instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
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What's up with performance? | jacquesm: HN is probably up for another upgrade.http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468595 |
Review my Startup | jeffmould: I tried to do the demo, but was asked for an email address. While I trust that you won't spam me, I don't understand why I have to provide an email address for demo purposes. If you are going to provide a demo, I would recommend either doing a video, some screenshots, or have a demo that doesn't require any interaction from the end user.I think the problem with your homepage text that others have noted is not so much in stating the concept of the problem the app solves, but really in stating what the benefits are to both the buyer and seller. Most suppliers are going to understand economies of scale, but many buyers are concerned more with end price. You have to convey to the buyer WHY economies of scale is better for them. With that done, you also need to convince suppliers that your app will increase sales for them. |
Review my Startup | petercooper: Anyone else notice how the Hacker News domain extractor messed up on this post? It shows up as (syncfu.com#dosyncfu) on the front page and direct on the item. |
iPhone App Developers? | cgherb911: there's alot of places to outsource your iphone app development. Honestly, I would just get the app sourced, its alot cheaper.After you get started, you can hire a programmer for <1% equity + salary. I'd be happy to send you to a few iphone developers.-Chris |
Climate Denialism on HN? | JacobAldridge: 1) I think the HN community has a natural skeptical streak - are we bordering on denialism or respect for the debate?2) http://xkcd.com/386/ |
Climate Denialism on HN? | nfnaaron: You label it denialism. I think it's closer to robust skepticism. |
Climate Denialism on HN? | camccann: Any suggestions?Flag content-free political junk. Ignore the rest. Don't take it personally. Submit interesting technology articles instead. And please don't contribute to the noise by complaining about it. |
Climate Denialism on HN? | colah: I can't say I've read all (or even most!) of the articles posted on HN about this topic, the ones that I have haven't been climate `denialism' but rather scepticism and more specifically scepticism towards individual claims... There were some people outright rejecting AGW in the comments, but even that wasn't that common.I'm of the opinion that the AGW hypothesis is correct. I'm very confident of it. (In particular because one can derive a correlation between atmospheric CO2 and average global temperature directly from the properties of CO2.) On the other hand, I'm sure that there are many individual pieces of evidence that are false.It's good that they're questioned and subjected to rigour. False evidence for a true hypothesis is not something we should accept.This is how science works and it not a bug but a feature.The political spin being put on it is a minor irritation that will go away with time.And be thankful you don't have relatives who tell you that global warming is a government conspiracy to give power to the UN demonstrating that the Antichrist is near. That is really irritating. |
Is legal language copyrighted? | rksprst: Not sure about the legal implications but there are a couple sites that have their terms of use / privacy policy under creative commons. Wordpress has their ToS under CC share alike: http://en.wordpress.com/tos/ |
Is legal language copyrighted? | grellas: 17 USC section 102(a): "Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression . . ."This section includes a list of eight "works of authorship" (literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, motion picture and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and architectural works), but that list is not intended to be all-inclusive. In addition, the categories are broadly construed, as for example to sweep computer programs and compilations into the definition of "literary works."Thus, there is nothing preventing legal language from being copyrightable as long as it constitutes an "original work of authorship." And, if you go to any site that offers legal forms for download, you will find the vendor claiming copyright in the contracts being offered, thus presumably precluding others from taking the same contracts and re-selling them.That said, the kinds of legal language and contracts you are talking about are almost never made the subject of copyright, I think, simply because they are usually not "original." Most clauses for indemnification, etc. are recycled over and over. Lawyers themselves will often lift them for re-use.You are right to be concerned about the potential risks in this area but, in practice, I have never heard of any large website complaining of copyright violations from use of legal language similar to theirs and I think the practical risk of borrowing their language is low. For much of the standard stuff involved, I would think it would be nearly impossible for them to prove that the language used is "original" as required for it to be copyrightable.Moreover, to sue for federal copyright infringement in the U.S., the copyrighted material needs to be formally registered with the copyright office. I would seriously doubt that any large website bothers with this formal requirement over a matter about which they normally could care less (other than making sure it protects their own legal position as used on their site).I don't know of any definitive place to find a discussion on this but I believe this gives you a pretty good overview of how this area generally works. You can and should check with your attorney about details for your specific situation. |
