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Wait, WUT?

x.naveen.com

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Re: Wait, WUT?

#11

Post by socmoth »

ethanhunt_ wrote: post #10
socmoth wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul here. Happy to answer any questions you may have. facebook login is annoying but did get us out the door. poor grammar is intentional. We used to have the words "WUT" repeated 200x in the app store copy, but Apple politely told us that wasn't good enough. We had more than a couple people tell us it was great though.

Are you both the creator of WUT and the author of the original piece? EDIT: posting too fast, so I'll just edit this post. I think you should edit your blog post with a disclaimer that you're a creator of WUT. It's not that I don't like reading about the products created by HN members (I like it a lot), but I (and I assume others) do want to know when the author has a vested interest in what he's writing about. The p…

Naveen is the cofounder of 4sq.

I'm Paul. One of the creators of WUT.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#12

Post by tormeh »

deepinsand wrote: post #7

I've never used WUT, but was intrigued by the anecdote at the end: "Sun’s out; in Washington square park. Who’s around?” I've seen tons of apps that try to solve the "I want to hang out" problem. They all fail because cool people don't use those apps. Psuedo-anonymity can potentially solve this. Some tried to do anonymous matching, but those had cold-start-network-effect problems. Psuedo-anonymous social networks mig…

I think some of it may simply be that hanging out is with strangers is not a way most people want to meet people. Meeting at events or places where simply by being there you have a mutual interest is more attractive for many.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#13

Post by deepinsand »

tormeh wrote: post #12
deepinsand wrote: post #7

I've never used WUT, but was intrigued by the anecdote at the end: "Sun’s out; in Washington square park. Who’s around?” I've seen tons of apps that try to solve the "I want to hang out" problem. They all fail because cool people don't use those apps. Psuedo-anonymity can potentially solve this. Some tried to do anonymous matching, but those had cold-start-network-effect problems. Psuedo-anonymous social networks mig…

I think some of it may simply be that hanging out is with strangers is not a way most people want to meet people. Meeting at events or places where simply by being there you have a mutual interest is more attractive for many.

Sorry, I should have said "pseudo-anonymous". At least in Secret, I can see how many degrees of separation I am to someone via our phone address book. I've since edited the original post.

It's anonymous enough that you don't feel the consequences of making a FB status update that no one comments on, but with enough identity to not be creepy.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#14

Post by socmoth »

chadwickthebold wrote: post #5

Stuff like this is great. It's like watching kids who grew up in the Twitter/FB age rediscover anonymous internet forums and imageboards like 4chan. People like anonymous services because you literally don't need to filter what you are saying. That can lead to a whole lot of bad, but some really, really great nuggets of truth and goodness coming out - it feels like tapping into the collective subconscious of the inte…

IRC! Usenet! BBSes!

The last era of the net (since 2004) a lot of stuff went full real names, after facebook made it ok to put your name on the internet.

We've started (re) discovering ways to connect which are less about real names.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#15

Post by Dewie »

tormeh wrote: post #12
deepinsand wrote: post #7

I've never used WUT, but was intrigued by the anecdote at the end: "Sun’s out; in Washington square park. Who’s around?” I've seen tons of apps that try to solve the "I want to hang out" problem. They all fail because cool people don't use those apps. Psuedo-anonymity can potentially solve this. Some tried to do anonymous matching, but those had cold-start-network-effect problems. Psuedo-anonymous social networks mig…

I think some of it may simply be that hanging out is with strangers is not a way most people want to meet people. Meeting at events or places where simply by being there you have a mutual interest is more attractive for many.

> I think some of it may simply be that hanging out is with strangers is not a way most people want to meet people. Meeting at events or places where simply by being there you have a mutual interest is more attractive for many.

Yeah, I don't really see strangers hanging out. That would be kind of weird. For a bunch of people to gather in one place, with no overall goal than to talk, hang out, perhaps have some background music but not much else. Maybe some smoking breaks. And then maybe for all of them to go to another place, maybe more towards the city, where you have to pay to do the same thing, that is, hanging out with people with whom you have no obvious common interests except for doing this hanging out thing, and in a much more crowded place.

Wait... what if you added alcohol to the above? Then I can totally imagine it. :)

Re: Wait, WUT?

#16

Post by pantalaimon »

It would be incredibly useful if there were a link to the App in question. WUT isn't very googleable, it wasn't entirely obvious from the article that it's an iPhone exclusive App, not a website or available on Android.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#17

Post by grinich »

pantalaimon wrote: post #16

It would be incredibly useful if there were a link to the App in question. WUT isn't very googleable, it wasn't entirely obvious from the article that it's an iPhone exclusive App, not a website or available on Android.

If you Google "wut app" it's the first hit.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#18

Post by aniro »

I am not really sure what people mean when they say "anonymous" anymore.

This app requires a Facebook account. Facebook is a service that all but defines itself on identity verification.

Re: Wait, WUT?

#19

Post by ForHackernews »

deepinsand wrote: post #13
tormeh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some of it may simply be that hanging out is with strangers is not a way most people want to meet people. Meeting at events or places where simply by being there you have a mutual interest is more attractive for many.

Sorry, I should have said "pseudo-anonymous". At least in Secret, I can see how many degrees of separation I am to someone via our phone address book. I've since edited the original post. It's anonymous enough that you don't feel the consequences of making a FB status update that no one comments on, but with enough identity to not be creepy.

> you don't feel the consequences of making a FB status update that no one comments on

Wait, what? What's the consequence of that? You expect people to comment on every one of your status updates?

Kids these days...

Re: Wait, WUT?

#20

Post by lobotryas »

socmoth wrote: post #3
cottonseed wrote: post #2

from the App store: > WUT SENDS A MESSAGE TO ALL FRIEND WHO HAVE WUT. > ** Requires Facebook right now, sorry. **

Paul here. Happy to answer any questions you may have. facebook login is annoying but did get us out the door. poor grammar is intentional. We used to have the words "WUT" repeated 200x in the app store copy, but Apple politely told us that wasn't good enough. We had more than a couple people tell us it was great though.

>facebook login is annoying but did get us out the door

Do you plan to allow for a truly anonymous registration option that doesn't require anything beyond an email address (no facebook, no scanning my contacts, no phone number)? If so, when should I look for it because that's the feature that would make me try out WUT.

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