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Host me in California
- MisterBastahrd 14y agoAny page with that little information on it and forces users to scroll is a testament to over-design.
- spudlyo 14y agoI didn't even realize you had to scroll down. I saw some bouncy text and images with no navigation hints whatsoever. I clicked around, went 'eww' and closed the tab. Once I figured out that you had to scroll down, I admit I found effect pretty cool. I think adding an arrow pointing down on the main page would help.
- jfb 14y agoIt is very nicely done, but I think that "Eastern Europe" as a synonym for "Borat" is a trope that, while never accurate, has run its course.
- nodata 14y agoHuh? Who mentioned Borat?
- akie 14y agoWell, it was implied. Why else mention 'Eastern Europe'? Do we ever mention geographical location in other articles, as in "this startup from the Eastern US has..."? Nope, we don't. Here, "Eastern Europe" seems to have been included (in combination with "16 year old") to evoke an image of an inexperienced youngster in an underdeveloped, backwards area that is nevertheless outperforming you. So no, no-one mentioned Borat, but the imagery associated with it was certainly implied.
- nodata 14y agoSee kriro's comment, but to address your question: Do we ever mention geographical location in other articles, as in "this startup from the Eastern US has..."? Nope, we don't. Yes we do. We say "Northern America". For the US we also talk about the West Coast versus the East Coast, and the Midwest.
- yread 14y agoHow would you feel if it was "this 16 yo african american" ?
- nodata 14y agoTo talk about a 16 year old African American? Fine? Why wouldn't I?
- gknoy 14y agoI believe his point was that calling attention to someone's race (or location) is extraneous information that's not necessarily important. One might mean it as simply clarifying ("that young african american kid, not the long-haired kid next to him"), but it's easy to misunderstand that as some implication that it's notable that they're a ____ person (poor, female, foreign, different-colored-skin) rather than that what they did is notable in its own right. In this case, I think it's very interesting that this young man has had the creativity to make such a site, and prepare his message so well. I admire the degree of preparation he's put into this: he clearly seems to understand the visa process. I like his "let's make sure we are right for each other first" message, as well.
- jfb 14y agoWhy else mention "from Eastern Europe"? Would "from France" or "from Sweden" be seen as remarkable? It's a great page from anyone, 16 or no, but the fact that he's from Slovakia isn't germane.
- grego 14y agoWell, GDP/capita in Slovakia is quite a bit lower than in France or Sweden, and that is a common trait across Eastern Europe. As he is asking for hosting, money enters the equation.
- kriro 14y agoBorat -> Kazakhstan -> Asia "Eastern Europe" != Asia
- rieter 14y agoBut the actual Borat movie (the parts outside of America) was filmed in Eastern Europe (Romania, I think), not Kazakhstan.
- unreal37 14y agoI think you read too much into it. Everyone calls that area of the world "Eastern Europe". And yes, you do hear "Northeastern US", "Southern US", "West Coast", "The Midwest"... people refer to large areas of land using compass points.
- mrknmc 14y agoSlovakia is in central Europe.
- digitalengineer 14y agoBut us Western European people think of everything at the right of Germany and Austria as "Eastern Europe" because of the Iron Curtain and all. I suppose it's culural.
- damian2000 14y agoagreed, I think this is a pretty common belief ... not only of western europeans.
- opminion 14y agoYes, pretty much like South America starting in Tijuana or the Far East being west of California. It is just a case of a relative description used as an absolute description, which is often quite convenient. Being capitalised is an indicator of that.
- jwr 14y agoIt's been more than 20 years now since the Iron Curtain lifted, so I guess people might as well start getting used to the idea that old divisions no longer make sense.
- tehwalrus 14y agoThere are still significant Economic and Cultural differences, though. (no, I'm not generalising, talk to a Czech citizen about their Soviet-era banking sector...I imagine the Slovak system is in a similar shape.)
- peterjs 14y agoThey probably do not know much about the banking sector, as most of the banks (I would say 95%) are branches of Western European ones, like the French Societe Generale, Austrian Erste Group, or the Belgian KBC. The way they bought/privatized/stole them in the 1990s is a whole another story.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jan_g 14y agoThis seems very vague: I need you. A loving family that will take care of me during my school year in CA. Does he only need an address and a room, or full service including meals, financial aid, school tuition, etc.
