4 ms·

Ask HN: Review my video startup, mixy.tv

15 points by mixydrew 14y ago

Hey guys, Me and a couple of buddies started a video aggregation site a few months ago called mixy.tv. We are actively looking for beta users and just recently opened it up out of private beta. We would love any feedback specifically in relation to user flow and UI. Do you guys find our layout appealing and an enjoyable way to find new interesting videos? We also would love any feedback on how useful you think it is to log the videos you watch in order to share those with your friends and followers on mixy. Really appreciate any time and advice in advance! -Andrew

frugalfirbolg 14y ago
Critical feedback up front: Before signing up, please note that the demo video (which looked pretty, and I should have paid more attention to) when played in Chrome never successfully exited for me, i.e. the sign up elements continued to be hidden (yea, made sure it wasn't full-screen). I tried zooming in and out, pausing and playing the video. I did not investigate the DOM. A refresh restored the initial state and after signing-up I haven't revisited to play with it more. Signing up felt a little like "hunt for the link that leads to the behavior I want". After clicking "Sign up with Facebook" at the bottom left and then telling Facebook I didn't want to give your app all of the requested permissions it aborted, but when I initiated Sign Up from the Login link at the top right, chose to use Facebook, and denied the app requested permissions, it rolled along. I went through several of the videos and didn't see any with comments yet. I noticed that you're not linking back to the comments on the original site, and can understand there being several reasons for that, but I do wonder if there will be any integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ for the comments that originate in mixy.tv? Do they get re-posted to those other services, with hashtags for Twitter, so that followers from those services are tempted to join mixy.tv and become part of the fun? Besides crowd-sourced tagging and filtering, are there any plans to create recommendations? Since I am not following anyone else that is using mixy.tv yet, is the "People I Follow" link supposed to show people I follow on other social networks, and will I also be able to follow people just through mixy.tv in case we're coming from different walled gardens? One feature request would be to enable bookmarks within videos, with their own urls, so users can comment on specific points in the video, and link directly to the frame they're talking about. Finally answering your questions: Overall the site looks clean, the layout after signing in makes sense. I'd like to thank your service for revealing this video to me: http://mixy.tv/posts/ea5c3e/this-dude-loves-his-job-best-cotton-candy-maker-ever http://mixy.tv/posts/ea5c3e/this-dude-loves-his-job-best-cot... However, I need some help seeing the added value in general over my current means of finding videos. It appears the primary means to find videos is either manually searching or from the people I already follow. By the way, is the List functionality enabled? The dialog says I created one, but then I can't find the list I created.
- frugalfirbolg 14y ago
  Sorry, quick p.s. after playing with it a little more. I found my new list under my user profile page. So, I need to create a new list with the link up top, then figure out that RePost at the bottom right really means Add To A List. Then, if I go to my own profile I can see my list, and can remove videos within it, but I haven't figured out how to remove the list itself yet. Now that I know all of this I can remember it, but I mostly figured it out by clicking random buttons. The user should be able to grok it from the labels and relative positions.
  - mixydrew 14y ago
    Really appreciate all the comments here. We have been focusing on making the service more intuitive so a lot of your feedback reaffirms our need to to that. We are connected to open graph but have not fully built out the Twitter or Google+ share yet but that is a great idea. Thanks again for signing up and look out for some changes in the near future. Until then any additional comments are more than welcomed! -Andrew
idoh 14y ago
I work for a competitor to you but I don't mind helping you out a bit. A - Your install flow is bad, just let people use the app if they've given you a facebook auth. You want to remove steps to the funnel. B - Do not ask for the publish_stream permission, ask for publish_actions instead. The advantage of publish_actions is that it appears on the first auth page, and not the extended permissions page. You can do almost everything that you need to do using publish_actions that you can with publish_stream. Do not ask for both though, or else they will both be on the extended permissions page. C - You must get Open Graph going ASAP. I can describe some wrinkles to publish_actions v. publish_stream, just ping me.
- mixydrew 14y ago
  Hey idoh! We are looking into the Facebook sign up user flow right now but thank you for bringing that to our attention and for the recommendation to go the publish_actions route. In relation to Open Graph we actually do have that built out and there is Facebook timeline on and off feature in the top right. Was it not working properly for you? Thanks, Andrew
  - idoh 14y ago
    That confuses me a little bit. When I think of Open Graph, I think of making a custom action verb, or using a built in one like "watch". As far as I know you can't post open graph actions without getting the publish_actions permission. So I'm guessing that by open graph you mean publishing stories on the user's timeline using publish_stream, which is the graph api but not open graph. I can see how you could publish events as stories using publish_stream, but Facebook wants you to use Open Graph / Actions for that and gives benefits for using open graph actions instead of publishing stories.
    - calvinlai 14y ago
      Hey idoh, I'm one of the developers at mixy.tv -- we are indeed asking for publish_actions and using open graph to publish video watches and likes. However, we use publish_stream for adding a video because we found that it shows up more often in the news feed as opposed to being shown in the ticker on the right of the FB home page. I think you have a good point though about publish_stream being in the extended permission screen, however. I know you mentioned working for a competitor, so you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but -- have you guys seen better conversion rates for signups or better share rates by using Open Graph actions explicitly as opposed to a combination of publish_stream and publish_actions?
zaidf 14y ago
So, I like the idea! I share a lot of videos on facebook but their present UI makes it super hard to only check out videos. You seem to kind of address that. I do think you can improve your messaging. I kind of knew what you offer but not really until I signed up. One way you could pitch this is show a screenshot of a facebook newsfeed on the left and a screenshot of Mixy on the right going through that feed and picking out all the videos. Of course, make those sample videos in the screenshot seem very compelling and bait-ish. Edit: Dude, put a huge link that just shows all the videos I've shared on facebook. That itself would be extremely useful to me.
- mixydrew 14y ago
  Hey Zaidf, Yea we are working thru the site being more intuitive and making it simpler to explain how to use the site in general. I love the videos I've shared on Facebook idea. We'll put it in the que! -Andrew
  - zaidf 14y ago
    Awesome! Jenny told me about your site some time ago :) Good to see it on HN. Another thing - when I click play, it's not apparent that it's a modal and there is an 'X' on top left. I thought you were taking me to a new page. May be reduce the opacity of the background or put a larger 'close' button at bottom center?

