Wait, WUT?
x.naveen.com
Wait, WUT?
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Wait, WUT?
#2from the App store:
> WUT SENDS A MESSAGE TO ALL FRIEND WHO HAVE WUT.
> ** Requires Facebook right now, sorry. **Re: Wait, WUT?
#3from 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.
Re: Wait, WUT?
#4from the App store: > WUT SENDS A MESSAGE TO ALL FRIEND WHO HAVE WUT. > ** Requires Facebook right now, sorry. **
Not sure how you can call these apps anonymous or "semi-anonymous". I tried Secret a month or so ago, and the first thing it asked me for was my phone number. So, this one requires Facebook? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of "anonymous".
Re: Wait, WUT?
#5Stuff 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 internet.
Re: Wait, WUT?
#6from the App store: > WUT SENDS A MESSAGE TO ALL FRIEND WHO HAVE WUT. > ** Requires Facebook right now, sorry. **
Not sure how you can call these apps anonymous or "semi-anonymous". I tried Secret a month or so ago, and the first thing it asked me for was my phone number. So, this one requires Facebook? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of "anonymous".
Agree on Facebook, but how would you get around the phone number for Secret? I don't have the app, but as I understand it, it uses your contacts list to find out who to send messages to (i.e., the phone number is the username that it uses to know to send your friends' posts to you).
Re: Wait, WUT?
#7I'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 might be able to back into a solution by attracting early adopters with their "gossip network" use case.
This reminds me of how Facebook backed into essentially being a status, photos, and events platform when it started life as a networked address book.
Re: Wait, WUT?
#8from the App store: > WUT SENDS A MESSAGE TO ALL FRIEND WHO HAVE WUT. > ** Requires Facebook right now, sorry. **
Not sure how you can call these apps anonymous or "semi-anonymous". I tried Secret a month or so ago, and the first thing it asked me for was my phone number. So, this one requires Facebook? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of "anonymous".
You probably don't (but you knew that). But that is why we explicitly call it semi anonymous not anonymous. (with no quotes)
It isn't a contract just a word choice that guides people to the expectation of how the app works.
Re: Wait, WUT?
#9I'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…
You are totally correct on the cold start problem. ;)
Re: Wait, WUT?
#10from 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.
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 piece is interesting, thank you for writing and posting.