Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles

The only concern is the comments there... Doesn't that seem to take away from the comments here? It would be better if you could pull the number of comments here and link here.

Re: Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles

#6

Post by petervandijck » Thu, May 19, 2011, 5:32 PM UTC

Great. It would be better if the summaries were even shorter though, and had more links.

For example:

"Developers using the Lean Software Development model compare the writing of software to a manufacturing process where project requirements are considered inventory. The focus should be on the code as it is the real inventory. Like all inventory there is a cost to carrying code. Competitive advantage can be achieved by strategically deleting code and focusing on profitable features."

has a lot of cruft and could be summarized like this:

"Lean software says code is inventory - and carrying inventory costs money."

That way you get the main idea and you can click for more.

Re: Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles

#7

Post by nullsub » Thu, May 19, 2011, 5:36 PM UTC

what are your criteria for identifying popular articles? also, is there any NLP involved in the summarization process, or is it all manual?

Re: Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles

#8

Post by MichaelApproved » Thu, May 19, 2011, 5:37 PM UTC

petervandijck wrote: post #6

Great. It would be better if the summaries were even shorter though, and had more links. For example: "Developers using the Lean Software Development model compare the writing of software to a manufacturing process where project requirements are considered inventory. The focus should be on the code as it is the real inventory. Like all inventory there is a cost to carrying code. Competitive advantage can be achieved…

I like how you're thinking but in this case Lean software generally considers features inventory. The author of the source article is suggesting it should be inventory instead. The transition is needed from the general perception to what is being proposed.

Re: Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles

#9

Post by MichaelApproved » Thu, May 19, 2011, 5:45 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #5

Nice. I watch the RSS feed and rather like the full flow, but if I didn't, this would be a great substitute. The only concern is the comments there... Doesn't that seem to take away from the comments here? It would be better if you could pull the number of comments here and link here.

I thought the same thing but I doubt it'll take away from the HN comments since I link to it in the summary. I'm hoping the comments on the site can help me build my own community of people who favor this style of writing.

I was thinking of pulling comment count and also vote count. I've got to make sure it's done in a way that's not too taxing for either site.

Re: Show HN: Summarizing popular HN articles

#10

Post by MichaelApproved » Thu, May 19, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

masnick wrote: post #4

Who are the writers? I read a few summaries and they seemed pretty good.

Thanks. I got a team of writers with a job post on ProBlogger.net. It's a great source to find good writers. $50 and I got a ton of responses.

Here's the post http://jobs.problogger.net/view/4718