Live data from Hacker News

Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

github.com

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#31
post #21

Nitter.net is so much better -- comically better -- than Twitter's site. I'm on a somewhat slow computer right now, and loading a Twitter user's channel (sorry I can't remember the correct Twitter slang) takes like 3-4 seconds on Nitter, and like 10 seconds on Twitter. And scrolling on Twitter is supper choppy, on Nitter it's just normal. Twitter's frontend code could be a good one for thedailywtf.com.

It's insanely better. I enabled the Twitter theme, and it felt creepy how much smoother it was _while having the same interface_! I wish that I could login/view my feed :( I would 100% switch if I could. If it's API restrictions, they should create a browser extension! Maybe someday Firefox mobile will allow add-ons again :(

> Maybe someday Firefox mobile will allow add-ons again :(

Huh? Firefox on Android does support addons. There's only a small subset of them available by default but you can enable support for all addons as well although you'll have to use Fennec or Mull from FDroid for that.

Go to the "About Fennec" menu and tap the logo several times to enable the hidden "Custom Add-on collection" menu. Create an account on Mozilla Add-ons website and add all the addons you like. Use the profile ID to add the collection in the hidden menu you unlocked.

Yeah, I know, using addons shouldn't be so convoluted.

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#32
> On July 26, 2021, Austin Huang (maintainer of Barinsta) received a cease & desist letter from Perkins Coie LLP, a law firm representing Facebook. As a result, Barinsta is no longer maintained or distributed.

I had been a user of Barinsta, until the creator was hit with legal threats from Facebook.

It was then when I saw it clear that these types of projects are better to be developed anonymously, so without any address or name, the legal department wouldn't have anywhere to send their letter.

At most they might ask GitHub to close the repo, so probably a Git provider from overseas would also be a good idea. In general: don't host the code in the same country of the company you will be pissing off.

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#33
I tried the official Twitter app & site now after using Tweetbot exclusively for years.

The experience is a Facebook-esque joke. Tweets are out of order, random people I’m not following are shown in my feed, and the feed is dotted with ads.

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#34
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Made a business decision" is not the same as "it's ok", and it's dangerous to conflate these. I'm not sure where posting on Facebook falls, but for a relatively clear-cut case consider "made a business decision to not bother with wheelchair accessibility".

There are laws preventing you from ignoring wheelchair accessibility. As a society we have decided it is important. We’ve done no such thing for keeping information on Facebook only.

That's not a counterargument since maybe we should.

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#37
Many of these lists seem reluctant to include alternatives for which no publicly accessible hosted instance is provided.

I have made rimgu[0] for imgur. There are a small number of edge-cases (for example the stackexchange subsite) it doesn't handle yet but otherwise I find it works great.

On a similar note, I find Piped[1] superior to any of the other alternatives for YT I tried so far, including invidious.

[0]: https://codeberg.org/3np/rimgu

[1]: https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped

EDIT: Looks like there's actually a public Piped instance linked from the repo now!

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#38
post #22
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

creating a dummy account might alleviate the immediate issue, but it doesn't really fix the root cause of the problem - which is that the restaurant thinks it's ok to only post on facebook, and assume everyone has access.

It is OK, though. It’s not that they’re assuming everyone has access, it’s that they’ve made the business decision that it isn’t worth going the extra mile to cater to a minority of customers that aren’t on Facebook. It annoys me too but I’m not blaming my local restaurants for following market forces.

There are some kind of Facebook settings that will let people access your page with only a frequent pop-up telling you to log in. The "extra mile" is enabling that rather than leaving on whatever setting requires someone to be logged in to see your page.

I'd still be annoyed I have to use Facebook, but it wouldn't impact my decision to visit the store. I'm not going to a store when I can't tell if it's open.

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insanely better. I enabled the Twitter theme, and it felt creepy how much smoother it was _while having the same interface_! I wish that I could login/view my feed :( I would 100% switch if I could. If it's API restrictions, they should create a browser extension! Maybe someday Firefox mobile will allow add-ons again :(

> Maybe someday Firefox mobile will allow add-ons again :( Huh? Firefox on Android does support addons. There's only a small subset of them available by default but you can enable support for all addons as well although you'll have to use Fennec or Mull from FDroid for that. Go to the "About Fennec" menu and tap the logo several times to enable the hidden "Custom Add-on collection" menu. Create an account on Mozilla…

I wouldn't hold my breath, mainly because Google has already stiffled Mozilla from publishing in the Play Store due to, apparently, downloading addons constitute "malicious behaviour" back in Firefox 68.

So the restricted addons is specifically because they reviewed that subset personally and thus is, at least for Goog's policies, okay.

(Yes, I'm aware of Kiwi browser. Says a lot about app store moderation.)

Re: Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms

#40
post #32

> On July 26, 2021, Austin Huang (maintainer of Barinsta) received a cease & desist letter from Perkins Coie LLP, a law firm representing Facebook. As a result, Barinsta is no longer maintained or distributed. I had been a user of Barinsta, until the creator was hit with legal threats from Facebook. It was then when I saw it clear that these types of projects are better to be developed anonymously, so without any add…

> In general: don't host the code in the same country of the company you will be pissing off.

Even better would be having automated mirrors on multiple providers, plus a private git instance to make sure you have your repos.

Post reply on HN