4 ms·

Ask HN: Review my startup, devvox.com

7 points by stergosz 14y ago

http://www.devvox.com/ Devvox is an online network that aims to give people the voice they should have for anything they want to share. When you create an account, you can post either an update, a discussion, a quote or even a photo and other people can find new content by using the Discover Page. People can also post something into Topics such as Startups, Tech etc... which allows users to Follow these topics and get new content in what they are interested. I have been around HN for some time but mostly browsing and reading... so i thought i would give HN Community a shot and hopefully get some feedback for my first startup. Thanks for checking it out! EDIT: here is a link for those who dont want to wait for an invitation link: http://www.devvox.com/invited/from/dvx

retroafroman 14y ago
This sounds a lot like reddit, or even pintrest. What's your differentiator?
- stergosz 14y ago
  Thank you for your comment! We are really most on giving users new content on what their interesting in and finding out whats new... Pinterest is most likely a photo-sharing community where Devvox allows you to share from a variety of options and make sure it reach your audience... as for reddit which i will be honest i dont really use it... looks like more of a link-heaven kind-of...
  - retroafroman 14y ago
    Reddit allows to post just text, or share a link. Commonly, when someone wants to share an image, they upload it to another site (usually imgur.com, in the case of reddit), then link to it. This way, reddit ends up sharing a very large amount of images/photos. One suggestion I have would be to have actual content on the splash page to pull me in. Pintrest, Digg, reddit, tumblr, HN and other sites usually let you see what people are posting to see if it interests you, before requiring sign up/sign in. In this case, I see your site, but I see no reason why I should bother signing up. Some examples of popular posts, or new things that people are sharing would be helpful to pull people in.
    - stergosz 14y ago
      We are planning on revamping our landing page so as you said, to include some posts whether it be popular or new posts... this is definitely into our todo list... thanks for your suggestion
stergosz 14y ago
clickable: http://www.devvox.com/ http://www.devvox.com/
debacle 14y ago
I don't like the design. It reminds me very much of something like Digg. Reddit's format works for a reason.
- stergosz 14y ago
  Do you have a specific page where its design doesn't work for you?
  - debacle 14y ago
    The search results page, in particular, but overall the centered, narrow-width layout really doesn't do it for me.
    - stergosz 14y ago
      well everything is fixed-width for a reason... for example, the posts are on a 601 pixel width... if i increase it to fit the search input field in the search page it wouldn't appear as good as on the designed width also there would be too white space... we are open in suggestions that could improve the site experience
kcbanner 14y ago
What is looks like on Chrome 22, on Linux (ignore the white box on the right): http://i.imgur.com/qW87o.png http://i.imgur.com/qW87o.png
- stergosz 14y ago
  I really don't have Linux at the moment... but i just tested it on Windows 7 using Chrome 22 and it seems to be working fine... are you sure that aren't any plugins that cause the problem? edit: could you give it another shot and tell me if its fixed now?
astrojams 14y ago
In 5 minutes I could probably compile a list of 20 failed startups that tried to do something similar. In 10 seconds I can show you 5 sites that did it right. This space is full, there is no room for your startup and unless you pivot into a product that actually solves a pain, you will fail. Take a close look at Reddit. They own this space. Also, what you describe above is essentially a social network. How are you any different than say... Facebook? I can share my links, photos, quotes, etc.. there. 800,000,000 users a month login. Everyone I know is on it. Why would I bother with devvox?
- stergosz 14y ago
  Users can create topics where they can post their thoughts and also follow the topics their interested in... so when you post something you want it to be heard other people can find it easily... that's basically what we're trying to solve...
ammmir 14y ago
we're doing something similar at Dialoggs [1], where people can have private discussions for collaboration (with file uploads, embeds, etc.) as well as public Dialoggs about whatever topics you want. for example, i created http://dialog.gs/amir/cloudplay http://dialog.gs/amir/cloudplay where all the beta testers of my app can post feedback, etc. it's really hard to differentiate in such a crowded space. i'd focus on a superniche and nail it right, even if you only have a small number of loyal users. don't call yourself a social network because you won't be delivering on that promise (we don't call Dialoggs that either since it's a ghost town compared to the giants) in the beginning. also, i'd work on improving the logged-out experience. much like twitter used to have a public timeline on their frontpage iirc, you could show the latest content on there. [1] http://dialog.gs http://dialog.gs
- stergosz 14y ago
  Appreciated the feedback ammmir! Thanks.

