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Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

porfavorapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#11

Post by mheap »

sk3tch wrote: post #9
mheap wrote: post #2

Por Favor's a to do app with a bit of a difference. Instead of you adding tasks to it, it's populated by your friends + family. A lot of the time, people ask for favours and I say "Yeah sure" and forget about it instantly. With Por Favor, I can say yes when they ask me, and it'll automatically remind me when the task needs doing.

If there's one feature a todo list shouldn't have, it's the ability for others to add things to it. That already exists and it's called email.

Isn't email an outdated medium though? I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too.

Por Favor is about making things easy. You say 'yes I can do that' and it reminds you when it's time to act. Nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#12

Post by mheap »

nodata wrote: post #10
mheap wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it depends how big the favour is. If it's to pick someone up from the airport, it should definitely be a phonecall. Por Favor aims to fill the space where it's a small favour, like turning on the oven at a certain time or taking out the bins. Things that aren't too much of an inconvenience but are also easily forgotten. You mention tracking favours, that's definitely not what it's about. It's about rememberin…

I don't like the idea of turning favours into a currency.

I explicitly said that it's not about keeping track of who's done whom a favour. I'd even say that each day, any old favours get reset and hidden from view.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#13

Post by ninguem2 »

nodata wrote: post #10
mheap wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it depends how big the favour is. If it's to pick someone up from the airport, it should definitely be a phonecall. Por Favor aims to fill the space where it's a small favour, like turning on the oven at a certain time or taking out the bins. Things that aren't too much of an inconvenience but are also easily forgotten. You mention tracking favours, that's definitely not what it's about. It's about rememberin…

I don't like the idea of turning favours into a currency.

You should read "Debt" by David Graeber.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#14

Post by ollysb »

mheap wrote: post #12
nodata wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like the idea of turning favours into a currency.

I explicitly said that it's not about keeping track of who's done whom a favour. I'd even say that each day, any old favours get reset and hidden from view.

>> Swap walking the dog for a lift to the airport, and keep track of who owes you a favor.

This is the copy that's making people think along those lines. If it's sending the wrong message then this is the bit I'd change.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#15

Post by mbesto »

mheap wrote: post #11
sk3tch wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's one feature a todo list shouldn't have, it's the ability for others to add things to it. That already exists and it's called email.

Isn't email an outdated medium though? I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too. Por Favor is about making things easy. You say 'yes I can do that' and it reminds you when it's time to act. Nothing more, nothing less.

> Isn't email an outdated medium though?

Outdated in what sense?

> I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more).

Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?

> The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too.

How are you reducing the noise? Imagine now, I have an e-mail client, a SMS client, a todo app, a txt app, 10 gaming apps that all have notifications for me to "do something", how is the issue being solved? My noise is still the same, all I've done is created (yet) another beacon for displaying signals.

ps - Hopefully, I'm not detracting you from your hard work. Trying to provide some honest feedback here that I'm hoping will help you.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#16

Post by mheap »

ollysb wrote: post #14
mheap wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I explicitly said that it's not about keeping track of who's done whom a favour. I'd even say that each day, any old favours get reset and hidden from view.

>> Swap walking the dog for a lift to the airport, and keep track of who owes you a favor. This is the copy that's making people think along those lines. If it's sending the wrong message then this is the bit I'd change.

Ah, my mistake. I have no idea how that managed to sneak onto the site. I'll get it changed soon.

@ollysb, @nodata: Sorry about that. I was honestly confused why people thought it was about keeping track and kept bringing it up when I'd said it wasn't. Now it all makes much more sense

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#17

Post by mheap »

mbesto wrote: post #15
mheap wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't email an outdated medium though? I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too. Por Favor is about making things easy. You say 'yes I can do that' and it reminds you when it's time to act. Nothing more, nothing less.

> Isn't email an outdated medium though? Outdated in what sense? > I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours? > The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too. How are you reducing the noise? Imagine now, I have an e-mail client, a SMS client, a todo app, a txt app, 10 gaming apps…

> Outdated in what sense?

Outdated in that it's not targeted. I get all kinds of things into my inbox (I use filters too, but filtered things generally get forgotten about), emails from family, friends, newsletters, alerts when people reply to me on HN. My inbox is like my in tray, a list of things to work on

> Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?

Email's distracting, I try and keep it closed as much as possible whilst I'm working.

> How are you reducing the noise?

We're not reducing the noise, we're just turning it into a very specific sound that you recognise. The idea is that if Por Favor pings, you should probably look at it. If a gaming app pings, you can ignore it and look at it later. We're trying to make sure you see things that you need to see, when you need to see them.

> ps - Hopefully, I'm not detracting you from your hard work. Trying to provide some honest feedback here that I'm hoping will help you.

Not at all! It's all very useful. We literally had the idea, threw a site online and posted it on here for feedback. We don't even know if the idea's gonna work yet. We (my partner and I) have a use case for it, but we were wondering if anyone else did too.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#18

Post by dagw »

mbesto wrote: post #15
mheap wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't email an outdated medium though? I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too. Por Favor is about making things easy. You say 'yes I can do that' and it reminds you when it's time to act. Nothing more, nothing less.

> Isn't email an outdated medium though? Outdated in what sense? > I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours? > The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too. How are you reducing the noise? Imagine now, I have an e-mail client, a SMS client, a todo app, a txt app, 10 gaming apps…

Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?

Many people don't check their email regularly. I only check my personal email once a day in the evening. If I'm busy or on vacation it can often go several days between me checking my email.

That being said, I agree that I don't see what this adds. I already have email, SMS and phone calls. If you need an answer within a couple of days, email me. If you need an answer within a couple hours, text me. If you need an answer within a couple of minutes, call me. I don't really see where something else can fit in.

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#19

Post by lewisflude »

The website looks nice (but Lobster is a little overused at the moment).

Your idea is good, but not great, not £1.99 great.

If it were free, it'd be awesome, if it was 69p I could see a very very very small niche for it but what you're asking is that me and my friends each pay you £1.99 so that we have another way of nagging each other to get tasks done.

Ask yourselves "what value does this bring to people?".

Would be cool to try it out though! Maybe you could find a way of selling 5 licences at a time or something for £1.99, so that I get one and get 4 to give to friends?

Re: Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends

#20

Post by mheap »

lewisflude wrote: post #19

The website looks nice (but Lobster is a little overused at the moment). Your idea is good, but not great, not £1.99 great. If it were free, it'd be awesome, if it was 69p I could see a very very very small niche for it but what you're asking is that me and my friends each pay you £1.99 so that we have another way of nagging each other to get tasks done. Ask yourselves "what value does this bring to people?". Would b…

Thanks for the feedback. You actually landed on the most expensive price! There's a few different prices, displayed at random. We're trying to see what people will pay for the app.

69p is a little low, as we need to at least cover our costs and everything so far is pointing to the fact that it's a niche app, not widely adopted. If we could change that, 69p might work.

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