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Comment by veidr | Hacker News Reader

I'm even OK with this feature, just not with the we're shipping a new “New Tab” page experience that connects you to the best of... drone-speak T_T

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Yeah, the best New Tab experience is about:blank.

I'm usually in agreement with that, but I admit I've found the occasional article that drew my attention from Firefox's new tab page. Maybe once every week or two over that last couple months. That may or may not be enough to justify its existence (for me, at least), but it's not nothing. I obviously got some value out of it.

Yeah, I get so much value from Pocket that I even switched from Instapaper.

It's not Pocket that's the problem, it's the gross attempted force-feeding (that just makes me want to try some other browser like Brave (not an endorsement, just what I personally would investigate next)).

How about, instead of "we plastered all this shit from the crap we bought onto every single browser window you henceforth open, you mindless peon!": how about they did some promo graphic and well-done animated enticement, along the lines of, "Hey! Pocket has tons of subscribers who upvote the most meaningful and relevant stories to them — how about we replace your blank homepage with the best of the best?"

But instead they're just like EAT THIS SHIT PLEEB and you know what fuck it I did just switch my default browser while typing this. :middle-finger-emoji-that-HNs-1970s-site-generator-isnt-compatible-with:

Could you share why you prefer Pocket to Instapaper?

Last time I installed Brave, the new tab page had a link to a cryptocurrency news site (probably a paid placement).

If you want the least-gross behavior, it's not going to come from a for-profit startup.

Maybe not, but it seems to be the least annoying right now.

I've never seen it show me an ad (including paid placement type ads) so far. I guess if they junked up their new tab page with intrusive encouragement to start using Brave Rewards and Basic Attention Token (BAT) then that would sort of be the equivalent of what Firefox is doing...

It doesn't block ads very well for me on iOS, and it's really buggy and unstable. My Firefox experience is excellent on every device that supports it. It's unfortunate and frustrating that all iOS browsers are just Safari.

Reminds me of when a musician onstage yells for you to MAKE SOME NOOOIISE!! Um no, the deal is, you be up there and be really good, and fill me with such delight that I can't keep quiet and make a bunch of nooooiise.

"you know what fuck it I did just switch my default browser while typing this. :middle-finger-emoji"

Hell yeah! Stick it to the man! Totally consume that content with a different browser!

maximalism: maximizing the amount of stuff you have with hopes of getting SOME value out of them.

minimalism: minimalizing the amount of stuff you have with hopes of getting LOTS of value out of them.

I am 100% team blank tab.

When I open a new tab, I am "on task" - I have a problem that needs answering and the last thing I want is any distraction. Everything from news articles, todo lists or witty quotes is counter-productive to staying on task. It's almost the worst possible time to be shoving some unrequested content into my face to break concentration and pull me in the wrong direction.

If that's what best for you, its trivial to change it in about:preferences (in the "Home" section). What's "best" for everybody is hard to define, I would bet that Mozilla has studied this significantly more than Grue3 has.

I love how you're unquestionably endorsing studies whos motivations are unclear. Best for who? Users? Mozilla? And to what end? Usability? Profit?

i dunno, i liked the old one that had the frequently visited sites list in it. the new one that insists on showing me some article i read and then finished confuses me tho.

Also they promised to open source Pocket in 2017, but seem to have zero intention of doing it.

Instead, they prioritize controversial integration into the browser itself.

>Also they promised to open source Pocket in 2017, but seem to have zero intention of doing it.

Zero intention of doing so or just have yet to do so? Did they say they were no longer considering the option?

It's been 2 years. They have no specific plans to release the server code.[1] They won't say what's been done or has to be done.

[1] https://github.com/Pocket/extension-save-to-pocket/issues/75

On a software product note, "Pocket", the client-side product that does local-only interest analysis so it can get a full list of interesting articles from the server, and then locally filter out all the stuff you probably don't care about, is not "the server application that accepts volutary user submission analysis to determine what goes on the API response list with which categories".

No one ever talked about open sourcing the service that the pocket client relies on, as far as I can remember.

The main function of Pocket is saving pages to read later. Did Pocket even have client side recommendations when Mozilla acquired it?

Mozilla's claimed principles include privacy, interoperability, and free and open source software.[1]

[1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/

1. Is it possible to use the open source Pocket client built into Firefox with any other server, e.g. by specifying another domain name in about:config?

2. Is there an open source implementation of compatible server software, that you could use to run your own server?

The answers to these questions will tell you whether Pocket is open source.

I had enough to wait for Pocket to be released in open source.

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