The endless river is the message.

August 15, 2017 2:54 PM

Hvper is the new PopURLs. Thomas Marban, creator of Popurls has released Hvper, which is a "quick, non-personalised, anti-social and unfiltered news time sink". He explains here.
posted by soelo (16 comments total)

This is great, but it is also something I don't need right now. I need to take a step back from the news, and this is overwhelming.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:52 PM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

The river in professional white.
posted by notyou at 5:00 PM on August 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

PRIVACY POLICY, inspired by 1984 as usual.

If you really are the "anti-social, non-personalised" news website, don't collect a fucking thing.
posted by runcifex at 6:29 PM on August 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

So, a weblog?
posted by tobascodagama at 6:29 PM on August 15, 2017

@runcifex Standard Analytics boilerplate since it's operated out of Europe. There are no user accounts in fact.
posted by marbant at 7:01 PM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well, the original Popurls (under its new owner) has gone so long without updating that some of the sites it highlights have year-old links. The bad news about the new Hvper is that MetaFilter, which had been in the second row on Popurls, has been moved to the 15th row (and the worse news is that there are more than 20 rows...)

Still, for a "no social" news aggregator, it does highlight some sadly "social" websites. And the editorial decision of which sites to include has its good points (no Breitbart) and bad (yes FoxNews).
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:18 PM on August 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

> @runcifex Standard Analytics boilerplate since it's operated out of Europe. There are no user accounts in fact.

I think that the standard boilerplate is a deceptive instrument of oppression, and its status as boilerplate does not change my opinion about it.

The website made a conscious choice of using this instrument of oppression, and is therefore morally indictable. By using it, the website clearly states the intention of participation in surveillance capitalism.

The Andy Warhol quote is a parody of itself. That's not part of the boilerplate.
posted by runcifex at 7:19 PM on August 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Not a river. Firehose. Get me off the Internets.
posted by pashdown at 8:43 PM on August 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Problems with data collection and privacy aside, I'm looking forward to using this site.

I like a good news aggregator, and I like one that's simple and mainly text-based, especially in an office that blocks lots of Internet content. Also, even if the office allows mostly unblocked Internet access, I'm not comfortable sharing my personal data and logins over office networks and that includes any media account logins and passwords for preferred newspapers or journalism sites. With an aggregator like this, I'm presented with a wide variety of news items, multiple accounts of major stories, and with any luck, some odd, attention grabbing science or technology or sports or arts stories I might otherwise miss.

I was one of those people who gave up on Google News after the redesign. I've been resorting to a variety of sites including Bing News (thanks to a suggestion on MeFi), Flipboard, and PopUrls among others. As has been mentioned, PopUrls has some ancient content on the front page, so this looks like a fresher option that still keeps the basic text-heavy design.

Thanks for posting about the site, soelo.
posted by sardonyx at 8:54 PM on August 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Link in same window will be amazing on the phone, which the more recent Popurls fails to offer. Now if only he can bring back cookie based organizing, and the dark theme :-)
posted by furtive at 8:59 PM on August 15, 2017

The whole premise of Hvper (and Popurls before it) is that it's not supposed to be 'gameable'... the editorial judgement of Tom Marban is what sites he included and what order they are in. Within each site, it's feed could be gamed, but it's just one of over a hundred columns. In the old Popurls you could change the order in which everything appeared, but not on Hvper (yet).
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:03 PM on August 15, 2017

@furtive: In the works; same window on phones should work via the hamburger menu.
posted by marbant at 9:07 PM on August 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

👆 MeFi's own!
posted by slater at 10:03 PM on August 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

I like it. Thank you msrbant.
posted by davidmsc at 10:46 PM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well, we beat Wired for page position, but fell well behind Fox News and TMZ... But at least we're on the list! Amirite fivethirtyeight?
posted by Nanukthedog at 11:05 PM on August 15, 2017

So I've been visiting Hvper daily since this was posted and overall I love it!

The wide range of news headings covering the political spectrum, the inclusion of iTunes hot tracks and the site structure are fantastic. It's really helped me make better choices of what to spend my time on, while expanding the range of topics for me to choose from.

But - I'm not loving that Reddit/Digg/Buzzfeed are the top listing. I visit Buzzfeed and think they do some fantastic long reads, but so far all I've been seeing on Hvper are the listsicles and quizzes. And while Reddit represents both the best and worst the internet has to offer, the mindblowing bigotry and hatred that is interwoven in all subreddits has meant that I don't feel good about recommending Hvper to anyone who isn't already very well acquainted with Reddit and how to filter that ugliness out.

I'm not sure what a better solution would be and which sites at the top would showcase the range of sources Hvper has to offer, but I'd love to see 3 sites that are (1) less limiting, and (2) reflect what Hvper could bring to the readers life.

I've genuinely felt like incorporating Hvper into my morning routine has enriched me. I'm discovering topics I may have missed and I feel I'm gaining a better insight into opposing views. I'd love to share this experience more broadly.

Thanks @marbant for creating this!
posted by A hidden well at 8:31 AM on August 24, 2017 [1 favorite]