4 ms·

Ask HN: feedback on my startup?

14 points by len 18y ago

grag 18y ago
Not sure I understand either. Is this website supposed to be a destination where users go to find good content / entertainment?
gojomo 18y ago
I like the model of mixing fully disclosed/transparent paid placement with another default noneconomic ranking. Goto.com won big with that and more recently Stumbleupon. The name Elephino is somewhat weak but might work if you had the domain 'elephino.com'. I have a hard time imagining people telling their friends that they visit 'el-eph-in-o-inc-dot-com', especially since all the Elephino syllables have multiple plausible alternate spellings.
vaksel 18y ago
you should move the "how it works" link up top, because right now the whole thing is very confusing and the how it works link is way on the bottom, in a neutral color which you can barely see
gaika 18y ago
Cool, that's exactly what I need, yet, even after skimming "how it works" page I'm still not sure.
mstefff 18y ago
so it's analytics for a single page of content? why wouldn't i just use my regular analytics? i dont get it
- len 18y ago
  the 'current' analytics are for the current content. the 'previous' analytics are the sums for the spot (e.g. page 1, spot 1; page 1, spot 2; etc.) - per the faq. you have statistics to base your submission decision on before spending any money.
staunch 18y ago
Is this like an openly paid Digg or something? Needs more explanation.
- len 18y ago
  yes. all the analytics are open to everyone. you can submit content for free or pay for it to be placed higher up in the list. advice as to specifics for the explanation?
  - johnrob 18y ago
    I went to your site. I saw a list of links. I saw buttons that say 'buy' and 'adjust'. The price is 0. The CPMs are 0. I am confused.
unalone 18y ago
It looks nice. That's a good start. I can't figure out what it is or why I should be interested. That's not good. But at least you've got the aesthetic look down.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
mbuchanan 18y ago
It looks good and I bet it's very useful... but i don't understand it either.
eterno 18y ago
I spent half an hour going through the main links and the "how it works". I still have no clue what this site does and why should I use it.
- tdavis 18y ago
  The only opinion I could form was "It looks nice, but I have no clue what it is."
  - trickjarrett 18y ago
    And I have to disagree with this, I think it looks nicely bad. It's bland and each link takes up too much screen real estate.
rksprst 18y ago
Why would I pay to have my site linked to on your site? Do you have enough traffic? How is it sustainable? After a while, all the top sites would be paid and thus of no interest to users who visit your site.
- trickjarrett 18y ago
  And on top of that, why would I visit your site to see who is paying the most for my attention? That's called advertising and this is a site devoted to mixing in paid placement with the voting public. Why does this make it better than Digg / Reddit / Mixx / HN? I just don't get it and have no inclination to try hard to understand it.
- kingnothing 18y ago
  Sounds like a new take on the million dollar homepage to me.
thomasswift 18y ago
I think it's a pretty cool idea, good luck with it. Likes: I like when you X out of something it replaces the content, pretty smooth. Dislikes: the wording of the yep nope buttons, while it made me laugh because a yep nope is a mullet reference, but your site seems to be fun but still serious site(analytics) Maybe: Yea / Nay | Yes / No | Advertiser / Visitor
tontoa4 18y ago
I like the idea, just needs to be refined
gills 18y ago
It looks nice and behaves well, very clean. I couldn't immediately tell what value I would derive from using your service -- eventually found 'How it works' at the bottom. Maybe there's a way to make it painfully obvious for people like me. Using ul/li for your central list, instead of nested faceless spans, will make it a little more accessible too.
mikkom 18y ago
I went to your site and have no idea what it is. Some short "about" page would be really helpful. Why is there a "buy now" button (that btw does nothing at the moment - too much traffic?) edit: I found how it works - link at the bottom. Would be very good idea to link it on the top of the page somewhere. I don't understand the concept for the visitor, why would I want to visit a social news site that has easily manipulated voting system?
btw0 18y ago
What's this? I can't figure out.
nittwerp 18y ago
What is the meaning of "Current" and "Previous" in the Statistics section? Previous to what? Today? I'm kind of confused.
shawndrost 18y ago
This site is broken. You had an idea for a business model for Digg -- a better way to sell eyeballs, perhaps. But you don't have any eyeballs, and you don't seem to have any way of attracting them. Side note: I think the title of this site is a reference to a joke I've enjoyed since I was 5: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?"
hopeless 18y ago
I've no idea what the site does. I think it needs a big (1.5-2") banner with 2-3 sentences/graphics at the top explaining the purpose and process of the site. I just don't understand what it means to buy the xkcd:sleet story? From reading the comments here it does sound interesting but such a new/different/unusual site that it needs a lot of explanation.
timae 18y ago
I'm surprised that people are confused by this. It's seems straightforward to me. I purchased the top spot for my site for $5, but afterward I did some clicking around and couldn't find it. After taking about 10 mins to write this post, I went back to the site and it is there, however the logo didn't come through (It was there in steps 3 and 4 of the adding process while in "preview" mode). Could you look into that? Overall, it could work, if it becomes a way for startups to show off their webapp or blog and doesn't get infiltrated by garbage. However the downfall might be the quality of the content. To get on the front page of digg, the content has to be interesting; to get on the front page of your site, all you need is $, which makes it easier on the publisher, but will make the content less interesting to the viewer (which = less viewers).

