Show HN: Followshows – Never miss an episode again
followshows.com
followshows.com
1. The name doesn't suggest I can watch shows (rather, just a reminder service)
2. Asked to login/register without being able to try/see the experience makes me close the tab - I haven't found out yet whether I like the service, why would I sign up?
I would suggest a "How it works?" section or something.
They have more upcoming shows, so I can follow some promising shows when I hear about them and they'll show in my calendar half year later when they start running. I have four upcoming shows on pogdesign that weren't found here.
I selected my time zone when signing up, only to be disappointed that all dates and times in the calendar are still in the US time. I live in Europe so the difference usually means it's already next day here when the shows are aired. pogdesign can handle that.
Other than that, this looks pretty neat. Recommended shows seems well-chosen but I'd like to have “not interested” button so that the show would be hidden and another one would jump in.
Keep up the good work and fix the problems mentioned above and I'll switch!
We need to find a way to be more proactive when adding new shows to our database, we're on it.
Will work on the other suggestions as well- Thanks!
I've submitted my own solution for this a to HN a couple months ago: http://schizoduckie.github.com/seriesguide-chrome/
It's a chrome plugin, that automatically shows you the magnet link with he most result from a TPB mirror whenever an episode of your favorite tv shows came out. Click that magnet link and it' ll be picked up by your favorite torrent client. This takes the hassle out of the wole process for me: - Get notified - Track what you have already downloaded - Find a TPB mirror that works, execute search, sort by most seeds
I've also included a general TPB search to just find the most-seeding torrent for any search term.
I bought Automatic after a 2 week trial. I have it downloading on 15 minute intervals from tvtorrents.com (from the UK, while I'm US), based on my "New Favorites" custom account RSS feed. I specify some words to match a show's title, get the format I want (match ".mp4") and exclude ones I don't. (Don't match "720p", don't match "mkv".) The torrents get downloaded to a directory, where Transmission automatically detects and starts downloading them.
The result: Shows appear in Air Video on my iPad, and I only press an entry in a list (Table View) to watch them. My "karma" (called gigacredits) on tvtorrents.com basically takes care of itself because I start downloading when a bunch of other people are also doing so.
That said, TVTorrents.com is a bit clunky. (Along the lines of "2003 called. Wants its Java app server and web design back.")
The front page says, "Watch TV Shows in your Browser," and "Easily know when your shows are on next." Other headline-sized text on the front page basically reiterates those two points. That functionality is basically already served by the setup I describe. (TVTorrents + Automatic + Transmission + AirVideo.) I would rather watch TV on my iPad on the couch or on my bed than in front of the PC. I also get the "Know when the next show is" in just a few clicks.
If anything, my story points out a packaging issue, which may well be an opportunity. Only a programmer like me is going to stitch together the functionality of four apps to get the same effect. Let someone download a single tablet app, maybe download a "server" on their PC, and it all just works. There's issues doing this on the iPad, because of what Apple might or might not allow, especially with regards to torrents.
As it is, it looks like someone wanting to promote the site downvoted me to suppress competition. Not very cool, if that's the case.
In retrospect, perhaps the takeaway from the comment is that there's a certain category of potential user who will hear about the site, have a preconceived idea of what it might offer based on the name, and then look for that functionality.
Because, you know, comparative functionality of media is never of any use -- especially if it's to the "free/not-exactly-legal" part of the Internet.
Enough about me though. This thread is an opportunity for Dan and his co-creators to get feedback on what they've built.
It looks to me like the people behind the site are attempting to create a legitimate web site that isn't limited to hiding their identities or living in another country, where it's easier to flaunt copyright laws.
Personally, I don't take issue one way or the other with people who provide automated tools to get their TV shows through alternate means, but the moment you do that, you limit options for the product you're trying to build, be it just for fun or even profit.
Cause, you know, it's so hard to sign up for an account on a website in another country over the Internet. A good point you got there. Sounds nothing like FUD.
> provide automated tools to get their TV shows through alternate means, but the moment you do that, you limit options for the product you're trying to build
This is one area where there is a clear advantage to releasing on Android over iOS.
> Cause, you know, it's so hard to sign up for an account on a website in another country over the Internet. A good point you got there. Sounds nothing like FUD.
Please don't do that. Your snark is not constructive, doesn't help the discussion and reduces the signal-to-noise ratio.
If you reread jschuur's sentence with the parts you left out of your quote you will see that he is referring to the owners of the site not having to live in another country. There have been a few cases of prosecuted owners and admins of similar sites in UK and US recently.
I have closed the tab sadly though i'd love to use it if given the chance.
First suggestion - somehow differentiate between shows that are currently airing, postponed, and canceled/finished. There is no point in following Fringe, for example, however there is a point in 'liking' it in order to get better recommendations.
BTW, this is what I used before - http://eztv.it/showlist/ I find this status page to be quite useful, however I have to check manually every time if new episode came out.
When I first signed up, I followed only shows that will have future episodes, but I'd love my past favourite shows to impact recommendations.
There have been some issues with double items in the queue for some shows. For example, seasons 11 and 13 have the same episodes here:
http://followshows.com/show/Naruto-Shippuuden/episodes
Minor issues aside, thanks for the nice app!
Allow me to tell my followshows friends why I liked a show. I don't always want to tweet it out or post to Facebook, but I do want people who see I follow a show to know what I think of it. Or I want to be able to look at a show page and see which of my friends already have opinions about it.
Show me trends among my friends. If lots of them start following a new show, I might want to check it out.
Be aggressive about adding shows that aren't in TVRage or TheTVDB yet. I want to follow that Star Wars live action show right now, and see more info when it's available. Add shows the moment the upfronts announce them. Heck, even introduce a category of speculative shows where it's not clear if they'll ever air.
Email me a reminder when shows come back. I see you've got an RSS and calendar feed, but it would be nice to get a weekly summary for stuff like 'Hey, Game of Thrones is back next week!' or 'Star Wars has a premiere date!'
Really bummed you posted to Facebook by default when I just used it for authentication. That should not have been on automatically.
Feel free to let me know if I can help out: @joostschuur.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5185974
As it is, Colbert Report and Daily Show just appear for me.
also: is it possible to delete my account?