Maybe it's just because I'm hungry, but I really like this site. The only thing I didn't like was the infinite scrolling. There's something psychologically unsatisfying about a page you can never reach the bottom of. I much prefer the steady progress of a "next" button.
Rate my startup: coookin.com
21–25 of 25 posts
Re: Rate my startup: coookin.com
#22Terrible name. Like the idea of photos, but when I click on them I want to see a recipe so I can make it. What about copyright? I see some of the recipes are taken from iphone apps or books. Are you liable if someone posts a recipe straight from a source that is legally protected?
Re: Rate my startup: coookin.com
#23Did not sign up for all the reasons listed in this thread - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1665498 Nice idea otherwise, but I would move "It's all about photos" to the front page. Otherwise it is very easy to assume that it's a Dribbble for the recipes.
Thanks for the suggestion, it might serve as a better tagline. Regarding the sign in, I am very happy with the current solution - I don't see the hassle? Everybody has a Facebook/twitter/google account these days :)
I am very happy that you are happy with the current sign-in solution. Unfortunately it does not work for me. I don't have Facebook or Google account, nor do I plan on getting them. The Twitter account I have, but I am not comfortable associating it with some (essentially) random website that I am merely curious about.
Re: Rate my startup: coookin.com
#24I think this site will succeed or fail based on the quality of the food images. I would recommend you look at how opensourcefood.com cultivated high quality images from their community. If a low standard is set, I don't think there will be much you can do to make the site valuable.
oh wow, flattered to see opensourcefood.com get name-dropped on HN!
(disclosure: I was the founder, but sold it in 2009 - it is basically unchanged though)
Setting the standard from the start is something any founder of a UGC site needs to be actively involved in.
In the case of OSF I was responsible for much of the early content, armed with my dSLR. I then invited friends who were similarly equipped and they added awesome photos/recipes, which really helped set the tone.
I also actively deleted crappy content. I felt like a douchebag for doing it, but there was a standard I wanted to maintain. People who got their content removed would receive a list of tips to help them take better photos for next time :)
Eventually this scales out of control. You can see the content from the early days is still the most popular: http://www.opensourcefood.com/recipes/all_time_best
And it's all pretty high quality. But you can't keep that going forever as you community grows from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands and beyond.
It's super important for early adoption though. Visitors have to visit your site and go "wow, I want to be part of this!".
Re: Rate my startup: coookin.com
#25Made me think about foodgawker.com and tastespotting.com,imo you should add some sort of categorization. The average user probably will use you site as source of inspiration, so being able to choose with a tag cloud (or better, a more clever mechanism) would be a good plus.
What about trying to improve the look of the photos providing a section with photography suggestions(maybe wrote by your best users)?