2 ms·

You raised some very valid questions. Let me address them one by one. Why do this instead of using Google to find out the most popular niche sites? - because

by anujkk 14y ago

You raised some very valid questions. Let me address them one by one. Why do this instead of using Google to find out the most popular niche sites? - because not all good sites can be discovered using Google. For example, there may be a Facebook group for a niche that is far more active than a dedicated forum site. There may be some good niche sites that are not ranked high enough. The idea is to let people submit good sites they know about. - to make all such sites available at one place for quick access, not only for me but anyone else who is interested. people have to remember that this list exists when they are thinking of ideas - It is not just about discovering startup ideas. It is about interacting with people outside hacker community through these sites. You may know about problems they face and it can result in some good ideas but it will also be helpful in marketing some existing products for that niche. - One thing I would like to make clear is that if enough links are provided I will make a website/google doc for this where anyone can submit new websites. May be I will do it anyway but there is no harm in asking for more such sites from community. Who will take it upon themselves to categorize these and present them in a helpful way? Who will curate this list to ensure that only the "right" sites are added? I will do that on a dedicated site/google doc. I don't think it is a very time intensive task. HackerNews isn't a good place to keep and maintain such information but people here can definitely help by submitting the sites they know about. who will curate this list over time by adding, removing, and editing it? If I make a small web app for this(it will take just few hours) anyone can submit sites and people who are interested in maintaining it can be made moderator. In any case some effort is definitely required and if people find it valuable it is worth the effort. I guess you raised all these questions because you thought I am proposing that this list should be created and maintained on HN itself. That is simply not most effective way to do that. May be I didn't made it clear but the objective of this post was to just collect such links not make a wiki on HN.

ScottWhigham 14y ago
Some good counters but I'd counter back with: ...there may be a Facebook group for a niche that is far more active than a dedicated forum site. Two counters for this one: 1) Activity is not always what's most valueable. Forums offer value not just in their activity level but in their archives. It's easy to find any post mentioning the word "aerator" for example. You cannot do that easily on Facebook. Besides, Facebook is also used in a more social way than many forums. People post "funny pictures of their cat on their restaurant manual" on Facebook, for example, but they'll ask "Where should I get my restaurant manuals printed?" on a forum. 2) The obvious next question is, "So they'll also search on Facebook for niche groups. How will your list trump FB's up to date results?" It is not just about discovering startup ideas. I think you missed my point completely with this, or so it reads. I'm saying that, for your list to be useful, people have to remember that it exists. No one has to remember that Google or Facebook exists. If they have a problem, bam - off to Google to see if other people have written about it. But where, in the order of when someone thinks "How I will go about finding niche sites" will your list appear? if people find it valuable it is worth the effort But if they don't find it valuable, was it worth the effort? My bookmarks are full of cool lists that I've bookmarked and have big plans to eventually come back and use... May be I didn't made it clear but the objective of this post was to just collect such links not make a wiki on HN. That's a good start, of course. I don't know that I would contribute though. To a certain degree, being able to find this information on your own is sort of a barrier to entry in that market. If you aren't capable of finding quality restaurant forums, for example, then maybe you shouldn't be trying to start a business in that industry. This is a cool idea for a project in which you are learning how to code, or learning a new language, or learning a new stack. It's just not a viable, long-term "thing" IMO for the reasons listed. Prioritization is a big part of entrepreneurship - you have to recognize what's worth doing. You say it takes "a few hours" - no way. Nothing - NOTHING - ever takes however much time you estimate in the software world haha. It will take longer. You will over-optimize in the beginning, start your project, then have to scale back and re-think. It happens to everyone :)

by anujkk 14y ago

ScottWhigham 14y ago

Some good counters but I'd counter back with: ...there may be a Facebook group for a niche that is far more active than a dedicated forum site. Two counters for this one: 1) Activity is not always what's most valueable. Forums offer value not just in their activity level but in their archives. It's easy to find any post mentioning the word "aerator" for example. You cannot do that easily on Facebook. Besides, Facebook is also used in a more social way than many forums. People post "funny pictures of their cat on their restaurant manual" on Facebook, for example, but they'll ask "Where should I get my restaurant manuals printed?" on a forum. 2) The obvious next question is, "So they'll also search on Facebook for niche groups. How will your list trump FB's up to date results?" It is not just about discovering startup ideas. I think you missed my point completely with this, or so it reads. I'm saying that, for your list to be useful, people have to remember that it exists. No one has to remember that Google or Facebook exists. If they have a problem, bam - off to Google to see if other people have written about it. But where, in the order of when someone thinks "How I will go about finding niche sites" will your list appear? if people find it valuable it is worth the effort But if they don't find it valuable, was it worth the effort? My bookmarks are full of cool lists that I've bookmarked and have big plans to eventually come back and use... May be I didn't made it clear but the objective of this post was to just collect such links not make a wiki on HN. That's a good start, of course. I don't know that I would contribute though. To a certain degree, being able to find this information on your own is sort of a barrier to entry in that market. If you aren't capable of finding quality restaurant forums, for example, then maybe you shouldn't be trying to start a business in that industry. This is a cool idea for a project in which you are learning how to code, or learning a new language, or learning a new stack. It's just not a viable, long-term "thing" IMO for the reasons listed. Prioritization is a big part of entrepreneurship - you have to recognize what's worth doing. You say it takes "a few hours" - no way. Nothing - NOTHING - ever takes however much time you estimate in the software world haha. It will take longer. You will over-optimize in the beginning, start your project, then have to scale back and re-think. It happens to everyone :)