- rabble 14y agoHe wants to be an exchange student in high school, but instead of doing it through a program like AFS or Rotary, he's arranging things himself and put up a website to find a family. With programs you don't get so much say as to where you go, often not even the country, much less the state. Since he's a techie, i'd imagine he wants to end up in Silicon Valley or near by. Seems like a smart tactic to me. That said, he probably needs a follow up page or something for folks who are serious about hosting, which includes what it's like and need to host him as a high school exchange student.
- trueluk 14y agoA host family does not pay for its student's tuition. A host family will, in exchange for monetary compensation, provide a student with a bed to sleep in, meals, and a means for transportation to and from school and school activities. However, Marek's use of the word volunteer - "I'm looking for volunteer host family in California for the next school year." - leads me to believe he doesn't want to pay the host family for room and board. We could clear up the confusion by emailing Marek.
- UnoriginalGuy 14y agoThat page causes Chrome to lag. I would also say that if that page was any longer or any more information dense then it wouldn't work as a thing. It only works because there is so little content. In general it depends what you're trying to sell. I've never actually purchased from one of these "flow" pages, but I have purchased a lot from more boring product pages like this: http://www.linode.com/tour/ http://www.linode.com/tour/ The OP's sales page is definitely in fashion right now, in fact it looks like every current startup's page. But just because it is in fashion doesn't mean it is actually effective, and I've seen no evidence (and the OP supplies none) that it causes higher conversions than a "boring" sales page.
- cadab 14y agoWebsite loads fine (no lag) on Chrome Win8 for me.
- UnoriginalGuy 14y agoDo you not get scroll-bar lag? When I try to scroll up and down the page there is a very noticeable lag and upon initial load scrolling is inconsistent.
- beefsack 14y agoChrome on Xubuntu is perfect too.
- chill1 14y agoPage loads just fine on Chrome on Ubuntu as well.
- Mahn 14y agoChrome 23 + Win7 here, page was fine and had no scroll lag whatsoever.
- azakai 14y agoChrome and Firefox work fine, no lag, over here (Ubuntu). Must be a specific problem on the GP's machine.
- PonyGumbo 14y agoI'm getting a Service Unavailable page.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- beefsack 14y agoHe has a video too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQsaCXJeoDY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQsaCXJeoDY
- chewxy 14y agoWhat I think he did well: - Strong, direct message within first view (he out right tells you, the visitor, what he wants) - He takes you through his expanded 'executive summary'. - This sequence: What, why, who, how. Many startups get this wrong and do Who, What Why, How. - Nice CTA at the bottom - A modern design Things I think he didn't do so well: - No close. Everytime I see these sorts of design, if I don't see a CTA or a close on each panel, I make a note of it. - No close. Seriously. Even at the end, the CTA wasn't trying to close at all. - Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag - The site was designed for smaller screens. I don't think he expected screens with higher resolutions. EDIT: Formatting.
- nodata 14y agoCan you give an example of a good close for him?
- orangethirty 14y agoHe was indeed closing. I count 6 different places where he did. They are not direct closes, but nudges towards getting you to contact him. Can't really do a big close on such type of situation, because nobody (well, Brad Pitt might) will bring a kid from miles away without knowing him a little first. By the way, he is using the compassion close. Don’t decide now. Please write me and we'll see how we get on with each other... He is aiming right to your heart and hitting. Much better copy than most startups out there. I agree. Which brings out an important point. If you want to sell something, you better be convinced and believe 100% in it. Otherwise, your copy is going to be bad.
- conradfr 14y agoBut not a better host :p
- KirinDave 14y agoHe's in Slovakia, man. Just think about that for a few minutes. You're complaining about the hosting quality of a page that is being HN'd from a _kid in Slovakia who put up the page to try and appeal to Americans to host him as he studies in their country._ Can't the novelty of this new era persist for even a few years?
- conradfr 14y agoI was just making a joke relative to the title that was something like "This guy has a better sale page than you" while the site was rendered 403 by the HN effect. I see the title has been changed and the page is available.
- sdoering 14y agoAdBlock Plus and Ghostery do not only kill the Trackers, but also kill the design/css. Not quite sure, why that is, but site doesn't really look good. Non the less - hope this guy has success...
- Herover 14y agoI think it is because the site is under heavy load. Reload and it looks fine again, or give a service unavailable error...
- waitwhat 14y agoHe appears to have made zero sales. By most metrics, this is not a "better sales page".
