5 ms·

Forrst v3 Launched Today

60 points by philtoronto 16y ago

steveklabnik 16y ago
I'm interested to see how buying acorns works. It's sort of like a combination of virtual goods and advertising... I see programmers as being a hard crowd to sell to, (for example, see the second paragraph of this recent comment by patio11: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018880) but maybe I'm wrong...
- kylebragger 16y ago
  Very interesting. I think you may be right, but on the flip side, I'm eager to see if we can change that. We actually sold a bunch at a discount over the weekend (~500), so I'll be interested to see how much of that is pricing psychology vs. actual need. Either way, there are about 5 or 6 posts promoted actively, so people are using them. Can't wait to see how this plays out when there's much, much more data to look at.
- code_duck 16y ago
  I'm interested in seeing how it works out, too. I'm not sure what the motivation is to pay to promote the types of content you can post on Forrst, other than job ads. I guess I'll have to watch and see what people are using it for.
  - martin_sunset 16y ago
    For me it's about promoting my site when it's ready for the next beta phase. The stream is great, but you don't get that much exposure as normal posts are pushed down fast.
davidjhamp 16y ago
I would have liked to apply for membership but it seems like a twitter account is required which I don't have, Disappointing.
- kylebragger 16y ago
  You can just leave a fake one - oversight on my part; it shouldn't be required.
  - davidjhamp 16y ago
    I tried "@faketwitter" as the twitter user name and it complained about it. I'm not too familiar with twitter user names but I thought that should work. edit: removed the @ sign and it worked.
- wccrawford 16y ago
  I looked at applying long ago, but the 'URL of something you've made' made me turn around and leave. I don't think it said anything about 'developers' at the time, though, just 'designers'. Oddly, I had a website that I designed (and that I used this time) but I didn't think to submit it.
  - kingsidharth 16y ago
    Well you 'something you've made' can be something you've 'developed'. Some app you built? Screen shots of some projects or work you did?
    - kylebragger 16y ago
      Could be anything - github/bitbucket link to some OSS, site you designed/coded, etc.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  Yeah, I don't really use twitter either. Don't need another time vampire. I see from the owner's comment on here that its not required, please update the site to reflect this. Maybe put a space for "other profile url" so I could perhaps link to my presence here for example. Other service owners, please take note!
innonate 16y ago
im pumped for the forrst ppl. as a n00b RoR hacker i've just been blown away by how helpful and supportive the community is over there.
huhtenberg 16y ago
I've been a member of Forrst for a while and my enthusiasm has taken a nose dive in a past couple of months. The main problem is not the site design. It is the fact that Forrst is overrun with kids. "I am an aspiring 13 old designer, and here is something I did in a couple of hours because I was bored". That's not to say that are no gems in the feed, but these are typically cross-posts from Dribbble. Trying to build the designer and the developer community that is also friendly and helpful to the beginners is a noble undertaking. But it does not work. It is an utopia as it has very little appeal for professional designers and developers. Noobs wooting noobs on mediocre designs is not exactly a fostering environment. Still might work as an ad platform and a promotion vehicle of course.
- davidu 16y ago
  So the exclusive community that doesn't allow regular folks in has let in some bad neighbors? Good thing they have kept their walls up... Good lesson there...
  - kylebragger 16y ago
    Could you elaborate a bit?
    - davidu 16y ago
      Lots of sites think they need to put up walls to maintain a sense of community. History all across the Internet (and before the Internet) has shown this to be a fallacy. Tragedies of the common are avoided by proper structure and accountability tools, not by erecting walls to keep people out.
      - huhtenberg 16y ago
        You are over-generalizing, and more to the point - you are clearly neither a Forrst or Dribbble user. The difference in the quality of the content is very noticeable. To put it into a more sensible coordinate system, Dribble is a moderated mailing list, and Forrst is an unmoderated one. Or, better analogy perhaps would be hackers vs. script kiddies - do you know of many hangouts of former that tolerate (leave alone embrace) latter? Me neither.
lubos 16y ago
design nice, product name not so...
wushupork 16y ago
I really like Forrst. It's got a good mix of code and design for a generalist like me. I think I get something out of it. Perhaps that speaks to my level of competency but I find it useful since I am a jack of all trades. If I have a really hard coding problem, StackOverflow is going to be where I go. For a stream of new stuff or latest techniques I may not be aware of, Forrst is for me. Also I think Kyle has done a great job as developer/designer. I was impressed. If someone doesn't like it, they are welcome to create a better version. As for the monetization, I have to agree w/ steveklabnik that designer/developers are a hard bunch to squeeze money out of since they aren't used to paying for these sort of services. I could be wrong.
kmfrk 16y ago
I feel very selfish or insulated using Forrst. I only see it as a venue to get help and flaunt my work - which is fine to me. In some cases, I think you could liken it a StackExchange of design. But it doesn't feel like a community. The dashboard makes it feel more like Twitter or Tumblr than DeviantArt and Dribbble.
didip 16y ago
Hi Kyle, If I may ask for 1 feature request (programmer specific): Really good GitHub and BitBucket and Google Code integration. In particular, newsfeed-like thing that keep track of: * Who is working on what... * New comments on issue tracker... * pull requests from github or bitbucket or others... My biggest need when it comes to programming community is keeping up (communication-wise or code-wise) with all the OSS libraries I use. GitHub does much better job than the others, but they do only git.