7 points by stergosz 14y ago

retroafroman 14y ago

This sounds a lot like reddit, or even pintrest. What's your differentiator?

stergosz 14y ago
Thank you for your comment! We are really most on giving users new content on what their interesting in and finding out whats new... Pinterest is most likely a photo-sharing community where Devvox allows you to share from a variety of options and make sure it reach your audience... as for reddit which i will be honest i dont really use it... looks like more of a link-heaven kind-of...
- retroafroman 14y ago
  Reddit allows to post just text, or share a link. Commonly, when someone wants to share an image, they upload it to another site (usually imgur.com, in the case of reddit), then link to it. This way, reddit ends up sharing a very large amount of images/photos. One suggestion I have would be to have actual content on the splash page to pull me in. Pintrest, Digg, reddit, tumblr, HN and other sites usually let you see what people are posting to see if it interests you, before requiring sign up/sign in. In this case, I see your site, but I see no reason why I should bother signing up. Some examples of popular posts, or new things that people are sharing would be helpful to pull people in.
  - stergosz 14y ago
    We are planning on revamping our landing page so as you said, to include some posts whether it be popular or new posts... this is definitely into our todo list... thanks for your suggestion

stergosz 14y ago

clickable: http://www.devvox.com/ http://www.devvox.com/

debacle 14y ago

I don't like the design. It reminds me very much of something like Digg. Reddit's format works for a reason.

stergosz 14y ago
Do you have a specific page where its design doesn't work for you?
- debacle 14y ago
  The search results page, in particular, but overall the centered, narrow-width layout really doesn't do it for me.
  - stergosz 14y ago
    well everything is fixed-width for a reason... for example, the posts are on a 601 pixel width... if i increase it to fit the search input field in the search page it wouldn't appear as good as on the designed width also there would be too white space... we are open in suggestions that could improve the site experience

kcbanner 14y ago

What is looks like on Chrome 22, on Linux (ignore the white box on the right): http://i.imgur.com/qW87o.png http://i.imgur.com/qW87o.png

stergosz 14y ago
I really don't have Linux at the moment... but i just tested it on Windows 7 using Chrome 22 and it seems to be working fine... are you sure that aren't any plugins that cause the problem? edit: could you give it another shot and tell me if its fixed now?

astrojams 14y ago

In 5 minutes I could probably compile a list of 20 failed startups that tried to do something similar. In 10 seconds I can show you 5 sites that did it right. This space is full, there is no room for your startup and unless you pivot into a product that actually solves a pain, you will fail. Take a close look at Reddit. They own this space. Also, what you describe above is essentially a social network. How are you any different than say... Facebook? I can share my links, photos, quotes, etc.. there. 800,000,000 users a month login. Everyone I know is on it. Why would I bother with devvox?

stergosz 14y ago
Users can create topics where they can post their thoughts and also follow the topics their interested in... so when you post something you want it to be heard other people can find it easily... that's basically what we're trying to solve...

ammmir 14y ago

we're doing something similar at Dialoggs [1], where people can have private discussions for collaboration (with file uploads, embeds, etc.) as well as public Dialoggs about whatever topics you want. for example, i created http://dialog.gs/amir/cloudplay http://dialog.gs/amir/cloudplay where all the beta testers of my app can post feedback, etc. it's really hard to differentiate in such a crowded space. i'd focus on a superniche and nail it right, even if you only have a small number of loyal users. don't call yourself a social network because you won't be delivering on that promise (we don't call Dialoggs that either since it's a ghost town compared to the giants) in the beginning. also, i'd work on improving the logged-out experience. much like twitter used to have a public timeline on their frontpage iirc, you could show the latest content on there. [1] http://dialog.gs http://dialog.gs

stergosz 14y ago
Appreciated the feedback ammmir! Thanks.