Ask HN: Why HN is so ugly? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why HN is so ugly?

#21

Post by reinier_s4g » Sat, Apr 19, 2014, 10:24 PM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #15

reinier_s4g wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Then write your own style sheets and GreaseMonkey script (or equivalent) to fix your rendered" Have you seen the HN HTML layout and CSS code? I'm doing some research on previous posts regarding the HN interface, but judging by some answers i'm getting in this post i can imagine their fate, why plainly criticize instead of brainstorming about the proposed ideas and trying to get to a common ground? Maybe even some…

Yes, I've written scraper code that deconstructs the existing pages and inserts the data into a database. Your point? I've also seen this question many, many time, looked at the proposed "improvements," and read the many discussions about the whole issue. Broadly speaking, lots of people have preferred the existing version to those proposed, often by a substantial margin. Regularly people say that it looks horrible,…

Right, we all have done crawling and scraping, I even have my own framework build for it, man do I love that stuff... but if you think that's the right way to go about it we are just not in the same page.

I understand you like HN as it is, and i guess an idea would be to have optional themes, that will be more democratic.

Re: Ask HN: Why HN is so ugly?

#22

Post by reinier_s4g » Sat, Apr 19, 2014, 10:24 PM UTC

read wrote: post #14

The most important thing you can understand is that these concerns aren't the most important thing to worry about. Content is more important. Though, if you had to pick only one feature to work on next, mobile might be it. As for the rest: 2. they are 0 pixels from the side of the page, why? Are those numbers needed anyway? Why not? Besides the numbers telling you which page you are on, they also show how a story pro…

2. Agreed, so we leave the numbers along, but some spacing won't harm.

3. Right, not always, but in this case i think it will, things will get more readable.

4. Well, i think the current colors doesn't make the site specially readable, not that it makes it unreadable, just that it doesn't specially help with readability.

7. In my experience if you put a lot of content on top of each other with almost no spacing people will just get lost, luckily HN's audience is not the common folk, but does that justifies this?

8. I don't think adding a character counter or just a message letting you know will overflow the cognitive load, and the user hitting submit to find it out is just wrong IMHO.

9. Hmm, tables are the tables of HTML, and are lists of HTML.

Re: Ask HN: Why HN is so ugly?

#23

Post by krapp » Sat, Apr 19, 2014, 10:40 PM UTC

reinier_s4g wrote: post #21

ColinWright wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I've written scraper code that deconstructs the existing pages and inserts the data into a database. Your point? I've also seen this question many, many time, looked at the proposed "improvements," and read the many discussions about the whole issue. Broadly speaking, lots of people have preferred the existing version to those proposed, often by a substantial margin. Regularly people say that it looks horrible,…

Right, we all have done crawling and scraping, I even have my own framework build for it, man do I love that stuff... but if you think that's the right way to go about it we are just not in the same page. I understand you like HN as it is, and i guess an idea would be to have optional themes, that will be more democratic.

The weird thing is, at a certain karma level, you can change the top bar color.

And that's it, as far as I know. You can't even change the top bar text color as well. It's like the one user-editable part of this site is also the least useful feature imaginable.

Re: Ask HN: Why HN is so ugly?

#24

Post by reinier_s4g » Sat, Apr 19, 2014, 10:41 PM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #10

reinier_s4g wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, it wasnt my intention to be presumptuous, just wanted to get your attention and looks like i have, so mission accomplished! :) I understand minimalism is a feature and actually is one feature i love, as you can see i'm not proposing getting rid of the minimalistic look and adding lots of easter bunnies everywhere or anything, i'm just focusing on readability and the most basic things, wouldn't you agree HN can…

> ... just wanted to get your attention and > looks like i have, so mission accomplished! Yup - I'll certainly remember you, although maybe not for the reason you wanted.

As long as you can sleep well ...

Re: Ask HN: Why HN is so ugly?

#25

Post by ColinWright » Sun, Apr 20, 2014, 3:25 PM UTC

reinier_s4g wrote: post #21

ColinWright wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I've written scraper code that deconstructs the existing pages and inserts the data into a database. Your point? I've also seen this question many, many time, looked at the proposed "improvements," and read the many discussions about the whole issue. Broadly speaking, lots of people have preferred the existing version to those proposed, often by a substantial margin. Regularly people say that it looks horrible,…

Right, we all have done crawling and scraping, I even have my own framework build for it, man do I love that stuff... but if you think that's the right way to go about it we are just not in the same page. I understand you like HN as it is, and i guess an idea would be to have optional themes, that will be more democratic.

    I have made this letter longer than usual,
        because I lack the time to make it short.

        -- Blaise Pascal
           Lettres Provinciales (1656-1657), no. 16.
           (According to WikiPedia[1])

I've replied at considerable length - despite its blunt tone and clear disagreement I hope you accept it in the constructive spirit in which I intend it. It's too long to include here, so I've posted it elsewhere[0].

[0] http://www.solipsys.co.uk/Writings/HN_7617061.txt

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Too_long;_didn%27t_re...