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Just to put it out there, we never said anything about warmer or fuzzier. We had no intention of having any press coverage for a few months, perhaps that was a

Just to put it out there, we never said anything about warmer or fuzzier. We had no intention of having any press coverage for a few months, perhaps that was a mistake for this reason exactly.

sixQuarks 10y ago
Hey, don't let negative comments get to you. Always happens on HN. Best example being DropBox launch, top comments said something along the lines of "this will never work". As a long-time reddit user, I like what I see so far. I submitted my email for invite, how long does that usually take?
- minimaxir 10y ago
  Citing an outlier event is not strong evidence against negative-comments-are-always-wrong. The complaints about Imzy on this submission are justified by the commenters and, in my opinion, accurate.
  - sixQuarks 10y ago
    DropBox is certainly not an outlier on HN, it's just the largest example.
  - zedadex 10y ago
    He didn't say negative comments were always wrong, he said to not let them get to him.
- kwgardner 10y ago
  Thanks! :) We're trying really hard to purposely grow things slowly to keep them at a scale we can manage both on the community and technology side. Dumping a whole bunch of people into one place all at once turns into a free-for-all, and we want to make sure we're able to moderate communities to have the kind of quality interactions we want rather than a bunch of circlejerking, and that our technology is able to evolve at the same rate our userbase grows. Right now the only way to get in is if you get invited by another person who's already a member (there are usually people on Twitter sharing their invites if you search for them), or requesting to join a specific community, and then the leader of that community can let you in. Otherwise, we'll be slowly letting people into Imzy in the order they signed up in, and unfortunately that may take a while if you just signed up, since the list is pretty long right now. :/ We really want to do this right rather than explode quickly and die a week later.
- rmc 10y ago
  > Hey, don't let negative comments get to you. Always happens on HN. Best example being DropBox launch, top comments said something along the lines of "this will never work". Nothing beats the Slashdot review of when the iPod was first released: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i...
johansch 10y ago
In my world press attention isn't something you (should) get delivered on demand. Also, your front page says very prominently: "Find where you belong and join in healthy, positive communities." ("warmer") Along with a massive overload of overly cute imagery. ("fuzzier") So really, I don't understand where you are coming from.
- kickme444 10y ago
  I said we didn't say warm and fuzzy. You don't understand that?
  - qntmfred 10y ago
    and he said your front page implies otherwise. You don't understand that?
  - johansch 10y ago
    You didn't say warm and fuzzy.. you just put this invite-only site out there that screams those two keywords "silently". I think I understand perfectly.
  - anjc 10y ago
    Well you won't be confused for warm and fuzzy at least. Start as you mean to go on, they say
  - ben_jones 10y ago
    This comment is confrontational and, putting myself in OP's shoes, would sound as if you are questioning my intelligence. Can a moderator please flag this?
    - dang 10y ago
      I'm not sure it's less confrontational than some of your own comments. Also, it's hard to have one's baby criticized and the author is in a difficult position in this thread, so I'm inclined to cut him a bit of slack.
dlandis 10y ago
But is it an unfair characterization? I mean "healthy", "positive", "safe space" - and then images of childlike cartoons frolicking around the water? If "warm and fuzzy" wasnt what you were going for, I think you need to rethink the presentation.
- kwgardner 10y ago
  Yeah, I think it is an unfair characterization, because it's extremely narrow and oversimplified. And yeah, we're learning today that maybe we do need to rethink our presentation, and especially the use of the word "positive" on our home page. (Fwiw, we've never used the wording "safe space" or tried to claim to be that--those were the author's words.) I'm going to do a little bit of copy/pasting from some of my other comments on this thread to help respond to this one, so I hope you'll forgive me, but here's why I don't really agree with that description. Why I think it's oversimplified and not really representative: Our goal, and what we meant by using the word "positive" is that Imzy, and the communities on it, enrich people's lives in a positive way. That doesn't mean every comment, post, or discussion is positive. It means that I come away a better, more informed person from the discussions I have, or maybe I just enjoy my time there. Maybe we messed up using that word, and we'll need to change it. We're young, and we're learning how to describe and talk about who we are and what we're trying to do. What that does mean is that extreme or sustained harassment that makes people unhappy, fear for their lives, or feel like they can't participate isn't okay. Communities that exist solely for hate aren't cool. But disagreement and even voicing opinions that are very unfavorable can still exist. Saying mean things to people is okay, unless that's all you do all day following around a user or something. We all become better people when we can share our own perspectives and hear the perspectives of others, especially when they are different from our own. Otherwise you end up with an echo chamber. Why I think it's extremely narrow and offbase: This is the tiniest bit of what we're actually doing. We've focused on creating really diverse tools so that communities can exist and share however makes most sense for them and do the things that they need to do all in one place. We've built in a payments system. We've tried to give leaders AWESOME tools for making their communities exactly what they want and managing them the way that makes sense for them. We've tried to make things a lot more user and mobile friendly, as the places you referenced can be intimidating and not intuitive to a lot of people. Those are the things I'm most excited about--all the things we're adding to community functionality, not what we're taking away.
tyingq 10y ago
<meta name="description" content="Experience community and find where you belong. All you care about on a single platform as flexible and diverse as you are. We want to make you happy."/>

