The author discusses their experience creating a Slackbot for Hacker News alerts, inspired by Hackclub's shipwrecked event, which evolved into a comprehensive dashboard displaying historical data and statistics, while also highlighting the positive developer experience with Bun.
Bun, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Web Components
2025-06-04
- Website
Highlight 1
Real-time updates—The app provides live tracking and updates every 5 minutes, ensuring users are always informed about their story’s performance.
Highlight 2
Dashboard visualization—The app offers a clean, easy-to-understand dashboard that provides valuable insights into Hacker News performance, such as graphing points and position over time.
Highlight 3
Open-source and extensible—With open-source code, users can modify the platform to suit their needs, and future updates may include features like workspace-specific leaderboards.
Improvement 1
Multi-workspace support—While the app is great for individual tracking, adding multi-workspace support could make it more flexible for teams or organizations.
Improvement 2
Slackbot installation process—The current installation process for the Slackbot could be simplified to allow for easier integration across multiple workspaces without complex configurations.
Improvement 3
User onboarding—More guidance on how to set up and use the app would help first-time users better understand the dashboard and its features.
Product Functionality
Consider adding the ability to track stories from multiple users and more granular alerting options, such as notifications for specific milestones (e.g., top 10 ranking).
UI & UX
The UI could benefit from more user onboarding materials, such as tooltips or a tutorial, to guide users through the features. Additionally, providing custom themes could improve the user experience.
SEO or Marketing
To enhance visibility, a blog or social media presence showcasing how HN Alerts can help users track Hacker News stories effectively could attract more users. Collaborating with influencers in tech communities might also boost exposure.
MultiLanguage Support
It would be beneficial to add multi-language support to the platform, making it accessible to non-English speaking users, especially for global users interested in Hacker News.
- 1
How does the alert system work?
HN Alerts sends real-time notifications whenever your Hacker News story gets significant attention or reaches the front page. The system updates every 5 minutes and can be customized for specific story performance metrics.
- 2
Can I track multiple Hacker News stories at once?
Yes, the app allows you to track multiple stories and their performance over time, offering a comprehensive view of how each post is doing.
- 3
Is the data available for historical analysis?
Yes, HN Alerts provides a dashboard that shows historical data such as points, leaderboard position, and comments, helping you analyze the performance of your stories over time.