
Show HN: Visualize any topic on Hacker News - 21stio
https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-trends
======
1f97
previous HN topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23141148](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23141148)

~~~
hobofan
This is a slightly different tool. I'd hope that we won't have one of those
every day now though.

~~~
dang
It seems much too close to the original Show HN to have a second one two days
later. The rules
([https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html))
say: " _New features and upgrades ( "Foo 1.3.1 is out") generally aren't
substantive enough to be Show HNs. A major overhaul is probably ok._"

This may not technically be a new feature but slight variations on the same
thing are very much in the bucket that that rule is meant to address.

This is a special case of a more general issue: follow-up posts [1] are not
great for HN because they are repetitive, and curiosity withers under
repetition. The test we apply is whether a post contains significant new
information [2].

[1]
[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20follow-
up&sort=byDate&type=comment)

[2]
[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20follow-
up&sort=byDate&type=comment)

------
anewlanguage
It's very interesting to view the results for e.g. "coronavirus". A lone post
back in November got no attention:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22019407](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22019407)
It wasn't until January that discussion started when the virus hit the US:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22110873](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22110873)
I wish there was an easy way to zoom in on a date range.

~~~
iso1631
> A lone post back in November

That would be amazing, but that story was Jan 10th. The next one was Jan 21st.

Also not the oldest,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22000761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22000761)
is a day earlier, and refers to a BBC report dated Jan 9th

~~~
anewlanguage
I see the problem: I read the date in American format (mm/dd/yyyy) and it's
dd/mm/yyyy. That's a very confusing date format, yyyy/mm/dd is better as an
international format.

~~~
groby_b
ISO8601. Breathe it, live it, be it.

That's yyyy-mm-dd. yyyy/mm/dd is ambiguous because the slash-separator is
shared across all conflicting formats. Dashes are pretty much always ISO
compliant formats. (Yes, it's a small difference, but it helps)

------
sixhobbits
This is useful! I was hoping for something based on topic modelling [0]
though. Keywords are useful, but often are out of context. e.g. I looked for
"writing", and many of the matches have nothing to do with writing as topic,
but simply mention it in the headline.

Conversely, there are often topics in the post that are not in the headline.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_model)

~~~
21stio
I'm happy, that you like it! Yeah, you are right and thanks for the read. I'll
have a look into it

------
captn3m0
Suggestion: Add support for passing the topic via URL?
[https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-
trends/#!topic=kuber...](https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-
trends/#!topic=kubernetes) or [https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-
trends?topic=kuberne...](https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-
trends?topic=kubernetes) maybe?

~~~
21stio
yeah agreed, we will add it. Thanks for pointing it out! :)

------
EE84M3i
Unfortunately their API doesn't seem to support the one feature I've wanted
from any hackernews API: writing a query that only shows posts that got
removed from the front page for being flagged.

~~~
mistermann
That would be a very interesting thing to know, I've noticed that certain
topics seem to be considered (by some) to be not appropriate for discussion.
It's quite interesting if you think about it, because the ability to notice
any trends _is affected by the very phenomenon itself_.

~~~
saagarjha
Right, because certain things are off-topic and metadiscussion on the is also
off topic.

~~~
mistermann
> certain things are off-topic

Is there a list of these somewhere? If not, then how do people decide what is
and is not "on-topic"?

> metadiscussion on the is also off topic

I see meta-discussion (and similar) on HN all the time.

Is this documented somewhere as well?

~~~
saagarjha
> Is this documented somewhere as well?

Yeah, the Hacker News Guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

> I see meta-discussion (and similar) on HN all the time.

Metadiscussion is usually OK. It's discouraged when the thing you're
metadiscussing about is itself not on topic.

~~~
mistermann
> Yeah, the Hacker News Guidelines:
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

So it is, in a way.

Let's take a look:

>> What to Submit

>> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

>> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, _unless they
're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon_. Videos of pratfalls or
disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's
probably off-topic.

"...unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon"...I wonder, if
one was to put a little effort into _the enforcement_ of that guideline
(applying it literally to every single political story that has appeared on HN
in the last month), what do you think one might find?

Luckily, the job is now quite a bit easier, with this handy dandy new tool:

[https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-
trends](https://showcase.metamate.io/hackernews-trends)

My suspicion is that we'd find there's actually quite a fair amount of
political posts on HN, that people enjoyably discuss, despite them being
technically in violation of the guidelines.

But also, that is _somewhat_ tangential to the discussion _in this sub-thread
", which is "...appropriate _for discussion _... ".

For that we can refer to the "In Comments" section.

Here, two items stand out to me:

>> Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That
destroys the curiosity this site exists for.

>> Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is
spam or _off-topic* (as in, _evidence of some interesting new(!) phenomenon_
), flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If
you flag, please don't also comment that you did.

