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Show HN: Hacker News on a train station-style flip board (popflame.quickish.space)

114 points by PaybackTony ↗ HN
Although the page itself is more just fun to have made and look at (I like the flip sound), the fun part is how I made it to verify the (and I hate to say it) vibe host service I've been working on. The recent flip board back and forth's on Twitter (X) are what inspired me.

The idea here is that people (like me or you) can create something neat like this, and others can remix it, change it and publish their own version. This is that all in action and it worked great. I wrote a blog about it (the blog is dogfooding, it's just an app hosted on quickish that uses the built in db lib).

For the HN version of this flip board I use their firebase api via the built in quickish server functions that make use of the fact that the front-end can get realtime updates (now that you mention firebase) from cloud function db updates. Of course that's over-kill but I wanted to show something fun. You can remix and host your own version for free, just need a google oauth login that's it.

OG flip board I built (Portland Based - Current Weather): https://popflame.quickish.space/flipboard-preview

Blog post that dives a tiny bit deeper: https://popflame.quickish.space/blog/hacker-news-on-a-split-...

28 comments

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freitasm
Sounds cool. Couldn't see it though. "Rate limited" on my first visit. Using a static IPv4 and IPv6.

Unless your host is limiting number of requests, indiscriminately.

gorgoiler
Do I recognize the UI style here as being that cool, hacker, dark-mode, glowing aura text, rounded mono typeface style? Whoever came up with that motif and inadvertently coaxed fhe AI tools into copying it into ubiquity has had an enormous impact on the world!

There are a lot of cells used for rank and vote count. If you used A-Z for rank and dropped the vote count you’d be able to see 50% more title, which is a lot. Vote count could be an optional overlay shown at the end of the title in the last 3 seconds of each frame. Or just drop it altogether.

PaybackTony
I don't disagree at all on the AI design. I can do a bit more (I have worked as a senior UI engineer at Nike and AWS), the reality is many of the parts I wanted to focus on outside the UI of the flaps got that "Claude Designed This" feel to it.

The original drop flap board I remixed this from (also one I did as a demo) I added a couple more rows and cols. I played with a few things but felt like this was more in-line with what I wanted the result to be but it still feels like it could be better.

StizzurpXDD
The title of the first post is crealy readable, while the rest of the texts and numbers are glitched.

It's cool though.

sombragris
Still today, the posts below the title are all gibberish.
gab007
Neat. Now where can I get a real physical flip board, lol?
bitwize
I was kinda hoping that you would arduino the Hackernews front page onto an actual train-style flipboard, but this is a pretty cute web trick.
Otek
Please vibecode mobile support
blourvim
quite satisfying to hear the clicks
kaueg
After clicking "?", the help page mentions there should be a settings icon [1], but it seems its not visible.

[1]: "Up top: opens settings (page timing and a token to drive the board from a script), ♪ toggles the flap clicks, and goes fullscreen. Own this board? Click any row to pin your own text over it."

PaybackTony
If you were to "Remix" it and have it on your own quickish page that settings dialog appears however it is simply an oversight on my part that it doesn't say that explicitly.
anonu
With AI coding tools lots of people are having the same idea. Here is another one that uses sampled split flap sounds: https://www.minisplitflap.com
PaybackTony
I tried to use a more digital sound at first, then went a step more realistic (ElevenLabs actually) but would have preferred to just record a real one.
blue1
To my ears, the sound is wrong. At least the Solari flip boards had a typical rustling sound, this is too much clicking.
insane_dreamer
love the design. I agree with another poster who commented that the sounds are the wrong click.
PaybackTony
For those finding it now: Added more realistic flap sound effects. Mobile improvements. UI tweaks with flap animations. You can remix this and make your own, change it, etc. Download the source and have some fun. Thank you all!
HexlifeX
Pretty cool! would be nice if it was customizable, like how quickly it finishes, would be a nice widget for a home media display.
PaybackTony
I built this by testing a workflow for a service I started (hobby project) called quickish (https://quickish.site). You can just remix this (basically forks it and hosts it on your own space on quickish) for free. Can be public too. Can use the "Remix" button on the bottom right (just need a google account to login) or on CLI run: `npm i -g quickish && quickish remix create quickish/hn-flipboard`, there is also a quickish/flipboard that the HN one was remixed from (just a git fork behind the scenes).

You can work on it locally however you like, there is also a `quickish dev` command you can run in the site folder that starts up a local dev server with live reload. When you're happy with the changes just run `quickish . /flipboard` and it will publish it.

With all of that said, I am working on a version that is exactly what you are asking for. An editable board that lets you change the grid size, give it a unique url and password protect on top of a POST endpoint that let's you change the content via API (also all hosted on quickish) for that exact use case. I have a few more optimizations I am going through and will get that out.

I appreciate the kind words!