4 ms·

I just launched a site with hardly any features

20 points by swGooF 15y ago

simon 15y ago
A nice idea. Some folks may be nervous about expressing ideas without an NDA involved, but do we want their ideas anyway? :-) The design looked nice, but it was not intuitively obvious how to get back from an idea to the main screen.
- swGooF 15y ago
  Thanks, I know the navigation needs some work. Also, the site is not for people that need an NDA. The privacy policy is simple: everything is public.
  - jholman 15y ago
    Yeah, eeeeverything about the navigation needs work, and it seems prime candidate for early minimal work. How do you get a new random idea in category X without clicking Back and then re-selecting the category? Without voting, I mean. Open-source the site source code on github! :D
    - swGooF 15y ago
      Yes, I know the nav is bad. It is on github: https://github.com/swGooF/34ideas https://github.com/swGooF/34ideas
Archio 15y ago
Interesting idea (that is, launching the site with hardly any features). Good way to make sure the product doesn't become vaporware.
- swGooF 15y ago
  The idea sounded interesting to me as well, but in hindsight it was not such a good idea. It got very spammy very fast.
eggbrain 15y ago
No one will like a site without a few more of those features your site doesn't have. There's the old phrase "it's whats on the inside that counts", but with first impressions, that's simply just not true. I look at your site, and I see its a poorly designed, poorly implemented site. For most people, that's enough to immediately leave the site, and not come back. First impressions are extremely important, and your site gives off a terrible first impression. When someone sees someone link to your site again, they will immediately think to themselves "this website again? I hated it my first time there." and then you will have to convince them that it is worth it to go back. It takes a lot more effort to convince someone your site is good later on, than take the time and effort to make it good to begin with. Why don't I immediately see when I go to the homepage how I can submit my own idea? No, I have to go to an idea first (at least from what I can tell) to submit an idea. Why do I need to click into an idea in order to vote it up/down? Put a plus next to the title, which will expand text below it, and then have the Good/Bad buttons next to the idea. The Free CSS template makes your website seem cheap. It immediately shows that you haven't thought about personalizing the site for your users, but rather phoned it in in order to put your site out there. Never expect people to like a site that has shown that no effort was put into it to begin with, to justify to yourself to put more effort into said site. The phrase "I am not going to spend time implementing features for a site no one will use" boils my blood, because you as an entrepreneur are the showman: if you'll only do a song and dance after people say they loved you, even without knowing you, you'll never get a gig ever. You get people to care about your site, not the other way around. You've shown that you don't care about your site, and so thus other people will care even less.
- jholman 15y ago
  There's a weird assumption in your comment, eggbrain, that swgoof "expect[s] people to like [this] site". I agree with the factual content of everything you say, but the tone and the assumptions and the context seem way off-base. There's nothing wrong with sharing a low-investment project, and letting it have whatever success or failure it has. The problem comes with false promises, false entitlement, and to a lesser degree false expectations, but I see no reason to believe any of those are happening here. So what's the problem?
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
mquinlan 15y ago
One feature that feels kinda necessary while the ideas are sparse is the ability to skip (or not have repeating) ideas. Otherwise, I feel like I've already read over all the submissions in just a few minutes.
- swGooF 15y ago
  Personally, I just hoped people would vote multiple times on the same idea. Anyhow, you may have seen all the ideas in just a few minutes. When you left this comment there were not many ideas. Thanks
SquareWheel 15y ago
"Social Media Sharing Links - It is not easy for a person to Facebook like or tweet an idea" Sign me up!
- swGooF 15y ago
  Thanks, I should probably add those links. That is a pretty easy one.
  - SquareWheel 15y ago
    Perhaps this is whooshing over my head right now, but I meant that I prefer websites without social media integration. I don't like that they slow down the web, I don't like that they track me, and I don't like that they centralize a large part of the web's content to a few number of companies.
    - swGooF 15y ago
      Sorry, I misunderstood your comment.
      - ethnomusicolog 15y ago
        The site is exactly as it should be. Simple , straightforward, not fancy UI tricks, good color palette. overall I understood and trusted the site in 30 seconds, and browsed it for 5 minutes. If you add things too much you will become an also-ran in a crowded space. Run with it. my 2cts!
        swGooF 15y ago
        Thanks, the site is live again but people cannot add new content anymore. I am glad you liked it.
swGooF 15y ago
I made the site non-functional. It was getting bombarded with spam.

