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Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

cafecourses.com

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Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#21

Post by JeremyChase »

Once you get into the site itself the design is fine. I think the negative reaction you are seeing is more about the landing page. To sum it up; it has a web 1.0 feel. There is a lot of text, and it seems like a pretty intense sales pitch.

I'd cut that landing page down to the bare essentials.

The site itself feels very complete, but without content it is impossible to understand what the point really is. I registered and as others mentioned, I had no clue what to do. The "what to do" drop down is great, but so much to read. I don't have the patience to read all that (and I want to help you), so I wouldn't expect a user to read it.

Regarding content; you need to champion a topic. Pick something you know that would relate to other people. If you can't think of something, do something technical.. The site can't be empty, and the things that people see must be current.

good luck, looks like a strong start

Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#22

Post by bdmac97 »

JeremyChase wrote: post #21

Once you get into the site itself the design is fine. I think the negative reaction you are seeing is more about the landing page. To sum it up; it has a web 1.0 feel. There is a lot of text, and it seems like a pretty intense sales pitch. I'd cut that landing page down to the bare essentials. The site itself feels very complete, but without content it is impossible to understand what the point really is. I registere…

That is great feedback. Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#25

Post by epoweripi »

for a one man army, I think its pretty neat what you've put out as v1.

Some gripes: - Please allow me to see content without a signup. it will help in SEO too.

- You can put up this on your hompage :) http://www.cafecourses.com/courses/3-course-creation-101 and invite people to take up more courses (if #1 is done)

- Related courses will help when looking at a particular course (you already have tags and search, so I think it might be easy to do this)

- Your login form is a bit too intrusive for my taste. Why do I have to check my email to continue using the service? (I dropped out at that point and didnt get to see a course) I didnt mind a signup for testing ur service but checking my email was a blocker. I have 2 emails (both on gmail) and one I dont check at all. Used for experimenting. To see that inbox I have to signoff from my account and log in there, wade through spam to find your mail.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#26

Post by bdmac97 »

epoweripi wrote: post #25

for a one man army, I think its pretty neat what you've put out as v1. Some gripes: - Please allow me to see content without a signup. it will help in SEO too. - You can put up this on your hompage :) http://www.cafecourses.com/courses/3-course-creation-101 and invite people to take up more courses (if #1 is done) - Related courses will help when looking at a particular course (you already have tags and search, so I…

Thanks for the comments.

1. You can already see the content without signing up (at least the course overview pages). It is probably not obvious but the Course Catalog link at the top is accessible when you are not signed in. I didn't want people to get lost in looking at courses (especially when there aren't many yet) because I want them to sign up and get involved in the community.

2. Related courses is a great idea, thanks!

3. Due to comments here I am reconsidering the email verification step. Most people just use a trash or temp address to get around it anyways (like I do).

Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#28

Post by bdmac97 »

emmett wrote: post #23

As soon as I understood what you were offering (make your own courses online!) I wanted to browse example courses that had been released, and it wasn't obvious how to do that.

Course Catalog link at the top. It's also the home page when you are logged in.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#29

Post by jgilliam »

bdmac97 wrote: post #18
jgilliam wrote: post #13

I signed up. The "conversational japanese" course was highly rated and recommended, so I enrolled in it, but I don't know what to do now. There doesn't seem to be anything there. Where's the course? The "enroll" button was a bit scary, I wasn't sure what that would do. I'd expose as much of the course materials as you can without forcing someone to enroll.

On the content issue, most of the existing courses out there were created during the private friends/family beta. I have not removed them under the assumption that they will simply fade to meaningless over time. I believe the "Conversational Japanese" course is still under construction but the owner "published" it for testing purposes. Getting quality content is my primary concern at this point! Didn't mean to scare…

More food for thought.. "Enroll" feels like there is going to be some requirement of me, and I wasn't willing to make that commitment yet. This isn't the right language, but something like "keep tabs on this course", or simply "follow", or maybe there's two options: "enroll" and "audit"

Re: Ask HN: Please review my new social learning site

#30

Post by iterationx »

bdmac97 wrote: post #27
iterationx wrote: post #24

nice idea, if a user creates a course will another user be able to modify it? because that might be helpful.

This is not implemented yet but there is already a story for allowing possible course author collaborations.

i'm reminded of something joel spolsky said about the changing state of volunteering, that people are willing to do small defined tasks, but less willing to volunteer a certain block of their time each week. So if somehow you had a course todo list, and people could each contribute, i think that might work well.
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