I love the idea and the angle - better to feel out community support than work feverishly by yourself for 6 months and hope for the best. Small groups feels mu

I love the idea and the angle - better to feel out community support than work feverishly by yourself for 6 months and hope for the best. Small groups feels much more real + human-sized than being thrown into the ocean. That could solve the lurker problem where 90% of people are passive consumers. Would need to balance out with some global content as sugar on top. I honestly think the safest business plan for a new network coming from HN is a one-time entry fee. Somewhere between $35 and $300, like SA(?) used to do. Maybe fund development through early sales. To get the most help from community coders, break the project into core and peripheral pieces. Too much "help" leads to drowning in complexity, best to isolate the backbone of the system. My pet idea is gamified ratings - let people invest in commments or posts (with regenerating energy/play money), and let them spend their earnings on boosting visibility of other posts.