20 points by swGooF 15y ago

simon 15y ago

A nice idea. Some folks may be nervous about expressing ideas without an NDA involved, but do we want their ideas anyway? :-) The design looked nice, but it was not intuitively obvious how to get back from an idea to the main screen.

swGooF 15y ago
Thanks, I know the navigation needs some work. Also, the site is not for people that need an NDA. The privacy policy is simple: everything is public.
- jholman 15y ago
  Yeah, eeeeverything about the navigation needs work, and it seems prime candidate for early minimal work. How do you get a new random idea in category X without clicking Back and then re-selecting the category? Without voting, I mean. Open-source the site source code on github! :D
  - swGooF 15y ago
    Yes, I know the nav is bad. It is on github: https://github.com/swGooF/34ideas https://github.com/swGooF/34ideas

Archio 15y ago

Interesting idea (that is, launching the site with hardly any features). Good way to make sure the product doesn't become vaporware.

swGooF 15y ago
The idea sounded interesting to me as well, but in hindsight it was not such a good idea. It got very spammy very fast.

eggbrain 15y ago

No one will like a site without a few more of those features your site doesn't have. There's the old phrase "it's whats on the inside that counts", but with first impressions, that's simply just not true. I look at your site, and I see its a poorly designed, poorly implemented site. For most people, that's enough to immediately leave the site, and not come back. First impressions are extremely important, and your site gives off a terrible first impression. When someone sees someone link to your site again, they will immediately think to themselves "this website again? I hated it my first time there." and then you will have to convince them that it is worth it to go back. It takes a lot more effort to convince someone your site is good later on, than take the time and effort to make it good to begin with. Why don't I immediately see when I go to the homepage how I can submit my own idea? No, I have to go to an idea first (at least from what I can tell) to submit an idea. Why do I need to click into an idea in order to vote it up/down? Put a plus next to the title, which will expand text below it, and then have the Good/Bad buttons next to the idea. The Free CSS template makes your website seem cheap. It immediately shows that you haven't thought about personalizing the site for your users, but rather phoned it in in order to put your site out there. Never expect people to like a site that has shown that no effort was put into it to begin with, to justify to yourself to put more effort into said site. The phrase "I am not going to spend time implementing features for a site no one will use" boils my blood, because you as an entrepreneur are the showman: if you'll only do a song and dance after people say they loved you, even without knowing you, you'll never get a gig ever. You get people to care about your site, not the other way around. You've shown that you don't care about your site, and so thus other people will care even less.

jholman 15y ago
There's a weird assumption in your comment, eggbrain, that swgoof "expect[s] people to like [this] site". I agree with the factual content of everything you say, but the tone and the assumptions and the context seem way off-base. There's nothing wrong with sharing a low-investment project, and letting it have whatever success or failure it has. The problem comes with false promises, false entitlement, and to a lesser degree false expectations, but I see no reason to believe any of those are happening here. So what's the problem?

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

mquinlan 15y ago

One feature that feels kinda necessary while the ideas are sparse is the ability to skip (or not have repeating) ideas. Otherwise, I feel like I've already read over all the submissions in just a few minutes.

swGooF 15y ago
Personally, I just hoped people would vote multiple times on the same idea. Anyhow, you may have seen all the ideas in just a few minutes. When you left this comment there were not many ideas. Thanks

SquareWheel 15y ago

"Social Media Sharing Links - It is not easy for a person to Facebook like or tweet an idea" Sign me up!

swGooF 15y ago
Thanks, I should probably add those links. That is a pretty easy one.
- SquareWheel 15y ago
  Perhaps this is whooshing over my head right now, but I meant that I prefer websites without social media integration. I don't like that they slow down the web, I don't like that they track me, and I don't like that they centralize a large part of the web's content to a few number of companies.
  - swGooF 15y ago
    Sorry, I misunderstood your comment.
    - ethnomusicolog 15y ago
      The site is exactly as it should be. Simple , straightforward, not fancy UI tricks, good color palette. overall I understood and trusted the site in 30 seconds, and browsed it for 5 minutes. If you add things too much you will become an also-ran in a crowded space. Run with it. my 2cts!
      - swGooF 15y ago
        Thanks, the site is live again but people cannot add new content anymore. I am glad you liked it.

swGooF 15y ago

I made the site non-functional. It was getting bombarded with spam.