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Show HN: My "November Startup Sprint" Project - Create and Share Lists

7 points by dclaysmith 16y ago

dclaysmith 16y ago
Founder here. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have on www.rankoro.us -- my nights and weekends project that started as a "November Startup Sprint" project and is just now (atleast nearly) ready to show. The idea is to cultivate conversations around Top 5 lists (evenually polls, etc.) Sort of a "Quora for the rest of us" that isn't as intellectual and doesn't rely on such a smart pool of people "answering" to be of use. Hopefully it'll be a bit of fun for people. Any thoughts on what would make it more engaging, problems, or bugs would really be really helpful.
eggbrain 16y ago
There are two thoughts I had as I browsed the site, and perhaps I missed something, so feel free to correct me. 1) The biggest question I had as a potential user was "why should I care what x had to say about y"? I'd most likely not care about what some random user had to say about their top 5 Chick Flicks, but I would like to see the general statistics for all users who had the same list. That part confused me as well.. There seems to be a "top list" for chick flicks: http://www.rankoro.us/top-chick-flicks/?&t=28 http://www.rankoro.us/top-chick-flicks/?&t=28, but I don't how how that list came to be: the other users who had the same list didn't share several movies in common, for example, so I'm left to believe it was arbitrarily picked! Along these same lines, if I was interested in what a user had to say about their ranking of chick flicks, I'd want to know why, and none of these lists seem to let you give a reason why you thought "Sweet Home Alabama" was better than "Blue Crush". Even if it was basic, like a user being able to select a checklist of features for a movie (it was "thrilling", "funny","tropical") might give me a good idea if I might like it as well. 2) It looks like you add Amazon links as a potential revenue model, but you need to be smart about where to put the links . I probably will not be able to find a "Swiss and Mushroom Hamburger" on Amazon.
- dclaysmith 16y ago
  Thanks. Item #1 is definitely the biggest problem I faced (am facing). Your view is really limited to those lists and comments provided by your network so you won't really have to worry about what total strangers say about things. (When you log in, you have a "Feed" of your networks recent lists and comments). This raises problem problem #1 tho - there isn't instant utility for 'pioneers'. There is a "Top List" which is an aggregate of all of the lists, in the case of "Top 5 Chick Flicks" there just isn't enough data to be of use (it's the average of 2 lists). This will change in time and will lead to pretty good data. You said "I'd want to know why, and none of these lists seem to let you give a reason". This is very high on the feature list. Just a short blurb or justification on a per-item basis. 2) I recently added a "What is this list about?" pop up (you specify Movies, Music, Food, People, etc from a select. This meta data is going to allow me to target affiliate links better (and omit them in the case of hamburgers, etc). Thanks for the feedback.
Udo 16y ago
I think it's a great idea, and the site looks very refined. Just some quick things off the top of my head: I used the inviting big text box on top of the page right away, only to get a "please register" message. That was disappointing. I believe you should show that box only when it's actually working for a user. Better yet, allow people to create some content before they have to register. Get them invested through a little bit of interaction, then ask them to register. For example, allow them to make a complete top 5 entry first. Then, when the time comes for the "share" part of the process, ask for their account. The account registration process itself is pretty standard, I believe this will hamper your adoption rate. Provide an OpenID, Facebook, Google and/or Twitter login option instead of or in addition to the traditional email-password combo. Having to choose a username is tedious, so I would suggest either getting rid of this (which may not be feasible) or at least putting this part off until the user has opened their account. In a word: make signing up easier, if possible, reduce it to one click.
- dclaysmith 16y ago
  You are not the first person to bring up the desire to create a list before you register. Looks like I have my next programming task. Would like to add in Facebook/Twitter as log in options but I'll definitely need a username and really want the email address and I dislike granting email rights on Facebook to other apps. My thought was just to make a super short signup form and avoid it. Whatever reduces friction tho so I'll definitely look into it again. Thanks.
jk215 16y ago
Pretty cool! At first I found myself wandering aimlessly looking for a "browse lists" link to get a better idea of what kind of lists people were posting. The only one I found was all the way in the footer. Also I would maybe give some examples of lists under the main input box where it says "My top 5 ___________ are". Maybe under it put (ex. beers, movies, etc..) just to make it clear.
- dclaysmith 16y ago
  Good ideas. Getting new visitors involved is definitely the challege (but have got some feedback today that has given me some ideas). I think that the shared lists/tweets/invites are going to be the most effective way it'll spread (ex. Your friend John made his Top Albums of 2011 list, what are yours). Some of those features are in place some aren't. Like the idea of some example lists close to the actual list form. Thanks.
kliao 16y ago
How do you combine different lists for the same category?
- dclaysmith 16y ago
  Can you explain? Categories are going to evolve. If two people make 'my top 5 action movies' (and the category is 'movies') then they in a way grouped together. If you go to any list page you see comments for those people in your network about that 'top 5'. You can also click on a friends picture to see what their list is.
  - kliao 16y ago
    Sorry, I cannot view the site right now, because it is blocked. But, I was wondering how you combine several users' lists. For example, say there are action movies labeled A,B, ..., Z. Suppose 3 users have ranked action movies. Their lists are A-B-C-D-E, Z-A-B-C-D, and F-A-B-C-D. How do you combine those 3 lists to form a master list? I've looked into this before and was just curious what method you decided to use and why.
    - dclaysmith 16y ago
      Gotcha. For now a simple COUNT of the items, GROUPED by top 5 ORDERED DESC. that works well if there are several lists. I think i'll eventually weight #1's higher then #5's to make it more accurate.