15 points by mixydrew 14y ago

frugalfirbolg 14y ago

Critical feedback up front: Before signing up, please note that the demo video (which looked pretty, and I should have paid more attention to) when played in Chrome never successfully exited for me, i.e. the sign up elements continued to be hidden (yea, made sure it wasn't full-screen). I tried zooming in and out, pausing and playing the video. I did not investigate the DOM. A refresh restored the initial state and after signing-up I haven't revisited to play with it more. Signing up felt a little like "hunt for the link that leads to the behavior I want". After clicking "Sign up with Facebook" at the bottom left and then telling Facebook I didn't want to give your app all of the requested permissions it aborted, but when I initiated Sign Up from the Login link at the top right, chose to use Facebook, and denied the app requested permissions, it rolled along. I went through several of the videos and didn't see any with comments yet. I noticed that you're not linking back to the comments on the original site, and can understand there being several reasons for that, but I do wonder if there will be any integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ for the comments that originate in mixy.tv? Do they get re-posted to those other services, with hashtags for Twitter, so that followers from those services are tempted to join mixy.tv and become part of the fun? Besides crowd-sourced tagging and filtering, are there any plans to create recommendations? Since I am not following anyone else that is using mixy.tv yet, is the "People I Follow" link supposed to show people I follow on other social networks, and will I also be able to follow people just through mixy.tv in case we're coming from different walled gardens? One feature request would be to enable bookmarks within videos, with their own urls, so users can comment on specific points in the video, and link directly to the frame they're talking about. Finally answering your questions: Overall the site looks clean, the layout after signing in makes sense. I'd like to thank your service for revealing this video to me: http://mixy.tv/posts/ea5c3e/this-dude-loves-his-job-best-cotton-candy-maker-ever http://mixy.tv/posts/ea5c3e/this-dude-loves-his-job-best-cot... However, I need some help seeing the added value in general over my current means of finding videos. It appears the primary means to find videos is either manually searching or from the people I already follow. By the way, is the List functionality enabled? The dialog says I created one, but then I can't find the list I created.

