I really like the content on this forum but I find the features and UI lacking. I was going to make another website dedicated to tech news and discussion but with a better user exp. Would anyone be interested in trying the product when I finish it?
The single biggest problem I have is finding an article again at a later time. Even if one remembers the item or list number at the time of viewing (which I don't unless I take special note) that number will change almost immediately, a day or two later the article can be buried many pages down or have disappeared altogether.
Then there's the problem of remembering the story's title so one can search for it. Say, several days later I want to revisit a story that I remember the substance of but I have forgotten its title then sometimes it's almost impossible for me to find it again (stories often have short or cryptic titles that have little bearing with their content).
There's also a similar problem with comments, if I want to revisit a comment I read several days earlier, it's often almost impossible to find—unless I've noted the handle of the poster.
Another annoyance are stories behind firewalls, the poster will have access but many of us will not. It would make sense for these stories to be flagged with a big red dot or such so we can bypass them.
> I have is finding an article again at a later time. Even if one remembers the item or list number at the time of viewing (which I don't unless I take special note) that number will change almost immediately
There is a button below every post labelled ‘favourite’, once you’ve marked a post as favourite you can access the list of such bookmarked posts under your profile settings called favourited posts
> Then there's the problem of remembering the story's title so one can search for it.
> There's also a similar problem with comments.
There’s tool at https://hn.algolia.com to help you search for posts via both title and comments
> There's also a similar problem with comments, if I want to revisit a comment I read several days earlier, it's often almost impossible to find—unless I've noted the handle of the poster.
You can quickly search for all comments on hn.algolia.com
I can only think of two things that I really would like HN to implement:
1. Dark mode
2. Two-factor authentication for better account security
Apart from that (and maybe a better API to help with third-party apps), HN is perfect. The minimal (should I say retro?) UI just adds to the charm of the site. Consider it repellent for those who aren't ready for the HN atmosphere.
The value of HN lies in its community, which you won't — most probably — be ever able to reproduce.
After almost fifteen years of skimming once a day or two through the comments on the topics that interest me most, I am still amazed by the wide of range of old-and-new school engineers of all trade who share their experience and opinions. This is invaluable and does not necessarily need any fancy UI.
I would be interested in trying the product if the content is as good or better than the content here. More features will not get me to switch, however.
I like the simple, minimalist UI that HN currently has. I cannot think of any features that it currently lacks. I'm already spending more time here than on /.
I think many here could take the same model (users, posts, comments etc) and make something more rich in the browser. But you cant just trivially have the user base that HN has by doing so.
Since people are mentioning their gripes: Mine is titles are black but once clicked they become the same grey color as the line below each post title, which is also a link for the commments, the point count etc. So if you click on a title, read, then press back it becomes hard to distinquish or find a previously clicked link esp when the order of post changes.
In short, visited title links should be a different color
UI/UX of HN is perfect besides not being able to block people. I'd still like to see a new site, just because old communities tend to have lots of crusty people.
Maybe an alternative might be an imageboard instead.
For me it is. The reason HN wins out over a curated set of subreddits for me is the fact that the UI is no bullshit. It is plain, simple, and does what is required to quickly and effectively communication information and not a thing more.
I am trying to build an alternative hackernews frontend aswell. My main focus is to offer a personalized ranking based on the topics you are most interested in.
Currently I am exploring the data and try to identify named entities from the titles. You can have a look here: http://news.facts.dev/
Honestly, I personally feel that “better” is a lazy and un-imaginative term (in general, not against your thoughts) when one lacks a definite goal to achieve. Perhaps, “A better alternate User Experience for HackerNews.” Better, better, be better with an improvement/enhancement against the comparison value.
As for the “UI lacking”, I have added some minimal custom styling catering to my personal preference - some subtle smooth corners, paddings/spacings, author highlights, width constraint, etc. Even that, I’m tempted to nick it and get used to whatever it is.
Not the best nor optimized but here are the styles
Why not join YC instead and push through on UI changes? HN fails badly on accessibility (small fonts, small buttons, very close to each other, etc). Or just wait for the people working on HN to get older so they encounter the real issues firsthand and decide to make some changes?
No, I come here in part for the content, but more specifically because I really enjoy the content centric approach the site has. Information is very easy to parse. Without examples, I imagine when you say 'better user exp.' you mean the same kind of enshitification that reddit has gone down.
If you compare old.reddit.com to www.reddit.com you'll see what I mean. Reddit used to look and behave a lot like HN, and that is what made it a prime source of information. Currently, it surives off it's userbase but it is no longer a good primary source of information because unit time vs unit information is quite poor now.
I would be interested with an ability to temporarily filter (show only from / hide from) shared links from a specified domain or see all posts of the same type (e.g. Ask HN, Tell HN). But without having to be a full blown search.
I use hckrnews.com mainly because it only shows things that made it to the top page. It's an easy way to filter. If they can do that, it seems anybody could do anything with the content.
The only downsides to HN are that it is addictive and you miss interesting articles and conversations that you'd wished you'd seen earlier due to time zone effects.
Now you need to have a better UI than both places and get the interest of people who are not satisfied with all of HN, lobsters and Reddit. It's going to be a really hard thing to achieve.
This is my opinion is a great way to read HackerNews, more like a newspaper organised by dates which makes it easy to catch up on the news when you’re away on vacation or for a work trip.
Dark mode is a feature request, but these days Dark Reader makes it possible on most browsers, HyperWeb for Safari on iOS can do it for iPhone users
I would certainly appreciate if @dang and @pg cared to clarify just how many bots are on this platform. Without the data, what's left but to assume we're wasting time communing with bots and interplanetary intelligences (save for those relationships we connect with in person. Empirical evidence is important.)