Once again, if one was to put a little effort into investigating the historic
_enforcement_ of that guideline, what do you think one might find? Note that I
pose this more as a sincere question intended to enhance _thoughtful
discussion_ , as opposed to a confident assertion of _fact_ , or accusation.
It seems like a perfectly worthwhile topic of discussion - after all, while we
here at HN may have higher-than-average intelligence, and knowledge of world
affairs and how things generally work...are we not also human, and therefore
subject to the same shortcomings of all people, if to a lesser degree?

>> Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That
destroys the curiosity this site exists for.

In my experience, the evaluation of what is or is not "political or
ideological battle" may suffer, at least to some degree, from the shortcomings
I refer to above. Of course, I may be 100% incorrect in that judgement. But it
also seems possible that I'm not 100% incorrect. Which is it? Who among us
know the truth of such matters? Does anyone care? If all of us are "super
chill" and comfortable with free speech (as opposed to enforcing certain
boundaries), then there should be not problem whatsoever.

>> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading,
foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.
If you're worried about abuse, email us and we'll look at the data.

Of course such things are a matter of opinion, but I think a decent case would
be made that this happens from time to time.

> Metadiscussion is usually OK. It's discouraged when the thing you're
> metadiscussing about is itself not on topic.

It is certainly discouraged _culturally_ , but is is contrary to the
_explicit_ guidelines? Or, might it be possible that there's somewhat of an
unmentioned _Overton Window_ in play here at HN, that is subtly (but not
explicitly!) enforced? [1]

>> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have _curious conversation_ ; don't cross-
examine. Comments should get _more thoughtful and substantive, not less_ , as
a topic gets more divisive.

I'm obviously a bit biased (but then who isn't), but curiosity is not the
feeling I get when _certain topics_ are being discussed. YMMV.

\------

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window)

>> The Overton window is the _range of policies politically acceptable to the
mainstream population_ at a given time. It is also known as _the window of
discourse_. The term is named after Joseph P. Overton, who stated that an
idea's political viability _depends mainly on whether it falls within this
range_ , rather than on politicians' _individual preferences_. According to
Overton, the window frames the _range of policies_ that a politician can
recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office given
the _climate of public opinion_ at that time.

Again, I pose these questions _and ideas_ as sincere questions intended to
enhance _thoughtful discussion_ , as opposed to accusations or confident
assertion of _fact_. To me, this is what productive conversations _on
complicated topics_ should consist of, if we want to make any actual progress
on some of these problems.

Perhaps everything I say here is incorrect, invalid, or maybe even ignorant.
If that is indeed true (which first requires _an evaluation_ ), I would think
that fact should be _demonstrable_ (via rational, evidence-based discourse) -
but in my experience, such judgements are typically declared _by fiat_ , as if
they are somehow self-evident, no discussion needed.

~~~
saagarjha
If you believe the rules are being inconsistently or poorly enforced, I would
email the moderators at hn@ycombinator.com: they’re fairly responsive.

~~~
mistermann
I am familiar with them, and they are familiar with me and my observations of
reality.

I'm more interested in having some conversations that consist of something a
little more deep than the standard tribal warfare. Do you have any thoughts
(agreement, disagreement, criticism) on what I've written?

------
victorthehuman
This looks like something I had in mind a few months ago, but my idea morphed
into an HN iOS app client with some extra bells and whistles, not published
yet, needs a few more tweaks to pass the app store review.

Anyways this is great, thinking if I could integrate some features into the
app.

------
blader_johny
This domain is currently on the MetaMask domain warning list. This means that
based on information available to us, MetaMask believes this domain could
currently compromise your security and, as an added safety feature, MetaMask
has restricted access to the site. To override this, please read the rest of
this warning for instructions on how to continue at your own risk.

~~~
21stio
Thanks for pointing this out. No idea, why it appeared on the list. There's
already a github issue [https://github.com/MetaMask/eth-phishing-
detect/issues/3835](https://github.com/MetaMask/eth-phishing-
detect/issues/3835)

------
jpopesculian
I like it other than the fact that you stole the grin logo:
[https://grin.mw/](https://grin.mw/)

~~~
tmikaeld
Ouch, yeah, it's basically and exact ripoff

------
WaitWaitWha
Fascinating to look at political keywords, both from source of the links and
source of the posters.

------
epa
Very cool for finding old HN topics, like this one where Paul Graham is
conspiring that bitcoin was created by a government (2013).

>[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5547423](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5547423)

------
donclark
I would also like to see the most popular searches and most recent searches,
etc with your tool.

------
seph-reed
I've been wanting to a project like this to show the front-page uptime of
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and others.

------
stevofolife
THIS IS GOOD. Finally something useful.

------
king_magic
This is really nicely done, great job. Does it cap the # of submissions it
looks at to 1,000?

~~~
21stio
Thanks! MetaMate's HackerNews service relies on hn.angolia.com under the hook,
which only returns a maximum of 1000 hits for any given term unfortunately

------
seumars
Cool! Now we can have n-gate digests based on REAL data!

------
nacs
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23141148](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23141148)

Considering this was posted just 2 days ago by yourself and there’s a pretty
active discussion there, this thread is unnecessary.

~~~
21stio
it’s a different application

