Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 108 posts

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#41

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

brudgers wrote: post #28
scrrr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good comment, but what makes you believe StackOverflow is "incredibly more complicated" than Facebook?

From a content standpoint, StackOverflow requires the participation of domain experts to be successful. Facebook just requires people to sign up and log in.

That doesn't make it more complex, it just means that it has a very specific requirement for the knowledge of the participants.

From a software perspective it's really no harder to gather and store 1000 words on a detailed C++ problem than it is to gather and store "Mmm mmm mmm, Justin Bieber, he's soooo dreamy".

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#42

Post by sjs382 »

colinplamondon wrote: post #18
sjs382 wrote: post #10

I built http://isshort.com because I wanted to promote healthy link shortening, and created an API so that Twitter clients can use it. I promoted it on reddit, HN, techstartu.ps, Quora (in response to a question) and by emailing the people who were an inspiration for it (simon wilson, the people responsible for rev=canonical and rel=shortlink). I've been completely unable to gain traction for isshort.com, with 43 vis…

People complain about link shortening on sites like HN, then turn around and use bit.ly because it's easy, just works, and gives cool real-time analytics. You're solving a problem people _say_ they have, not that they _actually_ have. Healthy link shortening is a 'nice to have', not something most folks will go out of their way to us.

But it's not something they need to go out of their way to use, is it? It's just something you set once and forget about. My API doesn't even require any authentication. :)

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#43

Post by hasenj »

> I even deployed a localized copy of cnprog as a forum on women's issues

Stackoverflow is designed for tech-savvy people.

You can't just make assumptions about what your users want/need/know. You actually have to listen to feedback. If your response to feedback is "WTF", well that explains why you don't have many users.

It also means you didn't really build 'it'; you built the wrong thing and you don't want to fix it.

btw, usability > visual appeal.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#44

Post by sjs382 »

patd wrote: post #30
sjs382 wrote: post #10

I built http://isshort.com because I wanted to promote healthy link shortening, and created an API so that Twitter clients can use it. I promoted it on reddit, HN, techstartu.ps, Quora (in response to a question) and by emailing the people who were an inspiration for it (simon wilson, the people responsible for rev=canonical and rel=shortlink). I've been completely unable to gain traction for isshort.com, with 43 vis…

To give you feedback about isshort.com, I took me a long read in the blog to even start to understand what it does. For what I got, you use the shortener of each website (if available) to generate a short URL. Like use youtu.be for YouTube URLs and default to j.mp otherwise. You claim on the front page to be a different kind of URL shortener and with my first try it seemed to be just as any other URL shortener. You g…

Thanks for the recommendation. I guess the intro to the blog post was a bit fluffy. I'll clean it up a bit later today, I think.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#45

Post by jashmenn »

patio11 wrote: post #2

My projects are mostly based on features that are missing or misimplemented in the existing products. This is your first problem. First, features do not sell software . If there were a Ten Commandments of customer acquisition in the Internet age that would be #2 right after "Google is your god, you shall have no others." People use software and use websites because of the benefit that you credibly propose to bring to…

I'd be interested in hearing the other 8 commandments of customer acquisition in the Internet age, if you care to take a stab at them.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#46

Post by mcantor »

scrrr wrote: post #16
patio11 wrote: post #2

My projects are mostly based on features that are missing or misimplemented in the existing products. This is your first problem. First, features do not sell software . If there were a Ten Commandments of customer acquisition in the Internet age that would be #2 right after "Google is your god, you shall have no others." People use software and use websites because of the benefit that you credibly propose to bring to…

Good comment, but what makes you believe StackOverflow is "incredibly more complicated" than Facebook?

StackOverflow:

* Posting a question: I go to the site, click on "Ask," and post my question.

* Searching for answers: I go to the site, type in my search, and search.

Facebook:

* Posting a photo: I go to the site and look for a camera icon. I can't find one, so I start clicking on stuff like "Account", "Home" and "Profile". Still nothing. I start clicking on everything that isn't a friend's wall post. Eventually I hit "More" on my list of apps (the fully-expanded list still doesn't take up the entire height of my screen), and see "Photos". I look for an upload button and see nothing. In the upper right corner, in 10pt font, I eventually find "My Albums." I click there and search for an upload button. Nothing. I click "Create album," and finally get to an upload prompt.

