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Show HN: I made a simple webapp to store your ideas.
It's dead simple. There's no fancy interface. Basic features are gone. That's all on purpose.
If you're like me, you're always writing down ideas on pieces of paper. My webapp is like that, but for the internet. Let me know if you find it useful.
- dlf 15y agoI like the idea, but I don't see any reason why I should have to register before playing around with the app a bit. Let the user submit ideas and only require registration when they want to create their own private "bin".
- alex_g 15y agoThe point of the app is to list your ideas. The user must register in order for the app to know which ideas belong to them.
- dlf 15y agoAnd that's fine, assuming the user wants the app to know which ideas belong to them. From a UX standpoint, it's so much better to let the user kick the tires before requiring them to register.
- alex_g 15y agoWhere would the idea be assigned if it doesn't know who the user is?
- abdelm 15y agoAnonymous.
- alex_g 15y agoAdded to a public feed?
- heelhook 15y agoStripe does a great job at this. You should look at how they do this, its a very well executed implementation.
- alex_g 15y agoIf I want to use Stripe, I have to sign up.
- dlf 15y agoThe idea is to fake the UX without storing anything permanently. Generate a temporary ID to store data to while the user is playing with the site. If they've added ideas they want to save permanently, overwrite the temporary ID with the new user ID. Storing the data only matters if they sign up. I'm a programming noob myself, but I think this should work. If I'm dead wrong, it should only take a couple minutes for me to be corrected ;-) A little inspiration: splendidbacon.com/ Congrats on building something cool, btw! EDIT: Go to account and look at the email address... it's randomly generated. Cool, huh?
- ra3don92 15y ago"IdeaBin was designed and developed by Alex Greene, a 16 yr. old student at The Bronx High School of Science." Keep up the good work, you've got some real talent for your age. Congratulations on releasing!
- lowglow 15y agoS/He'll be chasing the release dragon for years now. :|
- alex_g 15y agoThanks, I really appreciate it. However, I'd rather receive criticism as if my age were not there. If I changed the 16 to a '35', would you still say the same thing?
- ra3don92 15y agoSend me an email ra3don92[at]gmail.com I've got some more in-depth criticism i'll pass along.
- ra3don92 15y agoI'll go ahead and make some suggestions: like dlf said, it would be nice to be able to play with it before registering. Furthermore, you should allow the user to login with OpenID services such as Google or Facebook, anything you can do to reduce the time it takes for a user to get started. You should add an easy way to edit the idea once it has been made. I frequently want to revise or add some resources that go along with an idea I may have. It's a good start, but lacking some features that would prevent me from using it as a way to store my ideas primarily. I'd be interested in hearing about your progress, it's going to make for a great learning experience.
- alex_g 15y agoThanks for the feedback! I chose to do a standard registration/login solely because it's my first php project- I want to learn how to handle forms and interact with databases. As per the editing, it seems that is something I should really implement.
- auston 15y agoAlex, you should seriously consider making this an iPhone app. You're probably aware of how much more your peers are into mobile (instagram? tumblr? etc). Additionally, I personally find the iPhone to be an amazing tool for ideation.
- dlf 15y ago+1 for this. I'm a big fan of the pocket notebook. Having this as an iphone app is a natural extension of that idea.
- pcd 15y agoYeah I like storing my ideas on my phone too. I'm hardly ever near a computer when a lightbulb turns on! I use noted! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noted!/id504164257?ls=1&mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noted!/id504164257?ls=1&m... Follows the same keep it simple stuff but with better tracking than the iphone notes app.
- adj 15y agoNice to see someone else enjoying my app!
- alex_g 15y agoI'll consider it greatly as my next weekend project, although I have another project I'm working on ATM. Too many ideas! :)
- pcd 15y agoSo as the administrator you can see everyone's ideas? Nice for you.
- indigo747 15y agoHey, I built something similar to this a while ago. Find it at http://openthought.herokuapp.com/ http://openthought.herokuapp.com/ Figured you might want to see it. I am also 16.
- alex_g 15y agoNice! Our apps are definitely very similar (actually the same). I really like the prompt you are given when you want to delete an idea. It's very... bold. What is it built with? How does Heroku work?
- indigo747 15y agoDidn't want people deleting their stuff accidentally. Built it with Rails. Click the "Github" link at the bottom to see the source. Heroku is really smooth (though expensive) Rails hosting. It's a little like magic.
- sturmeh 15y agoWhy would this differ to a normal note taking webapp, apart from the fact if you break into this database you are guaranteed only to see ideas?
- alex_g 15y agoYou could use a note taking webapp. I use Evernote quote a bit. However, I find myself making notes of different ideas, different categories, when sometimes I just want to add an idea to a list, like you can with my webapp. For other simple not-taking webapps, if you use it for just writing down ideas, it's fine. However, I usually use note-taking webapps for.... taking notes. When I put an idea on the list, it's immediately an idea among "non-ideas". ideaBin is just for writing down your ideas.
- madhukara 14y agoIf you have a demo on how it works it would be great