Show HN: Wikipedia as a doomscrollable social media feed

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Performance and 40MB Data Blob

  • Many users report very slow loading, multi‑minute waits, and mobile/Safari crashes or reload loops.
  • App downloads a ~40MB JSON blob up front; some call this “rude,” especially for metered/roaming connections.
  • Several people argue for lazy loading: fetch initial items, then stream more as users scroll, to avoid sending 40MB to every bounce.
  • Others suggest a CDN, GitHub raw hosting, or reducing corpus (e.g., “vital articles”) to ease bandwidth; one notes 40MB/s is enough to saturate a 1 Gbps link with only a few users.

Local Algorithm, Privacy, and Design Philosophy

  • Developer insists on client‑side computation: the algorithm runs fully locally using cross‑article link data, enabling offline use and preserving privacy.
  • Full dataset is required up front because the recommendation weights depend on the entire link graph, not just visible items.
  • Emphasis on simplicity for the creator: static file on a bare‑metal box, no server‑side infra, not a “service,” built in under a day “for fun.”
  • Some applaud this ethos and don’t mind waiting; others think the technical tradeoffs unnecessarily hurt usability.

User Experience and Doomscrolling Concept

  • Reactions range from “greatest thing I have seen” and “better than doomscrolling X/Instagram” to “surprisingly boring” or “random intros and that’s it.”
  • Some find the algorithm quickly locks onto narrow niches (e.g., TV shows, specific sexual topics), mirroring issues in mainstream feeds.
  • Debate over whether “educational doomscrolling” is meaningfully better: swiping and rapid context switching may still harm attention, even with good content.
  • Several note the irony that a doomscroll analog requires patience to load, conflicting with the low‑attention behavior it mimics.

Content Choices and Warnings

  • Uses Simple English Wikipedia; some like the accessibility, others want full English and richer articles.
  • Age/NSFW warning is criticized as odd given Wikipedia’s general accessibility; one suggests “not safe for work” would be more accurate.

Feedback, Features, and Comparisons

  • Requested features: other languages, proper links/anchors, negative feedback/dislike, click vs like weighting, stats/insights, social features (curators, comments), “about” page explaining the algo.
  • Several link similar projects (Wikitok, games, research‑paper versions) and question why this pattern is repeatedly reinvented.
  • Code is small (~21KB HTML/JS, ~500 LOC), unminified, and now on GitHub; some labs and tinkerers express interest in studying the recommendation approach.