Readstream
Productivity
news reader
SHOW HN2011
65points
72comments
#195of 1,097 in 2011
Top 18%of 2011 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
10 positive, 26 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 19 critical, out of 57 comments about the project. Thread score -0.29.
Idea: 5 for, 4 againstDocs: 1 for, 4 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 5 againstExecution: 1 for, 4 againstDesign: 1 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Nicely done and useful; a good weekend project
From 3 comments
This is really nicely done. Can you tell us how you built it?
revorad on HNThis is great. I had a feeling what it would do from the description and the name and it lived out to that promise. I think its a great start for a "weekend" project and would…
EGF on HNGood tool to use. I like it
arunkk on HN
Human curation of links is a better feed than RSS
From 2 comments
well if you follow RSS on twitter it is your problem. If you follow people who share links, than it is a way better than RSS, because human filter is applied and you are more…
medwezys on HNIts nice to see that other teams are currently working to solve the noise vs signal problem by using people to curate content in a more networked way. Also, pardon my curiosity,…
glesperance on HN
Objections
Requires Twitter sign-in before seeing anything; no demo
From 4 comments
You might want to have a demo that doesn't require signing into Twitter. I didn't go any further.
follower on HNStopped after I didn't see a demo
emilepetrone on HNNo matter how nice the landing page, there is probably a sizable number of people who will just close it without either 1) an interactive demo page showing an example user's…
acrum on HNI think you're missing the point of the feedback. You need a tour, some screenshots, or some better copy to allow interested folks to get a better sense of what's going to happen…
webwright on HN
Unclear why Twitter write permissions are requested
From 3 comments
Can I ask you you need permission to update my twitter stream? That put me off trying it.
ra on HNWhy are you grabbing things from my Twitter stream? Why would I have anything there at all for you to grab? I didn't make it past the "let us use your Twitter account" step, but…
jasonkester on HNIt doesn't say that on the page. I bounced because I assumed that any app that wants permission to post to my timeline is going to spam some kind of advertisement for itself --…
decklin on HN
Copyright risk from displaying full article text
From 3 comments
That's not how it (appears to) work. This pulls from links tweeted by people you follow. It then uses a content extraction library (similar to Readability's I presume) to grab…
MatthewPhillips on HNInteresting project. I agree with the others who say you definitely need some sort of demo to convince users to sign up. Question though: how did you guys get around the…
kpanghmc on HNRight, but content providers at least have some control over their RSS feeds (e.g. adding advertising or truncating it to the first X characters of the article to force users to…
kpanghmc on HN
Headline feels arrogant or promotes addiction
From 2 comments
> Watch out, you're about to be addicted. This headline almost made me close the website. Who needs more addiction to time-wasting than we already have?
Void_ on HNseconded. in addition, it feels arrogant. highlight how nice and fun it is, not how super-special-awesome.
skrebbel on HN
Sorting is only reverse chronological; no relevancy
From 3 comments
As a techie, I'd be more convinced if I read a few words on how you determine relevancy. You don't need to reveal your secret sauce, but you need to convince me it's good enough…
andr on HNHow do you guys sort articles? By date? Popularity?
arturadib on HNNice work guys.. Consider showing the headlines in reverse order, with the newest ones being at the top and older ones at the bottom so i don't have to scroll to get the latest…
sammville on HN
Requests
Provide a demo, video or screenshots without signing in
From 4 comments
You might want to have a demo that doesn't require signing into Twitter. I didn't go any further.
follower on HNYou should have two options, one to use my account, one to use a sample account. People would probably view the sample first, and then if they were interested then they might…
Shanewho on HNJust a tip: some people will never try your service unless you show them that it won't do anything malicious. But I wouldn't spend all your time creating a pseudo app just for…
yesimahuman on HNNo matter how nice the landing page, there is probably a sizable number of people who will just close it without either 1) an interactive demo page showing an example user's…
acrum on HN
Clarify permission copy and what the app does with the account
From 2 comments
One comment on UX: After clicking "get started" I'm presented with a way to enter my email and password. It may save people a moment's confusion if you say something like "sign…
dhimes on HNIt doesn't say that on the page. I bounced because I assumed that any app that wants permission to post to my timeline is going to spam some kind of advertisement for itself --…
decklin on HN
Add keyboard shortcuts and better navigation hints
From 2 comments
Pro tip: You can navigate through the articles using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Do you guys have any suggestions as to how to make this more clear? (We already say to do so…
dshipper on HNIt would be great if you could also bind the 'h' and 'l' keys to navigation (for those of us who dislike moving our hands off the home row).
Bogdanp on HN
Parse links within articles
From 1 comment
Although I can't see it as a total replacement for my twitter stream, it definitely is a neat app and I will be using it. However, it would be really cool if you also could parse…
yolesaber on HN
Fix error display and connection resets
From 3 comments
Seen this post late, currently receiving a "Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'EpiOAuthException'" with a PHP stack trace, really should hide errors like this from being displayed…
joshbaptiste on HNDoesn't work for me. Site keeps getting connection resets.
cao825 on HNCan you guys consider adding a bug tracker or any place where you can accept feedback (uservoice?). Just wanted to give you folks a heads up about escape characters coming near…
sathyabhat on HN
Questions
How is relevancy determined and how are articles sorted
From 2 comments
As a techie, I'd be more convinced if I read a few words on how you determine relevancy. You don't need to reveal your secret sauce, but you need to convince me it's good enough…
andr on HNHow do you guys sort articles? By date? Popularity?
arturadib on HN
How the copyright issue is handled with content providers
From 1 comment
Interesting project. I agree with the others who say you definitely need some sort of demo to convince users to sign up. Question though: how did you guys get around the…
kpanghmc on HN
Alternatives named
Zite
From 2 comments
This looks a bit like Zite (http://www.zite.com), which was launched recently. It got sued due to copyright issues.
srik1234 on HNThat's not how Zite works either. Zite doesn't pull links from your feed, it derives interests from your feed and then serves content it thinks you'll like from an internally…
MatthewPhillips on HN
Flipboard
From 1 comment
That's not how Zite works either. Zite doesn't pull links from your feed, it derives interests from your feed and then serves content it thinks you'll like from an internally…
MatthewPhillips on HN
Backtype
From 1 comment
You could use Backtype for getting the replies. They've probably already done a lot of work to find the most relevant tweets.
revorad on HN
Google Reader
From 1 comment
My friends and I did that in 2005 with Google Reader. But fair enough, the project looks nice. I'd only suggest to implement caching better: 1) Make /get_user_feed.php return…
deno on HN