Hacker News Reader

Comment by bueno | Hacker News Reader

I’m the developer of an iOS and iPadOS app that I think is relevant here. My app Ephemera is a simple read-later application that places expiration dates on every link you add. If you don’t read the article in time, it disappears forever.

The app isn’t for everyone, but if you are buried under the torrent of information you “think” you should read, I have found that Ephemera helps me focus and actually read more.

You can find the app here: https://deadpan.io/ephemera/

I’d love for Hacker News to check it out!

View on HN

I actually solved this without an app. I realized I had around 10k "read later" items in my bookmarks folder in Chrome, and I simply deleted all of them.

Yes. Most information is truly worthless.

Not worthless, but too much. Life is short, you need focus

I think it's more that you always have a bunch of other things competing for your attention on the internet so there's no incentive to read things you once wanted to read.

Even an article you just opened in a tab competes with scavenging for more info on HN/Reddit/Twitter. I don't think that's evidence that the articles are just worthless.

Once, when the internet was out for a few days, I realized that iOS saves your reading list items for offline reading and I was glad to have it. All sorts of interesting articles that I curated. I now work through the reading queue on flights.

This is the kind of black pill I come to Hacker News for

https://i.imgur.com/NCOBsKv.png

The value of most information is context-dependent.

In fairness, I think the allure of an app is to act as a forcing function for actually reading the content before it disappears.

I do this semi-periodically now. At the end of the week I close all tabs, I archive everything in my inbox, mark all items in my slack as read ...

I solved this by forcing myself to read my list in chronological order. After a small period it became very obvious that most stuff I'd put in my list truly did not matter.

Interesting. Bookmarked, might look at it later.

Awesome! I do this with my YouTube Watch Later playlist and it really works. I'll get a couple hundred videos I "definitely want to watch, but not now" and my script will clear them out after X time. Never once have I missed something it's deleted. I don't even know _what_ it's deleted, because if it stood out enough to remember the name and search it up again I'll probably just watch it. Very few things do.

Got the app, couple notes so far:

* Somehow, App Store SEO can't find it with "ephemera". "ephemera deadpan" found it though

* For me, personally, bookmarking is usually done on the computer and read elsewhere. Phone-only is restrictive

* Not a fan of paid unlock for basic features (setting expiration dates, accessing my own history (?!?)). I almost understand notifications if server costs are involved, like Apollo, but. While I understand devs gotta make a buck and this is both popular and well within your rights, I am not a fan of this trend

Do you mind sharing your Watch Later script?

Sure! It's utter garbage but you're welcome to it. I keep it in a notes file and paste it into the console to run it.

It sorts by `Date Added (newest)` and truncates the list to the 150 most recent videos. It also removes anything I've watched more than ~80% of. (Because the built-in button removes videos if you've watched _any_ percent, incl long ones you haven't finished yet)

Script here: https://pastebin.com/Sfh6a0w1

Muchos gracias. I look forward to playing with it real soon.

Nice idea. I use Readwise in the river/shortlist mode and have a similar filter (not in shortlist, saved > x days ago), but I have to manually clear it out.

Something I stored disappearing feels like a stressful concept to me, but maybe it works for some.

Clearly. Some people enjoy Snapchat even if I find it to be about as useful - and a lot less entertaining - as Twitter.

As you probably guessed, Snapchat doesn't really get deleted. I sat as a juror on a case where some of the most damning evidence was a Snapchat the police obtained from the company following an armed robbery and car theft. Some people are really poor at planning and covering their tracks.

Is there a way to have unread items go in an archive instead of disappearing? Sometimes I find insightful to re-look at the titles of things I've saved, even if I don't read them. It brings me back the why I saved it and it always unlocks some thought.

I'd love something similar with more general aspect, just TODO list with different priorities, expiration etc. Whether the content is URL, name of the book or grocery list are just implementation details.

sounds cool, but I'd much rather be able to set it to, say, 3 months rather than a max of 30 days.

Understandable! I haven’t got tons of feedback thus far. I’ll definitely consider bumping these values up.

Love the idea. I use Signal's Note to Self feature with a 4 week timer. Anything that warrants an extension gets readded to the queue. A dedicated app with a custom expiration / reminders / notifications / cross-device syncing would be phenomenal!

This is pretty cool idea! I like the simplicity of the app.

Looks sick Tim, great idea and great execution!

This is a super dope idea! Installing now

Reply on news.ycombinator.com