4 ms·

Ask HN: Review our startup, Spottiness.com

7 points by spottiness 16y ago

Hi Everyone, We need your help to make Spottiness.com more useful. Its purpose is to let people say what they honestly believe, without fear of retribution. The site would have been very useful to Galileo Galilei to openly talk about the earth and the sun; to dissidents in totalitarian countries and whistle blowers. Also to those that want to appraise great work and excellence just because it's fair. Your opinion will reach its target by email, letter, or both, and will stay in the Internet for a while. We hope that, with time, the perception that exists about people and things will emerge. Every opinion (spot) is moderated. A big thanks to Hacker News! Ah, and for the timid in love, we have lovespots ;)

pluies 16y ago
Clickable: http://www.spottiness.com http://www.spottiness.com No HTTPS? That's kind of a show-stopper. If I were to be a whistleblower, you'd be damn sure I'd go to Wikileaks or other operations offering secured channels. Oh, and just for the sake of arguing :) Galileo wanted to challenge the religious establishment, and used his academic credibility to do so. The idea that the Earth is not the center of the universe had already been brought up before him, but his tenure (and research) gave a lot more weight to his voice than a mere anonymous opinion. That said, kudos for starting up. How do you plan to monetize? Advertisement?
- spottiness 16y ago
  It has HTTPS for the content creation page (just click on the "create a type_of_spot" button and you'll see).
- spottiness 16y ago
  Monetize? We have no plans yet. Just want the site to be useful.
  - spottiness 16y ago
    Although we send paper letters through regular mail for a small fee... (that's something)
- spottiness 16y ago
  An anonymous opinion supported by reason and facts is very powerful. Galileo was brave to mess with the church in the time of the inquisition and maybe a little naive. Being a smart guy, he probably would have chosen a safer route to his truth. (Come on, being found "vehemently suspect of heresy" by the inquisition is a freaking serious charge. Ask Giordano Bruno.)
- terio 16y ago
  While in many cases it is better to support certain opinions with one's reputation and authority, in others, for different reasons, the author should remain anonymous. Not having that option makes it impossible for some thoughts to be shared.
kefs 16y ago
Hi.. I don't really have any feedback on the site, but didn't you ask this yesterday? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2463286 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2463286
- slater 16y ago
  I thought I was going crazy for a second there.
  - spottiness 16y ago
    :) DejaVu
- phlux 16y ago
  Sometimes things get missed, so its helpful to resub if you dont get any views...
  - spottiness 16y ago
    Yes, that's the reason why we did it again. Sorry.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
donofrip 16y ago
How do you intend to protect against slander? Or just outright inappropriateness? Will you be taking down these sorts of posts? I like the idea--we definitely filter ourselves in most forums. I'm just wondering if it is practical.
- spottiness 16y ago
  Great question! Spots have to comply with a set of rules. For example, they can't contain foul language, they can't target children, they have to be anonymous, etc. We have 3 mechanisms to verify that these conditions are met, that will kick in depending on volume: First, moderation by a few of us. Second, moderation by a community of trusted users. Third (and most important) self moderation, where spot creators have to moderate other spots for their spots to be approved. In this type of moderation, revisions by anonymous users are compared with other revisions to determine the intention of the reviewer. We also have thumbs up/down and spam flagging in place to help us catch spots that go through the cracks. The target of a spot can respond in the comments section, and the comment will be identified as such: "Target's Comment". This gives targets of blackspots a chance to set the record straight. In a nutshell, we are relying on human intuition and common sense to evaluate our content. Some slander will occur, but our goal is to keep it at a bare minimum. We believe that humans are candid by nature, so we expect the vast majority of spots to be true. Moderating anonymous postings in a way that scales is a very difficult and important problem. We are working on it.
- terio 16y ago
  We aim to not publish, or take down, inappropriate content. Unfortunately, real anonymity makes it impossible to filter out all slander but there are tools in the site to respond to it. Additionally, some "slanderfests" predictions were proven wrong previously. Thanks for your review!
imechura 16y ago
when I try to visit your site, my company filters you. This category is filtered: Illegal or Questionable. I wonder what is on your site that makes them think this, it rarely happens.
- spottiness 16y ago
  Maybe the word "anonymous". It's a scary word for some organizations :) Other than that, I have no idea...

