Hello from Orkut • Hacker News Board

Re: Hello from Orkut

#61

Post by curried_haskell » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:21 PM UTC

prajjwal wrote: post #13

Orkut was our go-to social network as teens, before we all moved to Facebook in 2009. I'm was going to join this out of sheer nostalgia, but it appears to be lacking a web app. I'm curious as to why they went with ONLY native Android / iOS apps. That will not only drive away people like me, who prefer to use things from a desktop web browser, but also people in developing countries who might not have access to a smar…

It's easier to suck up your information, access your contact lists and physical location, when you're stuck on a mobile app.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#62

Post by konart » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:21 PM UTC

Goint to give it a shot as a Instagram alternative when available in Russia.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#63

Post by miahi » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:25 PM UTC

karussell wrote: post #45

captn3m0 wrote: post #5

The HTTPS version of the site presents a cert for hello.com, which breaks the site for me.

both https://www.hello.com and https://hello.com work for me on FF

The orkut.com https site.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#64

Post by djaychela » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:28 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #16

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I see a large dissonance between this message and the 'hello' presentation. He laments that "we stay with locals when we travel abroad but we don't even know our neighbours at home", yet the new social network seems to push more in that direction (it talks about connecting people based on their interests, not their proximity). He says "we are afraid of what we don't know [...] we are…

No, I read it exactly the same way - I guess the problem is that we probably need something paradoxical - we want to connect to things we know, but also to new things, people, places and experiences. But when we want them - otherwise they're an inconvenience.

I think just talking to people you meet at random will probably be a better solution.

(until I get murdered by a stranger!)

Re: Hello from Orkut

#65

Post by jv0010 » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:30 PM UTC

I must say it's light & easy to use. Most importantly really fast and minimal taps. This is very important for any new app.

As for the mobile only situation I would say this is a good business decision to minimise (not eliminate) spam accounts and possibly would be a good idea if people get indexed into search or people share this will promote installations. It worked well with IG this concept so I'd say in its early conception it was a wise move.

It's also very obvious that this team has experience with social networking.

Now for my negative comment, I'd say gaining traction in the app era of today is hard when it comes to social networking due to the reason is that everyone is bombarded.

I would recommend focusing on the need or the feeling of why one would want to open the app again which as of now I am finding hard to see personally. This is the most crucial part and All energy needs to put towards exposing the app in an organic way with that need.

As much as of a no brainer it sounds we have seen previous start ups fall from this lack of identification

Re: Hello from Orkut

#66

Post by jaxondu » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:32 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #23

I'm echoing what others are saying: no web version means I won't bother at all. My phone has access to multiple great browsers. Building a good lightweight web app means I can access the content from anywhere without having to deal with annoyances of push notifications or (as much) creepy tracking. My favorite example of a mobile web app is currently Twitter Mobile [0]. I even like using it from my desktop. It's very…

Bad move for not having a web version. I just don't feel like downloading apps nowadays. A few of my friends are also like that.

Re: Hello from Orkut

#67

Post by havetocharge » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:34 PM UTC

curried_haskell wrote: post #58

Why oh why does it need to be called "hello"? How the fuck am I supposed to Google for "hello"?

site: hello.com ?

Re: Hello from Orkut

#68

Post by woollysammoth » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:34 PM UTC

"We are living in a strange time. We hide behind our devices, ignoring the people around us."

So... a mobile app is the solution?

Re: Hello from Orkut

#69

Post by rburhum » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:34 PM UTC

First, let me say something I would not have said a few years ago... a new social network to meet people interested in the other things I do... awesome!

I get why there is not a web version at first. Unlike most people, I dont see that as a deal breaker.

I downloaded the app and tried it out.

The good: I like the idea of limiting yourself to five personas. It made me sit down and think what I wanted out of this. See, FB has a big chunk of my social graph and meetup gives me access to events that are interesting to me. Reddit and HNs filter content that I find interesting. Nevertheless, as an engineer and startup founder, those mediums keep bombarding me with Startup/C++/Django/etc meetups/news and articles about scaling startups. All topics I like to read about.

But there are other things I like that get overshadowed by this content.

I like surfing and consider myself a curious foodie for example. That content does show up in those other mediums, but gets really overshadowed by the strength of my network around the other topics (be it my FB graph or meetups I keep an eye out for). Another network - concentrated on meeting other people that share these distinctly different personas is an interesting proposition. So I tried!

The bad: It is empty once the setup was done. I dont see anything except the ability to add a photo for a persona. not sure that you can get away with this.

Also, you made me type information that was available somewhere else. Why??? Think of it this way, even if Gitlab is competing with GitHub, they let you log in with your GitHub account. Do this. Import the information from FB, G+, or whatever other place that already has this info...

Anyway, I'll keep an eye out to see how this plays out.

Update: I see content now. It has an Instagramish feel

Re: Hello from Orkut

#70

Post by waylandsmithers » Fri, Aug 05, 2016, 12:37 PM UTC

Not super excited about this, but if the attention scares facebook into improving its user experience, I'm all for it. Kind of like how github got some bad press and competition from gitlab and then magically started pushing out features people had been requesting for years.