Is legal language copyrighted? | munishdayal: I agree with grellas that while Digg or Reddit (really their legal counsel) could technically claim a copyright in the legal written work that you are adapting for your own use, realistically suing you for copyright infringement on their terms of use and privacy policies wouldn't be worth their time, and you could potentially assert a successful defense of fair use. I don't know the specifics of your business so I can't give you specifically tailored indemnity, privacy and use of information clauses for free (yet!) but that type of work is not hard for a lawyer, really shouldn't cost you very much and shouldn't take long (a couple hours). The much bigger issue in my opinion (and why copying Digg, etc long term isn't a good idea) is whether adapting their policies will adequately protect your rights and liabilities and those of your business well, especially those idiosyncratic to your business. If you just need boilerplate for the time being you can avoid this whole issue by using privacy policy and terms of use generators; I found a few here:http://www.bennadel.com/coldfusion/privacy-policy-generator....http://terms-of-service-generator.legalriver.com/ |
Climate Denialism on HN? | endtime: What I find far worse is the term "climate denialism". It's simply Orwellian. That sort of attitude just makes me mistrust people's intentions and motivations. |
Climate Denialism on HN? | cletus: The issue has come up a lot in the last couple of months due to the CRU hacking, which is where I guess the HN link is.The mistake you're making is that you're presuming an equal burden on the so-called "denialists" like they have to prove there isn't global warming. They don't. AGW is an hypothesis. The burden of proof is on it. This is the same mistake creationists make when they take any missing, incomplete, unclear or contradictory part of evolution to mean that God exists and he created Man.If nothing else the CRU email hacking should give everyone cause for concern at the subversion of the scientific process. Efforts were clearly made to deny access to raw data, generally be obstructionist and the failure of respected journals like Nature not to enforce their policies of, say, the publication of raw data. Or the IPCC admitting their Indian glacier claims weren't based on anything other than a single unfoudned comment in a years old newspaper. |
Is legal language copyrighted? | redsymbol: I'm not a lawyer. You should talk with one before doing anything.That said: I asked this question directly to my attorney a couple months ago, as she was reviewing a contract I had cobbled together from similar specimens I found on the web. She said that no, legal language found in contracts is not at all copyrightable in the USA. I've informally gotten the same response from a couple of other attorney friends over beers.The funny thing is, from what I've been able to find about copyright law - again, as an entrepreneur and as an open-source/free software programmer, not an attorney - there is no explicit exception I know of for contract language. My guess is that common legal practice has evolved so that the courts won't enforce it, and attorneys won't pursue it, for a basic reason: it would be overwhelmingly stupid to do otherwise.Contract language is normally intended to be precise, clear and unambiguous. If every contract had to be tweaked because some propane-tank business in Montana or something just happened to use the same wording before you did... well, that would be a minefield that makes the software patent mess look like a tranquil field of daisies in comparison. |
Climate Denialism on HN? | jcnnghm: Having read through some of that leaked code, I can safely say that if they are as bad at climate science as they are at programming, we have nothing to fear. In particular, the assertions that some have made that the "artificial correction for decline" code is commented out, and was only used for testing, is troubling. Test code intertwined with the production code is a recipe for disaster.And doesn't the phrase Climate Denialism have kind of a religious bent? If Climate Change Skeptics are deniers, then Climate Change Proponents are Global Warming Alarmists. Is there really a need to cloud things with name calling.And really, are people actually skeptical that the climate is changing, or are they skeptical that's it's changing so severely and destructively that we need to put a trillion dollars on hot.Hasn't the climate always changed? Wasn't their a 1,000 foot deep, 20,000 sq m lake in Utah, and a land bridge between North America and Western Europe? Is this the one right temperature? By what measure? |
Climate Denialism on HN? | benl: /Any suggestions?/My suggestion would be to step back, realize that climate change is not a religion, and that you do not have to convert others to your cause.If at that point, you still find it engaging and rewarding to debate the science and policy, go right ahead. But if not, you can ignore it all with no worries |
