6 ms·

4 Insights from a Hacker News Launch

55 points by tagx 14y ago

dyim 14y ago
$0 in donations? I'll bring a couple beers over tonight
Pkeod 14y ago
More proof that asking for donations is not a business model.
- prawn 14y ago
  While I don't disagree, I think it could be a bit early to judge in this case given that people were probably mostly kicking the tyres.
dasil003 14y ago
I'm all for supporting IE8, but it's suspicious that someone on HN would notice that you weren't supporting it.
- Smirnoff 14y ago
  People in financial industry unfortunately still have to deal with IE
- natep 14y ago
  IIRC, it said so right on their front page "Doesn't support IE"
RexM 14y ago
Is the main site down for anyone else?
- tnash 14y ago
  Yeah, down for me, wanted to find out more about their product, didn't pay attention the other day.
- tagx 14y ago
  Yeah, for some reason our load balancer isn't establishing ssl connections. We're looking into the issue.
tarr11 14y ago
Thanks for this detailed information. It's great to know what kind of traffic to expect from an HN launch.
noonespecial 14y ago
it wouldn't hurt to make the "Filepicker.io" in the banner of your blog go to Filepicker.io, not filepicker.tumblr.com. We already know where that is.
- brettcvz 14y ago
  Done! Good call
philgo20 14y ago
Would be more interesting to know how you go to #1. Great headline? Luck? Friends?
- brettcvz 14y ago
  Luck, Friends, probably in that order. Also giving people a demo, releasing on a slow(er) news day, releasing right about the time people get off work, making something for developers and giving it away for free.
tagx 14y ago
Sorry for the downtime on the main site but our Heroku/Amazon ssl load balancer died. I temporarily reverted to Heroku's piggyback ssl so the site will work but with an invalid security certificate. We are trying to resolve the issue with Heroku now.
- tagx 14y ago
  Heroku has now acknowledged issues https://status.heroku.com/ https://status.heroku.com/
- brettcvz 14y ago
  Fixed. The cloud giveth and the cloud taketh away
abcd_f 14y ago
"Launch" ... a file selector widget. Awesome. I bet it's a startup too.
- nmcfarl 14y ago
  This was my problem with file picker.io as well. The blog entry mentions donation - but I did not see that option. What I did see was a hosted service, that has a very startup-y feel. Which means to me that charging for this service is probably in the works. And paying for a file picker is not something I want to do - it’s just a little to critical a function to have an external dependency on.
app360 14y ago
It will be real helpful if you can share the time of launch and the headline you used. Where can I find the thread for it in HN? sorry for being a noob :)
- brettcvz 14y ago
  3:00pm Thursday. Headline was: Show HN: Filepicker.io - dead simple file uploads
  - app360 14y ago
    ok cool! It's so simple it's hard to believe :) Thanks for sharing man!
- nmcfarl 14y ago
  Show HN: Filepicker.io - dead simple file uploads - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3864615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3864615
illdave 14y ago
Congratulations on launching - I've been in a similar position with getting a HN spike and hitting email caps, but that's why I love Heroku (and SendGrid) for easily scaling things up, especially when I didn't really know what I was doing. Do you guys have anything in place to alert you if you get another spike in traffic? If not, I'd recommend using Chartbeat and setting up alerts so that it emails/notifies your phone when you get a flood of traffic - you might find that press mentions pop up here and there and knowing about them straight away can help you fan the flames a bit. It's also pretty useful for when your site goes down as it instantly alerts you. Well done again - great job with launching.

55 points by tagx 14y ago

dyim 14y ago

$0 in donations? I'll bring a couple beers over tonight

Pkeod 14y ago

More proof that asking for donations is not a business model.

prawn 14y ago
While I don't disagree, I think it could be a bit early to judge in this case given that people were probably mostly kicking the tyres.

dasil003 14y ago

I'm all for supporting IE8, but it's suspicious that someone on HN would notice that you weren't supporting it.

Smirnoff 14y ago
People in financial industry unfortunately still have to deal with IE
natep 14y ago
IIRC, it said so right on their front page "Doesn't support IE"

RexM 14y ago

Is the main site down for anyone else?

tnash 14y ago
Yeah, down for me, wanted to find out more about their product, didn't pay attention the other day.
tagx 14y ago
Yeah, for some reason our load balancer isn't establishing ssl connections. We're looking into the issue.

tarr11 14y ago

Thanks for this detailed information. It's great to know what kind of traffic to expect from an HN launch.

noonespecial 14y ago

it wouldn't hurt to make the "Filepicker.io" in the banner of your blog go to Filepicker.io, not filepicker.tumblr.com. We already know where that is.

brettcvz 14y ago
Done! Good call

philgo20 14y ago

Would be more interesting to know how you go to #1. Great headline? Luck? Friends?

brettcvz 14y ago
Luck, Friends, probably in that order. Also giving people a demo, releasing on a slow(er) news day, releasing right about the time people get off work, making something for developers and giving it away for free.

tagx 14y ago

Sorry for the downtime on the main site but our Heroku/Amazon ssl load balancer died. I temporarily reverted to Heroku's piggyback ssl so the site will work but with an invalid security certificate. We are trying to resolve the issue with Heroku now.

tagx 14y ago
Heroku has now acknowledged issues https://status.heroku.com/ https://status.heroku.com/
brettcvz 14y ago
Fixed. The cloud giveth and the cloud taketh away

abcd_f 14y ago

"Launch" ... a file selector widget. Awesome. I bet it's a startup too.

nmcfarl 14y ago
This was my problem with file picker.io as well. The blog entry mentions donation - but I did not see that option. What I did see was a hosted service, that has a very startup-y feel. Which means to me that charging for this service is probably in the works. And paying for a file picker is not something I want to do - it’s just a little to critical a function to have an external dependency on.

app360 14y ago

It will be real helpful if you can share the time of launch and the headline you used. Where can I find the thread for it in HN? sorry for being a noob :)

brettcvz 14y ago
3:00pm Thursday. Headline was: Show HN: Filepicker.io - dead simple file uploads
- app360 14y ago
  ok cool! It's so simple it's hard to believe :) Thanks for sharing man!
nmcfarl 14y ago
Show HN: Filepicker.io - dead simple file uploads - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3864615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3864615

illdave 14y ago

Congratulations on launching - I've been in a similar position with getting a HN spike and hitting email caps, but that's why I love Heroku (and SendGrid) for easily scaling things up, especially when I didn't really know what I was doing. Do you guys have anything in place to alert you if you get another spike in traffic? If not, I'd recommend using Chartbeat and setting up alerts so that it emails/notifies your phone when you get a flood of traffic - you might find that press mentions pop up here and there and knowing about them straight away can help you fan the flames a bit. It's also pretty useful for when your site goes down as it instantly alerts you. Well done again - great job with launching.