe add a date in the index view when stuff was posted?

------
gibsjose
Great idea! What about allowing us to login with our existing HN accounts or
perhaps Google accounts, etc. in addition to creating a new account?

------
bossx
Nice idea, minor feedback: it would be nice if the page didn't scroll up when
you select categories/filters (using mobile Chrome).

~~~
fbonetti
The page scrolls up because it reloads.

~~~
bossx
OK, so my request is more AJAX , less page loading :)

------
nefitty
Anyone ever consider an HN for email newsletters?

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magpi3
I think the large header takes up valuable screen space. The thin headers on
Hacker News and Reddit are the right way to go IMO.

~~~
podcastrank
I agree, the ui needs more work!

------
smegel
No offence, but this seems like it would be better as a Reddit sub. Not
everything needs to be the HN of something.

~~~
jchendy
I had the same thought. Are there any advantages to the user in having it be a
separate site?

~~~
podcastrank
so much more possibilities with a dedicated platform including the
tags/filtering, favorites, recommendations etc

------
op00to
What's the difference between business, entrepreneur, and startup? I'd love to
see a productivity tag.

------
cagmz
Can you add a favicon? I bookmarked the site but the icon is blank.

------
alexandercrohde
Um, it's not fair to liken yourself to hacker news when you refuse to give me
a podcast without entering my email. And appear to be full of ads.

{Edit: Intensify discontent after trying to use)

------
sergiotapia
i miss This Developer's Life. :(

I wonder what happened to Rob Conery and Scott Hanselman that they decided to
end it.

------
podcastrank
simple podcast discovery and upvoting

------
obeid
Logo proposal: Pᴚ

Design suggestion: Lose the header

------
qnnlu
No RSS?

------
derekja
No science category?

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mkagenius
how do you know if its podcast or just an article?

------
kalari
Great idea, and a good start on implementation.

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metaos
make an RSS feed, please!

------
kobekoto
Super useful. Thanks.

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neurobuddha
I'd start submitting your site to different subreddits to ensure a diverse
selection in your listings. Hold off on submitting to Designer News though,
until you improve the site UX. As it is now, they will completely ignore it.

Still, it looks like you're off to a good start!

~~~
podcastrank
thanks for the feedback, what aspects of the UX need improvement right now?
Mobile?

~~~
neurobuddha
I'd give it a more professional look. Branding can go a long way here.

------
pipu
Very nice.

------
largehotcoffee
Why?

~~~
hammerha
Why not?

------
giancarlostoro
The site is a bit odd without JavaScript enabled (I have noscript) all the
arrows don't work. Not a big deal for me I can just enable it back, but for
others it might be. SVG's could be used instead of fonts for icons.

------
ekianjo
Nice project but hacker news is far more than just upvoting and commenting on
items. Its the community here that makes it different.

~~~
gus_massa
I agree. There are a lot of thing that are important, it's not only a simple
UI.

On important part is the moderation to keep the discussion civil and measures
against spam and voting rings. This is invisible and sometimes difficult to
spot, most people just notice only the good quality of the discussion.

Another important point is the community. It's important to attract and keep a
good and wide community. For most topics, you'll find here one or two experts
that can comment to counter balance the hype of the article and answer the
unclear details. Sometimes the comments are better than the article.

~~~
thevibesman
> Sometimes the comments are better than the article.

Yup, and the first few weeks when I first discovered HackerNews from Google
search results a number of years ago, if it wasn't an "Ask HN" I'll admit I
didn't know there was an article -- the comments were good enough not to miss
it!

