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

Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

deadmantracker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 118 posts

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#81

Post by DonHopkins »

deif wrote: post #80
DonHopkins wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't understand why the name matters, since you say the abuse shelter or support group would be the ones who recommend installing the app to the victim, and presumably they didn't find out about it by searching the app store for fun sounding games.

That's correct, they found me by searching for dead man switches.

I think you're going to have to market this through other channels, pushing the message out to people who would want to use and distribute it, instead of assuming that many people will think that there's a category of mobile software called "dead man's switch" and go searching for it. It's not obvious how "dead man's switch" had any connection with domestic abuse. It sounds more like a really ineffective health app.

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#82

Post by [deleted] »

deif wrote: post #68
russell_h wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your target audience substantially isn’t men, and would probably be put off by the “dead” part too. Since I’ll bet your target audience doesn’t already know what a “dead mans switch” is, you get a chance to come up with a better targeted term.

Technically this is a niche subset of my target audience. As I wrote in the article, the ideal scenario was that I had two separate apps where it has a completely different name, but due to Apple restrictions I was forced to name it Dead Man (actually suggested by Apple themselves when I spoke to them over the phone discussing this issue) as the name has to cover both parts of the functionality even though the target…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#83

Post by jones1618 »

ryanschneider wrote: post #53
deif wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure, but any app store listing would give that away so that kind of obscurity only gets you so far. Apple are extremely restrictive on how you present your apps, so it will always be obvious what the app is from the listing (which is why I specifically had to use hang man, as the name of the app has to match the general functionality). I couldn't even release a separate app with the same functionality but comple…

What if the game itself was 100% vanilla and all the dead man’s switch setup was done through a website using your iCloud login? Then instead of the help button the user could configure a “safe word” that when entered triggers the notifications. Also, doesn’t a true dead man’s switch require periodic confirmation? As in, shouldn’t it trigger _unless_ I enter my safe word as a guess every N days? Edit: I just read the…

Using a safe word to unlock is brilliant. Why require iCloud or web access at all, though? Hide a configuration page behind the safe word as well. You could also have another secret word to instantly trigger your silent alarms.

Also, if the author wanted to keep the web site discreet, just have a landing page that talks about "This is the greatest hang man game of all time, blah , blah" and underneath have ads/badges for "Save the whales", "Feed the Starving Children" and "Prevent Domestic Abuse." When they click the abuse "ad", they get additional information that's actually about the app.

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#84

Post by __s »

DonHopkins wrote: post #81
deif wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's correct, they found me by searching for dead man switches.

I think you're going to have to market this through other channels, pushing the message out to people who would want to use and distribute it, instead of assuming that many people will think that there's a category of mobile software called "dead man's switch" and go searching for it. It's not obvious how "dead man's switch" had any connection with domestic abuse. It sounds more like a really ineffective health app.

This is Product B. Product A is deadman's switch. It is appropriately named for the target audience of Product A. Apple won't allow Product B on grounds that it's spamming variants of Product A. So he's forced to create Product B as an offshoot of Product A unless he's going to get rid of Product A to have the desired Product B

tl;dr Apple is forcing this unfortuate circumstance

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#85

Post by kleton »

Very timely.

> uncouplings surged in March as husbands and wives began emerging from weeks of government-mandated lockdowns intended to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Incidents of domestic violence also multiplied.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-31/divorces-...

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#86

Post by c22 »

cassiet wrote: post #11
mnw21cam wrote: post #2

"We're sorry but dead man tracker doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Please enable it to continue." Yeah fine, but perhaps some explanation of what I would be seeing if I did that would be appreciated. If you want me to enable Javascript, you should at least tell me what you're going to do with that. If you make a web site with functionality that requires Javascript, and there's no other way, that's fi…

This isn’t mine, but the number of my users with js turned off isn’t worth the effort. You guys make a lot of noise, but not a lot of traffic.

This sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Who's going to generate a lot of traffic interacting with a blank page?

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#87

Post by zrobotics »

gowld wrote: post #49
ntucker wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think anyone who's used a lawnmower knows the concept but not necessarily the name.

And most people aren't electric lawnmower users anyway.

All powered lawnmowers have these switches. Push types have the spring loaded lever on the handle that shuts the engine off when released, and riding mowers shut down when there isn't weight on the seat. This isn't exclusive to electric mowers at all.

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#88

Post by c22 »

Grustaf wrote: post #74
fudged71 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems the web service will automatically contact whoever you have set up to be contacted, if you don't take action on the notifications from the app

Aha ok I see. But then I don’t see how it could be two apps, what would the app without the game do?

It just requires you to take some action on a recurring basis. Someone who is not trying to hide that they have a deadman switch on their phone doesn't need a game, they just need a button they can push to indicate that they are still alive.

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#89

Post by hedora »

Grustaf wrote: post #21

It doesn’t sound like this is a dead man switch, sounds more like a panic button?

That seems to be correct. It triggers when you enter the online help function of the app.

If it were a dead man’s switch it would trigger if you failed to do so after a certain amount of time.

Re: Show HN: Discreet dead man's switch for victims of domestic abuse

#90

Post by staticautomatic »

DonHopkins wrote: post #58
deif wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you say that? It operates exactly like a dead man's switch.

How is that not gobsmackingly obvious to you??! Look at the words you just typed. There are millions of other innocuous games whose names don't invoke death, men, capital punishment, gallows, prison, nooses, lynching, strangulation, hanging, suicide, murder, etc. For God's sake, pick one of those, instead of "hangman" and "dead man's switch". Might as well call it "Kill My Abusive Boyfriend". The whole point is NOT t…

"Kill my abusive boyfriend" sounds like a valuable service.
Post reply on HN