floele Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 Hi everyone, I have already indicated that I'm (with a friend) working on a new project, which shares a few similarities with Ketarin. For that reason, I'd like to introduce it here first, and would appreciate getting your opinions. Questions: Is it evident what the site offers? Is it simple to understand how it works? Any question marks popping up in your head when trying to use it as new user? Do you like it? What is still missing: - An icon. Coming soon - Detection of duplicate / very similar news items. Coming soon too. - Some error handling For programmers: The site is based on Symfony (PHP) and uses a Java application as backend for analysing and downloading news. Thanks for your comments! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think it is not entirely evident want exactly the service does. I think specifying that it filters the news from the feeds you add yourself would clear things up a little. It is somewhat cryptic what criteria it uses to filter out the news. Maybe it's because I just want to understand how stuff works but at least general description like "We define some keywords in the feed text and bla-bla-bla" would be good. If possible I would add an ability to import feeds from popular online RSS readers such as Google Reader. Additionally a feed view akin to that of Google Reader would be cool too. I mean generally I don't want to load the whole site just to read a scrap of text. I can't say either I like it or not at this stage because I need to use it more extensively. However migrating my feeds and habits from Google Reader might be a sacrifice I am not willing to currently take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think it is not entirely evident want exactly the service does. I think specifying that it filters the news from the feeds you add yourself would clear things up a little. Like that? By reading and ratings news from RSS feeds of your choice, you tell us what kind of news you are interested in. Or how would you make the statement more clear? It is somewhat cryptic what criteria it uses to filter out the news. We could add a section "how stuff works", but for the start I'd rather not want to annoy users with details on the algorithm. The filtering is actually similar to spam filtering. If possible I would add an ability to import feeds from popular online RSS readers such as Google Reader. Already tried OPML? Additionally a feed view akin to that of Google Reader would be cool too. I mean generally I don't want to load the whole site just to read a scrap of text. You can actually expand a news item by either using the keyboard (works the same way as Google Reader) or clicking on anywhere on the item except for the link. and habits from Google Reader might be a sacrifice I am not willing to currently take. Feel free to tell me more about the habits you are missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranciscoR Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 (edited) Overall I think this is a very good idea Flo We could add a section "how stuff works", but for the start I'd rather not want to annoy users with details on the algorithm. The filtering is actually similar to spam filtering. For instance, i add a Lifehacker rss, i filter some news where subject is computing, will i see news where subject is cooking ? How accurate is filter, would 'Very high' agressiveness allow me to see only software news (and not hardware news ) ? You can actually expand a news item by either using the keyboard (works the same way as Google Reader) or clicking on anywhere on the item except for the link. This works like the GReader 'list view' - do you intend to add images, videos, etc. support ? Feel free to tell me more about the habits you are missing. For instance, wouldn't be possible to read the resulting output in GReader (or other agregators) ? -------------------------------------------- Edited July 3, 2009 by FranciscoR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 For instance, i add a Lifehacker rss, i filter some news where subject is computing, will i see news where subject is cooking ? How accurate is filter, would 'Very high' agressiveness allow me to see only software news (and not hardware news ) ? It's not that simple. The filter analyses all words, calculates a whole lot of probabilities and by combining all these, it generates a number from 0 to 1 which represents how likely it is that you want to read a particular news item. And btw, it actually works. I'm using it myself for a while now, and so far I'm satisfied with the results. This works like the GReader 'list view' - do you intend to add images, videos, etc. support ? I guess at some point, but I suppose that's not a priority for the start. For instance, wouldn't be possible to read the resulting output in GReader (or other agregators) ? Sure, we can certainly put the results into an RSS feed. But for now, I'm rather focusing on the unique part (the filtering) and will get to fancy stuff like that a bit later. Though this one is one of the more important features. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranciscoR Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 Looks very promising Flo =), let me try it for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker Posted July 3, 2009 Report Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think it is not entirely evident want exactly the service does. I think specifying that it filters the news from the feeds you add yourself would clear things up a little. Like that? By reading and ratings news from RSS feeds of your choice, you tell us what kind of news you are interested in. Or how would you make the statement more clear? OK, I feel dumb for not noticing it. If possible I would add an ability to import feeds from popular online RSS readers such as Google Reader. Already tried OPML? I was actually speaking of something like "Import from Google Reader" button but that may work too, I'll try. and habits from Google Reader might be a sacrifice I am not willing to currently take. Feel free to tell me more about the habits you are missing. First of all I have a Firefox addon which checks if I have new feeds available. Second it's how the feeds are shown by default. If you can duplicate Expanded view of Reader with little Love/Hate buttons where Reader's Star button is (upper left corner) or where the feed item controls are (Add tags, Mail to friend etc.) that would be very helpful. Like FranciscoR said getting the output as RSS feed would be cool too because I can still use both your service and Google Reader. BTW I just tried and the service doesn't seem to support Unicode (Cyrllic to be exact). Which is a big bummer for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2009 It doesn't? Please show me an example. OK, I feel dumb for not noticing it. Well, this is actually the modified version of the text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker Posted July 4, 2009 Report Share Posted July 4, 2009 It doesn't? Please show me an example. For example this feed - http://bash.org.ru/rss/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2009 Thanks, I'll look into it. I've also added feeds now which you can use with other RSS readers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2009 The encoding should be fixed now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CybTekSol Posted July 7, 2009 Report Share Posted July 7, 2009 I haven't had the time to test it Flo... swamped... but it sounds interesting. I'll get to it as soon as I can... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranciscoR Posted July 12, 2009 Report Share Posted July 12, 2009 (edited) Flo, are you looking for some crazy ideas for this project ? =) Like creating a rss feed from hmtl content (and xml ?), more filtering options, regular expressions support... one week later i can see my Lifehacker goal was partialy acomplished (some cooking tips and holiday feeds were not excluded) but i did like the results. More features are needed, and picture support too (i do 'read' them, several times i discard a feed after a quick glance to title and picture). Do you know Yahoo Pipes ? Edited July 12, 2009 by FranciscoR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2009 Not necessarily "crazy" ideas, but anything that makes the service more interesting and fits to the goal of the project Feel free to explain your ideas in detail, and why you need them (or even better, why others need them too). Didn't know the Pipes thing yet, but it seems to head for a bit different direction. BTW, please post examples for feeds with images. It'll help me to figure out which methods authors use to display images for an item. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranciscoR Posted July 13, 2009 Report Share Posted July 13, 2009 (edited) Let me think on this for a while. For instance http://feeds.gawker.com/lifehacker/full http://rhizome.org/syndicate/fp.rss http://gizmodo.com/tag/top/index.xml http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/index.xml Edited July 13, 2009 by FranciscoR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 @CybTekSol: Do you still need the URL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CybTekSol Posted July 18, 2009 Report Share Posted July 18, 2009 @CybTekSol: Do you still need the URL? I feel like an idiot Flo... I thought I had bookmarked it but can't find it and was going to e-mail you a few days ago for it but was too embarrassed. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floele Posted July 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2009 I'll delete it in a while again, don't want Google and others peek into it yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CybTekSol Posted July 21, 2009 Report Share Posted July 21, 2009 Looks very promising Flo! I imported the majority of my 'GreatNews' OPML and set enough preferences for the filter algorithm... it'll be interesting to see what content it filters with continued use... I look forward to seeing it 'evolve' as Ketarin has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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