4 ms·

Show HN: CollabFinder, find developers and designers for your next great project

29 points by sahadeva 14y ago

sahadeva 14y ago
CollabFinder is a network of geeks like you looking for collaborators. No recruiters. No MBAs. It's the place to go when you're looking for someone to help you with your next big idea. Browse developers, designers, illustrators and writers by skill, interest, location and how many friends you have in common. Then chat with anyone with one click. And if you're looking to do a new startup tag yourself with "Y Combinator" or "Summer Camp" or "TechStars" to get pitched by people like you. Want to see Python developers in San Francisco who want to do a Y Combinator company related to education? No problem. Try it out now at CollabFinder.com and let us know what you think. Saha, Gil and Simon.
- bantic 14y ago
  I love the idea of making it easier for people to find one another to collab on things. How will you keep out recruiters, though? Seems like they always end up on these things and start increasing the noise.
  - sahadeva 14y ago
    Stopping recruiters from messing with people on the site is one of the big reasons we use Facebook - we can block anyone who abuses the system easily, and potentially block the companies using those recruiters. If we make the stakes high for companies abusing people through reckless recruiters hopefully we can change how companies think twice about hiring them. We also built in some simple triggers to make reporting abuse super easy, and we monitor how people are using the system closely. Hopefully in the future we can watch for suspicious behavior patterns based on what we learn. Thanks for asking :)
jackmcdade 14y ago
The join forms on this site are abysmal. I hate to say it, but as a designer/developer, I couldn't even get my profile on the site. You gotta fix this if you want to get enough users.
- sahadeva 14y ago
  Thanks for trying it out - can you tell me what issues you came across in the signup form? We're working on making it easier, but wanted to get the site out there and get some feedback.
  - jackmcdade 14y ago
    It was completely unstyled, validation was unclear, and if I filled something in wrong, it wiped my form data.
iDhruvKumar 14y ago
Can't access the website, It's saying Database Error... And the only way to sign up is via Facebook? I am a Developer, But i am not a Facebook user, Having different/normal way to signup will be good.
- iDhruvKumar 14y ago
  I guess i am the only one who can't Login and i see the database error only when i am logged in.. Can you check it out, It's on line number 150 (/ap...../..ls../facebook_member.php)
  - sahadeva 14y ago
    Sorry about that! We're looking into the bug and should have it fixed up asap...
  - sahadeva 14y ago
    Should be working fine now :)
    - iDhruvKumar 14y ago
      Nope, Still can't update my profile.
mrsteveman1 14y ago
I don't think Facebook logins are a good way to handle user registration for something like this, perhaps I'm in the minority but I don't even have a Facebook account anymore (on purpose). I don't think it's a good idea to pull Facebook friends from their API for this purpose either, are you actually processing those or is it client side?
- sahadeva 14y ago
  We are processing the connections so we can show you friends of friends on the site. The thought being that it's much easier to start chatting with someone if you know you have friends in common. If you do signup you can sort everyone on the site by how many mutual friends you have, which is pretty amazing. Using Facebook also allows us to protect against spammers, recruiters, etc., and we can make filling out your profile easier (though we still have work to do there). What alternative site would you want to be able to sign up with? Github? Twitter? Thanks for the feedback.
  - SpaceDragon 14y ago
    I'd like to chime in by saying I'm interested in using the service, but recently quit Facebook like a bad habit and have no intentions of ever going back. By making registration as Facebook only, you may be excluding some of the best people.
  - iusable 14y ago
    Agree with most here. New baseline for such communities is - Email/Pass - FB - Twitter - Google For your specific community, I would consider the following as well - Tumblr (designers!) - GitHub - (& maybe even) Dribbble
hkarthik 14y ago
I like the idea, seems similar to BuildItWithMe. However, requiring Facebook for sign up kills it for me. As a dev, I'd rather use email/password.
bjtitus 14y ago
Tried to get in touch with some people on the site but it says "Join CollabFinder by creating your public profile" every time I try to "add to my profile"
- sahadeva 14y ago
  Thanks for trying out the site - can you be a bit more specific about what happens when you try to sign up? Did you get a facebook dialog popup? Would love to help you get it sorted out - just launched and we probably have a few bugs lurking that we're not aware of. Also, refreshing the page might do the trick... Thanks.
  - bjtitus 14y ago
    I reset my browser cache/cookies and that reset the Oauth token but once I login with Facebook it redirects me back to the "add to my profile" page where I choose that I'm a developer and it either kicks me to the same page as above or a page with a few bullets on it that appears like an unfinished/unstyled page.
Lukeas14 14y ago
As a developer/designer looking for a marketing/business person I feel left out.
- sahadeva 14y ago
  We'll be adding more skillsets in the future - thanks for the feedback. Anything else you like / don't like?
  - Lukeas14 14y ago
    I would like to see design samples in the same way that you show code samples. And the "see who you both know" functionality might work better with linkedin than facebook. What would be really nice is if you could tap into meetup.com so you could see the backgrounds of people you're about to be at an event with. Other than that I love the idea and your execution of it.
iusable 14y ago
Love the simplicity of this one. Awesome work Saha & co.
Rojah 14y ago
Simple interface, I like, looking forward to seeing it grow