Climate Denialism on HN? | dnsworks: I blame the sensational state of scientific reporting. Content providers have been in a rush to scare people for as long as I can remember.It feels that anything reported on in the scientific community I read today which gets enough coverage to become "common knowledge" will have that popular stance make several 180° turns over the next decade. The climate feels like it's in the same vein as vaccine links with autism, or drinking wine while you're pregnant.To quote Operation Ivy, "All I know is that I don't know, all I know is that I don't know nothing."What I do know is that climate related science has more revenue, and green products are seeing more investment than ever before, and it's now big business. |
Is legal language copyrighted? | bmr: As mentioned, legal language is (supposed to be) clear and concise. You'd have a strong argument that the merger doctrine should apply.The merger doctrine holds that when there is only one way to say something (or a limited number of ways), then it cannot be copyrighted. One common example from the case law is game instructions.Just as there's really only one way to say "The player who rolls the highest amount goes first", there's really only one way to say "Florida law governs any dispute".Certainly run it by a lawyer willing to make the advice official. Good luck. |
Climate Denialism on HN? | akamaka: The article about the 2035 glacier melting mistake was valuable to me: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1057991I was quite happy to learn that there was a mistake when the IPCC predicted that the glaciers which feed China's and India's biggest rivers will be gone in 25 years.Correcting mistakes isn't denialism, it's part of good science, and it will only make the case for global warming stronger once more accurate predictions start to roll in. |
Free shell hosting with compiling? | mahmud: Free? A whole VPS is $5/mo.http://prgmr.com/xen/ |
Free shell hosting with compiling? | wlievens: hosteurope.de is pretty cheap (<$10/mo) |
Is anybody solving really cool problems anymore? | philjr: http://www.lifesize.com/ for teleconferencing. Wicked kit, we've got four of them, connecting offices and they're a nice alternative to shelling out 6 figures for HD Skype. |
Best way to dive into web development. | scorchin: There are two main areas that you'd need to learn: front-end development and back-end development.Front-end development knowledge points: HTML, CSS and JavaScriptBack-end development knowledge points: Server administration, databases and interpreted languages.I'm biased towards open-source technologies, so I'd recommend you learn Django, Ruby on Rails or one of the PHP frameworks (personal preference is Symfony). Then tie that in with MySQL or PostgreSQL. Most of these technologies have great documentation, especially Django and Symfony, and shouldn't be too hard to get started with.For learning front-end development the quickest way would be to go and buy a book rather than attempt to follow the myriad of tutorials out there. I'd recommend the standardistas book: http://www.webstandardistas.com/book/ After learning the knowledge in the book, follow on to using javascript libraries such as jQuery and YUI to get some funky front-end interaction working.Finally, tie all the knowledge in by attempting a few pet projects. |
Just bought Drople.com what should I do with it? | ThomPete: 1. Sell it |
Just bought Drople.com what should I do with it? | ThomPete: 2. Make something on it |
Just bought Drople.com what should I do with it? | ThomPete: 3. Give it away it's a cool name someone might need it. |
Just bought Drople.com what should I do with it? | ThomPete: 4. Spend the rest of the day asking yourself why you bought such a lame name. |
Just bought Drople.com what should I do with it? | jdee: 5. Write a web app that displays the amount of time left until it 'drops' out of your ownership. Only then can you move on with your life and forget this whole sorry episode. |
Just bought Drople.com what should I do with it? | sburgess: I like the site Wordle.com Perhaps you could do something with the word "Drop". IDK, hard one to see ideas for. Best of luck! |
Is there an anti-Flash bias on Hacker News? | ThinkWriteMute: Replace "Flash"/"Adobe" with "Buzz"/"Google" and you've got pretty much the same thing.Geeks love to hate. |
Is there an anti-Flash bias on Hacker News? | bonaldi: We like good technology, open technology, interoperable technology, accessible technology, technology based on standards, efficient technology, technology that pushes the state of the art, technology that expands what we can do.We don't like being corralled into one vendor's world, having technology that only works well on one out of our three main platforms, technology that boils our CPU and wastes our battery, and technology whose owners are now actively trying to hold back standards progress in order to protect it.You're surprised there's an anti-Flash feeling here? |
Open-Source / Free Simulation and Queueing Package | dalke: SimPy - http://simpy.sourceforge.net/ |
Is there an anti-Flash bias on Hacker News? | lionhearted: I like Flash in how it's implemented on Google Chrome - if it crashes, the flash plugin crashes and not your whole browser. I was annoyed when my iPhone couldn't play Youtube videos to show people, but the counterargument is that Flash is bad for battery life, which is obviously quite important on a mobile device. So I can see both sides. A mobile-optimized version of Flash that would be not hard on battery life would be great. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | vyrotek: Please let us know what you think!
