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Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

screechapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#11

Post by golergka »

SamPiggott wrote: post #10
golergka wrote: post #7

The quality of questions is the main problem, yes. May be they can be upvoted or downvoted, so they would appear more or less frequently?

This is a great concept - giving each question a score and allowing it to gain/lose exposure based on it, similar to HN/Reddit.

Wouldn't that make it a minimal quora/SO that you don't have to specially post your questions on?

Or, and while we're at it — location filters for location-based questions would be the greatest (although much more hard to implement) feature. I don't want to answer someone's question about his homework, clearly directed for his friends, but I would gladly give advice to a tourist who found himself in a place I know.

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#12

Post by golergka »

decs wrote: post #4

I also liked the idea. One way to ask questions would be using a hashtag (#screech?). So questions that use the hash would have a better chance of being selected. It would be nice if you could choose some keywords to filter the questions in your area of expertise.

But the hashtags would contradict what I think is the best feature of this site — that you don't even have to know about it to use it.

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#13

Post by dl_terp »

SamPiggott wrote: post #10
golergka wrote: post #7

The quality of questions is the main problem, yes. May be they can be upvoted or downvoted, so they would appear more or less frequently?

This is a great concept - giving each question a score and allowing it to gain/lose exposure based on it, similar to HN/Reddit.

It'd also be great if you could add keywords you wanted in the questions surfaced to you, targeting the questions you get more specifically at what you're familiar with ("plumbing", "pipes", "leaking" questions for plumbers etc). Increasing relevance would help make it more useful.

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#14

Post by emhart »

Good idea! Sometimes, if a tweet goes to 3 lines, the next & reply buttons get pushed a little below the footer text, which stacks on top of them. You can still select the top of the buttons, but just so ya know. In fact, just positioning those buttons consistently so you can rapidly scroll through the possible questions would be nice.

Anyway! I like it, if you decide to keep developing it with better parsing of questions (identifying and removing rhetorical, etc.) and show "other replies" below the actual question to show if others have attempted to answer already.

Also, also, I saw someone on your twitter feed suggested you take it off-twitter, but I think the real joy of this is the potential to help a complete stranger who had no idea the whole world was actually listening.

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#15

Post by SamPiggott »

golergka wrote: post #11
SamPiggott wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great concept - giving each question a score and allowing it to gain/lose exposure based on it, similar to HN/Reddit.

Wouldn't that make it a minimal quora/SO that you don't have to specially post your questions on? Or, and while we're at it — location filters for location-based questions would be the greatest (although much more hard to implement) feature. I don't want to answer someone's question about his homework, clearly directed for his friends, but I would gladly give advice to a tourist who found himself in a place I know.

I think that the system requires some form of filtering - be it by location, score, hashtag or otherwise. A featured which allows a user to get to the questions they can answer quickly is definitely something that needs to be developed.

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#16

Post by SamPiggott »

emhart wrote: post #14

Good idea! Sometimes, if a tweet goes to 3 lines, the next & reply buttons get pushed a little below the footer text, which stacks on top of them. You can still select the top of the buttons, but just so ya know. In fact, just positioning those buttons consistently so you can rapidly scroll through the possible questions would be nice. Anyway! I like it, if you decide to keep developing it with better parsing of ques…

Thanks so much! About the frontend comment - I'd not really heard anything about the actual design, so that's a very welcome piece of feedback - I'll add that to the bugfix list.

I think half the reason I really built this app is because I keep saying on my own Twitter "I want to learn how to do ____ - but I don't know where to start!". When I don't hear anything back, it's a little bit demotivating. I really love the idea of strangers helping strangers with their work and goals too; but I also feel that the questions would be better suited to those who have specified exactly what kind of questions they can answer.

Food for thought, I guess. Thanks so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it :)

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#18

Post by SamPiggott »

danielfernandez wrote: post #17

Great idea! Just one suggestion. Make the name linkeable to their profile or better to the tweet itself, because sometimes you need to understand the context to answer a question.

I hadn't even considered contexts...! Great stuff, thanks - added to the list!

Re: Show HN: Screech - Tweet your answers to real questions

#19

Post by emhart »

SamPiggott wrote: post #16
emhart wrote: post #14

Good idea! Sometimes, if a tweet goes to 3 lines, the next & reply buttons get pushed a little below the footer text, which stacks on top of them. You can still select the top of the buttons, but just so ya know. In fact, just positioning those buttons consistently so you can rapidly scroll through the possible questions would be nice. Anyway! I like it, if you decide to keep developing it with better parsing of ques…

Thanks so much! About the frontend comment - I'd not really heard anything about the actual design, so that's a very welcome piece of feedback - I'll add that to the bugfix list. I think half the reason I really built this app is because I keep saying on my own Twitter "I want to learn how to do ____ - but I don't know where to start!". When I don't hear anything back, it's a little bit demotivating. I really love th…

No problem! You definitely have a bit of a double edged sword on your hands. Personally, I love the idea that you could help a complete stranger who thinks they are just yelling into the void, at the same time, it would probably be a more useful service if the queries were sent to it directly and tagged by expertise, blah blah blah.

So, do you integrate both behaviors? Cut your baby in half? Whatever you choose to do, I'll be interested in the result. Good luck!

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