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FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

mcnutt.in

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Re: FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

#64

Post by bryanrasmussen »

I really hate these, although of course I like the way they look. But the normal way is I come in I start reading there - I need to click on stuff to read things, I loose the context of where I was, if I am hovering nodes I see that node - oh there's a link in the content I want to click on oops I hovered another node I need to go back and hover the node I was on before, click it to lock it in place and then go over to other side of the page to click on the link I wanted to look at.

But I sure do like graphs.

Re: FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

#66

Post by u801e »

theoh wrote: post #8
ventedfins wrote: post #2

Hi hackernews! I'm the author of this site/chrome extension/app. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have/field any comments

When I started reading Usenet in the 90s, trn (threaded read news) was the state of the art in news readers. It might be worth mining the trn user interface for ideas. The author tried to write a major new version (4) in the late 90s, but from what I could see of the development process (being on a mailing list), the codebase became unmanageable and there were lots of bugs that proved impossible to catch. Usenet was…

In terms of the interface, what did trn have over other newsreaders that were capable of displaying threads?

Re: FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

#67

Post by s188 »

ventedfins wrote: post #2

Hi hackernews! I'm the author of this site/chrome extension/app. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have/field any comments

I'm definitely going to give this a try over the next few weeks. I like that its live. I like that I can mouse over an end point and pull up and entire thread (an interesting use case). I reckon this could become my 'go to' HN comment reader. I've been a long time lurker but created an account simply because of this. Great work!

Re: FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

#68

Post by Already__Taken »

Some visual feedback would be nice, I think that;

* The circle should plot threads clockwise newestoldest (or reversible?)

* Node connection length should be the reply delay in the chain

* Node size should reflect comment size

* Node color/opacity should reflect comment score/vote amount (if present, which HN doesn't have.)

Re: FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

#69

Post by theoh »

u801e wrote: post #66
theoh wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started reading Usenet in the 90s, trn (threaded read news) was the state of the art in news readers. It might be worth mining the trn user interface for ideas. The author tried to write a major new version (4) in the late 90s, but from what I could see of the development process (being on a mailing list), the codebase became unmanageable and there were lots of bugs that proved impossible to catch. Usenet was…

In terms of the interface, what did trn have over other newsreaders that were capable of displaying threads?

It had a mode for selecting threads to read (based on seeing the subject line). Having selected which threads in a particular newsgroup to read, the user would then switch into reading mode.

Threads that the user didn't want to read could be "junked". This could work in the context of HN as a way of sorting posts into interesting and not interesting on a per-user basis.

Rather than just navigating a set of threads, trn gave the user tools to productively keep up with discussions they were interested in, and not have to worry about other discussions at all (after dismissing those discussions once).

Here's a basic explanation of the interface: https://www.einval.com/~steve/software/trn-faq.html

Re: FeX: Forum Explorer – Rethinking how we interact with threaded conversations

#70

Post by mthoms »

jodrellblank wrote: post #50
mthoms wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool. I've got to admit though, I'm a little jaded towards "Chrome only" extensions. Is there a reason you couldn't build this in Firefox? As web developers, we've really got to stop this practice lest the web become further fragmented. Anyways, I don't want to come down on you specifically - I realize this is probably just an MVP. You did a great job.

Is there a reason you can't build this in FireFox? How does "someone built a Chrome extension" justify you asking them to explain themselves for why they didn't build it the way you want?

Questioning the choice of browser platform is a perfectly valid question (for obvious reasons that I shouldn't need to get into on HN).

OP seems to agree with the sentiment, so I'm not sure why you're bothered.

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