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Ask HN: Review my app – Sbscribe, a social RSS feed reader (Google Reader alt)
Hi everyone,
The people who use RSS today are power users. By the general user, Twitter is used as a replacement service for RSS by allowing people to follow websites. Twitter was not designed for this.
Briefly: Sbscribe is as easy to use as Twitter, but powered by RSS and tailored for discovering and sharing content in one interface.
https://vimeo.com/69376016
For all the content you currently discover and monitor using bookmarks, RSS feed readers like Google Reader, and social networks such as Twitter — Sbscribe offers the same experience, in one place.
This is an idea I had three years ago when I realised the value of socially curated news through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. At the same time, I noticed my non-technical friends were 'following' websites on Twitter. Sbscribe really aims to separate these two concerns — you follow people, and subscribe to websites. It has been in development since January.
I'm planning on launching a private alpha of Sbscribe in August some time (shortly followed by a public beta in October), and I've got a slew of ideas for how I can improve the "subscription graph", as well as plans for a mobile web app. I've gotten to a point where I would really appreciate some feedback on improving the concept and UI. It's also a good time to spread the message with the recent shutdown of Google Reader.
FYI: The service is backed by Node.js, MongoDB, and Redis, and on the front-end I am using Backbone.js and Marionette.js. It would also be great to talk with other developers familiar with this stack.
Oliver
- meerita 13y agoBet you bootstraped all the design. Looks fantastic. Is it 2.3.2?
- OliverJAsh 13y agoI didn't use Bootstrap, but I quite clearly took a lot of inspiration from Twitter.
- meerita 13y agoWow. Why that? You could build around Bootstrap anyways without any harm. I got tired of doing a new framework each time I start a project.
- gr3yman 13y agoI'm interested. Sign me up for the Alpha/Beta/whatever!
- bjtitus 13y agoLooks great! A couple things: - Instead of saying "subscribed" and "following" say "unsubscribe" and "unfollow" and change the colors (Twitter does it this way). That way I know what that button is going to do when I click on it. - The top bar seems unnecessary except for search. If your avatar/username are linked to your profile, all of the buttons would be duplicates. Not saying that will work in the long run or be totally discoverable, but I think it could help. You could move the search box to the left hand pane or something if you got rid of the bar.
- OliverJAsh 13y agoThanks. I'll take both of those into account :-)
- Ramario 13y agoLooks very cool. Great design
- roldie 13y agoLooks great! I think you've found the right balance between RSS readers and Twitter. Just for clarity, Sbscribe is a self-contained social network? One follows someone else's Sbscribe profile, not their Twitter profile?
- OliverJAsh 13y agoThank you! And yes, that's right.
- Ashuu 13y agoWonderful! I was looking for such a Google Reader alternative. Looks great too!
- benguild 13y agoCool
- TsiCClawOfLight 13y agowow, this looks amazing! If you need any more beta testers, I'd be glad to join in.
- mrtomahawk 13y agoAny plans for adding tags for items which a user favorites, or could you talk a little about how the favorites work? Can I share my favorites? Are they public/private?