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My suggestion: 1) Filter out troll applications and applications with fake votes and other ineligible applications. 2) From the sanitized list find out the to

by abhi3 11y ago

My suggestion: 1) Filter out troll applications and applications with fake votes and other ineligible applications. 2) From the sanitized list find out the top 10 3) Start a poll where users can choose from the top 10 (but don't rank them in the poll, randomize the placements and don't show live voting stats to prevent bias) 4) Give every applicant on the poll the opportunity to post why one should vote for within a short word limit. As we have seen from low engagement after the first few days, extremely few users will read 10 complete threads and make their choice.

vishalkgupta 11y ago
Hey HN! I'm Vishal. One of the team members behind WedWell(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11441020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11441020). We're somewhere in the top group of entries with 43 points. I wanted to say that regardless of whether or not we get selected, we really appreciated the ideas and exposure that came from our discussions on HN. A handful of our first clients named HN as the reason why they came to us! Some of the ideas discussed are already being planned for our service. We applied to YC the regular way, and didn't get in. This way we got a bunch of feedback and some traction. Net positive for us. Dang asked above how best to sift through the applications to give the community final say. I was reading through some of the ideas posted here on how to do that, the one that seem to resonate here with me was the one abhi3 posted above. I'm just worried that a public vote is easily gamed. Another way to do this is to select the top 10, and get the YC partners (or some trusted groups within YC - perhaps the last group of YC alum?) to vote on the list of 10. I think it would be nice to see what the end vote looks like (release the vote count), and have select YC partners provide some quick feedback for those who are voted on. Thanks again.
- abhi3 11y ago
  I think limiting voting to accounts with say, minimum 10 karma will get rid of almost all fake voting.
  - vishalkgupta 11y ago
    My gut feeling is that YC wouldn't want to some how alienate those with low karma points, but they could do something like only allow those to vote who have commented on Apply HN posts (or something along those lines).
- ryderj 11y ago
  Jack from wantobuy here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11477823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11477823 - also somewhere on the first page - I agree with you Vishal and abhi3. Moreover, we were rejected the standard YC way too but have got some really great feedback from the HN community which we're implementing already! I just think the whole Apply HN buzz fizzled out, favouring those that got in on day 1..we were about a week late..
  - theuttick 11y ago
    I am curious as to why you may have been rejected. Seems like a decent idea and you guys are programmers. Do you have a MVP yet?
miguelrochefort 11y ago
> 1) Filter out troll applications and applications with fake votes and other ineligible applications. How exactly do you identify "troll" applications? The most important ideas are often the most likely to be perceived as an act of trolling.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- tdaltonc 11y ago
  Any examples?
  - abhi3 11y ago
    Pinboard McPinboardface
    - idlewords 11y ago
      I met the stated criteria and dominated the voting. I want my twenty grand. Accusing me of trolling is not just dismissive, but implies I'm acting in bad faith. That's a pretty serious thing to say about someone.
      - Alex3917 11y ago
        > Accusing me of trolling [...] implies I'm acting in bad faith. Not necessarily. I troll people all the time by saying things that are true but sound wrong to the average person, and never in bad faith. PG and Zed Shaw frequently do the same thing, albeit in different ways, and I wouldn't say that they're acting in bad faith either. To the extent the book Made To Stick is correct that people are much more likely to become engaged with and ultimately remember things that seem wrong or counterintuitive at first, trolling at it's best is just a highly effective didactic technique.
        tptacek 11y ago
neurotech1 11y ago
How about having users post their "Top 10" picks and aggregate the results. One issue with having a single poll is that there is the possibility that a good startup will miss out due to statistic abnormality.

by abhi3 11y ago

vishalkgupta 11y ago

Hey HN! I'm Vishal. One of the team members behind WedWell(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11441020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11441020). We're somewhere in the top group of entries with 43 points. I wanted to say that regardless of whether or not we get selected, we really appreciated the ideas and exposure that came from our discussions on HN. A handful of our first clients named HN as the reason why they came to us! Some of the ideas discussed are already being planned for our service. We applied to YC the regular way, and didn't get in. This way we got a bunch of feedback and some traction. Net positive for us. Dang asked above how best to sift through the applications to give the community final say. I was reading through some of the ideas posted here on how to do that, the one that seem to resonate here with me was the one abhi3 posted above. I'm just worried that a public vote is easily gamed. Another way to do this is to select the top 10, and get the YC partners (or some trusted groups within YC - perhaps the last group of YC alum?) to vote on the list of 10. I think it would be nice to see what the end vote looks like (release the vote count), and have select YC partners provide some quick feedback for those who are voted on. Thanks again.

abhi3 11y ago
I think limiting voting to accounts with say, minimum 10 karma will get rid of almost all fake voting.
- vishalkgupta 11y ago
  My gut feeling is that YC wouldn't want to some how alienate those with low karma points, but they could do something like only allow those to vote who have commented on Apply HN posts (or something along those lines).
ryderj 11y ago
Jack from wantobuy here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11477823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11477823 - also somewhere on the first page - I agree with you Vishal and abhi3. Moreover, we were rejected the standard YC way too but have got some really great feedback from the HN community which we're implementing already! I just think the whole Apply HN buzz fizzled out, favouring those that got in on day 1..we were about a week late..
- theuttick 11y ago
  I am curious as to why you may have been rejected. Seems like a decent idea and you guys are programmers. Do you have a MVP yet?

miguelrochefort 11y ago

> 1) Filter out troll applications and applications with fake votes and other ineligible applications. How exactly do you identify "troll" applications? The most important ideas are often the most likely to be perceived as an act of trolling.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
tdaltonc 11y ago
Any examples?
- abhi3 11y ago
  Pinboard McPinboardface
  - idlewords 11y ago
    I met the stated criteria and dominated the voting. I want my twenty grand. Accusing me of trolling is not just dismissive, but implies I'm acting in bad faith. That's a pretty serious thing to say about someone.
    - Alex3917 11y ago
      > Accusing me of trolling [...] implies I'm acting in bad faith. Not necessarily. I troll people all the time by saying things that are true but sound wrong to the average person, and never in bad faith. PG and Zed Shaw frequently do the same thing, albeit in different ways, and I wouldn't say that they're acting in bad faith either. To the extent the book Made To Stick is correct that people are much more likely to become engaged with and ultimately remember things that seem wrong or counterintuitive at first, trolling at it's best is just a highly effective didactic technique.
      - tptacek 11y ago

neurotech1 11y ago

How about having users post their "Top 10" picks and aggregate the results. One issue with having a single poll is that there is the possibility that a good startup will miss out due to statistic abnormality.