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I'm always interested in conversation and in supporting people trying to have good conversation. Some hopefully constructive thoughts: There's nothing about th

I'm always interested in conversation and in supporting people trying to have good conversation. Some hopefully constructive thoughts: There's nothing about the landing page that makes me want to sign up. Could you show me an example of how it works, what it looks like? Ideally I think you'd want to seed it with pre-existing conversations, so that new users don't feel like they're signing up for one more thing that doesn't have any obvious value. Chicken-egg problem– Quora, Reddit, and I'm sure HN itself all started with a small group of people who were having interesting conversations.

owainlewis 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Really appreciate it. Perhaps a video demo might be a good idea for the homepage to explain the concept. The basic idea is that you create a conversation about anything (making it open to public discussion or anonymous comments) and then just start talking. Kind of like a low friction way to start talking with other people about something online. I decided to push it out early to get some feedback. There is a lot of work to be done. The next feature will be to add private conversations.
anacleto 12y ago
Totally agree. > There's nothing about the landing page that makes me want to > sign up. Could you show me an example of how it works, what > it looks like? Stop using Unsplash images. Please, don't do it. +1 like the idea.
- owainlewis 12y ago
  Thanks. Haha I take your point about the images. I'll look into getting some higher quality and more relevant material on the homepage to explain the concept a bit more.
owainlewis 12y ago
That feels like the hardest problem initially. Like you said it's difficult to really explain the concept until there is more content and discussion happening. Adding the ability to post "anonymous" comments was partly motivated by people who might not want to sign up. If a conversation is "open" then anyone can start commenting without having to sign up.
- visakanv 12y ago
  This might seem sneaky but some people do this by literally having conversations with themselves, using multiple IDs. Sleazy, but hey, if the conversation is great, I'd be more tempted to join in.

owainlewis 12y ago

Thanks for the feedback. Really appreciate it. Perhaps a video demo might be a good idea for the homepage to explain the concept. The basic idea is that you create a conversation about anything (making it open to public discussion or anonymous comments) and then just start talking. Kind of like a low friction way to start talking with other people about something online. I decided to push it out early to get some feedback. There is a lot of work to be done. The next feature will be to add private conversations.

anacleto 12y ago

Totally agree. > There's nothing about the landing page that makes me want to > sign up. Could you show me an example of how it works, what > it looks like? Stop using Unsplash images. Please, don't do it. +1 like the idea.

owainlewis 12y ago
Thanks. Haha I take your point about the images. I'll look into getting some higher quality and more relevant material on the homepage to explain the concept a bit more.

owainlewis 12y ago

That feels like the hardest problem initially. Like you said it's difficult to really explain the concept until there is more content and discussion happening. Adding the ability to post "anonymous" comments was partly motivated by people who might not want to sign up. If a conversation is "open" then anyone can start commenting without having to sign up.

visakanv 12y ago
This might seem sneaky but some people do this by literally having conversations with themselves, using multiple IDs. Sleazy, but hey, if the conversation is great, I'd be more tempted to join in.