A month or so ago 7hundredand77 posted nuesbyte here, and many of you liked it but it had some significant problems. I offered to help him with it, and today we'd like to show it to you all again.
Since then we've rewritten the entire thing in client side js with a nodejs REST API backend, added google reader imports, kb shortcuts, ssl, and a whole bunch of other features.
At first glance, it looks great. UI is slightly confusing at first, but nothing I can't get past. Most importantly, it has the primary feature I want in a reader: I can open it up on my phone and read articles in slap-spacebar-to-continue mode until I fall asleep. One-finger operation FTW. Haven't seen this from anyone besides Google Reader yet. Also love the vi-style keyboard nav (j/k for next/prev).
One slight complaint: on the desktop, I'd kill the article-expanding animation for navigating through a feed. Instead of a nice clean i'm-scrolling-through-articles feeling, you get this weird jittery i'm-scrolling-through-articles-that-are-expanding-and-collapsing thing where the unexpanded portion of the feed below your current article dances up and down. Even on a feed like HN where the expansion/contraction is fairly minimal (or perhaps particularly on a feed like that), the list ends up doing this strange up-and-down convulsion that's very unpolished-looking and distracting.
Great. I was checking nuesbyte regularly for changes and now, i can finally import my gr feeds. Since google announced the shutdown, this looked like the only alternative to me. I'm excited how the reading flow will be and i hope i will not have to code further on my own bash rss backend fetcher + php frontend (which btw works :D)
* Select Layout -> Small. But it is not remembered across all feeds. I have to change it for each.
* Click RSS on menu bar. Then under "My Feeds", click the '+' icon on one of the feeds. Doesn't do anything.
* Select one of the feeds, say "Digg Top Stories". Select Layout -> Small. Now why is that text in orange (Digg Top Stories) shown below title of every feed? I already know that from the top menu bar. Similarly, the time "10 hours ago". I would prefer to hide these two things until I expand the article. It feels like too much text-noise. Just let me glance the headlines in one line.
* How can I move feeds to a different folder? Drag-n-drop doesn't seem to work.
* The UI is mobile-unfriendly. Open the site on Firefox for mobile and just pinch-zoom to see what happens.
That said, sincere thanks for all the effort you guys have put in!
sorry, let me respond to your points item by item.
layout will save if you create an account.
I guess we overlooked the + icon. Create an account, goto "RSS" and you can select groups and then select feeds to go into each group just by selecting feeds.
Point 3 is great. The small layout doesnt need that feed link on every item.
to move a feed into a folder, goto RSS, select or create the folder, then select the feed.
Or, assuming you've created an account, click on the feed on the left bar, then hover over options in the header, groups, and select the group or create a new one.
We're away that its mobile unfriendly; creating a mobile site is our next initiative.
You might want to display some kind of prompt to the user, when they change a setting, to tell them they should create an account. Probably would also help your conversion rates too.
Yeah, sorry about that. We've gotten some feedback that we need to make the subscription model more clear up front. Please do check out the full set of features though.
The quick add feed functionality is annoying because it requires that my cursor stay in the box horizontally until I hit "Add Feed" after the "Add Feed url" textbox pops up. So I have to play maze to get there. (I don't mind, just pointing this out).
Also the "add feed" button in "discover" and "my feeds" doesn't seem to like me, I click it and nothing happens. However the "quick add" bar up top does (with the maze caveat, see prev. paragraph).
Edited to Add: Also does it not play nice with some FeedBurner RSS? I am attempting to add (I made an account, this seems nice guys!) "http://feeds.feedburner.com/schneier/fulltext, but it won't take it.
good feedback, thank you. I'll look into the feedburner issue. We're using the feender library in nodejs which doesnt seem to recognize that as a valid feed, but clearly it is...
I vehemently dislike how they don't inform you that this is a paid service until after you've signed up. I signed up, but was unwilling to pay for the service (it doesn't seem novel enough to warrant use over like HN and Feedly, which constitute the bulk of my reading; and also I have no money).
Due to their disingenuousness, they have my email despite the fact that this is a product which I have no intention of using.
Transparency is important, and this sort of obfuscatory bullshit is not ok. Tell people what the product is before taking their information.
I agree with your general sentiment here; it was a surprise and they really should be more transparent about the pricing model. That said, they do offer a free week to decide whether you would like to spend $24/year (paid monthly) on the service.
I much prefer this (even imperfect) approach to how feedbin doesn't let you even try it until you provide credit card info and pay the $2.
I needed a replacement for GR and this one is nice. subscribed for now (you have my $2).
You need to give me an option to scroll down automatically when I press (n)ext, instead of sliding. It's frustrating because I have a lot of things to read and I don't need to wait around for it to slide down.
