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Show HN: I built a faster way to burn your money on Etsy.com
- JonathanBouman 15y agoEverything 100% clientside jQuery & JSONP. Hosted on Amazon Cloudfront so low costs and no scalability issues. Some examples you should check: Regular search: http://www.scrollsy.com/#s=nyan%20cat http://www.scrollsy.com/#s=nyan%20cat Treasury listings: http://www.scrollsy.com/#l=treasury http://www.scrollsy.com/#l=treasury Shop: http://www.scrollsy.com/#un=machelspencePHOTO http://www.scrollsy.com/#un=machelspencePHOTO Color search: http://www.scrollsy.com/#c=art&color=0A9600 http://www.scrollsy.com/#c=art&color=0A9600 Would love to have some feedback!
- ignoreme 15y agoYou really should have a fallback page for browsers with no Javascript. NoScript has become increasing popular and the "Javscript Free" page of a site is the first page those users will see (even if they go on to temporarily allow javascript for your app). In your case, it is just a blank white page. Since you are asking for suggestions, I would suggest you just make it display a message. One for suggesting users with older browsers to download chrome or firefox and another message directed at those with Javascript intentionally disabled which gives a very brief outline of what your app does and why they should enable JS to play with it. e: I clicked through to the other mashups you have created which you linked in your other comment. They all do the same thing, just bring me to a blank page. ee: To those down-voting, what do you disagree with? Do you not think pure JS web apps should have HTML fallback pages or do you disagree with the way I said it?
- johnnyn 15y agoI didn't downvote you but I personally never worry about users with JavaScript disabled, and the companies I have worked for don't care either. The number of people without JavaScript is most likely way to low to spend time on an HTML fallback. http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Internet-users-use-JavaScript-Is-it-safe-to-pretend-that-non-JavaScript-users-do-not-exist-when-designing-your-website?redirected_qid=12124 http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Internet-users-use-J...
- jerf 15y agoAn adequate "fallback" is <noscript><p class='something_nice'>This site requires Javascript to function</p></noscript>. It's not exactly hard, and it's better than a blank white page. It can also occur due to network problems on occasion or other technical issues; if you have JS beyond just progressive enhancement on your site you really ought to have a <noscript> tag in there somewhere.
- ignoreme 15y agoIt's a fair argument that overall percentage is low, but if you are catering towards a more technical audience (submitting to HN would count as that in my books) then I imagine the % of those using some form of Javascript blocking software is much higher. Plus as mentioned, it isn't like it takes much effort, a noscript tag and a paragraph saying that it is a pure JS web app/what it does is enough.
- nl 15y agoDo you not think pure JS web apps should have HTML fallback pages or do you disagree with the way I said it? I don't think non-JS/HTML fallback pages are worth it for a minimal viable product.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoShowing a 'Please activate javascript' message is indeed a good idea. A complete HTML only fallback is impossible since everything happens in the browser (JSONP API calls).
- pkamb 15y agoDoes Etsy have an affiliate/referral program?
- JonathanBouman 15y agoNo they doesn't, as far as I know.
- patio11 15y agoA life lesson which was news to me: there is some scale at which every commercial site has an affiliate program. (Varies based on the site.)
- dabent 15y agoWhen I did an Etsy app, there was no affiliate program, which seemed to largely stem from the fact that Etsy charged to little to sellers that they were barely making a profit. The idea of giving a cut to ousters seemed like a bad idea. I'm not sure if it's changed. But when one considers the number of Etsy apps that have been made just for the joy of it, it would seem to be in Etsy's favor to incentivize developers once they can get the numbers to work out.
- skeletonjelly 15y ago> No they don't Sorry! Couldn't leave that error untouched :)
- djb_hackernews 15y agoSo Pinterest. I say that as a compliment. Great job. Only thought is the constant Loading Items widget is annoying and isn't in line with how most sites do dynamic scrolling.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoThanks for the compliment! The loader is something to re-code indeed. Anyone here with a good example of a nice scrolling loader?
- jmileham 15y agoI agree, your app looks dangerous in a good way. I think the most important thing is that the loading animation be anchored to the bottom of the loaded content so that it never obscures content that's already loaded. If the user manages to outrace your loader and gets to the bottom, some kind of indication that the app is churning away would no doubt be welcome.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoThat's a good idea, got it on the list!
- etcet 15y agoYou can try throwing a 'position: fixed; bottom: 21px;' on your #loading div instead of positioning w/ JS. Also, the animation on the items isn't very smooth and I find it distracting. It'll probably feel smoother without the drop down animation (maybe a quick $.fadeIn) might look good.
- shashashasha 15y agoDid you post this on HN before? It's still jarring how new items fly in from the top left. It's also constantly loading items, which is annoying. Otherwise, looks pretty cool. You should also take a look at other fashion sites for the "Quick Look" interaction (using mouseover or some other light interaction to provide more ui/information/larger image, vs opening a new page), which would be pretty great on a purely visual site like this.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoI posted it 5 hours ago on HN but had to delete it because of API limit I had to resolve before risking a viral. After they were resolved I posted it. Trick: Click the about link in the top left box and flag the disable animation checkbox. Do you have any examples of those fashion sites?
- lostsock 15y agoYou should rename about to options (or make a second link). Listing options in an about link is counter intuitive.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoI'll make a second link, good idea.