- fl3tch 14y agoThe cost of hosting someone for a year is pretty high. If you become a yacht salesman, are you expected to sell one on the first day? Are you a failure because someone else sold a hundred hot dogs?
- waitwhat 14y agoI wouldn't be a failure, but I certainly wouldn't be claiming (as the original submission title did, now thankfully fixed by the mods) that I was a better yacht salesman than you if I had never even sold a yacht.
- mongol 14y agoI always thought that one of the hardest thing to sell must be fighter airplanes. A (normal) country only buys new ones maybe once every 25-30 years. It is a long selling process!
- yozmsn 14y agoI don't know if they have dedicated sales teams like car salesmen.
- justincormack 14y agoYou do not yet understand the role of bribery and corruption in the sale of fighter planes.
- rprasad 14y agoHe is the product, so he only needs to make one sale to succeed. Quantity of sales is a poor metric for high-priced goods. For example, a Walmart needs to turnover the equivalent its entire inventory every week to be profitable; a Lamborghini dealership or Saks can be profitable selling one item a month.
- citricsquid 14y agoDesign aside, does something like this work? I notice he's starting with just an idea (he has no place, no visa) if he can find a family willing to take him in for a year is that the hardest part, or will it be difficult for him to also get a visa and a place in a school?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- numbchuckskills 14y agobut he doesn't have a better server! zing
- ghaskey 14y agolink to the cached version, as it looks like HN traffic killed the site. :) http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hGI4ggMhIDMJ:www.hostmeinca.com/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hGI4ggM...
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoCan anyone with JS debugger experience (I am learning to fight the Chrome debugger now) tell me how to identify what is causing that terrible lag Partly it would be nice to let the poor kid know, partly I want to know how to fix such issues as they inevitably crop up for me. (CPU measures seem not to point to anything useful) (If the answer is take stuff away till it works, well, why have a debugger?)
- fratis 14y agoHe's using the jQuery Waypoints plugin to fire events when a visitor scrolls to specified points on the page. Probably that.
- sisk 14y agoI'm on my phone so all I can see is a jquery mobile-based site but, given some of the comments, I assume he's probably overloaded the scroll event. That event fires _a lot_ so if you load it up with too much logic or attach too many listeners, you get some nasty lag (think "New Twitter"). You're better off attaching a single listener that does some light action like setting a variable (`didScroll = true`) and an interval timer (every 50ms is fine) that checks that variable and performs some logic as a result. John Resig wrote up an article about this very probably several years back. If curious, I can dig it up.
- brokentone 14y agoJohn Resig article circa jQuery 1.4.4 but still relevant: http://ejohn.org/blog/learning-from-twitter/ http://ejohn.org/blog/learning-from-twitter/
- tonfa 14y agoSo are high schools in the US actually of higher quality than in Slovakia?
- Equiet 14y agoYes. I was graduated from high school in Slovakia 2 years ago. In my town (about 45,000 inhabitants, 12th largest in Slovakia) there are 11 high schools (with 50-1000 students). I was actually attending 8-year grammar school - a special school that merges elementary and high school, allowing me to finish my studies 1 year sooner than standard education. This was intended to be for "smarter" kids. (It isn't.) However in terms of quality I think it is similar to most of the high schools. Out of about 11 classes I've taken every year, only 7 actually required some effort to get an A. Some teachers did not even care about "cheating" on the exams - it was pretty common for me to solve all variants in 20 minutes and then distribute it in the class. At the beginning of the school year, we got about 20 textbooks chosen by Ministry of Education. Half of them were never used, some were 15 years old. We paid only for few textbooks. Students were bored, teachers were bored. Only few took their job seriously, only one was doing more than required. During the classes like Biology, Geography, Chemistry, History and Slovak literature, the teacher dictated what we should write. During the next class, one was chosen and graded based on how good he/she memorized the notes. The more students the school have, the more money it gets. Every school keeps as many students as possible. Even if they do not pass the entry test. The last year was by far the most wasted year of my life. Student chooses 4 subjects from about 9 possible for the state exams. We were however still obliged to take 12 subjects. All teachers stopped teaching the other subjects, because it "was not required for our state exams" and "gave us time to learn the important subjects". They were simply lazy. Sometimes they didn't even attend the class. Today I remember almost nothing except Maths and English. On the other hand, free WiFi. And a lot of time for personal projects.
- dllthomas 14y agoI'm not sure you understand how bad some USA highschools are.
