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Ask HN: Best way to get feedback from developers?

3 points by freeqaz 5y ago

I've been working on an Open Source project[0] recently, and I've been wondering about the best way to actually talk with developers. I'm a dev. I don't really like to talk to people unless I have to. Getting me on the phone for 15 minutes with a stranger... is unlikely. Even with a $20 gift card incentive. I presume most other devs are the same. So, what's the best way to talk with devs and gather meaningful feedback to be able to improve the project? I want to know answers to questions like, "Would you use this? If not, why not?" or "After reading the docs, can you explain back to me what the project does for you?" Maybe HN isn't the place to ask this. Maybe this is too business focused. But, I figured I'd ask anyway. What ideas do you have for how an Open Source project could gather feedback from you? It's a very good way to "give back" to Open Source, so maybe that's the best angle to take? Thanks! 0: https://github.com/lunasec-io/lunasec

verdverm 5y ago
> Securing web application data since 1874 You probably want to change that line, it's not true and/or a cheeky joke that turns off devs. More generally, is this project basically Hashicorp Vault? re: where to get feedback... - your current users, though this is a chicken-egg problem - I've had good luck in slack orgs, don't be marketing or fishing for users. Get to know the group before making an ask - make it as easy as possible in as many places as possible. GitHub, a form, by email, from both inside and outside the app If you are trying (maybe even if not) to make this a business, checkout https://startupschool.org https://startupschool.org and https://coss.media https://coss.media People Powered is a good book about community building
- freeqaz 5y ago
  > I've had good luck in slack orgs, don't be marketing or fishing for users. Get to know the group before making an ask Sweet, thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely go check out some communities of related projects and talk to people that way. That's a great idea. :) > your current users, though this is a chicken-egg problem We do have some users currently, but I'd like to get additional perspective. I found them all manually via emailing them, which is totally different versus the approach now that we're Open Source. It's a different approach when somebody is trying out a Demo App and using a library, versus the first users were found which were more "Use this tech we built, and we're going to help you solve that problem." It's bottom up vs top down. Getting "bottom up" feedback is harder because you're not in the room with the person. But "bottom up" is very much how I operate as a dev perusing for Open Source software. > make it as easy as possible in as many places as possible. GitHub, a form, by email, from both inside and outside the app That's another good point. I should make it more obvious so that people actually think about it. It's currently too "out of sight, out of mind" and I'm relying on people to be proactive about giving feedback. It doesn't hurt to ask nicely!
  - verdverm 5y ago
    I think the thing that will help most is docs. I don't really see any. This is what I'm mainly focusing on for https://github.com/hofstadter-io https://github.com/hofstadter-io
muzani 5y ago
Google forms. Don't even need a cash incentive. People love giving their opinions. In fact, the cash incentive is a bit of a turn off. I happily waste hours a day giving my opinion on the internet, but now that you've paid $20, it becomes work.