7 points by dclaysmith 16y ago

Founder here. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have on www.rankoro.us -- my nights and weekends project that started as a "November Startup Sprint" project and is just now (atleast nearly) ready to show. The idea is to cultivate conversations around Top 5 lists (evenually polls, etc.) Sort of a "Quora for the rest of us" that isn't as intellectual and doesn't rely on such a smart pool of people "answering" to be of use. Hopefully it'll be a bit of fun for people. Any thoughts on what would make it more engaging, problems, or bugs would really be really helpful.

eggbrain 16y ago

There are two thoughts I had as I browsed the site, and perhaps I missed something, so feel free to correct me. 1) The biggest question I had as a potential user was "why should I care what x had to say about y"? I'd most likely not care about what some random user had to say about their top 5 Chick Flicks, but I would like to see the general statistics for all users who had the same list. That part confused me as well.. There seems to be a "top list" for chick flicks: http://www.rankoro.us/top-chick-flicks/?&t=28 http://www.rankoro.us/top-chick-flicks/?&t=28, but I don't how how that list came to be: the other users who had the same list didn't share several movies in common, for example, so I'm left to believe it was arbitrarily picked! Along these same lines, if I was interested in what a user had to say about their ranking of chick flicks, I'd want to know why, and none of these lists seem to let you give a reason why you thought "Sweet Home Alabama" was better than "Blue Crush". Even if it was basic, like a user being able to select a checklist of features for a movie (it was "thrilling", "funny","tropical") might give me a good idea if I might like it as well. 2) It looks like you add Amazon links as a potential revenue model, but you need to be smart about where to put the links . I probably will not be able to find a "Swiss and Mushroom Hamburger" on Amazon.

dclaysmith 16y ago
Thanks. Item #1 is definitely the biggest problem I faced (am facing). Your view is really limited to those lists and comments provided by your network so you won't really have to worry about what total strangers say about things. (When you log in, you have a "Feed" of your networks recent lists and comments). This raises problem problem #1 tho - there isn't instant utility for 'pioneers'. There is a "Top List" which is an aggregate of all of the lists, in the case of "Top 5 Chick Flicks" there just isn't enough data to be of use (it's the average of 2 lists). This will change in time and will lead to pretty good data. You said "I'd want to know why, and none of these lists seem to let you give a reason". This is very high on the feature list. Just a short blurb or justification on a per-item basis. 2) I recently added a "What is this list about?" pop up (you specify Movies, Music, Food, People, etc from a select. This meta data is going to allow me to target affiliate links better (and omit them in the case of hamburgers, etc). Thanks for the feedback.

Udo 16y ago

I think it's a great idea, and the site looks very refined. Just some quick things off the top of my head: I used the inviting big text box on top of the page right away, only to get a "please register" message. That was disappointing. I believe you should show that box only when it's actually working for a user. Better yet, allow people to create some content before they have to register. Get them invested through a little bit of interaction, then ask them to register. For example, allow them to make a complete top 5 entry first. Then, when the time comes for the "share" part of the process, ask for their account. The account registration process itself is pretty standard, I believe this will hamper your adoption rate. Provide an OpenID, Facebook, Google and/or Twitter login option instead of or in addition to the traditional email-password combo. Having to choose a username is tedious, so I would suggest either getting rid of this (which may not be feasible) or at least putting this part off until the user has opened their account. In a word: make signing up easier, if possible, reduce it to one click.

dclaysmith 16y ago
You are not the first person to bring up the desire to create a list before you register. Looks like I have my next programming task. Would like to add in Facebook/Twitter as log in options but I'll definitely need a username and really want the email address and I dislike granting email rights on Facebook to other apps. My thought was just to make a super short signup form and avoid it. Whatever reduces friction tho so I'll definitely look into it again. Thanks.

jk215 16y ago

Pretty cool! At first I found myself wandering aimlessly looking for a "browse lists" link to get a better idea of what kind of lists people were posting. The only one I found was all the way in the footer. Also I would maybe give some examples of lists under the main input box where it says "My top 5 ___________ are". Maybe under it put (ex. beers, movies, etc..) just to make it clear.

dclaysmith 16y ago
Good ideas. Getting new visitors involved is definitely the challege (but have got some feedback today that has given me some ideas). I think that the shared lists/tweets/invites are going to be the most effective way it'll spread (ex. Your friend John made his Top Albums of 2011 list, what are yours). Some of those features are in place some aren't. Like the idea of some example lists close to the actual list form. Thanks.

kliao 16y ago

How do you combine different lists for the same category?

dclaysmith 16y ago
Can you explain? Categories are going to evolve. If two people make 'my top 5 action movies' (and the category is 'movies') then they in a way grouped together. If you go to any list page you see comments for those people in your network about that 'top 5'. You can also click on a friends picture to see what their list is.
- kliao 16y ago
  Sorry, I cannot view the site right now, because it is blocked. But, I was wondering how you combine several users' lists. For example, say there are action movies labeled A,B, ..., Z. Suppose 3 users have ranked action movies. Their lists are A-B-C-D-E, Z-A-B-C-D, and F-A-B-C-D. How do you combine those 3 lists to form a master list? I've looked into this before and was just curious what method you decided to use and why.
  - dclaysmith 16y ago
    Gotcha. For now a simple COUNT of the items, GROUPED by top 5 ORDERED DESC. that works well if there are several lists. I think i'll eventually weight #1's higher then #5's to make it more accurate.