I built WhatHappened (whathappened.tech) because I have a love/hate relationship with this site. I love the content, but the "wall of text" UI gives me FOMO. I was spending too much time clicking into vague titles ("Project X") or wading through flame wars just to find technical insights.
I built this tool to act as a filter. It generates a card for the top daily posts with a few specific features to cut the noise:
1. AI Summaries: It generates a technical TL;DR (3 bullet points) and an ELI5 version for every post.
2. The Heat Meter: I analyze the comment section to visualize the distribution: Constructive vs. Technical vs. Flame War. If a thread is 90% Flame War, I know to skip it (or grab popcorn).
3. Contrarian Detection: To break the echo chamber, the AI specifically hunts for the most upvoted disagreement or critique in the comments and pins it to the card.
4. Mobile-First PWA: I mostly read HN on my phone, so I designed this as a PWA. It supports swipe gestures and installs to the home screen without an app store.
Stack: Next.js, Gemini, Supabase.
It currently supports English and Chinese. Any feedback will be appreciated! My original X post: https://x.com/marsw42/status/1997087957556318663, please share if you like it or find it helpful! :D
Thanks!
Was hoping for a way to filter on "technical", for when I need my dose of hacking and technology. (Filter on category could also help, but I assume there are many technical categories.)
And maybe reverse sort, for when I'm tired of controversy.