7 points by spottiness 16y ago

pluies 16y ago

Clickable: http://www.spottiness.com http://www.spottiness.com No HTTPS? That's kind of a show-stopper. If I were to be a whistleblower, you'd be damn sure I'd go to Wikileaks or other operations offering secured channels. Oh, and just for the sake of arguing :) Galileo wanted to challenge the religious establishment, and used his academic credibility to do so. The idea that the Earth is not the center of the universe had already been brought up before him, but his tenure (and research) gave a lot more weight to his voice than a mere anonymous opinion. That said, kudos for starting up. How do you plan to monetize? Advertisement?

spottiness 16y ago
It has HTTPS for the content creation page (just click on the "create a type_of_spot" button and you'll see).
spottiness 16y ago
Monetize? We have no plans yet. Just want the site to be useful.
- spottiness 16y ago
  Although we send paper letters through regular mail for a small fee... (that's something)
spottiness 16y ago
An anonymous opinion supported by reason and facts is very powerful. Galileo was brave to mess with the church in the time of the inquisition and maybe a little naive. Being a smart guy, he probably would have chosen a safer route to his truth. (Come on, being found "vehemently suspect of heresy" by the inquisition is a freaking serious charge. Ask Giordano Bruno.)
terio 16y ago
While in many cases it is better to support certain opinions with one's reputation and authority, in others, for different reasons, the author should remain anonymous. Not having that option makes it impossible for some thoughts to be shared.

kefs 16y ago

Hi.. I don't really have any feedback on the site, but didn't you ask this yesterday? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2463286 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2463286

slater 16y ago
I thought I was going crazy for a second there.
- spottiness 16y ago
  :) DejaVu
phlux 16y ago
Sometimes things get missed, so its helpful to resub if you dont get any views...
- spottiness 16y ago
  Yes, that's the reason why we did it again. Sorry.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

donofrip 16y ago

How do you intend to protect against slander? Or just outright inappropriateness? Will you be taking down these sorts of posts? I like the idea--we definitely filter ourselves in most forums. I'm just wondering if it is practical.

spottiness 16y ago
Great question! Spots have to comply with a set of rules. For example, they can't contain foul language, they can't target children, they have to be anonymous, etc. We have 3 mechanisms to verify that these conditions are met, that will kick in depending on volume: First, moderation by a few of us. Second, moderation by a community of trusted users. Third (and most important) self moderation, where spot creators have to moderate other spots for their spots to be approved. In this type of moderation, revisions by anonymous users are compared with other revisions to determine the intention of the reviewer. We also have thumbs up/down and spam flagging in place to help us catch spots that go through the cracks. The target of a spot can respond in the comments section, and the comment will be identified as such: "Target's Comment". This gives targets of blackspots a chance to set the record straight. In a nutshell, we are relying on human intuition and common sense to evaluate our content. Some slander will occur, but our goal is to keep it at a bare minimum. We believe that humans are candid by nature, so we expect the vast majority of spots to be true. Moderating anonymous postings in a way that scales is a very difficult and important problem. We are working on it.
terio 16y ago
We aim to not publish, or take down, inappropriate content. Unfortunately, real anonymity makes it impossible to filter out all slander but there are tools in the site to respond to it. Additionally, some "slanderfests" predictions were proven wrong previously. Thanks for your review!

imechura 16y ago

when I try to visit your site, my company filters you. This category is filtered: Illegal or Questionable. I wonder what is on your site that makes them think this, it rarely happens.

spottiness 16y ago
Maybe the word "anonymous". It's a scary word for some organizations :) Other than that, I have no idea...