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Show HN: The Population Project

thepopulationproject.org

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Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#11

Post by antoine_b »

saulpw wrote: post #8
tmikaeld wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After a successful career as an entrepreneur, a business angel and a novelist Of course it's a personal project, why undermine it, let the person do it's thing.

> start a philanthropic venture > created a non-profit Sure, people can do whatever they want, and this project seems mostly harmless (I can also see forced data collection/publication on individuals having negative consequences for some people). I collect crossword data myself. But I don't go around patting myself on the back for my philanthropic efforts and non-profit status. I mean come on.

I don't think I was patting myself on the back but you're definitely spanking.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#12

Post by antoine_b »

bloak wrote: post #9

At some point you might want to consider "pivoting" to a gigantic database of all dead humans: there would be fewer data protection and privacy issues! I have sometimes wanted to trace people's ancestry, or, more often, the descendents (of the parents) of a person who died half a century ago. It's depressing how difficult it is to look these things up. Various companies try to sell access to public records, but I don…

Thank you for your comments. We're well aware of the pitfalls you're pointing. Some of them can be avoided now, others will need a dose of AI down the road. For now, we log the data when we find it. Mentioning the sources is a tricky issue. Our philosophy is to say as little or as much about everyone. Barack Obama's record is no more developed than yours. Linking a record to Wikipedia or to the list of Minnesota's sex offenders would break that rule, and not in a good way in my opinion.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#13

Post by antoine_b »

orangea wrote: post #3

If your site becomes a spectacle/popular/viral, which I don't think it will, people will submit false data. I don't see how you can possibly deal with that.

That's what they said about wikipedia and here it stands 20 years later, stronger than ever. Trolls will always exist but there are ways to keep them at bay, we're working on it.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#14

Post by antoine_b »

tmikaeld wrote: post #7
orangea wrote: post #3

If your site becomes a spectacle/popular/viral, which I don't think it will, people will submit false data. I don't see how you can possibly deal with that.

True, only a single determined person with a botnet it more than enough to wreck it completely.

Our metrics are low enough at the moment that we would notice anyone trying to add thousands or even millions or records. But I hear you.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#15

Post by antoine_b »

ildon wrote: post #5

Have you considered restrictions on personal data collection due to regulations such as the GDPR? I'm curious how you are dealing with those, especially having to track all countries of the world. Sorry if this is mentioned on the website, I've had a brief look and I might have missed it

Thank you for your remark. We try to address the issue in the Methodology section but it's a complex question. Roughly speaking, GDPR was passed to prevent merchants from contacting potential consumers without their consent. Well, we don't have anything to sell, we don't collect phone numbers or email addresses and we will never contact anybody.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#16

Post by jareklupinski »

> We have just completed step 1. Step 2 is daunting as hell. I have grown a business but I have never grown a website.

I've seen incredibly successful 'website' backends that were nothing more than a Google Sheet behind a few white-label HTML forms that feed into the spreadsheet; the backend almost never makes the product 'viral'

the 'magic' comes from successfully answering the question that's on everyone's mind: "why should I give you the one precious resource I have (time), and how/why will you make the rest of the limited time I have (before I die) any better?"

or, "what is the ROI on my invested time?" for example, Sam Altman has been giving away 50 bucks as the answer, and some people are lining up

as an exercise, pretend you are a stranger hearing about your own product for the first time (or better, pay someone $100 to pitch your own idea to you), and ask yourself the big question: "why should _I_ (the consumer, not the creator) care about spending time here?"

also, check with a few PR companies about the name "Population Project"...

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#17

Post by antoine_b »

jareklupinski wrote: post #16

> We have just completed step 1. Step 2 is daunting as hell. I have grown a business but I have never grown a website. I've seen incredibly successful 'website' backends that were nothing more than a Google Sheet behind a few white-label HTML forms that feed into the spreadsheet; the backend almost never makes the product 'viral' the 'magic' comes from successfully answering the question that's on everyone's mind: "w…

Thank your for taking the time (!) to articulate your thoughts. We think there will be many angles to look up our site: - Do other people share my name, n my country and in the word? - How rare is my first or last name? - How old is that person I met? What's their birthday? - Percentage of a population accounted for as proxy of a country's digital footprint. You will find these answers super quickly, without a great investment. That being said, we're also looking for volunteers: people who find lists or create dozens of records. As I'm sure you know, Wikipedia runs on 300,000 volunteers - that's 1 volunteer for 10,000 visitors! Wikipedia volunteers do it for the love of knowledge. I think we can find similar-minded people, probably among those currently active in genealogy. One last note about our name, we're a proper 501(c)(3) and our name is trademarked so I see little risk there. Thank you again for your constructive remarks.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#18

Post by jareklupinski »

antoine_b wrote: post #17
jareklupinski wrote: post #16

> We have just completed step 1. Step 2 is daunting as hell. I have grown a business but I have never grown a website. I've seen incredibly successful 'website' backends that were nothing more than a Google Sheet behind a few white-label HTML forms that feed into the spreadsheet; the backend almost never makes the product 'viral' the 'magic' comes from successfully answering the question that's on everyone's mind: "w…

Thank your for taking the time (!) to articulate your thoughts. We think there will be many angles to look up our site: - Do other people share my name, n my country and in the word? - How rare is my first or last name? - How old is that person I met? What's their birthday? - Percentage of a population accounted for as proxy of a country's digital footprint. You will find these answers super quickly, without a great…

i get those angles; growing up in a country where no one can even pronounce my name, it felt healthy to know that there was a world full of jareks haha

it's not about trademark risk - you should sit down with someone and say the name "The Population Project" out loud, without saying anything else about the project, and ask them what they _think_ it means

Shakespeare was being ironic: _everything_ is in a name

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#19

Post by antoine_b »

jareklupinski wrote: post #18
antoine_b wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank your for taking the time (!) to articulate your thoughts. We think there will be many angles to look up our site: - Do other people share my name, n my country and in the word? - How rare is my first or last name? - How old is that person I met? What's their birthday? - Percentage of a population accounted for as proxy of a country's digital footprint. You will find these answers super quickly, without a great…

i get those angles; growing up in a country where no one can even pronounce my name, it felt healthy to know that there was a world full of jareks haha it's not about trademark risk - you should sit down with someone and say the name "The Population Project" out loud, without saying anything else about the project, and ask them what they _think_ it means Shakespeare was being ironic: _everything_ is in a name

Got it. Do you think The Population Project is a bad name? I usually get pretty good feedback about it.

Re: Show HN: The Population Project

#20

Post by jareklupinski »

antoine_b wrote: post #19
jareklupinski wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i get those angles; growing up in a country where no one can even pronounce my name, it felt healthy to know that there was a world full of jareks haha it's not about trademark risk - you should sit down with someone and say the name "The Population Project" out loud, without saying anything else about the project, and ask them what they _think_ it means Shakespeare was being ironic: _everything_ is in a name

Got it. Do you think The Population Project is a bad name? I usually get pretty good feedback about it.

i think to the uninitiated it might sound like you're proposing a plan to do something about the population, which has never been well-received :)

once you're married to a name, it's biologically impossible to see it the same way from the inside, that's why you need to look into an outsider's eyes IRL while you say the name

try something fun, like "The Name Game" haha

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