- natgordon 15y agoThis is really great. I like the "exploding" treasuries a lot. What was your motivation? If you're looking for more exposure you can write a blog post for the Etsy blog. I did that for my app and it drove a lot of traffic (http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/handmade-code-babylist/ http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/handmade-code-babylist/)
- JonathanBouman 15y agoThanks! The Treasuries view is a nice one indeed, took me a night to find a good way to keep it stupid simple and fast. My motivation is coming from previous mashups I did in the same style. http://Scrolldit.com http://Scrolldit.com which was featured on TechCrunch (http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/25/scrolldit-i-heard-you-liked-scrolling-reddit-so-i-put-scrolling-in-your-reddit/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/25/scrolldit-i-heard-you-liked...) and another mashup I did http://www.ScrollFriends.com http://www.ScrollFriends.com (Facebook Scroller, no viral) However Scrolldit is (most of the time) a pure timewaster, check this: 377.913 (unique visits) x 1.20 (avg minutes on the site) = 453495,6 minutes = an impact of 314,93 wasted days on our world economy. However with all those minutes wasted I felt the need to do something productive, I think Scrollsy.com is a good try. Supporting all those small shopkeepers, trying to give them more exposure. Good idea to do the blog post, it's on the list!
- herval 15y agoWhat's your motivation for all these mashups?
- JonathanBouman 15y agoMultiple things: I love endless scrolling and visually rich designs, I want to learn new techniques and ofcourse it's great to see other people using these mashups. Btw this mashup was also some kind of compensation for the damage I've done with http://Scrolldit.com http://Scrolldit.com
- jwpeddle 15y agoI love browsing products like this. I assume inspired by Pinterest? A Toronto startup is doing the same thing, but local shops/products. http://shopcastr.com/ http://shopcastr.com/
- JonathanBouman 15y agoInspired by masonry jquery plugin and after the success of http://Scrolldit.com http://Scrolldit.com :)
- auxbuss 15y agoFYI: I get "Connection Timeout. Etsy.com is unreachable. Try again." in Firefox 9.0.1 on Ubuntu, but all is good in Chrome. I can image using this to gather ideas for gifts, and presumably buying a few (if I was US-based). Nicely done.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoI think you hit the API Limit. Just fixed a bug that used an old API key for API calls (got lower limits). Big chance you won't get that error if you retry it after 10 minutes (time needed for Amazon Cloudfront to push the new version to all the edge locations).
- timeuser 15y agoI'm getting the same in Firefox 9.0.1 on Mac. Works in Safari.
- akg 15y agoIt would be really awesome if something liked this was done for the recommended reading lists on Amazon.com, although, not sure if Amazon has an easy API for that.
- chaosmachine 15y agoI made something sort of similar for Amazon a few years ago: http://bigbooksearch.com/ http://bigbooksearch.com/ It's horizontal (like a bookshelf), instead of vertical, though.
- akg 15y agoNice! I could definitely see a simply iOS app for something like that that makes use of the cover-flow animation. Could be a nice alternative to the Amazon.com store app if you can hook it up to user accounts and Amazon's personalized recommendations.
- hiptobecubic 15y agoStart the scroll-loading earlier, and make the loading notification at least 50% smaller. It's annoying.
- dreur 15y agoNoo why have you done that... Seriously I like is a lot, very well thought. Sorry have to go back on Scrollsy...
- kenrik 15y agoNice Work! I have been working a lot with JSONP lately it's a great way to bring content Cross domain/into Apps. I just recently finished writing a Webservice/iPhone implementation. Something to consider, try preloading the content to give the user a smoother experience. My UITableViews (iPhone) were a bit clunky until I got around to pre-caching my JSON results. Anyway, Keep up the good work!
- JonathanBouman 15y agoPre-caching JSON results is something I'm testing with, expect it within a short time.
- ericingram 15y agoThis is genius. I'm going to do something like this.
- johnnyn 15y agoThis is awesome man. The wife and I just spent 30 minutes scrolling around and added quite a few items to my Favorites. You need to find a way to get an affiliate fee as soon as possible! The Pinterest-influenced UI is such a great way to explore. I'd much rather browse around on your site than the actual Etsy site anyday. The new items flying in from the left does catch me off guard sometimes and I think the search input and browse dropdown need to be a bit larger but other that, very well done.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoThanks for the kind words!
- riskish 15y agodoesn't pinterest already have a section where its exclusively etsy products?
- dabent 15y agoI did an Etsy search similar to this, with "instant" search instead of scrolling. I have to say I like your approach better. A few questions about your Etsy API experience - can you now see who purchased through your site? At the time they had no feedback loop and no sort of affiliate program. Building my Etsy app was a lot of fun, but I had no way to monetize my work. I'm a bit out of the Etsy API loop now, but I do hope they've come up with some way to help devs make money.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoI'm not sure if I could see who purchased through my site, as far as I know shopkeepers see it. There is no sort of affiliate program. So I don't see any monetizing options for this moment.
- foolinator 15y agoWhat motivated you to use the Etsy API? I'm good friends with a number of people there and worked a bit on their search too.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoIt's fast, it supports JSONP and their API team is great to work with (fast replies on email). I could recommend anyone to build a mashup on top of the Etsy API.
- foolinator 15y agoThat's great to hear, Jonathan. I personally know two of the people on that team and they're brilliant programmers but never saw their view from the outside. I'm glad to hear you're getting amazing support from them. If you're enjoying it a lot and love to program, you should consider applying there too.
- foolinator 15y agoFirst hand experience here. They'll never have an affiliate program, even though it's very easy to do.
- richcollins 15y agoThe activity indicator is very intrusive. Why not make it small and place it below the last item?
- JonathanBouman 15y agoIt's on the list to improve :)
- mikehuffman 15y agoAlong with everyone else's activity indicator complaint, I also think that color coding the bottom "info bar" area of each item according to category would be useful for quickly scanning and separating all of that info with the eye.
- JonathanBouman 15y agoGreat idea, I'll put it on the list. Thanks.