Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

Re:Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on... by always_good on Monday April 23, 2018 @05:15PM (#16907484)

Agreed. It's some mix of the XY problem plus the self-entitlement of "if I had the idea, then it should work."

Yet the classic HNer confuses this for inherent weaknesses in the underlying platform that they then need to share lest someone has something good to say about the platform. And they'll often be using words like "terrible", "garbage", and "I hate..."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on... by squeaky-clean on Monday April 23, 2018 @06:13PM (#16907943)

Please, no one said Wikipedia was terrible. You're taking statements out of context. The original comment said:

> Wikipedia's markup is just terrible for trying to do any sort of scraping or analysis.

I'd like to emphasize the "for trying to do any sort of scraping or analysis." Should we instead lie and say it's wonderful for scraping?

It's not an insult, it's the truth. If you want to build an app that automatically parses Wikipedia, it will not be easy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on... by laumars on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @01:43AM (#16910148)

But again, that's the wrong tool for the job so of course it's not going to be well suited. When it's that obvious of a wrong tool saying it's terrible is still kind of silly. It's like saying hammers are terrible at screwing things or cars make terrible trampolines.

[ Parent | on HN ]