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TL;DR — Faster News

toolong-didntread.com

121–130 of 142 posts

Re: TL;DR — Faster News

#122
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

adding http://tldr.it as a generic approach.

Another good example of an automated attempt to summarize the news that'll never work. Here's why: Let's assume we have the perfect algorithm that knows exactly which sentences to pick for a good summary. You'll still end up with a summary that's horribly out of context and difficult to read. Try it yourself. Assume your brain is the perfect algorithm and pick the most important sentences for a summary. Then try to r…

> Another good example of an automated attempt to summarize the news that'll never work.

> Algorithms will never solve the summarizing process unless they are teamed up with a rewriting engine that could build coherent paragraphs.

That doesn't sound like never. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if such AI would created within 50-100 years, ie in my lifetime. I think this comment exposes the common false thought-pattern that if something is not viable in the next quarter, then it'll never happen.

Re: TL;DR — Faster News

#125
Recently someone did this to one of my articles and I think they did an excellent job summarizing it, and it got me hooked on reading similar stories. It's a good idea to capture interest and save time

Re: TL;DR — Faster News

#126
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another good example of an automated attempt to summarize the news that'll never work. Here's why: Let's assume we have the perfect algorithm that knows exactly which sentences to pick for a good summary. You'll still end up with a summary that's horribly out of context and difficult to read. Try it yourself. Assume your brain is the perfect algorithm and pick the most important sentences for a summary. Then try to r…

> Another good example of an automated attempt to summarize the news that'll never work. > Algorithms will never solve the summarizing process unless they are teamed up with a rewriting engine that could build coherent paragraphs. That doesn't sound like never. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if such AI would created within 50-100 years, ie in my lifetime. I think this comment exposes the common false thought-patter…

No, you are misreading my statement. Please go back and look for the word "unless". Sentence picking algorithms alone will never solve the problem unless a rewriting engine is added.

Re: TL;DR — Faster News

#128
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the tldr.io of this TL;DR service first.

Do you mean that you tried the tl;dr bookmarket on Skim That? I just added a summary for Skim That using the bookmarket so you should see it now. I really like how it uses line by line bullet point fields to help write the summary. I experimented with something like that in the past. It kind of works but it isn't as smooth a read as a paragraph of text but it does make the writing process easier.

You confused me there, but I see now that it was actually me who confused you as I meant to reply to czzarr instead...

It seems that I helped inspire you nonetheless, which is great of course!

As for what makes tldr.io great; it's mostly the Chrome plugin which adds TL;DR icons next to the links on Hacker News.

They still need to work on enticing more users to contribute back though.

Re: TL;DR — Faster News

#130

I don't want to step on these guys' PR, but I do have a similar personal project for anybody who is interested, http://newspaper23.com Initially it's just an aggregator that presents commentary in plain text. I plan on adding a summarizer one day. For a personal project, I've been using it daily for over a year, so I know I find a lot of value in this type of thing. As sites try to get more sticky, the signal-to-nois…

Your site is awesome! I've been looking for a way to read without distractions and without having to enter every single article into instapaper. What many people underestimate is that summaries have an inherent problem: bias. No two people are ever going to summarize an article the exact same way - much less so when it comes to politics etc. So before I use a site to read summaries, I have to trust the brand (I trust…

Objective reporting, if it ever existed, is a quaint artifact of history as far as I can tell. Even if explicit opinion or analysis is excluded, the mere selection of which facts to include and exclude is subject to bias of the writer/editors. The only way I can see to get the unbiased facts out of news reporting is to consume a variety of sources.
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