Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

apps.apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 96 posts

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#41

Post by ciex »

hugatest wrote: post #38

This is quite cool, but I'm wondering why we need to re-invent the wheel for all those threaded discussion platforms. The OG is definitely email. What would really rock would be an IMAP gateway which you subscribe to with your favorite email client which then gives you threading, read/unread markers etc. It could abstract different front-page days as folders and each submission as the root of a thread. Then you could…

Email has terrible thread navigation and I consider old.reddit.com with reddit enhancement suite the best in class.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#42

Post by tinus_hn »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #31
davely wrote: post #2

Overall, nice. But it immediately hits a pet peeve of mine: requiring an in-app purchase to enable native features built into my device’s OS. In this case, $6 US for dark mode.

I don’t see the problem. The app is basically a generous demo lacking only creature comforts until you pay. That’s better than every other pay scheme I can think of since you have the option to do without.

I’m not complaining about a free/cheap app from a small developer but the guidelines say you’re not supposed to gate OS or hardware features behind in-app purchase, so it may lead to refusal at any time.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#45

Post by tarentel »

rollcat wrote: post #6
davely wrote: post #2

Overall, nice. But it immediately hits a pet peeve of mine: requiring an in-app purchase to enable native features built into my device’s OS. In this case, $6 US for dark mode.

Agree. Apps using AppKit support dark mode by default, with zero input from the developer. This isn't even a matter of preference, but basic accessibility. If the author really wishes to put this feature behind a purchase, "follow system settings" should be the free default.

It does not work by default and it does require input from the developer. The UIKit API allows you to detect that you have it enabled but it doesn't magically redefine all the colors for you.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#47

Post by coin »

prepend wrote: post #5
davely wrote: post #2

Overall, nice. But it immediately hits a pet peeve of mine: requiring an in-app purchase to enable native features built into my device’s OS. In this case, $6 US for dark mode.

I get annoyed by these things too based on some sort of perceived cost/value of the feature being available and implemented, but paygated. Id rather just have a “donate $6 to help dev” in app purchase as it seems more authentic. However, maybe there are really people who think dark mode is worth $6. Kids raised on Roblox seem to have no ethical issue with paying $5 for a digital hat that is just flipping a bit.

> that is just flipping a bit

The bit is flipped at runtime or compile time. In the old days you'd pay for an upgrade and get a new binary with the feature compiled in. Nowadays the feature is compiled in and gated at runtime. In the end it's the same.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#48

Post by kevincox »

ciex wrote: post #41
hugatest wrote: post #38

This is quite cool, but I'm wondering why we need to re-invent the wheel for all those threaded discussion platforms. The OG is definitely email. What would really rock would be an IMAP gateway which you subscribe to with your favorite email client which then gives you threading, read/unread markers etc. It could abstract different front-page days as folders and each submission as the root of a thread. Then you could…

Email has terrible thread navigation and I consider old.reddit.com with reddit enhancement suite the best in class.

> Email has terrible thread navigation

This doesn't make sense. Email is a protocol, not a UI. It would be fairly easy to make a UI that displays email like Reddit threads (the hardest part is probably stripping quoted replies). Thunderbird can display the discussion tree, but doesn't inline the message content. GMail inlines message content but linearizes the thread. I am not aware of any clients that inline the discussion content in a tree view.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#49

Post by hnand »

marbletiles wrote: post #43

My main challenge with navigating large threads is seeing what's new when I return to them. If there was a view that helped with that, I'd be sold

That's an interesting UX problem. Have you tried Anchors ("#" buttons)? Do you feel like it would be convenient if there was an option to mark all new posts as anchors? You could jump between them with "previous/next" buttons.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#50

Post by hugatest »

ciex wrote: post #41
hugatest wrote: post #38

This is quite cool, but I'm wondering why we need to re-invent the wheel for all those threaded discussion platforms. The OG is definitely email. What would really rock would be an IMAP gateway which you subscribe to with your favorite email client which then gives you threading, read/unread markers etc. It could abstract different front-page days as folders and each submission as the root of a thread. Then you could…

Email has terrible thread navigation and I consider old.reddit.com with reddit enhancement suite the best in class.

Then you need a better mail client.
Post reply on HN