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Ask HN: Rate my Startup
WeatherLoop° - Receive Weather Texts Everyday (Please provide feedback)
http://weatherloop.com
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- kloncks 16y agoLink: http://www.weatherloop.com http://www.weatherloop.com
- jamesteow 16y agoI found it odd that I needed you to provide me with a link that I expected from the OP.
- misterhaywood 16y agoHa! I tried when I created the post to no avail. Both he and I created a link at the same time, so I deleted mine.
- kloncks 16y agoYou can't have a link inside the description of a post. So, I just provided it as a way of helping people get to the page quicker. That's all.
- limmeau 16y agoWhat do you tell people with a bookmark for a weather forecast site in their mobile browser when they ask you why they should use your service instead?
- misterhaywood 16y agolimmeau, great point. This is a push service, requiring little to no effort from a customer after signup. "Set it and Forget it" :-)
- limmeau 16y agoPerhaps for people with simple feature phones and little techno-affinity?
- misterhaywood 16y agoExactly. "Non-smartphones."
- ultrasaurus 16y agoIt's nice that you accept Canadian postal codes, but you might want to give us the weather in Celcius :) That said, "bring a coat" is more common advice than "bring an umbrella" so I might switch from http://umbrellatoday.com http://umbrellatoday.com
- misterhaywood 16y agoThanks. I'm working on logic to display F/C based on country.
- singer 16y agoDon't forget about users from other countries who prefer F over C.
- misterhaywood 16y agoThanks singer. I just added that code to WeatherLoop°
- misterhaywood 16y agoJust finished adding that code. Thanks ultrasaurus for pointing that out.
- wazoox 16y agoI think that you should do by default like http://geoipweather.com http://geoipweather.com , and optionally ask for another ZIP and timezone, for a start. Then why would you limit yourself to US and Canada? Weather.com works worldwide. Third, don't nag me : you don't need any info other than an email, and there is exactly 0% chance I give my phone number to some random website. More info, more hassle, less signup.
- misterhaywood 16y agowaazoox, thanks for your feedback. I will definitely look into geolocation. Please forgive, I'm confused by your third point. If there a way to send a text to a mobile phone without a phone number?
- wazoox 16y agoDamn you're right, silly me :)
- timmy_k 16y agoIt is an interesting idea. That being said, I feel like you can't charge people for what you provide. I think it is too much of a limiting factor for the user. Personally, my mind turned off after I looked at pricing. I checked the rest of the site but it was over once I knew you were charging me. People expect a service like this to be free. It's Chacha vs. KGB, only you don't have the millions that KGB spends on marketing. That's just my opinion as a member of the freemium or steal-me-sum generation. This post is about how non-subscription services make money:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1716778 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1716778. I hope it helps. Cheers!
- singer 16y agoWhere does your weather data come from?
- misterhaywood 16y agoI'm conducting AB testing on my weather sources, when I decide on one, I will leave a reply here.
- singer 16y agoI was just curious. From my experience writing weather apps, I know there are very few sources that will allow you to sell their data without some kind of written agreement.
- singer 16y agoI can supply you with the current conditions, daily forecast, hourly forecast, and severe alerts (US only) for nearly any city in the world for $0.02 per API call. I have access to more weather stations than any single source in the world. I can return the data to you using the conversion and format of your preference. If interested, you can find my email in my profile.