Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#1

Post by needleme » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 1:34 PM UTC

Hello,

-- scenario --

I'm the founder of Needle, a social network for vinyl records lovers. In Needle users post their vinyl records and other users can Like and Comment (with @user and #tag) our vinyl records. In our case they can also listen the preview of the song in the vinyl record.

-- user case --

Today happened that a guy posted a record similar to one in my collection so I thought I wanted to tell him to listen to my record, but I had to say something like:

"hey @mrdobelina listen to Todd Terje - Ragysh in my collection, it's #awesome!"

boring. So I thought that would be cool to directly link the album with a symbol, example:

~ragysh

that would results in:

"hey @mrdobelina listen to ~ragysh it's #amazing!"

the user can now click ~ragysh to be redirected to my post.

-- conclusion --

talking generally, now is:

@user is used to mention someone #tag is used to connect arguments

~object could be used to connect other users to a specific object

-- thoughts --

What you think? What symbol would you use instead of ~ ?

We're going to add this feature in Needle soon.

-- not intended to be spammy self promotion --

Here's the video teaser - http://bit.ly/needle_teaser

you can download and try Needle at this link, it's free and feedback is very appreciated. Soon we'll officially launch

bit.ly/needle_appstore

The @mention in comments works very bad, that's why we restarted to work on them and the ~ idea came out.

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#2

Post by Someone1234 » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:08 PM UTC

It seems like a good idea, but what happens for example of two albums (or singles) have the same exact title? Also do users have to add the album/single first before using the ~format or is that automated somehow?

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#3

Post by chton » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:27 PM UTC

wouldn't it be more interesting if you enabled the linking ability on any text? If I use the ~ syntax, I lose the actual name of the record. If it was possible to just link any text to your posts, it would be a lot clearer.

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#4

Post by brokenstapler » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:28 PM UTC

I don't understand what problem this would solve. Couldn't they just click #ragysh to be directed to your post?

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#5

Post by needleme » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:35 PM UTC

chton wrote: post #3

wouldn't it be more interesting if you enabled the linking ability on any text? If I use the ~ syntax, I lose the actual name of the record. If it was possible to just link any text to your posts, it would be a lot clearer.

yea it's tru that you actually lose the actual name, however when the user click it will see the real title. Let's say that it could be a shortcut.

A good "workaround" might be that the ~ trigger the list of album in my collection (for example ~r filter the album title that start with r) once I click the album I want in the comment will appear the full clickable title so: Todd Terje - Ragysh

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#6

Post by needleme » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:38 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

It seems like a good idea, but what happens for example of two albums (or singles) have the same exact title? Also do users have to add the album/single first before using the ~format or is that automated somehow?

Ideally I was thinking to let user filter only through the album they have uploaded. This to avoid to filter thousands of vinyl records in our database.

About the same title I guess that a solution might be the one I've written to chton down here

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#7

Post by needleme » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:39 PM UTC

brokenstapler wrote: post #4

I don't understand what problem this would solve. Couldn't they just click #ragysh to be directed to your post?

It actually create a link to a specific object, using #ragysh would show all the release that have this tag, not the specific one I want to show.

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#8

Post by chton » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:48 PM UTC

needleme wrote: post #5

chton wrote: post #3

wouldn't it be more interesting if you enabled the linking ability on any text? If I use the ~ syntax, I lose the actual name of the record. If it was possible to just link any text to your posts, it would be a lot clearer.

yea it's tru that you actually lose the actual name, however when the user click it will see the real title. Let's say that it could be a shortcut. A good "workaround" might be that the ~ trigger the list of album in my collection (for example ~r filter the album title that start with r) once I click the album I want in the comment will appear the full clickable title so: Todd Terje - Ragysh

that would be an excellent solution. Makes it easy to use and very clear to both the sender and the receiver.

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#9

Post by NaNaN » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 2:49 PM UTC

Why should we create another complex markup language, instead of using hyper-links and images/buttons that are already there? Too tired to type?

Re: Ask HN: After "@" and "#" it's time to add a new symbol?

#10

Post by needleme » Thu, Jul 10, 2014, 3:03 PM UTC

NaNaN wrote: post #9

Why should we create another complex markup language, instead of using hyper-links and images/buttons that are already there? Too tired to type?

I forgot to say that Needle it's a mobile app, so it's complicated to use hyperlinks and other things.

I don't think is complex, I think is very usefull. A trigger to an object I want to share.

Think of Instagram, in a comment of an another user you want to show a pic you made of the same subject: Hey @user check my ~objectID looks similar

When the user start ~ Instagram will return the thumbnail of my pics, I can choose the one I want and bam I've created a direct link to one of my pics. Same goes for Twitter and other apps.

Sure there's other things to think about how it could work in Instagram but it could be an idea.