Makernews
news.makerland.org
news.makerland.org
PS: I am not your target audience.
On HackerNews main page, I can see the top 24 links without scrolling. On MakerNews I see 8.
The drawings on the side are nice, but it's the first thing I see when coming on the page. I need to self consciously blind the side of the page to focus on the content.
- Color. Make it dark. Light blue on a white background is very hard to read.
- Font size: Too big. Look at HN.
Layout:
- Reduce the padding in between entries. HN is easy to scan because everything is neatly packed. You only need to scroll a little to see the rest.
- The header is too big. Kept it simple with a little logo. The focus here is the content, not branding. The tweet button should go in the bottom of the page.
- The footer is nice, but a bit too big.
- The subscription form is in the way of the "More News" link. Also, a lot of people in your target market refrain from giving their name along with their email.
Unfortunately it's invite only.. To each their own.
I've thought about doing something similar with the metadata of posted urls but obviously that might be ridiculously easy to game.
People keep complaining as the site grows that the content no longer reflects their particular views. To me, there are two possible solutions to this, or three, if you count "just ignore it": enforcing a more narrow definition of what can and can't be posted, or else smarter filtering of content.
Just because it happens to be making money now doesn't necessarily mean some aspect of the design isn't keeping them from making even more money.
print 'Yes' * 100
The morphology of the site must in some way shape the interaction between users, and by extension the way they perceive the community as a whole. Different decisions both in policy and in design would lead to at least subtle differences in what Hacker News is.
But i'm not confident that adding a feature to organize the posts a bit more necessarily undermines something fundamental about the nature of HN. Nor do I think the only thing keeping this place civil is pg keeping his thumb on the ban button.
It looks nice - I like the graphics.
http://news.makerland.org/rss/ http://news.makerland.org/atom/
"Hacker" is a great term because it's fairly specific (you're working to alter something/make something work) and it's self-deprecating ("I'm just hacking away at it.").
But I agree that in general the term 'maker' has become very overused to be point of not meaning anything at all.
It should have been called 3D Printer Faire. If not that, then Kit-maker Faire. There was less "making" on display than at a typical arts and crafts festival, and much more commercialization of RTA kits than I'd expected.
Also, I feel like Rasberry Pi should only come after Arduino which should only come after one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-CK1000-Basic-Electronic-.... (Not the 150 in one project kits, actual components.) Start with hacking things from sensors and transistors before programming chips.
As an example, on the linked "maker news" site, the home page currently has a headline about flickering a household bulb like a candle with Arduino, http://flowcon.us/td/hwmach/. This doesn't need a chip. You could do it a variety of ways with the components above.
Funny thing. I think "maker" is far more specific term than "hacker". Maker == a person who makes stuff, hacker == a person who is somehow in touch with tech.
It's similar to other group-consumption movements such as the Juggalos, aligning itself with a selection of products, fashion styles, and symbols. Some makers even proudly have themselves tattooed with these symbols.
There are many of these group-consumption movements, but this one is particulary irritating for the promotion of its own idiom onto territory that belongs to everone. One hates being told that an activity in which they have always partook in their own individual manner is now the domain of a new higher authority on the matter.
Edit: Nevermind, just saw its going to be added tomorrow