EDIT: Maybe a good idea to add an inline "report bug" feature. You guys have a lot of squirmy things happening on your page and I would be more inclined to list them directly.
Are there any plans to reach out to any app developers (e.g., Reeder) to work out an integration? I think that's a pretty key requirement: solid integration with high quality cross platform feed reading applications.
You really need some basic landing pages that give people the impression that this is a legitimate service. I forwarded info to a feed provider that's blocking your feed requests (they're a bit aggressive about abuse and want to whitelist), and I'm sure the webmaster's next step is going to be to look at your homepage, decide there's no way to contact you, shrug, and write you off.
This is very unfortunate, because I think nuesbyte is the best GR substitute I've seen yet (for my desired feature set). There is just no information about whether anything is happening with the site, who made it, future plans, status, or anything. Each time I go looking for information I wonder if the project has simply been abandoned.
34 comments
[ 32.1 ms ] story [ 759 ms ] threadSince then we've rewritten the entire thing in client side js with a nodejs REST API backend, added google reader imports, kb shortcuts, ssl, and a whole bunch of other features.
Let us know what you think of the updated site.
Here's the original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5471928
Thanks, Ryan
One slight complaint: on the desktop, I'd kill the article-expanding animation for navigating through a feed. Instead of a nice clean i'm-scrolling-through-articles feeling, you get this weird jittery i'm-scrolling-through-articles-that-are-expanding-and-collapsing thing where the unexpanded portion of the feed below your current article dances up and down. Even on a feed like HN where the expansion/contraction is fairly minimal (or perhaps particularly on a feed like that), the list ends up doing this strange up-and-down convulsion that's very unpolished-looking and distracting.
Could use a mobile site though, pretty problematic via Chrome on Android 4.2.2
I immediately noticed that it positively snaps - instantly responsive. I'd love to read something about what all is going on behind the scenes.
We're working on a mobile site and app. Both should be out in a few weeks.
* Select Layout -> Small. But it is not remembered across all feeds. I have to change it for each.
* Click RSS on menu bar. Then under "My Feeds", click the '+' icon on one of the feeds. Doesn't do anything.
* Select one of the feeds, say "Digg Top Stories". Select Layout -> Small. Now why is that text in orange (Digg Top Stories) shown below title of every feed? I already know that from the top menu bar. Similarly, the time "10 hours ago". I would prefer to hide these two things until I expand the article. It feels like too much text-noise. Just let me glance the headlines in one line.
* How can I move feeds to a different folder? Drag-n-drop doesn't seem to work.
* The UI is mobile-unfriendly. Open the site on Firefox for mobile and just pinch-zoom to see what happens.
That said, sincere thanks for all the effort you guys have put in!
layout will save if you create an account.
I guess we overlooked the + icon. Create an account, goto "RSS" and you can select groups and then select feeds to go into each group just by selecting feeds.
Point 3 is great. The small layout doesnt need that feed link on every item.
to move a feed into a folder, goto RSS, select or create the folder, then select the feed. Or, assuming you've created an account, click on the feed on the left bar, then hover over options in the header, groups, and select the group or create a new one.
We're away that its mobile unfriendly; creating a mobile site is our next initiative.
How about you make that more clear, eh...
* Arrange by new / arrange by old
* View all items / view only unseen items
* Quick add feeds
* Create feed groups, discover feeds
* Like/visited tracking
* Remembered layout settings
* Google Reader Import
Hotkeys include:
* O: Open
* J: Next
* K: Previous
* U: Wide Layout
Also the "add feed" button in "discover" and "my feeds" doesn't seem to like me, I click it and nothing happens. However the "quick add" bar up top does (with the maze caveat, see prev. paragraph).
Edited to Add: Also does it not play nice with some FeedBurner RSS? I am attempting to add (I made an account, this seems nice guys!) "http://feeds.feedburner.com/schneier/fulltext, but it won't take it.
What am I doing wrong?
Due to their disingenuousness, they have my email despite the fact that this is a product which I have no intention of using.
Transparency is important, and this sort of obfuscatory bullshit is not ok. Tell people what the product is before taking their information.
I much prefer this (even imperfect) approach to how feedbin doesn't let you even try it until you provide credit card info and pay the $2.
Freemium might be better. Or suggested article advertizement on the right? They pretty much do that already.
You need to give me an option to scroll down automatically when I press (n)ext, instead of sliding. It's frustrating because I have a lot of things to read and I don't need to wait around for it to slide down.
EDIT: Maybe a good idea to add an inline "report bug" feature. You guys have a lot of squirmy things happening on your page and I would be more inclined to list them directly.
This is very unfortunate, because I think nuesbyte is the best GR substitute I've seen yet (for my desired feature set). There is just no information about whether anything is happening with the site, who made it, future plans, status, or anything. Each time I go looking for information I wonder if the project has simply been abandoned.