Yea, no. HN is the pinnacle of UI as far as I am concerned. It is as simple as is necessary but not lacking in features. And the filtering/ranking of articles is top-notch. The only thing I miss, content wise, is political posts, because I enjoyed the discussions around here. I dislike that (almost) all politics-centric articles are effectively assigned to oblivion immediately.
hilbert42|1 year ago
Then there's the problem of remembering the story's title so one can search for it. Say, several days later I want to revisit a story that I remember the substance of but I have forgotten its title then sometimes it's almost impossible for me to find it again (stories often have short or cryptic titles that have little bearing with their content).
There's also a similar problem with comments, if I want to revisit a comment I read several days earlier, it's often almost impossible to find—unless I've noted the handle of the poster.
Another annoyance are stories behind firewalls, the poster will have access but many of us will not. It would make sense for these stories to be flagged with a big red dot or such so we can bypass them.
teitoklien|1 year ago
There is a button below every post labelled ‘favourite’, once you’ve marked a post as favourite you can access the list of such bookmarked posts under your profile settings called favourited posts
Here’s a link to your one : https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=hilbert42
> Then there's the problem of remembering the story's title so one can search for it. > There's also a similar problem with comments.
There’s tool at https://hn.algolia.com to help you search for posts via both title and comments
> There's also a similar problem with comments, if I want to revisit a comment I read several days earlier, it's often almost impossible to find—unless I've noted the handle of the poster.
You can quickly search for all comments on hn.algolia.com
Its a YC 2014 batch company.
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
wenc|1 year ago
It's chronological.
hu3|1 year ago
A quick tip though which helped me: you can favorite posts and comments. You need to open each to see the favorite link.
LorenDB|1 year ago
1. Dark mode
2. Two-factor authentication for better account security
Apart from that (and maybe a better API to help with third-party apps), HN is perfect. The minimal (should I say retro?) UI just adds to the charm of the site. Consider it repellent for those who aren't ready for the HN atmosphere.
type0|1 year ago
Ublock Origin filters are great workaround
https://rich.sh/2024/03/20/hn-theme
just update a few lines:
# Text
news.ycombinator.com##.c00:style(color: #fafafa !important)
# Inputs
news.ycombinator.com##input[type="text"], input[type="url"], textarea :style(background-color: inherit; border: 1px solid #d4d4d4; color: #000000 !important)
i-blis|1 year ago
After almost fifteen years of skimming once a day or two through the comments on the topics that interest me most, I am still amazed by the wide of range of old-and-new school engineers of all trade who share their experience and opinions. This is invaluable and does not necessarily need any fancy UI.
vasili111|1 year ago
joegahona|1 year ago
speleolinux|1 year ago
The_Colonel|1 year ago
How about instead creating a WebExtension for HackerNews (similar to RES for Reddit) which would add / change things you miss.
InMice|1 year ago
Since people are mentioning their gripes: Mine is titles are black but once clicked they become the same grey color as the line below each post title, which is also a link for the commments, the point count etc. So if you click on a title, read, then press back it becomes hard to distinquish or find a previously clicked link esp when the order of post changes.
In short, visited title links should be a different color
muzani|1 year ago
Maybe an alternative might be an imageboard instead.
teitoklien|1 year ago
tasuki|1 year ago
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
rozenmd|1 year ago
Grimblewald|1 year ago
uwemaurer|1 year ago
Currently I am exploring the data and try to identify named entities from the titles. You can have a look here: http://news.facts.dev/
qup|1 year ago
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
Brajeshwar|1 year ago
As for the “UI lacking”, I have added some minimal custom styling catering to my personal preference - some subtle smooth corners, paddings/spacings, author highlights, width constraint, etc. Even that, I’m tempted to nick it and get used to whatever it is.
Not the best nor optimized but here are the styles
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tdkzn5zhm218lvggl91l5/browser...
AnonHP|1 year ago
Why not join YC instead and push through on UI changes? HN fails badly on accessibility (small fonts, small buttons, very close to each other, etc). Or just wait for the people working on HN to get older so they encounter the real issues firsthand and decide to make some changes?
Grimblewald|1 year ago
If you compare old.reddit.com to www.reddit.com you'll see what I mean. Reddit used to look and behave a lot like HN, and that is what made it a prime source of information. Currently, it surives off it's userbase but it is no longer a good primary source of information because unit time vs unit information is quite poor now.
signaru|1 year ago
pella|1 year ago
https://github.com/bensadeh/circumflex
JohnDeHope|1 year ago
theGnuMe|1 year ago
scoofy|1 year ago
rfarley04|1 year ago
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
goldname|1 year ago
viraptor|1 year ago
Now you need to have a better UI than both places and get the interest of people who are not satisfied with all of HN, lobsters and Reddit. It's going to be a really hard thing to achieve.
stephanos2k|1 year ago
apurandare|1 year ago
Dark mode is a feature request, but these days Dark Reader makes it possible on most browsers, HyperWeb for Safari on iOS can do it for iPhone users
Leftium|1 year ago
(https://hackerwebapp.com + https://hckrnews.com + several small custom features)
JohnDeHope|1 year ago
Crier1002|1 year ago
TheAlchemist|1 year ago
Who cares about UI
squircle|1 year ago
P.s., to OP, you can roll your own UI on top of HN without losing whatever this community is.
bediger4000|1 year ago
Always42|1 year ago
throwitaway222|1 year ago
squircle|1 year ago
goldname|1 year ago
auct|1 year ago
Fezzik|1 year ago
paulddraper|1 year ago