Thank you for your persistence and pushback. Despite good intentions I fell into the boilerplate trap.
In the meantime I:
. removed the 'mark of shame' :)
. zeroed the cookies, only localstorage for umami analytics
. Simple opt-out in footer, no dark patterns, just 'learn more, opt-out'
. Updated the privacy policy to reflect this
Your feedback made this project better. Thank you :)
Very good point. I'm using Next.js link components but handling the dual target behavior with JS click handlers, which does indeed break native browser behavior.
You're right that this should be:
- Proper <a href> for the card wrapper
- Nested <a href> for the source link
- Let the browser handle ctrl+click, middle-click, etc.
Will add this to the refactor list right away. Thank you for the detailed breakdown this is exactly the kind of extra eyes and explanation I need!
Haha appreciate the support! It's not about being tired of US tech it's about making sure European innovation gets, at least, equal airtime :D Coverage gap is real, just my two cents to balance things out
Good point. You can currently search for topics (search bar), but I see what you mean, dedicated topic filters/tags would be even more intuitive than having to type.
Interesting idea about using AI to auto-tag articles with topics. What specific topics would be most useful for you? (Thinking: AI/ML, Funding, Privacy/GDPR, Regulation, Open Source, etc.)
Topic filtering could work well alongside the current audience/source filters. Will add this to the roadmap for sure, thnks! :)
Thanks for the feedback. Really appreciate that the article selection resonates as that's the core value prop.
RSS: You're the second to mention this already, makes it even more priority.
AI Images: Noted. The pattern was to avoid generic stock "businessman shaking hands" photos, but clearly it's not working for everyone. Options i consider now are:
1. Hide images in RSS/reader mode
2. Stock images as fallback
3. User preference toggle
I understand the skepticism, but let me address this:
"LLM shovelware": The articles are curated from around 30 European news sources (TechCrunch Europe, Sifted, The Verge, etc.). AI is only used for:
1. Translation (EN→NL/DE/FR/ES/IT)
2. Pattern-based image generation
The curation, source selection, and quality filters are all manual.
"Self-promotion": Fair point on the account activity. I created this account specifically to share this project with HN because the community values European tech sovereignty and privacy.
Happy to answer specific questions about the implementation. The goal is NOT traffic farming, it's building a multilingual resource for European digital policy/startups.
TRACKING: Only privacy-respecting essentials:
. Sliplane (European hosting) server logs
. No Google Analytics, no third-party trackers
What made you think there's tracking? I want to fix any privacy concerns immediately. This is a European digital sovereignty project & privacy is the whole point.
Can you share what triggered the concern? (Specific script/banner you saw?) Thanks for your help.
RSS feed is on the roadmap. Planning to implement:
- Per-language RSS feeds (/en/news/feed.xml etc.)
- Manually curated (articles are already human-selected from sources)
Newsletter is an interesting idea too. Im thinking about a weekly curated roundup per segment. What would your preference be? Thank you for your feedback, well appreciated.
True and good catch on the German text. Fair point, AI image generation struggles with non-English text rendering. This is a known issue I've been wrestling with.
Options I'm considering:
1. Text-free abstract patterns for non-English articles
2. Language-specific image validation before publishing
3. Manual review queue for non-English images
The pattern-based approach was meant to avoid generic "holographic businessman" images, but clearly the execution needs work for multilingual content.
Thanks for the detailed feedback: this is input I need. Herzlichen dank!
Interesting perspective. Can you elaborate? Like:
You'd prefer no images at all (text-only)?
Or the AI-generated style doesn't work for you?
Or something else?
I added them because plain text feels bare, but I'm curious what would work better. Real screenshots? Article-pulled images? Or just skip visuals entirely?
Thanks for testing! The whole card IS clickable actually, it has two click targets:
Click anywhere on the card and it goes to the summary article page on europedigital.cloud (with translations, context, etc.)
Click the "source" link and it goes directly to the original article
This way users can choose: read our summary/translations, or jump straight
to the source. Tried to make it intuitive without cluttering the UI.
You're right about the sorting/filtering requiring JS though - it's client-side state. Could move that to URL params for better progressive enhancement.
Appreciate the detailed feedback, this kind of testing helps! :)
Thanks! Yeah, trying to bring more attention to European tech innovation. Lots happening here that doesn't get enough coverage. Any suggestions for news sources or features you'd find useful?