<story><title>Show HN: HN Follow – Follow Your Friends on HN</title><url>https://www.val.town/v/rodrigotello.hnFollow</url><text>HN Follow lets you follow authors on Hacker News, and get email notifications when they post. It was inspired by alerthn.com and hnreplies.com.&lt;p&gt;The app was built in an experimental style on Val Town. We’re trying to create a new web primitive that you can:&lt;p&gt;1. write like a function
2. run like a script
3. fork like a repo
4. install like an app&lt;p&gt;This is our 5th iteration of this same “HN Follow” app. We launched the 3rd version here on Hacker News six months ago[1], but it was very kindly removed from the front page by dang in favor of us launching Val Town itself first, which we did in January[2].&lt;p&gt;We’re trying to strike the right balance between something you can use and install with one click, and something you can infinitely customize. For example, you could fork `@rodrigoTello.hnFollowApp`[3] and change the input parameter from authors to a generic query, like I do here[4] to get notifications whenever “val town” is mentioned on HN. In addition to emailing myself (via `console.email`), I also send a message to our team’s Discord. The possibilities are endless, but it can also be overwhelming. We’re trying to find the balance where we help you navigate the space of possible integrations, without limiting you the way a no-code tool would. We would really appreciate your guys’ feedback and suggestions!&lt;p&gt;[1] - HN Follow, first launch: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=33533830&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=33533830&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] - Val Town launch: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=34343122&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=34343122&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] - `@rodrigotello.hnFollowApp`: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;rodrigotello.hnFollowApp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;rodrigotello.hnFollowApp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] - My fork of hnFollow: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;stevekrouse.hnValTown&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;stevekrouse.hnValTown&lt;/a&gt;</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>alan-stark</author><text>What&amp;#x27;s the value of bringing Facebook&amp;#x2F;Instagram mechanics into HN? Wouldn&amp;#x27;t that skew social dynamics away from egalitarianism, giving rise to &amp;quot;influencers&amp;quot;, social bubbles and rise in clickbait? I think that &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; having a &amp;#x27;follow your friends&amp;#x27; mechanism is &lt;i&gt;a feature&lt;/i&gt; of HN.</text></comment>
<story><title>Show HN: HN Follow – Follow Your Friends on HN</title><url>https://www.val.town/v/rodrigotello.hnFollow</url><text>HN Follow lets you follow authors on Hacker News, and get email notifications when they post. It was inspired by alerthn.com and hnreplies.com.&lt;p&gt;The app was built in an experimental style on Val Town. We’re trying to create a new web primitive that you can:&lt;p&gt;1. write like a function
2. run like a script
3. fork like a repo
4. install like an app&lt;p&gt;This is our 5th iteration of this same “HN Follow” app. We launched the 3rd version here on Hacker News six months ago[1], but it was very kindly removed from the front page by dang in favor of us launching Val Town itself first, which we did in January[2].&lt;p&gt;We’re trying to strike the right balance between something you can use and install with one click, and something you can infinitely customize. For example, you could fork `@rodrigoTello.hnFollowApp`[3] and change the input parameter from authors to a generic query, like I do here[4] to get notifications whenever “val town” is mentioned on HN. In addition to emailing myself (via `console.email`), I also send a message to our team’s Discord. The possibilities are endless, but it can also be overwhelming. We’re trying to find the balance where we help you navigate the space of possible integrations, without limiting you the way a no-code tool would. We would really appreciate your guys’ feedback and suggestions!&lt;p&gt;[1] - HN Follow, first launch: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=33533830&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=33533830&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] - Val Town launch: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=34343122&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=34343122&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] - `@rodrigotello.hnFollowApp`: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;rodrigotello.hnFollowApp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;rodrigotello.hnFollowApp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] - My fork of hnFollow: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;stevekrouse.hnValTown&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.val.town&amp;#x2F;v&amp;#x2F;stevekrouse.hnValTown&lt;/a&gt;</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>zoogeny</author><text>Just some random feedback on the val.town interface. The concept is interesting but I have one gripe.&lt;p&gt;I want to know what the code I&amp;#x27;m about to run will do and I notice the pretty unique `@stevekrouse.hnLatestPosts` type interface where it looks like you can reference functions. But this leads to a deep chain of reference. Like, that function leads to `@stevekrouse.hnSearch` which leads to `@stevekrouse.fetchJSON` which leads to `@stevekrouse.normalizeURL`, etc.&lt;p&gt;There is some kind of DAG of dependencies that is invisible to me. I&amp;#x27;m wondering what could be done from a UI perspective here? Like, maybe a tree view where each node is expandable? Right now it just pops open a new browser tab and I end up with context spread across multiple tabs.&lt;p&gt;The concept of composable references is powerful but I think the UX could be improved.</text></comment>