Interesting that the "link-baity" title worked much better on HN.
(I consider any title which tells me what X "needs" or why / how X "must" do something to be link-bait)
How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
51–60 of 124 posts
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#52Congrats on the success! I'm curious: the condition of <1 mile proximity isn't transitive, so wouldn't users be seeing only one half of a lot of conversations? Like if A was close to B, B was close to C, but A wasn't close to C, then A would only see what B says to C but not what C says back. Or have you divided up space into fixed cells roughly one mile wide to prevent this?
This was probably my most embarrassing oversight. Your first point is the way it's working. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to make that work without segmenting the map into fixed cells... any thoughts?
I don't think it's a simple problem, but it is interesting.
You might try a clustering algorithms like k-means. Or perhaps there is a graph theory way to approach it.
But I suspect every solution you come up with will involve some trade offs, so there is something to be said for the simple solution you implemented.
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#53Congrats on the success! I'm curious: the condition of <1 mile proximity isn't transitive, so wouldn't users be seeing only one half of a lot of conversations? Like if A was close to B, B was close to C, but A wasn't close to C, then A would only see what B says to C but not what C says back. Or have you divided up space into fixed cells roughly one mile wide to prevent this?
This was probably my most embarrassing oversight. Your first point is the way it's working. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to make that work without segmenting the map into fixed cells... any thoughts?
You should just make the text from 1 to 2 miles show at 50% alpha, and the 25% alpha from 2 to 3 miles.
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#54Congrats! Keep hustling
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was probably my most embarrassing oversight. Your first point is the way it's working. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to make that work without segmenting the map into fixed cells... any thoughts?
I don't think it's a simple problem, but it is interesting. You might try a clustering algorithms like k-means. Or perhaps there is a graph theory way to approach it. But I suspect every solution you come up with will involve some trade offs, so there is something to be said for the simple solution you implemented.
I haven't used the app because I have an android phone so I don't know how it works, but is there any way to have someone outside of the 1 mile radius ask to "join" people within another radius? Or would that break the idea of the app.
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would report your facebook posts as abuse if I saw them on my newsfeed, most likely. "I joined a bunch of groups so I could advertise to them." Scummy.
Not all advertisement is scummy. You could easily change the tone here. "I joined a bunch of very specific types of groups so I could manually write a post that tells them about a free app that I built for their demographic." I felt the "scum" right away, but then I thought about the source of the feeling. Scummy is when you write bait. Telling people about your app - sometimes that requires a door to door cold call.…
thank you! took the words right out of my mouth
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#57Please add push notifications? If you log in, and no one is around, the app gets closed pretty quickly. I have checked back multiple times, and always seem to miss everyone chatting. I would love to know if someone close by is online or chatting, so that I don't have to sit there hoping someone sees my tepid 'Hello?'. I don't know if push notifications are the correct answer, but letting me know that there was activi…
you've got a lot of great feedback my friend! im worried that ill somehow miss some of it on here in the future.
if you dont mind please email me: ryan - at - soundtribe.com
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
if you believe in your product and think there's a need than why would you consider it spam?
I would report your facebook posts as abuse if I saw them on my newsfeed, most likely. "I joined a bunch of groups so I could advertise to them." Scummy.
The groups he sent to are quite likely to actually use and enjoy the app.
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was probably my most embarrassing oversight. Your first point is the way it's working. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to make that work without segmenting the map into fixed cells... any thoughts?
I don't think it's a simple problem, but it is interesting. You might try a clustering algorithms like k-means. Or perhaps there is a graph theory way to approach it. But I suspect every solution you come up with will involve some trade offs, so there is something to be said for the simple solution you implemented.
Keep in mind that users are logging on and off all the time, so it has to be an online algorithm.
Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day
#60I like the app idea, but not a huge fan of your methods of attracting users. Because this is a highly localized app, I think the key takeaway is that you need to really push a single (or multiple) locations at once, rather than "everywhere" at once. The app will do far better with 1000 users in one location than 1 user in each of 1000 locations. Also, could you onboard users with no registration required to get them…
Absolutely. This app is going to completely rely on network effects. Just like Facebook, once there are a few area "spheres" with a lot of active and concurrent users, this can start to take off.
I predict this may end up being the next big Snapchat-like app within a year. I may be totally wrong, and/or I may just be biased because I've always wanted an app like this (in part because I always enjoyed the local small-region chatting in MMO games, and this is the same thing applied to real life), but I think this has a ton of potential.
Right now it needs to be aggressively marketed and spread around.