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Show HN: ChatVoting - American Idol-like voting for everyone

23 points by consultutah 15y ago

consultutah 15y ago
I've finally reached MVP stage for this and would really love to know what HN thinks. What do you think I should change on the landing page, or in the app? It is built with Sinatra running on Heroku and uses Twilio for SMS services.
- heyimfromreddit 15y ago
  Allow me to see pricing without signing up.
  - consultutah 15y ago
    Noted. Thank you! So you don't have to login to see pricing, it starts at $10 for what I think most people would use and goes up from there.
- revorad 15y ago
  Is there a way to try it without paying first? Or is there a demo video?
  - consultutah 15y ago
    There isn't. A demo video is definitely on my roadmap. I'd love to find a way to offer a free demo too, but I'm trying to bootstrap this and twilio charges me for phone numbers and msgs. Maybe I could allocate a few numbers and let people demo with one of those for a little while.
    - revorad 15y ago
      I understand it's hard to offer a free demo. But then a video is really essential. I think patio11 offers a free demo on his Appointment Reminder site, which also uses Twilio. Maybe you can ask him how much it costs to see if it's affordable?
      - consultutah 15y ago
        I'll reprioritize the video higher on my roadmap and I think I've got some ideas now on how to let you demo it without signing up. Thanks for your comments.
      - gus_massa 15y ago
        Is it affordable to give a demo poll, which closes automatically when you get 5 votes?
        consultutah 15y ago
        The SMS msgs themselves are cheap, it is getting the numbers that might add up. What I'm thinking is allocating a block of numbers, maybe 5-10 for now and many more if/when this takes off and then letting you create a poll with one of those. The interesting part will be not letting numbers be used in a close enough time period that someone would skew someone else's poll results.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
Steve0 15y ago
It's my impression that those voting things are a way to make money for the company that initiates the voting. In your concept it's the other way around. I'm curious who your customers will be.
- consultutah 15y ago
  My original thought was just conventions. If you are running a convention and wanted to have a poll on which of the top finalists had the best booth, you would use this. But I staggered thinking that it could be used for about anything: Beauty Pageants, chili cook offs, etc. Flame-Bait: Jason Calacanis could use it to find the most popular startup at the next LAUNCH.
ninjastar99 15y ago
You use the word "Lean" about 4 times on the page. Spell check! ;)
- consultutah 15y ago
  Ha ha, that was in the template I bought from ThemeForest... I should have noticed. :( Fixed.

23 points by consultutah 15y ago

I've finally reached MVP stage for this and would really love to know what HN thinks. What do you think I should change on the landing page, or in the app? It is built with Sinatra running on Heroku and uses Twilio for SMS services.

heyimfromreddit 15y ago
Allow me to see pricing without signing up.
- consultutah 15y ago
  Noted. Thank you! So you don't have to login to see pricing, it starts at $10 for what I think most people would use and goes up from there.
revorad 15y ago
Is there a way to try it without paying first? Or is there a demo video?
- consultutah 15y ago
  There isn't. A demo video is definitely on my roadmap. I'd love to find a way to offer a free demo too, but I'm trying to bootstrap this and twilio charges me for phone numbers and msgs. Maybe I could allocate a few numbers and let people demo with one of those for a little while.
  - revorad 15y ago
    I understand it's hard to offer a free demo. But then a video is really essential. I think patio11 offers a free demo on his Appointment Reminder site, which also uses Twilio. Maybe you can ask him how much it costs to see if it's affordable?
    - consultutah 15y ago
      I'll reprioritize the video higher on my roadmap and I think I've got some ideas now on how to let you demo it without signing up. Thanks for your comments.
    - gus_massa 15y ago
      Is it affordable to give a demo poll, which closes automatically when you get 5 votes?
      - consultutah 15y ago
        The SMS msgs themselves are cheap, it is getting the numbers that might add up. What I'm thinking is allocating a block of numbers, maybe 5-10 for now and many more if/when this takes off and then letting you create a poll with one of those. The interesting part will be not letting numbers be used in a close enough time period that someone would skew someone else's poll results.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]

Steve0 15y ago

It's my impression that those voting things are a way to make money for the company that initiates the voting. In your concept it's the other way around. I'm curious who your customers will be.

consultutah 15y ago
My original thought was just conventions. If you are running a convention and wanted to have a poll on which of the top finalists had the best booth, you would use this. But I staggered thinking that it could be used for about anything: Beauty Pageants, chili cook offs, etc. Flame-Bait: Jason Calacanis could use it to find the most popular startup at the next LAUNCH.

ninjastar99 15y ago

You use the word "Lean" about 4 times on the page. Spell check! ;)

consultutah 15y ago
Ha ha, that was in the template I bought from ThemeForest... I should have noticed. :( Fixed.