29 points by sahadeva 14y ago

CollabFinder is a network of geeks like you looking for collaborators. No recruiters. No MBAs. It's the place to go when you're looking for someone to help you with your next big idea. Browse developers, designers, illustrators and writers by skill, interest, location and how many friends you have in common. Then chat with anyone with one click. And if you're looking to do a new startup tag yourself with "Y Combinator" or "Summer Camp" or "TechStars" to get pitched by people like you. Want to see Python developers in San Francisco who want to do a Y Combinator company related to education? No problem. Try it out now at CollabFinder.com and let us know what you think. Saha, Gil and Simon.

bantic 14y ago
I love the idea of making it easier for people to find one another to collab on things. How will you keep out recruiters, though? Seems like they always end up on these things and start increasing the noise.
- sahadeva 14y ago
  Stopping recruiters from messing with people on the site is one of the big reasons we use Facebook - we can block anyone who abuses the system easily, and potentially block the companies using those recruiters. If we make the stakes high for companies abusing people through reckless recruiters hopefully we can change how companies think twice about hiring them. We also built in some simple triggers to make reporting abuse super easy, and we monitor how people are using the system closely. Hopefully in the future we can watch for suspicious behavior patterns based on what we learn. Thanks for asking :)

jackmcdade 14y ago

The join forms on this site are abysmal. I hate to say it, but as a designer/developer, I couldn't even get my profile on the site. You gotta fix this if you want to get enough users.

sahadeva 14y ago
Thanks for trying it out - can you tell me what issues you came across in the signup form? We're working on making it easier, but wanted to get the site out there and get some feedback.
- jackmcdade 14y ago
  It was completely unstyled, validation was unclear, and if I filled something in wrong, it wiped my form data.

iDhruvKumar 14y ago

Can't access the website, It's saying Database Error... And the only way to sign up is via Facebook? I am a Developer, But i am not a Facebook user, Having different/normal way to signup will be good.

iDhruvKumar 14y ago
I guess i am the only one who can't Login and i see the database error only when i am logged in.. Can you check it out, It's on line number 150 (/ap...../..ls../facebook_member.php)
- sahadeva 14y ago
  Sorry about that! We're looking into the bug and should have it fixed up asap...
- sahadeva 14y ago
  Should be working fine now :)
  - iDhruvKumar 14y ago
    Nope, Still can't update my profile.

mrsteveman1 14y ago

I don't think Facebook logins are a good way to handle user registration for something like this, perhaps I'm in the minority but I don't even have a Facebook account anymore (on purpose). I don't think it's a good idea to pull Facebook friends from their API for this purpose either, are you actually processing those or is it client side?

sahadeva 14y ago
We are processing the connections so we can show you friends of friends on the site. The thought being that it's much easier to start chatting with someone if you know you have friends in common. If you do signup you can sort everyone on the site by how many mutual friends you have, which is pretty amazing. Using Facebook also allows us to protect against spammers, recruiters, etc., and we can make filling out your profile easier (though we still have work to do there). What alternative site would you want to be able to sign up with? Github? Twitter? Thanks for the feedback.
- SpaceDragon 14y ago
  I'd like to chime in by saying I'm interested in using the service, but recently quit Facebook like a bad habit and have no intentions of ever going back. By making registration as Facebook only, you may be excluding some of the best people.
- iusable 14y ago
  Agree with most here. New baseline for such communities is - Email/Pass - FB - Twitter - Google For your specific community, I would consider the following as well - Tumblr (designers!) - GitHub - (& maybe even) Dribbble

hkarthik 14y ago

I like the idea, seems similar to BuildItWithMe. However, requiring Facebook for sign up kills it for me. As a dev, I'd rather use email/password.

bjtitus 14y ago

Tried to get in touch with some people on the site but it says "Join CollabFinder by creating your public profile" every time I try to "add to my profile"

sahadeva 14y ago
Thanks for trying out the site - can you be a bit more specific about what happens when you try to sign up? Did you get a facebook dialog popup? Would love to help you get it sorted out - just launched and we probably have a few bugs lurking that we're not aware of. Also, refreshing the page might do the trick... Thanks.
- bjtitus 14y ago
  I reset my browser cache/cookies and that reset the Oauth token but once I login with Facebook it redirects me back to the "add to my profile" page where I choose that I'm a developer and it either kicks me to the same page as above or a page with a few bullets on it that appears like an unfinished/unstyled page.

Lukeas14 14y ago

As a developer/designer looking for a marketing/business person I feel left out.

sahadeva 14y ago
We'll be adding more skillsets in the future - thanks for the feedback. Anything else you like / don't like?
- Lukeas14 14y ago
  I would like to see design samples in the same way that you show code samples. And the "see who you both know" functionality might work better with linkedin than facebook. What would be really nice is if you could tap into meetup.com so you could see the backgrounds of people you're about to be at an event with. Other than that I love the idea and your execution of it.

iusable 14y ago

Love the simplicity of this one. Awesome work Saha & co.

Rojah 14y ago

Simple interface, I like, looking forward to seeing it grow