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Feel free to email me with suggestions! courtland@indiehackers.com EDIT: I should say that the navigation is a work in progress, and the interviews/podcast/etc

Feel free to email me with suggestions! courtland@indiehackers.com EDIT: I should say that the navigation is a work in progress, and the interviews/podcast/etc will eventually be easier to get to.

stevesearer 8y ago
For me, the $$$$/mo requirement and focus was a turnoff to participating. No idea if that will ever change (or if it has), but I’d imagine there are other people like me who enjoy building things and talking about the process, but are not interested in sharing such personal details.
- digianarchist 8y ago
  Out of interest, are the MMR $ amounts independently verified? I have the sense some founders are inflating those figures but I could be wrong.
  - simplydt 8y ago
    We shared our true figures when Chessable got on IH. I don’t see what could be the motivation behind lying? If one did hoping to catch investors eyes, investors would quickly uncover the lie, as they definitely do check!
    - rococode 8y ago
      It could be a viable way to catch potential customers' eyes as a B2B startup. "Hey everyone my company definitely makes $50k/month so lots of other folks trust us and you should too!"
  - rutierut 8y ago
    Yes, all of the MMR on IH are verified by Stripe. No really independent of course but I think reliable enough for everyone.
barry-cotter 8y ago
Thanks for putting out the podcasts. I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve listened to that are available on iTunes. I do think forcing people to sign up to read your content, interview transcripts and text interviews I’d counterproductive. You’re playing a long game, why optimise for signups instead of brand building?
- csallen 8y ago
  Thanks for listening! You can read the transcripts, etc without signing up now, as of a few weeks ago.
ih_fan 8y ago
Hi Courtland, as my username suggests, I am a big fan of IH but I've almost completely stopped visiting. All feedback/suggestions are in good faith. - Blog : this was the single most valuable part of IH in the early days. Your struggles to grow, make money were so relatable. While the numbers might not have given you an idea of how wonderful the blog was, I'm sure people who've read it feel the same. Please consider restarting the blog. Share your struggles, what metrics you track, what goals if any Stripe expects you to hit, life post acquisition, why you make certain decisions (pushing for signups which IMO is a terrible idea) etc. The blog can be a great way to get feedback before making changes. - Don't push for signups. Someone mentioned that signing up was required to read the transcripts. This pushes people away. While the numbers might be great, moving away from a no BS design rarely works long term. It's good that you reverted that signup requirement. - Community participation : You and your brother's participation is extremely valuable but I've noticed that you guys are taking a back seat and letting the community grow organically. In theory it sounds good, but I urge you to reconsider. The community is not large enough to be self sustaining. - Development speed : Why do you take sooo long to make simple changes like changing the navbar? If there's a reason, I'd love to learn why this is so. Please move a little faster. All the changes like badges, changing the podcasts page. interviews page, adding Stripe verified revenue actually make the experience worse. The interview and podcast pages are unusable now with so much going on. It's so cluttered. The old one was way better. The new design has actively pushed me away from the interviews and podcasts. Focus on building features that actually make a meaningful difference : DMs, software to organize meetups etc. - Speed : the IH site is slow and full of junk tracking. Please make it work faster. SPAs are great in theory but are almost always worse than server rendered pages.
- csallen 8y ago
  You're hitting me with the tough questions, appreciate that they're all in good faith :) - I enjoyed blogging about IH, but it was also quite time-consuming, and not that many people found it interesting relative to the other stories we feature on the site. So it was just a tradeoff on what's the most effective way to spend my time. That said, I do have a "product page" for Indie Hackers where I will occasionally share what's going on: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/indie-hackers https://www.indiehackers.com/product/indie-hackers. You can find similar pages for other companies or create one of your own here: https://www.indiehackers.com/products https://www.indiehackers.com/products - Pushing for signups was an experiment that I'm happy to have reverted. Appreciate the feedback I got about it from multiple sources. - Channing and I spend lots of time on the forum. We do a lot of moderation, emailing people individually, encouraging and suggesting posts, and making comments ourselves. Much of this work is invisible. But I do think that as the forum continues to grow (which it hasn't stopped doing), we'll become a bit harder to find, like two needles in an ever-expanding haystack. - I'd like to move waaaay faster. It's tough. I do feel slow, especially during the last couple of months. (Lesson learned: say no to giving talks, say no to most meetings, respond to fewer emails.) There's also just a ton of work involved in running all the different parts of IH. There's a lot to prioritize, including numerous issues at any given time where a solid case could be made that "this is the most important thing." We're hiring a couple of engineers, so in the long run this should improve. - Aware of speed issues. Will improve over time. Again, one of the many things to juggle prioritizing. MLK once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I'd like to think the arc of Indie Hackers' development is long, but it bends toward a better, faster site. Thanks for the feedback!