14 points by len 18y ago

grag 18y ago

Not sure I understand either. Is this website supposed to be a destination where users go to find good content / entertainment?

gojomo 18y ago

I like the model of mixing fully disclosed/transparent paid placement with another default noneconomic ranking. Goto.com won big with that and more recently Stumbleupon. The name Elephino is somewhat weak but might work if you had the domain 'elephino.com'. I have a hard time imagining people telling their friends that they visit 'el-eph-in-o-inc-dot-com', especially since all the Elephino syllables have multiple plausible alternate spellings.

vaksel 18y ago

you should move the "how it works" link up top, because right now the whole thing is very confusing and the how it works link is way on the bottom, in a neutral color which you can barely see

gaika 18y ago

Cool, that's exactly what I need, yet, even after skimming "how it works" page I'm still not sure.

mstefff 18y ago

so it's analytics for a single page of content? why wouldn't i just use my regular analytics? i dont get it

len 18y ago
the 'current' analytics are for the current content. the 'previous' analytics are the sums for the spot (e.g. page 1, spot 1; page 1, spot 2; etc.) - per the faq. you have statistics to base your submission decision on before spending any money.

staunch 18y ago

Is this like an openly paid Digg or something? Needs more explanation.

len 18y ago
yes. all the analytics are open to everyone. you can submit content for free or pay for it to be placed higher up in the list. advice as to specifics for the explanation?
- johnrob 18y ago
  I went to your site. I saw a list of links. I saw buttons that say 'buy' and 'adjust'. The price is 0. The CPMs are 0. I am confused.

unalone 18y ago

It looks nice. That's a good start. I can't figure out what it is or why I should be interested. That's not good. But at least you've got the aesthetic look down.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

mbuchanan 18y ago

It looks good and I bet it's very useful... but i don't understand it either.

eterno 18y ago

I spent half an hour going through the main links and the "how it works". I still have no clue what this site does and why should I use it.

tdavis 18y ago
The only opinion I could form was "It looks nice, but I have no clue what it is."
- trickjarrett 18y ago
  And I have to disagree with this, I think it looks nicely bad. It's bland and each link takes up too much screen real estate.

rksprst 18y ago

Why would I pay to have my site linked to on your site? Do you have enough traffic? How is it sustainable? After a while, all the top sites would be paid and thus of no interest to users who visit your site.

trickjarrett 18y ago
And on top of that, why would I visit your site to see who is paying the most for my attention? That's called advertising and this is a site devoted to mixing in paid placement with the voting public. Why does this make it better than Digg / Reddit / Mixx / HN? I just don't get it and have no inclination to try hard to understand it.
kingnothing 18y ago
Sounds like a new take on the million dollar homepage to me.

thomasswift 18y ago

I think it's a pretty cool idea, good luck with it. Likes: I like when you X out of something it replaces the content, pretty smooth. Dislikes: the wording of the yep nope buttons, while it made me laugh because a yep nope is a mullet reference, but your site seems to be fun but still serious site(analytics) Maybe: Yea / Nay | Yes / No | Advertiser / Visitor

tontoa4 18y ago

I like the idea, just needs to be refined

gills 18y ago

It looks nice and behaves well, very clean. I couldn't immediately tell what value I would derive from using your service -- eventually found 'How it works' at the bottom. Maybe there's a way to make it painfully obvious for people like me. Using ul/li for your central list, instead of nested faceless spans, will make it a little more accessible too.

mikkom 18y ago

I went to your site and have no idea what it is. Some short "about" page would be really helpful. Why is there a "buy now" button (that btw does nothing at the moment - too much traffic?) edit: I found how it works - link at the bottom. Would be very good idea to link it on the top of the page somewhere. I don't understand the concept for the visitor, why would I want to visit a social news site that has easily manipulated voting system?

btw0 18y ago

What's this? I can't figure out.

nittwerp 18y ago

What is the meaning of "Current" and "Previous" in the Statistics section? Previous to what? Today? I'm kind of confused.

shawndrost 18y ago

This site is broken. You had an idea for a business model for Digg -- a better way to sell eyeballs, perhaps. But you don't have any eyeballs, and you don't seem to have any way of attracting them. Side note: I think the title of this site is a reference to a joke I've enjoyed since I was 5: "What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?"

hopeless 18y ago

I've no idea what the site does. I think it needs a big (1.5-2") banner with 2-3 sentences/graphics at the top explaining the purpose and process of the site. I just don't understand what it means to buy the xkcd:sleet story? From reading the comments here it does sound interesting but such a new/different/unusual site that it needs a lot of explanation.

timae 18y ago

I'm surprised that people are confused by this. It's seems straightforward to me. I purchased the top spot for my site for $5, but afterward I did some clicking around and couldn't find it. After taking about 10 mins to write this post, I went back to the site and it is there, however the logo didn't come through (It was there in steps 3 and 4 of the adding process while in "preview" mode). Could you look into that? Overall, it could work, if it becomes a way for startups to show off their webapp or blog and doesn't get infiltrated by garbage. However the downfall might be the quality of the content. To get on the front page of digg, the content has to be interesting; to get on the front page of your site, all you need is $, which makes it easier on the publisher, but will make the content less interesting to the viewer (which = less viewers).