- sazary 14y ago
- KirinDave 14y agoYes. When I was 16 I had lots of free time for projects like this, too. Are we implying that everyone who reads hackernews should have a page like this? Because if so, then this page is a _terrible_ sell for a hacker.
- ianstallings 14y agoDamn it. I came in all skeptical ready to fire away and found out the site is actually very nice. My trolling has been thwarted. Good job!
- Codhisattva 14y agoHe's done a great job and presented his information quite well. As an adult and a father I'd say that I represent his target market perfectly and he succeeded in: a) impressing me with his ability and determination, b) delivering to me the kind of information I need to know and c) delivering to me a sense of his maturity. Not only do I think he would be a great guest but I can see him being very successful with whatever career path he chooses. So is it a better sales page than you? Yes indeed, information delivered.
- b0rsuk 14y agoThis 16yo boy from eastern europe has a better sales page than you (hostmeinca.com) 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable It looks like a cruel joke.
- asciimo 14y agoA good sales pitch will clearly explain what I will get in exchange for my time and resources. I don't see value described anywhere on his page. I can only speculate that maybe I will learn something about Slovakia.
- zxcvvcxz 14y agoWhat is the incentive for a family to host this boy? I understand the value that someone in his position gets from being able to live and study in California. But you have to give value to take value right?
- sazary 14y agoit seems this is more of a "charity" than a "business". also it may be possible to take back your expenses when he graduates.
- furyofantares 14y agoThe host family gets to help someone to have a better life, and has the opportunity to get to know a creative and optimistic young man from a foreign country.
- AncoraImparo 14y agoWhy is everyone criticizing his website? He isn't here looking for a website review. He is here looking for a family to host him. Reading from Ireland here, if I lived in CA, it wouldn't be an issue.
- peteretep 14y agoI wondered this, and I suspect the title of this post used to be something different, before being changed by a mod to what it is now.
- h2s 14y agoCorrect. It used to say "This 16 year old from Slovakia has a better sales page than you". I think somebody posted it because they thought it was well executed and wanted HN to see it, but the title change makes it look like the creator of the site itself is pestering HN for accommodation. I like the way HN's policy on titles prevents Reddit-esque editorialising, but it has backfired pretty badly in this case.
- dllthomas 14y agoMy read is entirely the opposite. I think people have been responding defensively to "[...] better [...] than you" and sympathetically to "Host me in California".
- jarospisak 14y agoHi Marek, a fellow Slovak from Presov here :). Great job on the website. I would suggest being more specific on what you actually expect from the family in the US. Do you want just a place to sleep or do you expect them to provide food, transportation, pay your study fee (if any) etc. Good luck!
- kjackson2012 14y agoWhat sort of legal implications or liabilities would someone take on by hosting this person? For example, if the child got hurt or in a bad accident, would they have the legal obligation to pay for him? And would this child fall under the hosts' medical insurance, or would he have to pay for his own medical insurance?
- ardit33 14y ago"Exchange student" programs have existed for long time. Usually the exchange students are required to buy at least "catastrophic" health insurance, and they might have to pay the tuition for the high-school they attend (even if it is a public school, since their parents are not us citizens and haven't been paying taxes). The family is required to provide food, shelter, and some basic transportation, but that's it. Students are required to have some money aside for monthly expenses. I never have heard bad stories from the family side (i.e. they end up with a bad students) as the students themselves are well filtered. Most horror stories I have heard is from the students, where they go to a family and then they find themselves they have to babysit or do other stuff they are not expecting to.
- pla3rhat3r 14y agoSay what you want but I know people in their 30's that can't put something together this creative. I love the idea. Very creative. I hope he finds a family.
- gesman 14y agoI think 90% of commenters here would benefit from making an effort to remove your heads from your own asses. "Chrome bug?" "sales pages"? "incentives"? Give the young guy the benefit of expressing exactly what he wants without any reservations. And share a few of his talents along the way. I am sure he'll get to CA soon!
- chris123 14y agoWow, neat idea and nice looking web page. One comment comes to mind: Think about applying to school and getting in first (that what I recommend, in fact). You will then find a place to stay even if you have to do it after you arrive in Cali for school. Sure, you might have to work out a temporary solution, such as crashing on a couch or short-term rental, but being on the ground and meeting people and seeing places will be best, IMHO. That's how I've done it and that's how thousands of students do it. I did it myself like that when I was a student and I've hosted multiple students in my home now that I am in a position to do that. Have fun and best wishes! Cheers :)