There are some questions and alternative ideas at the bottom of the article and we would really like everyone's input.Edit: Here are the questions in case the article was too long for some :)- What are your thoughts on the idea as proposed?- Is this something you would consider adding in to your application at the right price?- What is the right price?- Are you interested in the full on achievement engine or would you prefer an API that just awards badges to users directly?- Would you benefit from a Rule Engine which could handle complex rules with many conditions? Meaning, rules more complex than just ‘Comment Event occured 5 times, Award Badge’.- In order to prevent people from spoofing API calls we may expect sites to call our API functions from server side code instead of via a javascript/client library. Is this asking too much? Are you willing to integrate our API at this level? |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | SlyShy: You need to sell this idea better. Right now it feels very much like a solution without a problem. You talk about stickiness briefly, but without specific and concrete use cases I'm not convinced. You might want to investigate thesixtyone. They use an achievement system quite like what you describe.Ask them how they think it works, and whether their traffic would be the same if they removed the feature, etc. More data is great, because the argument doesn't catch my eye right now.I've used a couple services with badges like that, but I've always ended up finding it stupid after not too long. You might end up accidentally alienating people who just want to use a service without feeling like it's a competition. Once I started associating a useful service with the time wastingness of a game, I started reevaluating whether I really wanted to use the service after all. There are games I far prefer playing, that I could just play instead if I really needed validation that badly.If a feature is improving traffic numbers for the site owner, but not really improving the core usefulness of the application, I think it is a net loss. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | joshsharp: Great idea! I would like to see this being applied to something that spans a whole lot of discrete sites, like Disqus for blog comments. Then allow badges for number of comments total, high interaction on a particular site, etc. It would be interesting to see your achievements follow you around the web. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | Vindexus: I've actually been thinking of doing something like this for a while. I think the market is there, but I don't think it's SaaS providers. I think you should start looking at web games and social games. Also take a look at Facebook games. There's a LOT of Facebook game developers out there. Granted, it's moving very much so from individuals to large companies, but you might still see some customers there.As for implementation I'd definitely use a server side API. It would be nice to be able to send a large list of the user's data and receive back any possible achievements. For example if I had an RPG and the user had just killed a monster I would want to send you my health at the time of kill, what level I was, what level the monster was, how many of that monster I've killed, how many monsters total I've killed. That way I could get back multiple achievements if they were "Kill 10 Monsters" and also "Kill a Monster That is a Higher Level Than You" but only use one API call.Anyway, I think it's a good idea. Try asking some web game developers. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | ambiate: Achievement systems have 2 issues:
a. users attempt to fixate on achievements more than the software they're supposed to be using
b. users cannot achieve certain things, realize that its hopeless, and lose interest in the system all together and possibly the software |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | Tichy: Didn't read all of it, but I think it might be similar to an idea I once submitted to YC. Also reminds me of http://sf0.org/I think it can work. But I also tire of game mechanics by now - I don't want external influences on my choices. |
secure web behavior for your grand-parents | tdoggette: A lot of what goes into a good online-security mindset is good understanding of some basic concepts that a lot of novice computer users lack.One example is the fake alert popup. You and I know that it's just an image in a small web browser window that is designed to look like an OS's alert, but that's a pretty sophisticated thing to be able to figure out. |
Is legal language copyrighted? | matthewmarkus: This is an interesting question. It looks like one could claim a copyright in contracts in theory, but there are several practical problems to making a contract copyrightable. Personally, I always thought that copyrighting contracts might make them unenforceable since copyrights could limit a public court's ability to interpret and publish rulings on protected contracts.Here are the best resources that I found on this matter:Re: copyright notice on contract
http://www3.wcl.american.edu/cni/9908/23029.htmlCopyright and the Contract Drafter