Feel free to email me with suggestions! courtland@indiehackers.com EDIT: I should say that the navigation is a work in progress, and the interviews/podcast/etc will eventually be easier to get to.

stevesearer 8y ago

For me, the $$$$/mo requirement and focus was a turnoff to participating. No idea if that will ever change (or if it has), but I’d imagine there are other people like me who enjoy building things and talking about the process, but are not interested in sharing such personal details.

digianarchist 8y ago
Out of interest, are the MMR $ amounts independently verified? I have the sense some founders are inflating those figures but I could be wrong.
- simplydt 8y ago
  We shared our true figures when Chessable got on IH. I don’t see what could be the motivation behind lying? If one did hoping to catch investors eyes, investors would quickly uncover the lie, as they definitely do check!
  - rococode 8y ago
    It could be a viable way to catch potential customers' eyes as a B2B startup. "Hey everyone my company definitely makes $50k/month so lots of other folks trust us and you should too!"
- rutierut 8y ago
  Yes, all of the MMR on IH are verified by Stripe. No really independent of course but I think reliable enough for everyone.

barry-cotter 8y ago

Thanks for putting out the podcasts. I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve listened to that are available on iTunes. I do think forcing people to sign up to read your content, interview transcripts and text interviews I’d counterproductive. You’re playing a long game, why optimise for signups instead of brand building?

csallen 8y ago
Thanks for listening! You can read the transcripts, etc without signing up now, as of a few weeks ago.

ih_fan 8y ago

Hi Courtland, as my username suggests, I am a big fan of IH but I've almost completely stopped visiting. All feedback/suggestions are in good faith. - Blog : this was the single most valuable part of IH in the early days. Your struggles to grow, make money were so relatable. While the numbers might not have given you an idea of how wonderful the blog was, I'm sure people who've read it feel the same. Please consider restarting the blog. Share your struggles, what metrics you track, what goals if any Stripe expects you to hit, life post acquisition, why you make certain decisions (pushing for signups which IMO is a terrible idea) etc. The blog can be a great way to get feedback before making changes. - Don't push for signups. Someone mentioned that signing up was required to read the transcripts. This pushes people away. While the numbers might be great, moving away from a no BS design rarely works long term. It's good that you reverted that signup requirement. - Community participation : You and your brother's participation is extremely valuable but I've noticed that you guys are taking a back seat and letting the community grow organically. In theory it sounds good, but I urge you to reconsider. The community is not large enough to be self sustaining. - Development speed : Why do you take sooo long to make simple changes like changing the navbar? If there's a reason, I'd love to learn why this is so. Please move a little faster. All the changes like badges, changing the podcasts page. interviews page, adding Stripe verified revenue actually make the experience worse. The interview and podcast pages are unusable now with so much going on. It's so cluttered. The old one was way better. The new design has actively pushed me away from the interviews and podcasts. Focus on building features that actually make a meaningful difference : DMs, software to organize meetups etc. - Speed : the IH site is slow and full of junk tracking. Please make it work faster. SPAs are great in theory but are almost always worse than server rendered pages.

csallen 8y ago
You're hitting me with the tough questions, appreciate that they're all in good faith :) - I enjoyed blogging about IH, but it was also quite time-consuming, and not that many people found it interesting relative to the other stories we feature on the site. So it was just a tradeoff on what's the most effective way to spend my time. That said, I do have a "product page" for Indie Hackers where I will occasionally share what's going on: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/indie-hackers https://www.indiehackers.com/product/indie-hackers. You can find similar pages for other companies or create one of your own here: https://www.indiehackers.com/products https://www.indiehackers.com/products - Pushing for signups was an experiment that I'm happy to have reverted. Appreciate the feedback I got about it from multiple sources. - Channing and I spend lots of time on the forum. We do a lot of moderation, emailing people individually, encouraging and suggesting posts, and making comments ourselves. Much of this work is invisible. But I do think that as the forum continues to grow (which it hasn't stopped doing), we'll become a bit harder to find, like two needles in an ever-expanding haystack. - I'd like to move waaaay faster. It's tough. I do feel slow, especially during the last couple of months. (Lesson learned: say no to giving talks, say no to most meetings, respond to fewer emails.) There's also just a ton of work involved in running all the different parts of IH. There's a lot to prioritize, including numerous issues at any given time where a solid case could be made that "this is the most important thing." We're hiring a couple of engineers, so in the long run this should improve. - Aware of speed issues. Will improve over time. Again, one of the many things to juggle prioritizing. MLK once said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I'd like to think the arc of Indie Hackers' development is long, but it bends toward a better, faster site. Thanks for the feedback!