60 points by philtoronto 16y ago

I'm interested to see how buying acorns works. It's sort of like a combination of virtual goods and advertising... I see programmers as being a hard crowd to sell to, (for example, see the second paragraph of this recent comment by patio11: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018880) but maybe I'm wrong...

kylebragger 16y ago
Very interesting. I think you may be right, but on the flip side, I'm eager to see if we can change that. We actually sold a bunch at a discount over the weekend (~500), so I'll be interested to see how much of that is pricing psychology vs. actual need. Either way, there are about 5 or 6 posts promoted actively, so people are using them. Can't wait to see how this plays out when there's much, much more data to look at.
code_duck 16y ago
I'm interested in seeing how it works out, too. I'm not sure what the motivation is to pay to promote the types of content you can post on Forrst, other than job ads. I guess I'll have to watch and see what people are using it for.
- martin_sunset 16y ago
  For me it's about promoting my site when it's ready for the next beta phase. The stream is great, but you don't get that much exposure as normal posts are pushed down fast.

davidjhamp 16y ago

I would have liked to apply for membership but it seems like a twitter account is required which I don't have, Disappointing.

kylebragger 16y ago
You can just leave a fake one - oversight on my part; it shouldn't be required.
- davidjhamp 16y ago
  I tried "@faketwitter" as the twitter user name and it complained about it. I'm not too familiar with twitter user names but I thought that should work. edit: removed the @ sign and it worked.
wccrawford 16y ago
I looked at applying long ago, but the 'URL of something you've made' made me turn around and leave. I don't think it said anything about 'developers' at the time, though, just 'designers'. Oddly, I had a website that I designed (and that I used this time) but I didn't think to submit it.
- kingsidharth 16y ago
  Well you 'something you've made' can be something you've 'developed'. Some app you built? Screen shots of some projects or work you did?
  - kylebragger 16y ago
    Could be anything - github/bitbucket link to some OSS, site you designed/coded, etc.
JonnieCache 16y ago
Yeah, I don't really use twitter either. Don't need another time vampire. I see from the owner's comment on here that its not required, please update the site to reflect this. Maybe put a space for "other profile url" so I could perhaps link to my presence here for example. Other service owners, please take note!

innonate 16y ago

im pumped for the forrst ppl. as a n00b RoR hacker i've just been blown away by how helpful and supportive the community is over there.

huhtenberg 16y ago

I've been a member of Forrst for a while and my enthusiasm has taken a nose dive in a past couple of months. The main problem is not the site design. It is the fact that Forrst is overrun with kids. "I am an aspiring 13 old designer, and here is something I did in a couple of hours because I was bored". That's not to say that are no gems in the feed, but these are typically cross-posts from Dribbble. Trying to build the designer and the developer community that is also friendly and helpful to the beginners is a noble undertaking. But it does not work. It is an utopia as it has very little appeal for professional designers and developers. Noobs wooting noobs on mediocre designs is not exactly a fostering environment. Still might work as an ad platform and a promotion vehicle of course.

davidu 16y ago
So the exclusive community that doesn't allow regular folks in has let in some bad neighbors? Good thing they have kept their walls up... Good lesson there...
- kylebragger 16y ago
  Could you elaborate a bit?
  - davidu 16y ago
    Lots of sites think they need to put up walls to maintain a sense of community. History all across the Internet (and before the Internet) has shown this to be a fallacy. Tragedies of the common are avoided by proper structure and accountability tools, not by erecting walls to keep people out.
    - huhtenberg 16y ago
      You are over-generalizing, and more to the point - you are clearly neither a Forrst or Dribbble user. The difference in the quality of the content is very noticeable. To put it into a more sensible coordinate system, Dribble is a moderated mailing list, and Forrst is an unmoderated one. Or, better analogy perhaps would be hackers vs. script kiddies - do you know of many hangouts of former that tolerate (leave alone embrace) latter? Me neither.

lubos 16y ago

design nice, product name not so...

wushupork 16y ago

I really like Forrst. It's got a good mix of code and design for a generalist like me. I think I get something out of it. Perhaps that speaks to my level of competency but I find it useful since I am a jack of all trades. If I have a really hard coding problem, StackOverflow is going to be where I go. For a stream of new stuff or latest techniques I may not be aware of, Forrst is for me. Also I think Kyle has done a great job as developer/designer. I was impressed. If someone doesn't like it, they are welcome to create a better version. As for the monetization, I have to agree w/ steveklabnik that designer/developers are a hard bunch to squeeze money out of since they aren't used to paying for these sort of services. I could be wrong.

kmfrk 16y ago

I feel very selfish or insulated using Forrst. I only see it as a venue to get help and flaunt my work - which is fine to me. In some cases, I think you could liken it a StackExchange of design. But it doesn't feel like a community. The dashboard makes it feel more like Twitter or Tumblr than DeviantArt and Dribbble.

didip 16y ago

Hi Kyle, If I may ask for 1 feature request (programmer specific): Really good GitHub and BitBucket and Google Code integration. In particular, newsfeed-like thing that keep track of: * Who is working on what... * New comments on issue tracker... * pull requests from github or bitbucket or others... My biggest need when it comes to programming community is keeping up (communication-wise or code-wise) with all the OSS libraries I use. GitHub does much better job than the others, but they do only git.