http://www.adamsdrafting.com/downloads/Copyright-NYLJ-8.23.0... |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | inmygarage: Perhaps I am too much of a "normal" but the phrase "SaaS Achievement Engine" sounds like that specific type of tech-marketing-speak that will be unappealing to site owners because they will be too bashful to admit that they have no idea what it actually means. I have no such hangups.Second comment is that I think incentive systems are highly highly tied - almost inextricably so - with the content and community around each individual site. In order for a reward system to work correctly, it has to be based on existing user behavior. For site owners who know this, they'll probably want to structure the system themselves. For site/app owners who don't, how will you sell them on the idea that incentive systems are important to begin with? I think the market you're dealing with right now is people who understand the importance of incentive systems but don't know or are too lazy/busy to make one themselves. If you believe this market is large enough, you should go for it. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | andrewcooke: you could do it with client-side calls as long as the server-side can sign the data (ie use an hmac). that still means a server-side api, but it doesn't have to make the calls.for this to work i think you have to make it really easy to use and with minimal impact on the developer. would you handle the generation of badges (this seems like it would be a timesaver - you provide a badge editor that has basic options like colour, etc)? and serve them?there's some tension between tying awards to a particular site and making them global. initially i assumed people would want their badges displayed as an integral part of their site. but you could also imagine some "global" badges that you provide that people can earn from various sites, and which people might want to include in blogs, personal profiles, etc... |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | bemmu: I'm just beginning the process of adding badges to my app, but it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to use an outside service for it. I think in some form your idea has legs, for example as a WordPress plugin or other situation where people need simple plug-in achievements, but not as something to integrate in a case where the developers could do it themselves.Sending you events just so I can query you right back to see if an achievement was unlocked? That seems like total overkill, I wouldn't even have the time to spare for the HTTP calls. And I wouldn't want to introduce a dependency. And all this for probably pretty trivial checks in most cases. |
Tips for college graduates | vaksel: Get an internship/job, w/o internship/work experience noone is going to hire you |
Tips for college graduates | pasbesoin: Not regarding finding a full time job, but important: Investigate your health care insurance options, if you are in a governance that does not provide or guarantee coverage (e.g. U.S.). You may be able to continue on your parents' policy for some period of time. If not and you find you have to purchase a policy for yourself (and can afford to), it's better to purchase a policy while you are still covered (with a start date a day or two before your current coverage lapses). If nothing else, there are (or used to be) high deductible and/or temporary policies that at relatively low cost can provide some coverage against catastrophic events.I don't know whether schools and career centers cover this topic much, but they should.P.S. As I've commented before, it's not just about you. It's also a matter of protecting loved ones, who may feel compelled to spend their assets caring for you if something unfortunate and expensive happens to you. In that sense, even if you don't have money to pay the deductible amount yourself, a high deductible policy can make sense in that your family may be able to help you financially to that extent, while the insurance protects against the really big bills (and also, as others have noted here, negotiates lower charges for services so that you don't pay the ironic/perverse "highest possible costs" that the uninsured often face due to lack of negotiating power). |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | petervandijck: It's not important enough a problem to solve. If I want badges and stuff, I can very easily program that myself, without the headache of integrating with you guys. I don't think this will work. On the other hand, email delivery is hard and important, so I will pay a company to do that. Find a harder problem to solve for people. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | idlewords: When I was at Yahoo Brickhouse, we developed something very similar, which half-launched but appears dead:http://bravo.yahoo.com/teaser/I never felt comfortable with the project primarily because I didn't feel I understood the market at all. |
Review Our Idea (Achievements for the web) | lambdom: I would have liked a 2-3 sentences summary.. I don't want to be rude, but I stop reading in the middle of the first paragraph. I know you have worked really hard but try to sum it up in a clean and easy way. (And by the way, "SaaS Achievement Engine" tells me nothing.) |
secure web behavior for your grand-parents | nfnaaron: I thought for a few minutes and didn't come up with much in the way of "if you're not a nerd, at least do these things."One resource is AARP:http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourmoney/scamalert/articles/Not focused exclusively on what you're looking for, but there are some things in there.Unless you do find the type of resource you're looking for, you may have to do the research and distill it yourself. You could create a page presenting that distillation. |
Books/Articles on Social Networking and Game Theory | ConceptDog: I'll start with one of my own, Croudsourcing by Jeff Howe http://j.mp/anYbsR (Amazon Link)Just picked it up the other day after reading for a bit. I like the authors style as it mirrors that of Malcom Gladwell. |
Interviewing with a startup, what questions should I ask them? | hga: Besides the Joel Test for programming processes, I always try to ascertain:Their finances, business model, etc.Can they fire people who don't work out and how careful are they in hiring.Plus there are many warning signs to watch out for, like unwarranted secrecy. |
Interviewing with a startup, what questions should I ask them? | hga: This "archive of quality Hacker News 'Ask YC' posts grouped by subject" looks worth checking out: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive(Thanks to jmonegro for posting it to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126993.) |
