Show HN: HN++

(hnplusplus.vercel.app)

3 points | by 7moritz7 4 days ago ago

3 comments

  • ofalkaed 4 days ago ago

    Infinite scroll should be outlawed.

    Rainbow indentation and opening links in new tabs would be nice although I think rainbow could result in ambiguous colors?. Embedding videos could possibly get me to switch if added, but maybe not, I think the deficiencies of HN are part of what makes it work. Looks good/works good on mobile but not big on the desktop layout, I will probably try it out for abit when browsing on my phone.

    Page title is "Create Next App," which is confusing on desktop where I just have tabs with their titles and not thumbnails of the page.

    • 7moritz7 4 days ago ago

      Good catch on the page title

  • Leftium 3 days ago ago

    Deeply nested comments become nearly unreadable. For example: https://hnplusplus.vercel.app/item/46288491

    - comments are pushed all the way to the right side, in a very narrow column

    - also must scroll down several screens of just colored stripes

    Loading of nested comments could be sped up by using an unofficial API like https://github.com/cheeaun/node-hnapi

    - This API sends all the child items of an item at once

    - (However due to aggressive caching, many recent children could be missing)

    I would add a max-width to the top nav, too. At 2560x1440, the top nav stretches all the way to the corners, making them hard to reach. (Also looks weird with the max-width of the content.)

    Some items have over-sized favicons

    - It seems to be the job posts, which all lead to 404s

    Perhaps some settings to adjust the font. I find the font too small/light.

    ---

    Here are some ideas you may consider taking from my HN frontends (they are both MIT open-source)

    - Latest version: https://hn.leftium.com

    - Still rendering comments from older version: https://hw.leftium.com

    - Based on the HN clients I found most readable: https://hackerwebapp.com (with some ideas from https://hckrnews.com)

    Mobile page down: tapping the numbers scrolls that item to the top. I find this more ergonomic than scrolling on mobile.

    I reduced items down to two lines to fit more items per screen. I noticed I don't use the poster's id to to decide which items to open so I only show the poster's id on the item page itself.

    Items always open comments; the posted URL can be opened from the comments page. (Personally, I always read the comments, and sometimes don't even open the original URL.)

    I find highlighting the OP's id useful. I plan to also add toggle highlighting of other specific user ids.

    Seeking orange: I highlight items that pass a certain points/comments threshold. First just the icon, then the number, too. Helps more interesting items stand out.

    When I re-implement comments, I plan to create a view that focuses on top-level comments and reading a single "thread" at a time.

    - So you can choose which conversations to read.

    - There will also be a way to expand all the comments for certain users that are more interesting (like the OP).