* Changing a privacy setting: I see a post on Hacker News about some new Facebook feature, and of course, the default is "Everyone in the world can see everything that this feature involves, even if it's something you locked down for every other feature." No one has posted a reply explaining how to lock it down yet, but it's Facebook, right? How hard could it be? I go to Facebook and click "Privacy Settings." Honestly, they change the layout every few months, so I have no idea what it looks like now, and I don't remember what it looked like last time, but every single time, I have to re-learn the entire model and it takes forever and half the time I don't even find what I'm looking for.

* Take a quiz: See a quiz on a friend's wall. Click on the app name. Click on "Take Quiz." Get a popup saying "Let this app access your profile: [Click Here]." Close tab.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#47

Post by rushabh »

hinoglu wrote: post #33
michael_dorfman wrote: post #7

What problems are your products trying to solve? Why don't you list a few here, and maybe we can help you refine your pitch.

Well i didn't intend to gain attention to advertise my projects, but uhm.. :) one i'm lately struggling with is visitrs.com, i've posted it a few times before, did not get much response, ones i get was helpful though.It has started as a pluggible chat system which allowed visitors of any website to chat with eachother. It would provide interaction between visitors, would create a community around the website, would h…

I checked our your product. Here are some of the points I find:

1. Your product seems too common place 2. I do not see enough energy in the UI - like stack overflow that looks warm and friendly.. Ask people to upload their photos etc. 3. Whats your niche? Why should I invest my time and not use delicious.

Contrary to what you think, your design is quite neat. Its just you need to select a niche and respond to what your early users are saying!

- Rushabh

ERPNext.com

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#48

Post by aes »

sjs382 wrote: post #10

I built http://isshort.com because I wanted to promote healthy link shortening, and created an API so that Twitter clients can use it. I promoted it on reddit, HN, techstartu.ps, Quora (in response to a question) and by emailing the people who were an inspiration for it (simon wilson, the people responsible for rev=canonical and rel=shortlink). I've been completely unable to gain traction for isshort.com, with 43 vis…

Let me give you some feedback for isshort.com.

1. The landing page does not tell what the service is for and who is it for.

On the first look, it looks like just another URL shortener - but why would I use it over something like 3.ly or j.mp?

2. I tried to read the explanation but bored out. I don't care what "healthy link shortening" is or what rev="canonical" does. The blog post is longwinded and filled with jargon and terms I don't understand. "Publisher"? Am I a "publisher"? Do I want to be? What is the target audience? Am I in the target audience? It's difficult to find out.

3. I put in "google.com" and out comes INVALID_URI.

4. Not having a "Submit" button feels somehow awkward. I'm not sure what I should do in order to shorten the URL. I eventually discovered that pressing Enter and clicking on the "isn't short" text works, but I'd feel better with a "Submit" button.

Re: Ask HN: I built it, "they" didn't come...

#50

Post by jdee »

hinoglu wrote: post #33
michael_dorfman wrote: post #7

What problems are your products trying to solve? Why don't you list a few here, and maybe we can help you refine your pitch.

Well i didn't intend to gain attention to advertise my projects, but uhm.. :) one i'm lately struggling with is visitrs.com, i've posted it a few times before, did not get much response, ones i get was helpful though.It has started as a pluggible chat system which allowed visitors of any website to chat with eachother. It would provide interaction between visitors, would create a community around the website, would h…

A few experiences with visitrs.

The first 5 seconds of looking at your page filled my head with 'This is just a page of shit that I'm not interested in'. It was not clear that I can participate in creating the list. your join now button is virtually invisible to passing users.

I have to click an 'about' page to find out what the site does. this is way too much effort. this needs to be splashed all over the front page.

Once I understand what it is, it's not as good as my existing bookmarking sites. Struggling to see where the USP is.

My gut feeling is that you might be able to get it to work if you work in the niches - people into baking would rather join a dedicated cake site than something that is as general as this. Buy 10 niche domain names and work in the communities they target. Makes SEO a damn site easier too.

Hope this helps!

Post reply on HN