Rate My Startup - Slap A Story • Hacker News Board

Re: Rate My Startup - Slap A Story

#41

Post by coglethorpe » Tue, Sep 02, 2008, 6:35 PM UTC

I like this idea, mostly because it's one I had earlier and never had the time to implement. :-) From a cursory glance, the site looks good.

I do see the point that others have about who the site might target. Serious writers might steer away from the site in favor of workshop style sites, leaving you with prolific, but possibly weak writers. I have a feeling that might be a rather young demographic and I wonder how well the site would monetize. Still, I wish you the best with the venture and will check back.

Re: Rate My Startup - Slap A Story

#42

Post by coglethorpe » Tue, Sep 02, 2008, 6:52 PM UTC

coglethorpe wrote: post #41

I like this idea, mostly because it's one I had earlier and never had the time to implement. :-) From a cursory glance, the site looks good. I do see the point that others have about who the site might target. Serious writers might steer away from the site in favor of workshop style sites, leaving you with prolific, but possibly weak writers. I have a feeling that might be a rather young demographic and I wonder how…

I'll say this: the site was good enough to get me to come back for a second look. I do agree with an earlier poster who said the stories need better layout. They were a bit hard to read as they look now.

Re: Rate My Startup - Slap A Story

#43

Post by comatose_kid » Wed, Sep 03, 2008, 3:34 AM UTC

Ilia wrote: post #32

comatose_kid wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about becoming the twitter of stories? Limit it to 140 words or something (analogous to the 4K compos from the Amiga demo scene).

that is somethng to think about. Not sure how writers will react to 140 words thought. Also do mean characters, right?

140 characters is probably approaching some lower bound of what is required for an interesting story. 140 characters, while conforming to the length of a text SMS, would probably be too brief...

Re: Rate My Startup - Slap A Story

#44

Post by rksprst » Wed, Sep 03, 2008, 10:32 PM UTC

sbarski wrote: post #24

rksprst wrote: post #18

I like your idea. However, I don't like the fact that simply by submitting something I automatically grant you a license to do whatever you want with it. In fact, I was going to submit a short story but will not after reading your terms and conditions. I think that to make the site successful you need high quality stories that people want to read and vote up. I am not sure that authors would be willing to post on you…

If you read the last paragraph in our T&C you will see that we do not assert any ownership over your content (story). It still belongs to you and you can do with it whatever you like. What we want, however, is to be able to use user-submitted content for any possible advertising or promotion purposes. This is kind of what facebook does except not as evil. We reckon that the user will benefit from this too (as it will…

I did read that last paragraph where you say that I still have ownership over my content. However, I am still granting you a license to do whatever you want with the story. Meaning you can go and sell the top stories to publishers legally. I don't like this. I would make it so that you can only use it for promotions with prior written consent from the author and the only license I grant you is to display it on your site.