Tips for college graduates | rantfoil: I think the biggest problem most college grads who are applying for jobs face is that they don't really think about what employers need. Getting a job is the first real step into the "real world" where there aren't rote and well-trod paths to success. Many new grads treat applying for jobs as a kind of application process -- fill out my apps (resumes and cover letters) and then see what sticks. Why? Because _I_ need a job. Bzzt, wrong answer.In contrast, the ideal candidate is passionate about whatever job they're going for. Make lists of companies that you would love to work at, and pursue them directly, whether there's a job listing open or not. Recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates all the time... it is just as valuable for new grads just entering the workforce.When pitching for startup funds, there's a saying: When you ask for money, you get advice. When you get advice, you get money. This applies to jobs too. People love talking about themselves and what they do. Luckily, if you're new, you stand to gain from that, and massively.Finally, it pays to be prepared for interviews. I was just having dinner with a friend who's a producer at the biggest name game studio out there -- he was just complaining about how he'll ask if the candidate has played _____ game, and it'll be to the level of 'I tried the demo.' Trying the demo isn't good enough. Becoming a Level 32 Dwarf or thereabouts is probably what it takes, at least for this example.Hiring managers, no matter what field, want to know that the person in front of them is a) smart, b) gets things done, and c) would love more than anything to work for them. |
Best way to dive into web development. | radu_floricica: If by any change you've programmed a lot in Java, you have a fair chance to be able to keep the language. Just stay away from anything that remotely sounds like enterprise or uses XML and you'll be fine. I also personally prefer Apache Velocity instead of JSP - easier to learn, too.About client-side programming... good CSS takes a while to master. Many people will probably disagree, but if your goal is to make something relatively fast, you may want to KISS and use a table or two instead of just divs and CSS.Also spend a bit of time with JavaScript. It'll bring a fair amount of benefits for a relatively modest investment. |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | jacquesm: Make them make quizzes one question at a time instead of multiple ? (lower barrier to entry)Give them an incentive ?Make it seem like the ability to make a quizz is a privilege awarded only to special users ?Attach their username to quiz questions that they've added ?Offer to send them results on how well people scored in their quizzes.Hope there is anything useful for you in there!greetings,Jacques |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | ScottWhigham: Well, I suppose your first step is to market to people who need to make quizzes. Who are you marketing to? |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | JangoSteve: I guess my first question is, how will the site make money? It's only useful to give away gift certificates as an incentive to create quizzes if quiz creation leads to making money.I'm guessing you plan to make money from ads, which is why you're trying to get more quizzes (so that it will attract more users to take the quizzes). If that's the case, then you also need to account for advertising to actually inform users of newly created quizzes, etc., before figuring out how much to give away for creating quizzes.As for other ideas to get users to create quizzes, maybe more prominently asking quiz-takers to create quizzes. Adding in more of a narcissism factor for people who create quizzes (I notice you don't even put the creator's name for popular quizzes on the front page).Another possiblity: get a hold of Ben Huh at Pet Holdings, Inc (of lolcatz, loldogs, and failblog fame), as they seem to be interested in this sort of thing, as shown by their most recent site, http://graphjam.com. |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | DanielStraight: It can't hurt to make the call to action to make quizzes more prominent. "Make" listed among other plain text menu options hardly screams for action. Perhaps put some sort of call to make a quiz along with the list of quizzes. Or put a big "Make your own" at the end of the list of quizzes. I also really like the idea JangoSteve suggested of creating incentive (in the form of bragging rights) for making popular quizzes. |
Search engines with regular expressions? | amock: I think this would be really computationally expensive. You can build indexes of words, but building indexes of arbitrary regular expressions is much harder. I think Google did a study and found that even increasing the number of results per page was detrimental to their traffic because the pages took longer to load. If they allowed regex searches their page load times would increase by much more.However, I would also like a search engine like this. I don't know how to make it profitable but I think it would be very useful. |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | og1: How much did you try with mechanical turk? My experience is that when describing a HIT (Human Intelligence Task) it takes a few tries to get the results you want. I suspect that if you asked for an entire quiz you'd get bad results. If I were setting up a HIT I would give the user three sample quiz topics and only have them create a single question for the quiz. I would then only use the top percentage of questions answered yet still accept people's responses even if they were not used but still within the HIT's requirements.Also, I think you can still benefit from seeding some more on your own. |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | foulmouthboy: It's useful to think about your use case. Why would anybody ever make a quiz?It's much more fun to take the quizzes. The payoff for somebody to take a quiz is to learn something about themselves even if it's meaningless. In comparison, it looks very very difficult to make a quiz with little payoff. Why do I REALLY care about quizzing random people I don't know? I have to come up with clever titles, clever questions, clever answers, etc? I think I'd rather just take another quiz or go do something else.That said, the main thing I'd do is come up with some interim calls to action between making a full quiz and taking a quiz. Maybe give people the ability to modify existing quizzes. Maybe give people the ability to make a question and give other people the ability to come up with fake answers. Anything at all to give the site some sort of learning curve towards making full quizzes. |
