Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#271

Post by driverdan » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

tumblerz wrote: post #121

driverdan wrote: post #112

I like the concept but since it's open to the public it will suffer from ignorance. For example, take the Salomon Quest boots that are listed. I own a pair of them. While they're good boots for the price they do not deserve an A- score. They are not BIFL. The soles are glued making them not resoleable. The sole on one of mine has started coming unglued too. The same can be said for the Victorinox Fibrox knife that ha…

Not to nitpick, and I dont know those boots in particular, but the wildfire hiking boots owned by myself and friends have glued soles and local cobbler has resoled at least a couple pairs. Your overall point, however, is important. I find reviews of outdoors gear (even professional reviews) especially tilted toward light-use buyers, which is frustrating.

That's interesting. I didn't realize there were cobblers who resoled glued hiking boots. I guess it depends on the sole being available for purchase?

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#272

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #112

I like the concept but since it's open to the public it will suffer from ignorance. For example, take the Salomon Quest boots that are listed. I own a pair of them. While they're good boots for the price they do not deserve an A- score. They are not BIFL. The soles are glued making them not resoleable. The sole on one of mine has started coming unglued too. The same can be said for the Victorinox Fibrox knife that ha…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#273

Post by hubraumhugo » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

dumbfounder wrote: post #50

hubraumhugo wrote: post #2

A few months ago, I began developing the Buy For Life platform. It started as a simple list where people could add brands that manufacture durable products. It now evolved into a full platform with aggregated product reviews from all over the web, discussions, and various metrics to calculate a score for each brand and product. I want to help people finding the most durable and sustainable products in the world. It s…

I don't think the comparison to Rotten Tomatoes makes sense because you aren't aggregating professional reviews of these products. To me it is just another product review site tackling a niche. But the idea of tracking cost per month is very intriguing (a measure of TCO, which you may want to tackle as well, because for some products that may include electricity usage, upkeep, etc). I think it is something that can t…

As mentioned below, I'm indeed aggregating professional reviews from different sources like Wirecutter or Gearlabs, there is just not that much data yet.

However, this should not be the core focus. After getting enough product submissions from users, I will focus on the cost per month metric. As you said, this could be the true differentiator.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#274

Post by loco5niner » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:49 PM UTC

tsm wrote: post #150

acd wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great idea! List of more durable items: Stainless steel frying pan instead of nonstick frying pans where the non stick coating wears off. Cast iron even better. Plain bicycle without electric parts easier to recycle metal. Durable quality Screens drivers. Non electric espresso maker. Bailetto. Corded headphones no batteries that wear out. Changable parts. No wireless protocol that go obsolete. LifePo4 lithium iron ba…

> Stainless steel frying pan instead of nonstick frying pans where the non stick coating wears off. Cast iron even better. They're called nonstick for a reason; stainless steel does not compare. You'll have more sticking problems cooking eggs on a steel pan drowning in butter than on a (new) nonstick pan with minimal grease. I do own an 18th-century cast iron pan and it has pretty good seasoning. I use it for many th…

> They're called nonstick for a reason; stainless steel does not compare.

Cooking eggs in a stainless steel pan is a bad example because you shouldn't do that. They are useful for different jobs. Stainless os great for other things, like cooking a piece of meat (try getting that fond in a non-stick pan!), or frying some potatoes... etc

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#275

Post by buttersbrian » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:50 PM UTC

hubraumhugo wrote: post #246

gravypod wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way to add an item as "I don't own this buy I want to know if anyone does"? I'm thinking of buying a https://www.terrakaffe.com/product/tk-01-b/ but I don't know how actually good it is and I can't find it on your site. I'd probably also be willing to put up ~$5 dollars to have someone check out the product. I'm not sure if you could turn that into an effective compensation model for reviewers.

Interesting idea, just added this idea/feature to my backlog :)

looking for contributors?

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#276

Post by irrational » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:53 PM UTC

hubraumhugo wrote: post #2

A few months ago, I began developing the Buy For Life platform. It started as a simple list where people could add brands that manufacture durable products. It now evolved into a full platform with aggregated product reviews from all over the web, discussions, and various metrics to calculate a score for each brand and product. I want to help people finding the most durable and sustainable products in the world. It s…

Are you, or will you, including information from Consumer Reports?

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#277

Post by fataliss » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:54 PM UTC

hubraumhugo wrote: post #2

A few months ago, I began developing the Buy For Life platform. It started as a simple list where people could add brands that manufacture durable products. It now evolved into a full platform with aggregated product reviews from all over the web, discussions, and various metrics to calculate a score for each brand and product. I want to help people finding the most durable and sustainable products in the world. It s…

This is awesome! I actually was tinkering with a community driven review aggregator for all things. Post a link to the product and your review. 2 issues I ran into were: - "taking" product info from the links to be resilient to link breakage without breaking conditions of use - moderation of user submitted content in order to prevent the bot/fake review issues on platforms like amazon

Seems like you only take the photo here? So that's a good mitigation of point #1. What about point #2? Curious to know if you have a good plan to deal with that :)

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#278

Post by arendtio » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:55 PM UTC

hubraumhugo wrote: post #2

A few months ago, I began developing the Buy For Life platform. It started as a simple list where people could add brands that manufacture durable products. It now evolved into a full platform with aggregated product reviews from all over the web, discussions, and various metrics to calculate a score for each brand and product. I want to help people finding the most durable and sustainable products in the world. It s…

Actually, I don't think that durability is the primary driver of my shopping decisions.

I mean, I am a guy who still uses his 8 year old smartphone on a daily basis, so durability is relevant for me, but when I buy something, I want something good. So just because it is made of plastic and can be used for the next 350 years, doesn't mean I would enjoy using it for a single day.

Duration is just one aspect of a high quality product, but so is ease of use or overall functionality. High quality is what I want to buy. Nevertheless, I appreciate the undertaking to develop a platform that is not just about the price and has a higher goal in mind.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#279

Post by giancarlostoro » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

What's nice about this is you could probably contact some of the good brands and advertise under the terms that you would link to their reviews on the site, just find the top quality brands and contact them. I am all for advertising that's contextual on content and not invasive, as long as it stays and never leaves the website.

Re: Show HN: I built a Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

#280

Post by frogpelt » Wed, Oct 07, 2020, 6:58 PM UTC

hackerfromthefu wrote: post #68

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #60

Interesting, I hope you are onto something! How would you prevent me from taking some $ from Corporate to write a genuine sounding but heavily biased review? I am not trying to be snarky, but in my understanding that is exactly how micro-influencing on Instagram etc. works and IMO its very dangerous for your value proposition.

See my comment above for a model that seems to be working really well for a similar site.

If you're going to plug a site that works well, you should link to the site, I guess.

I want to see it... maybe.