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Thanks for this feedback. I agree with you. At the moment a lot of the projects are looking for open-source contributors. In fact, the first 'problem' posted w

by Blahah 13y ago

Thanks for this feedback. I agree with you. At the moment a lot of the projects are looking for open-source contributors. In fact, the first 'problem' posted was also the first thing to be solved: a charity's website was running really slow and they needed help fixing it. That got fixed in 24 hours. We're aware of this and recently added 'tasks' to projects so that specific problems can be solved, and solvers get credit for them. We'd love suggestions for other ways to encourage people to post smaller chunks that are more like specific problems.

gavinpc 13y ago
There's this website called solvers.io that is trying to solve problems, but it looks like it's down.
- Blahah 13y ago
  Thanks for the heads up, I've spun up a few more servos.
  - gavinpc 13y ago
    My bad anyway, it's just (yet) another one of those sites that looks like it's completely hung if you happen to have cookies blocked. Is this even considered a bug anymore?
    - Blahah 13y ago
      Definitely a bug! We use cookies only for GA and for login sessions. It shouldn't affect a pageview that isn't logged in. We'll sort it out :)
- davedx 13y ago
  Yes, the site is creaking under that lovely HN traffic. Props to our wonderful hosts http://modulus.io http://modulus.io for the dynamic servo scaling and all the other good stuff they provide.
thaumaturgy 13y ago
> In fact, the first 'problem' posted was also the first thing to be solved: a charity's website was running really slow and they needed help fixing it. That got fixed in 24 hours. That was also the first item I looked at and thought, "Oh, I could do that, it should only take a couple hours tops." Everything else requires significantly more time investment -- which narrows your field of helpers down to, "smart and helpful people who have lots of free time". Those people exist, but they're a much smaller population than, "smart and helpful people who can come up with a couple of hours for an interesting project while procrastinating on something else." I think your website copy is very strongly commitment-oriented. From https://www.solvers.io/ https://www.solvers.io/: -> "Get involved in a project below"; what about, "Solve a problem for a project" instead? -> "Got an idea? Post it and recruit solvers"; I dunno what to suggest here, but "idea" is really broad and "recruit" is a loaded term. From https://www.solvers.io/projects/new https://www.solvers.io/projects/new: -> "Project name" and "Role": I think these are definitely sending the wrong message. "Role" might by itself by the source for a lot of the confusion. You're not looking for a role to be filled -- a position -- you're looking for a specific thing to get done. (It can also cause people to ask for the wrong thing, e.g. a website developer when they need a graphic artist or something.) -> "Describe the project, including its expected duration and required skillset." I think "duration" sends the wrong message, i.e., "if you're looking for help for the next six months, that's OK, just say so". If that's what you intend, cool, otherwise, that spot might be a great time to tell project managers to keep it short for best results: "Describe your project and what kind of help it needs. Try to ask for specific tasks instead of ongoing commitments." HTH. It's a really cool site, I hope I can do a thing or two there in the future.
- davedx 13y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! We're going to move towards a more task-oriented system. The tasks were only implemented last week, so none of the current projects are using them, but we'll try to make sure projects are more broken down in future postings so people with limited time can help out more.

by Blahah 13y ago

gavinpc 13y ago

There's this website called solvers.io that is trying to solve problems, but it looks like it's down.

Blahah 13y ago
Thanks for the heads up, I've spun up a few more servos.
- gavinpc 13y ago
  My bad anyway, it's just (yet) another one of those sites that looks like it's completely hung if you happen to have cookies blocked. Is this even considered a bug anymore?
  - Blahah 13y ago
    Definitely a bug! We use cookies only for GA and for login sessions. It shouldn't affect a pageview that isn't logged in. We'll sort it out :)
davedx 13y ago
Yes, the site is creaking under that lovely HN traffic. Props to our wonderful hosts http://modulus.io http://modulus.io for the dynamic servo scaling and all the other good stuff they provide.

thaumaturgy 13y ago

> In fact, the first 'problem' posted was also the first thing to be solved: a charity's website was running really slow and they needed help fixing it. That got fixed in 24 hours. That was also the first item I looked at and thought, "Oh, I could do that, it should only take a couple hours tops." Everything else requires significantly more time investment -- which narrows your field of helpers down to, "smart and helpful people who have lots of free time". Those people exist, but they're a much smaller population than, "smart and helpful people who can come up with a couple of hours for an interesting project while procrastinating on something else." I think your website copy is very strongly commitment-oriented. From https://www.solvers.io/ https://www.solvers.io/: -> "Get involved in a project below"; what about, "Solve a problem for a project" instead? -> "Got an idea? Post it and recruit solvers"; I dunno what to suggest here, but "idea" is really broad and "recruit" is a loaded term. From https://www.solvers.io/projects/new https://www.solvers.io/projects/new: -> "Project name" and "Role": I think these are definitely sending the wrong message. "Role" might by itself by the source for a lot of the confusion. You're not looking for a role to be filled -- a position -- you're looking for a specific thing to get done. (It can also cause people to ask for the wrong thing, e.g. a website developer when they need a graphic artist or something.) -> "Describe the project, including its expected duration and required skillset." I think "duration" sends the wrong message, i.e., "if you're looking for help for the next six months, that's OK, just say so". If that's what you intend, cool, otherwise, that spot might be a great time to tell project managers to keep it short for best results: "Describe your project and what kind of help it needs. Try to ask for specific tasks instead of ongoing commitments." HTH. It's a really cool site, I hope I can do a thing or two there in the future.

davedx 13y ago
Thanks for the feedback! We're going to move towards a more task-oriented system. The tasks were only implemented last week, so none of the current projects are using them, but we'll try to make sure projects are more broken down in future postings so people with limited time can help out more.