How to grow user submitted content based site? | petervandijck: Check out how http://hunch.com gets people involved, there are some good lessons there. |
Search engines with regular expressions? | tokenadult: What is a use case in searching everyday text webpages for which regexes would help, in your experience? |
Interviewing with a startup, what questions should I ask them? | keefe: If your goal is to get equity of any significant amount, you should discuss this up front - that's not to say ask for it right away, but talk about the path for that job and whether if things go well in X months or years you will get 1% or whatever it is you want. You could also ask how much runway they have. |
Where do I report HN bugs? | pg: Send an email to pg@ycombinator.com |
How to manage costs for Twilio apps? | patio11: Charge people money! |
ChatRoulette != FAD? | danielzarick: There is something special there. Over the past week I have shared a handful of hilariously funny experiences with some of my closest friends and coworkers. Stories shared with people close to you end up meaning something. If there is anything that makes ChatRoulette a legitimate product, it is that concept of the "shared experience." My roommates and I are still laughing about the half-hour we spent together last week. It isn't something to be easily forgotten, even with the inclusion of the press echo chamber. |
How do you protect your IP in a startup? | noonespecial: You probably can't. If the code is all you've got, someone else is probably going to beat you anyway, especially if you're spending a bunch of time worrying about it instead of building stuff.Instead of paranoid maneuvering to protect something of unproven worth, spend your time creating an awesome place to work and a business culture that treats customers/users right and it won't matter all that much if someone steals some code or clones your software, there's far, far more to being successful than a few loc's. |
Getting prototypes from China [Indian firm] | mrphoebs: Hey chirag, do a search on alibaba.com for manufacturing and fabrication providers in the material you are looking for. If you contact the provider maybe he'll fill you in on the rest of the details, although 20 seems like very small order. |
Recommendation engine | mrphoebs: hi clay, Could you be more specific. Solr is intended to be used as a search engine(faceted) and I think it has the ability to recommend similar documents(not exactly sure if you could do this through the API). Is this what you are looking for??? |
Recommendation engine | claydonahue: I am trying to figure out the best recommendation engine available? I am looking at Drupal's Content Recommendation Engine Module and Solr Search for http://drupal.org/project/cre http://drupal.org/project/solr it depends on the choices that are being made on the interface...and i thought would ask Hacker News their thoughts? |
ChatRoulette != FAD? | david927: return false;ChatRoulette == FAD |
How do you protect your IP in a startup? | composed: IP has gone "the way of the dodo", meaning become obsolete, for all digital copyright forms including software. The solution is to develop a robust business model that depends on generatives. See http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_f....Assume your competitors are already doing the same thing and even putting out better code. Your business model should be robust enough to withstand this also. Consequently, a new worker who downloads and walks away is no greater threat than the existing competitor, assumed or real. Stronger stated... the loss of IP and consequent spread of one of your infinite resources... why that's beneficial advertising in this day and age. Get the business model right, and the IP worry disappears.Open source is like the musician giving away free mp3s. Proprietary code, and all the IP concerns it requires, are like overpriced physical CDs from major labels. More prosperity awaits you in the long tail and in generatives.Best of luck! |
Review my first Rails app? Pitchforked | pstinnett: I just "launched" my first Ruby on Rails application last night. It creates a random playlist of songs from Pitchfork.com's best new albums area. Up to now I've primarily worked with PHP.A little backstory: Just a little over a month ago I saw Zach Klein (now working at Boxee) tweet this: http://twitter.com/zachklein/status/7770633908I had been reading through the new railstutorial.org, but I always learn more quickly working on a real project. So I took a stab at the app and here I am.I'd love to hear any feedback or comments/questions.Thanks! |
Review my first Rails app? Pitchforked | kungfooey: I think it's pretty neat. Very simple interface that tells you pretty much exactly what it's going to do. |
Review my first Rails app? Pitchforked | pclark: great domain.doesn't work so well with chrome and flashblock, can't find the flash element to unblock. |
Review my first Rails app? Pitchforked | dogas: I like it a lot, reminds me of muxtape before they got taken down.One suggestion - the onmouseover gray hover color gets a bit annoying for the current song playing. Also, a fast forward link would be great, in case the song is a little "out there". |
Review my first Rails app? Pitchforked | wsbail29: Nice job!
