I like http://hn.premii.com because it runs articles through the Instapaper API so you don't have to leave the site to read an article. It's also vastly faster than any of the above.
Some of them do something with the comments, unlike hckrnews.com which just provides a link to them. I do use hckrnews.com for my browsing though—the top 20 is very useful.
@wanda Great list! I already know couple of those, but they have the same thing in common, it's just a list with a link.
I've tried to offer the user a little bit mode insight into the page, by providing a preview.
Hope you will put my implementation to your list :)
Take this as constructive criticism, rather than a complaint. But the "pinterest" layout is exhausting at this point. Too many sites use it, and it's the opposite of a good user experience in my opinion. With that said, good for you for working on new projects!
I second this, while also upvoting the OP because I think this is pretty novel and kudos to the author for putting it together.
Scrolling through pictures makes me feel like my IQ loses 20-30 points... I just want more eye candy, rather than carefully reading the text. But I imagine that's more a thing of taste and interaction style, and it's pretty neat that we can change the HN UI to suit our own desires/needs.
If only the same were true for Facebook and the like!
The Pinterest layout really is for the lowest common denominator, and that's why it works for its target audience. However it just doesn't work for anything else at this point.
I agree - I think this is a great idea and really cool to see. However, when I first went to the site, there was something off putting about it which I couldn't put my finger on. Thinking about it, I think it's the amount of eye movement required to scan the links. With HN, on a wide screen, scanning the stories to find ones I want to read only requires a limited amount of movement, mostly downward, whereas with the grid, I have to scan across the entire screen and after doing so, completing one row, I've only scanned the titles of four stories...
Nonetheless, I like the innovative idea. Thanks for sharing!
This is the first alternative I feel is worth using. It actually adds something to the experience. I already found some articles where the headline was not that interesting but I could see was something worth reading from the image alone. Good job!
Cool to see how HN user comunity always shows new ways to read your favorite News Source. I think, first I noticed was http://hack.ernews.info
It is time to make my own HN frontend! :) And this applies, for each of You!
Anyway my favorite frontend/design and UI is still https://news.ycombinator.com as it is fine to read and navigate 500 times per day and also offers the procrastination mode if I declare my self as addicted for compulsive HN site visiting. (Witch I should activate long ago :).
I really like this. I'm sure there's features missing like comments and some kind of visited indicator but I like the thumbs. Helps to give context to the headline.
I'm not getting 500 stories as the description described.
Is there a reason you're using the yeoman favicon? Did the generator put it there?
Should mention you're using koajs, http://koajs.com/, I'm sure folks who haven't used would like to check out your code.
Thank you for the feedback. It was a weekend project, and yes I'm using a yeoman generator for the angular project.
I'm using KOA just as a thin web server and also as a proxy to cache the images.
I am glad to see that the grid of images is actually equally aligned, rather than being presented as a jumbled, unequally-aligned mess like Pinterest's grid is.
FIREBASE WARNING: Specified Firebase has reached its Peak Connections limit. If you are the Firebase owner, consider upgrading. (https://visual-hacker-news.firebaseio.com)
Interesting idea. I might look into expanding this.
The whole idea with the big thumbnail was that you can quickly have a glimpse at the content before you click on the link. If you are on mobile or tablet, you can almost read half of the landing page.
