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I just signed up, will check it out. First bit of feedback is about the Loading text after sign-up : "Reticulating splines.." while it's cool and makes me smil

I just signed up, will check it out. First bit of feedback is about the Loading text after sign-up : "Reticulating splines.." while it's cool and makes me smile inside I do believe it might not cause the same effect to the majority of the population. If your goal is to scale beyond HN you might consider making it as non-threatening as possible to the lay-man

holler 4y ago
Hey thanks for the feedback and good point... I think that's an artifact from when I first started on the project some time ago! Dating myself as a millenial... Any suggestion for replacement?
- jack_pp 4y ago
  I'd say make it as bog-standard as possible, I'd probably go just with a loading bar or something but you get the idea. Another suggestion is to ask people if they want notifications to threads they've replied in. It's ok for this to be false by default. HN doesn't have this.. the argument I've heard is that people want it this way in order to not be "wired in" to HN because they feel they spend enough time already but not even having the option is not great IMO, especially in your case. You want to give people the option to be wired in to your platform, that's the fastest way it will grow. If you want to be ethical you can make it as easy as pie to turn off notifications for a post. Not sure if you can do this straight in the notification or not but at least when they follow the notification you can give them a corner screen pop-up or something to disable notifications for this post if they've set the default settings to always get notified
- sleepyfran 4y ago
  To offer a counterpoint I think it’s totally fine :) “reticulating splines” is one of the loading text that The Sims uses, for example, and I can’t find a less “niche” product than that using it. Maybe just making the “…” dance to indicate that it’s loading would remove any doubt that the page is doing something for those users that might not understand it. I personally love apps that have some charisma!
  - holler 4y ago
    ah yeah, I've thought that too about the dots. It has been awhile since I played SimCity 2000! (great game)
formerkrogemp 4y ago
As a token lay person, I had to Google that part during signup. I second that might be the best approach. Thank you @holler for all of the replies.
- prometheus76 4y ago
  Or you could just find a small sense of satisfaction from learning about an inside reference aimed at people who played the original Sims.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    Do you mean "Sims" as in the specific game "The Sims"? If so, you should know that "Reticulating splines" predates that by 7 years. It first appeared in SimCity 2000, released in 1993.
- holler 4y ago
  No problem, thank you for participating and taking the time to check out Sqwok!
sonicggg 4y ago
I disagree. SimCity 4 was a game created for the masses, not just HN. It used to have the same nonsense loading screens, like "Creating Llama oxygenation". These are honestly more common than we imagine. Never seen anyone confused about it.

holler 4y ago

Hey thanks for the feedback and good point... I think that's an artifact from when I first started on the project some time ago! Dating myself as a millenial... Any suggestion for replacement?

jack_pp 4y ago
I'd say make it as bog-standard as possible, I'd probably go just with a loading bar or something but you get the idea. Another suggestion is to ask people if they want notifications to threads they've replied in. It's ok for this to be false by default. HN doesn't have this.. the argument I've heard is that people want it this way in order to not be "wired in" to HN because they feel they spend enough time already but not even having the option is not great IMO, especially in your case. You want to give people the option to be wired in to your platform, that's the fastest way it will grow. If you want to be ethical you can make it as easy as pie to turn off notifications for a post. Not sure if you can do this straight in the notification or not but at least when they follow the notification you can give them a corner screen pop-up or something to disable notifications for this post if they've set the default settings to always get notified
sleepyfran 4y ago
To offer a counterpoint I think it’s totally fine :) “reticulating splines” is one of the loading text that The Sims uses, for example, and I can’t find a less “niche” product than that using it. Maybe just making the “…” dance to indicate that it’s loading would remove any doubt that the page is doing something for those users that might not understand it. I personally love apps that have some charisma!
- holler 4y ago
  ah yeah, I've thought that too about the dots. It has been awhile since I played SimCity 2000! (great game)

formerkrogemp 4y ago

As a token lay person, I had to Google that part during signup. I second that might be the best approach. Thank you @holler for all of the replies.

prometheus76 4y ago
Or you could just find a small sense of satisfaction from learning about an inside reference aimed at people who played the original Sims.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  Do you mean "Sims" as in the specific game "The Sims"? If so, you should know that "Reticulating splines" predates that by 7 years. It first appeared in SimCity 2000, released in 1993.
holler 4y ago
No problem, thank you for participating and taking the time to check out Sqwok!

sonicggg 4y ago

I disagree. SimCity 4 was a game created for the masses, not just HN. It used to have the same nonsense loading screens, like "Creating Llama oxygenation". These are honestly more common than we imagine. Never seen anyone confused about it.