frugalfirbolg 14y ago
Sorry, quick p.s. after playing with it a little more. I found my new list under my user profile page. So, I need to create a new list with the link up top, then figure out that RePost at the bottom right really means Add To A List. Then, if I go to my own profile I can see my list, and can remove videos within it, but I haven't figured out how to remove the list itself yet. Now that I know all of this I can remember it, but I mostly figured it out by clicking random buttons. The user should be able to grok it from the labels and relative positions.
- mixydrew 14y ago
  Really appreciate all the comments here. We have been focusing on making the service more intuitive so a lot of your feedback reaffirms our need to to that. We are connected to open graph but have not fully built out the Twitter or Google+ share yet but that is a great idea. Thanks again for signing up and look out for some changes in the near future. Until then any additional comments are more than welcomed! -Andrew

idoh 14y ago

I work for a competitor to you but I don't mind helping you out a bit. A - Your install flow is bad, just let people use the app if they've given you a facebook auth. You want to remove steps to the funnel. B - Do not ask for the publish_stream permission, ask for publish_actions instead. The advantage of publish_actions is that it appears on the first auth page, and not the extended permissions page. You can do almost everything that you need to do using publish_actions that you can with publish_stream. Do not ask for both though, or else they will both be on the extended permissions page. C - You must get Open Graph going ASAP. I can describe some wrinkles to publish_actions v. publish_stream, just ping me.

mixydrew 14y ago
Hey idoh! We are looking into the Facebook sign up user flow right now but thank you for bringing that to our attention and for the recommendation to go the publish_actions route. In relation to Open Graph we actually do have that built out and there is Facebook timeline on and off feature in the top right. Was it not working properly for you? Thanks, Andrew
- idoh 14y ago
  That confuses me a little bit. When I think of Open Graph, I think of making a custom action verb, or using a built in one like "watch". As far as I know you can't post open graph actions without getting the publish_actions permission. So I'm guessing that by open graph you mean publishing stories on the user's timeline using publish_stream, which is the graph api but not open graph. I can see how you could publish events as stories using publish_stream, but Facebook wants you to use Open Graph / Actions for that and gives benefits for using open graph actions instead of publishing stories.
  - calvinlai 14y ago
    Hey idoh, I'm one of the developers at mixy.tv -- we are indeed asking for publish_actions and using open graph to publish video watches and likes. However, we use publish_stream for adding a video because we found that it shows up more often in the news feed as opposed to being shown in the ticker on the right of the FB home page. I think you have a good point though about publish_stream being in the extended permission screen, however. I know you mentioned working for a competitor, so you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but -- have you guys seen better conversion rates for signups or better share rates by using Open Graph actions explicitly as opposed to a combination of publish_stream and publish_actions?

zaidf 14y ago

So, I like the idea! I share a lot of videos on facebook but their present UI makes it super hard to only check out videos. You seem to kind of address that. I do think you can improve your messaging. I kind of knew what you offer but not really until I signed up. One way you could pitch this is show a screenshot of a facebook newsfeed on the left and a screenshot of Mixy on the right going through that feed and picking out all the videos. Of course, make those sample videos in the screenshot seem very compelling and bait-ish. Edit: Dude, put a huge link that just shows all the videos I've shared on facebook. That itself would be extremely useful to me.

mixydrew 14y ago
Hey Zaidf, Yea we are working thru the site being more intuitive and making it simpler to explain how to use the site in general. I love the videos I've shared on Facebook idea. We'll put it in the que! -Andrew
- zaidf 14y ago
  Awesome! Jenny told me about your site some time ago :) Good to see it on HN. Another thing - when I click play, it's not apparent that it's a modal and there is an 'X' on top left. I thought you were taking me to a new page. May be reduce the opacity of the background or put a larger 'close' button at bottom center?