Tell HN: The content is great, but this site is terrible | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: The content is great, but this site is terrible

2 pointsjaxn5 comments

I know that this post isn't really in the tradition of HN, but this site sucks.

I have been reading HN daily for years and won't stop anytime soon. I rely on HN to keep up and enjoy learning about random interesting things throughout the week. If I had to pick only one website to access, this would be it.

BUT, it is time for an official upgrade. There UI is really frustrating. I engage less b/c I am never quite sure if I just upvoted or downvoted that last post while on mobile. And I am not sure why, but I post more typos here than anywhere else. (Maybe it is the tiny text box? Or maybe it is that every other place I want to post a comment had a native app.

The thing is, this is the best place for content. I know there are 3rd party apps and maybe I should just suck it up and go install a bunch of random App Store apps to see if any of them are decent, but it would be so much better if HN would just give enough of a shit to try.

Just my 2¢.

This might be a hot take, but "modern" user interfaces fucking suck. Current front-end web development is a folie a plusieurs where worse is better and outright nonsensical is the ideal. This issue affects everything from the development process to the interface. It really does need to stop.

Hackernews is one of a dying breed of sites that provides an information density suitable for somebody over the age of 12, good use of screen real-estate, fast loading times, and an uncluttered interface. Although its good design is wasted on its userbase, 4chan is another site in the same vein as HN design-wise.

There are some great mobile clients for HN. You're always free to use an existing CSS reskin or create your own (this isn't a horribly complicated site).

Like you I prefer text driven sites. It runs clean. YC runs like how I like my Desktop UI to work. Clean and functional.

Have you read any of the past threads about HN redesigns?

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=hacker%20news%20redesign&sort=...

You could always get a chrome extension to reskin the desktop site. I personally am not a big fan of the mobile apps either so I tend to limit reading to desktop.

After you upvote/downvote a comment, you will see a link next to the username/time that says "unvote" or "undown". It ony work for a small time (5 minutes?) in case you realize you made a mistake or you change your opinion.

Case in point: I was trying to type "The UI is terrible" and it came out "There UI is terrible." Which when I tried to type just now, my phone auto-corrected to "Their".

Maybe the answer is that I can't type on my phone and just happen to do better in every other app, or... maybe this site needs a refresh.

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