Just to put it out there, we never said anything about warmer or fuzzier. We had no intention of having any press coverage for a few months, perhaps that was a mistake for this reason exactly.

sixQuarks 10y ago

Hey, don't let negative comments get to you. Always happens on HN. Best example being DropBox launch, top comments said something along the lines of "this will never work". As a long-time reddit user, I like what I see so far. I submitted my email for invite, how long does that usually take?

minimaxir 10y ago
Citing an outlier event is not strong evidence against negative-comments-are-always-wrong. The complaints about Imzy on this submission are justified by the commenters and, in my opinion, accurate.
- sixQuarks 10y ago
  DropBox is certainly not an outlier on HN, it's just the largest example.
- zedadex 10y ago
  He didn't say negative comments were always wrong, he said to not let them get to him.
kwgardner 10y ago
Thanks! :) We're trying really hard to purposely grow things slowly to keep them at a scale we can manage both on the community and technology side. Dumping a whole bunch of people into one place all at once turns into a free-for-all, and we want to make sure we're able to moderate communities to have the kind of quality interactions we want rather than a bunch of circlejerking, and that our technology is able to evolve at the same rate our userbase grows. Right now the only way to get in is if you get invited by another person who's already a member (there are usually people on Twitter sharing their invites if you search for them), or requesting to join a specific community, and then the leader of that community can let you in. Otherwise, we'll be slowly letting people into Imzy in the order they signed up in, and unfortunately that may take a while if you just signed up, since the list is pretty long right now. :/ We really want to do this right rather than explode quickly and die a week later.
rmc 10y ago
> Hey, don't let negative comments get to you. Always happens on HN. Best example being DropBox launch, top comments said something along the lines of "this will never work". Nothing beats the Slashdot review of when the iPod was first released: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i...

johansch 10y ago

In my world press attention isn't something you (should) get delivered on demand. Also, your front page says very prominently: "Find where you belong and join in healthy, positive communities." ("warmer") Along with a massive overload of overly cute imagery. ("fuzzier") So really, I don't understand where you are coming from.

kickme444 10y ago
I said we didn't say warm and fuzzy. You don't understand that?
- qntmfred 10y ago
  and he said your front page implies otherwise. You don't understand that?
- johansch 10y ago
  You didn't say warm and fuzzy.. you just put this invite-only site out there that screams those two keywords "silently". I think I understand perfectly.
- anjc 10y ago
  Well you won't be confused for warm and fuzzy at least. Start as you mean to go on, they say
- ben_jones 10y ago
  This comment is confrontational and, putting myself in OP's shoes, would sound as if you are questioning my intelligence. Can a moderator please flag this?
  - dang 10y ago
    I'm not sure it's less confrontational than some of your own comments. Also, it's hard to have one's baby criticized and the author is in a difficult position in this thread, so I'm inclined to cut him a bit of slack.

dlandis 10y ago

But is it an unfair characterization? I mean "healthy", "positive", "safe space" - and then images of childlike cartoons frolicking around the water? If "warm and fuzzy" wasnt what you were going for, I think you need to rethink the presentation.

kwgardner 10y ago
Yeah, I think it is an unfair characterization, because it's extremely narrow and oversimplified. And yeah, we're learning today that maybe we do need to rethink our presentation, and especially the use of the word "positive" on our home page. (Fwiw, we've never used the wording "safe space" or tried to claim to be that--those were the author's words.) I'm going to do a little bit of copy/pasting from some of my other comments on this thread to help respond to this one, so I hope you'll forgive me, but here's why I don't really agree with that description. Why I think it's oversimplified and not really representative: Our goal, and what we meant by using the word "positive" is that Imzy, and the communities on it, enrich people's lives in a positive way. That doesn't mean every comment, post, or discussion is positive. It means that I come away a better, more informed person from the discussions I have, or maybe I just enjoy my time there. Maybe we messed up using that word, and we'll need to change it. We're young, and we're learning how to describe and talk about who we are and what we're trying to do. What that does mean is that extreme or sustained harassment that makes people unhappy, fear for their lives, or feel like they can't participate isn't okay. Communities that exist solely for hate aren't cool. But disagreement and even voicing opinions that are very unfavorable can still exist. Saying mean things to people is okay, unless that's all you do all day following around a user or something. We all become better people when we can share our own perspectives and hear the perspectives of others, especially when they are different from our own. Otherwise you end up with an echo chamber. Why I think it's extremely narrow and offbase: This is the tiniest bit of what we're actually doing. We've focused on creating really diverse tools so that communities can exist and share however makes most sense for them and do the things that they need to do all in one place. We've built in a payments system. We've tried to give leaders AWESOME tools for making their communities exactly what they want and managing them the way that makes sense for them. We've tried to make things a lot more user and mobile friendly, as the places you referenced can be intimidating and not intuitive to a lot of people. Those are the things I'm most excited about--all the things we're adding to community functionality, not what we're taking away.

tyingq 10y ago