Hmm, are there any plans to solve this problem for mobile?
Yes! It's on our roadmap. Android is easier than Apple due to developer API constraints, but we plan on tackling the mobile problem very soon (in the next 1-2 month).
Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
101–110 of 131 posts
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
That makes sense; I know people who've tried out this app called StickK where you donate to anti-charity if you don't follow habits. Definitely something on our minds.
Thanks for the share, Stickk looks interesting. Stayfocusd + Stickk, with cross-platform usage tracking, would be the holy grail. Another thing to note is that Stickk has a lot of user complaints, so there’s a lot of room for competition if they don’t iron out the kinks.
That's a very interesting thought. Yes agreed - StickK has a lot of user complaints so we would need to execute much better. A lot of these complaints arise from the fact that StickK literally puts you in a binding contract to pay the money - which may be necessary to enforce their kind of product, but also gets a lot of users angry and confused.
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#103I would just get annoyed with the prompts and uninstall. This approach doesn't, hasn't and won't work. What will work is unfortunately a little more complex to build i.e. you need to change functionality on these sites forcibly e.g. disable autoplay on YT automatically, fetch and create a newsfeed on FB to replace the shit stock one etc etc. You would then need to keep up with these assholes trying to block your exte…
You should take a look at Baitblock (https://baitblock.app). We're working on something called the "Intelligent Blocker" (not yet in production, almost complete) that understands how you get to distractions in the first place. Then it removes the distracting types of comments, posts, search results, recommendations, links etc from the internet while you're working on studying.
Its kind of complex but works perfectly in trials. We also have the YouTube recommendations hider feature in the app.
Give it a shot and LMK what you think.
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the share, Stickk looks interesting. Stayfocusd + Stickk, with cross-platform usage tracking, would be the holy grail. Another thing to note is that Stickk has a lot of user complaints, so there’s a lot of room for competition if they don’t iron out the kinks.
That's a very interesting thought. Yes agreed - StickK has a lot of user complaints so we would need to execute much better. A lot of these complaints arise from the fact that StickK literally puts you in a binding contract to pay the money - which may be necessary to enforce their kind of product, but also gets a lot of users angry and confused.
I looked at some of the negative reviews, and they seem to have a point.
1. The irreversible, binding contract element needs to be exceedingly clear and simple to understand as soon as someone opens the app for the first time (“you will not be able to contact us to reverse the contract, so choose your terms carefully”). Additionally, give users the reason why the contract is irreversible up front so that they understand the app’s foundations. I would want the contract to be irreversible, that’s a feature not a bug, but users should know that. Users who aren’t comfortable with that should ideally be offered a weak alternative as long as that doesn’t muddy the service. Otherwise, turn them away.
Even the button that users press to agree to a contract should be called the “No Way Out” button or something like that. However, great care should be taken to ensure that users who behave well don’t get punished (e.g. agreeing to pay $X if you don’t lose weight, and you lose weight but there’s a bug with reporting that, or the app doesn’t ping you enough to warn you to check in, or you don’t understand the consequences of not checking in, or there wasn’t enough granularity with the terms of checking in). Users who don’t trust the app as an automatic executor of contractual punishments should be able to designate a third party arbitrator, like a friend or parent, but that shouldn’t be the default option. Maybe the user’s friends will be lenient, but let them find that out.
2. They have both a “charity” and “anti-charity” option, which is fine. However, the structure of the “charity” option is problematic. It is not clear to users picking that option that their funds may go to a charity they actually dislike, making it more of an Anti-Charity. Additionally, for both the charity and anti-charity options, they should let the user choose their level of granularity. If a user wants to designate specific organizations, let them make that trade off. Maybe someone is willing to make a particular political party their anti-charity, but never in a million lifetimes the Coalition for Coal (made up). “Charity” and “Anti-Charity” are vague. There’s a fine line between motivating your users and provoking unmitigated rage in this space. If that’s hard with the “charity” and “anti-charity” categories, maybe they should be scrapped entirely.
3. It seems like they have UI, usability, and bug issues.
Again, I think that the concept behind their app is great, and they have a lot of potential, but there’s an opportunity for you to do everything they do but better.
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a very interesting thought. Yes agreed - StickK has a lot of user complaints so we would need to execute much better. A lot of these complaints arise from the fact that StickK literally puts you in a binding contract to pay the money - which may be necessary to enforce their kind of product, but also gets a lot of users angry and confused.
I looked at some of the negative reviews, and they seem to have a point. 1. The irreversible, binding contract element needs to be exceedingly clear and simple to understand as soon as someone opens the app for the first time (“you will not be able to contact us to reverse the contract, so choose your terms carefully”). Additionally, give users the reason why the contract is irreversible up front so that they underst…
Thanks so much for this! I've saved this analysis and will keep it in mind as we decide to move toward this direction. Agreed with all three of your points; we can definitely have better execution on all these fronts.
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#106I've been thinking on this for a few minutes, and I'm realizing I have no idea on what criteria YCombinator funds anymore. This seems like something the Pinboard Investment Co-Prosperity Cloud might have funded. The extension looks cool (outside of it being proprietary) and it looks like you did a good job on it! I'm just trying to think of reasons as to why YC is trying to mimic Softbank. The only reason I can think…
Was about to post something similar. They might start with only a chrome extension though, while the big vision is much broader?
The vision is definitely much broader :) The immediate steps are desktop and mobile.
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#107Congrats Omid and team! I’ve been using it everyday. Probably saves me an hour
Thank you! Glad it's been helpful!
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#108I really like developments in this space.
I too have struggled and continue to struggle with wasting time on the internet. A couple of things that have helped me recently:
Removing the facebook news feed.[1] I can still use it for messaging, checking on specific people etc but the wall of information and addiction is gone.
Removing all but the single video you are watching on facebook [2]. Again, you can get to useful videos or search for something specific but now you don't fall into the 'youtube hole' when the first video finishes.
I suspect this will be something that everyone has to be conscious of all the time, much like being careful that you don't eat too unhealthily. I don't think any one tool will be a magic bullet.
[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...
[2] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-distractio...
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#109I really like developments in this space. I too have struggled and continue to struggle with wasting time on the internet. A couple of things that have helped me recently: Removing the facebook news feed.[1] I can still use it for messaging, checking on specific people etc but the wall of information and addiction is gone. Removing all but the single video you are watching on facebook [2]. Again, you can get to usefu…
Thanks for sharing! Agreed that both of these solutions are helpful, and I've seen many friends using them. For me personally, I wanted a more all-in-one solution, so we actually built hiding things like the Facebook newsfeed and Youtube recommended videos into our extension.
Re: Launch HN: Motion (YC W20) – defense against online distractions and addictions
#110I just tried it. Unfortunately it does not seem to work with my use case where I use youtube to play music in a background tab while working on other things. I want it to block me from actively watching videos but playback in the background is fine in my case.