31–40 of 53 posts
I didn't quite know what to expect when visiting the site with a name textlaundry.com As tacky as it sounds proofreadmypaper.com would be much "cleaner" (excuse the irony). Props on launching. I think your provide a useful service. I love the idea of submitting my paper immediately and getting a quote.
I'm interested in knowing if there are any similar services.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just a cobbled together CMS front-end with clip art icons and generic photos for what appears to be a proof-reading service, am I correct? Or am I missing some sort of technological breakthrough?
yes, it seems to be a service for proof reading. what's your point?
One small piece of feedback: Your #headline-wrap and #stage-wrap styles have overflow: hidden defined while the other top level divs do not. This makes it so that when the browser is smaller than your content, scroll bars appear but your main content is hidden beyond the window width and appears cut off when scrolling.
- Empty TITLE tag.
- Favicon is a "P" icon?
- Put 5-10px padding on the textarea.
- 100% satisfaction guaranteed icon needs transparency.
If you get some resistance in the HN feedback, IMO it is because the service seems slapped together. I like the automatic pricing calculator but I don't know that anything else but the domain name is going to be memorable. If the design shows a bit more personality, I think that would help.
It might've been funny if you had replied to each HN comment with a re-write of what they'd written to show the benefit of the service...
I notice it's on Rails. Shoot for an API and a Wordpress plugin. Both could be jets for this type of business.
Only taking input by text box is pretty bad. You need to be able to accept common word processor file formats. Targeting students is also ethically questionable. Planning to open a sideline where you help "proofread" math homework next?
Colleges provide "writing centers" where people (presumably upperclassmen in a relevant degree program) offer proofreading. I don't see how this is much different.
To echo a few other comments, I'd love to see examples. Specifically, I hope examples could explain the following:
1) What kind of changes are suggested? Spelling corrections? Grammar corrections? Improved sentence structure? Improved paragraph structure? Some combination of these? Something else?
2) What's the difference between good vs. great vs. excellent? The quality of the proofreader? The amount of time spent proofreading? The number of times something is proofread? A concrete example would be very helpful.
Also, I think showing a list of the types of documents you can proofread would be helpful. It might just be me, but when I saw "document" I started thinking about college essays or work-related documents like letters of reference. Then I saw a testimonial that mentioned blog posts and thought "oh yeah, I could use this service for those as well!" You might miss some customers who don't realize your service is very open-ended.