I did something like this awhile ago too. I wrote a scraper that pulled all of the reviews from Pitchfork (scraping was necessary before they updated their site with rss feeds). My app currently just display a random set of reviews on each visit.http://pitchforkd.thirtymontgomery.comI was actually thinking about updating it to add playlist functionality. Thanks for pointing out 8tracks.com. I'll have to check it out. |
Review our startup: MovieListr | davidjairala: Little background: A friend and I have always been huge movie fans, and our movie libraries have been growing steadily for years now, so we thought it'd be really cool to have a place online where you can catalog your movie library, while also mapping it to actual places where you have stored the movies.For example, you can add a movie to your library and tag locations to it. Lets say you own 12 Monkeys in your Black hard disk, etc.Anyway, we're looking for feedback. Registration is free and fast. Thanks a bunch. |
What do you look for in a startup job? | hga: For your situation, I'd:Look at you, most of all. Your character, and savy in things technical, business, etc. Experience (which can be traded off for willingness to listen (my first startup was in 1982)). Etc.Pre-funding is probably going to be an individual thing, you'll not be able attract some people without it, but you can make the deal sweet enough to attract others (some of whom might not have other good options at the moment).Technology makes a big difference. If it's something that I find unpleasant to use for the requirements I wouldn't take the job unless desperate. (Perl is about the only thing I've decided is in that category for almost all requirements, after a decade of using it every once in a while.) This also shows if you're savy in technology.Culture and personality have to be a "works well with others" sort of thing. I look for reasonably professional and tolerant types. I'm also politically conservative and libertarian; if the workplace environment is uncomfortable for people like me, well, obviously I wouldn't find it desirable (one reason I left the field of biology).Cash is king, stock is pie in the sky. I'll maybe believe that you can pay my salary, but there are so many unknowns WRT to equity that I'd only look for a fair deal and then forget about it. (This was true long before the 2001 technology crash, after which the prospects for equity payouts became pretty grim.)Mostly: will you pay me (enough and often enough (I'm willing to work for a while without a paycheck I can cash)), do you look like you've got a fair chance of succeeding, will the work have enough fun and challenge (I also expect to sweep floors, do backups, do some of this technology generation's COBOL ... whatever is needed, it's a startup), etc.Good luck! |
6 months runway, what to do? | mrphoebs: Hi tichy, let me play the devil's advocate and recommend that you get a job ASAP. I know its soul crushing(most jobs) but it will take your mind off of the money equation, and allow you to do good work on the side. If your cash-flow is tight it puts a lot of stress on your work be it contracting, building apps, starting a start-up. Since you are just starting out start doing these things on the side and get your feet wet. Once you have a steady stream of cash coming in and are sure that you can take a plunge you'll have the option of quitting your job. However take care while choosing a job, if you do decide to go that way. See that it leaves you with enough time to work on the side. All the best. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | Tichy: I only check it out sometimes, when I am very desperately in need to procrastinate. At times it will be several times a day, at other times I don't look at it for weeks. |
How to beat the chicken egg situation with user-content driven website? | minalecs: you can pay users, or offer incentives give aways or prizes. If they like the site, they will stick around. |
How to beat the chicken egg situation with user-content driven website? | gkoberger: You won't make any friends at craigslist (in fact, they'll probably block you), however you could try "importing" craigslist ads (of course, credit and link properly). I don't know if I'd suggest it, but it's a route you could consider. The founder of Lyrics Wiki ( http://lyrics.wikia.com/ ) indexed other lyrics sites, and eventually was bought by Wikia.Also, look at a few of the paid craigslist alternatives- they might be willing to give you listings if you send traffic their way.I asked this same question to Jimmy Whales a few months ago. Wikipedia started as a paid service, where professionals were paid for their work. It never got big, so they changed their business model. For them, the already-made articles were enough of a jumping point.Side note: craigslist already has many, many more-featured competitors. Do you have a theory as to why craigslist is still the most popular software? Make sure you do before you bother creating a craigslist competitor. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | megamark16: I like to get comments in on good articles early, they seem to get more responses that way, before the thread has grown old. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | chuhnk: I will usually scan newest once I'm done reading through the top 1-60. Everyone has differing tastes and so the stuff that I like to read doesn't always end up on the front page. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | RiderOfGiraffes: Your findings are completely consistent with what people have been saying many, many times over the past few months. If something doesn't get noticed quickly on "newest" then it can sink without trace, regardless of its inherent value. Unless you get some friends to check your submissions and upvote them if appropriate, it's very hit-n-miss.It's mostly because of this that I have always visited "newest" which then also means that I recognise things when seeing them second time around. Recently I've stopped bothering marking repeats and duplications, in part because some people find it deeply irritating, in part because it seems unvalued, and, yes, in part because it drags down my average karma. If one of the metrics PG has put in place gives me a poor grade because of some activity, I'll think twice about continuing.So certainly your hypothesis "a" seems true. Not sure about "b" because it depends on what you mean by "small fraction," but I would agree with that too. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | georgecmu: It seems a few people use the kick-starting strategy.
I've seen articles get a bunch of points right after being submitted and making their way to the frontpage, while my submissions of the same content that have been made a bit earlier never got any upvotes whatsoever.Personally, I haven't done it and don't intend to. On the other hand, I'm guilty of checking the newest articles only after I submitted something myself. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | makmanalp: People like me who subscribe to the RSS feed get almost every story, which is equivalent to newest I think. As a sidenote, maybe there should be a "hourly / daily new good stuff" feed rather than a dump of everything. |
How to beat the chicken egg situation with user-content driven website? | mrduncan: It might not be helpful advice in your specific case (or that of craigslist type sites), but make it useful even if there aren't any other users. If I remember correctly this is the advice I've always seen from the Reddits on how to solve the problem. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | elblanco: I usually look at it instead of going to page 2. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | proee: Here's an idea...Make the first 5 listings on the HN frontpage be the 'newest' entries, followed by the top rated entries.This would force people to scan past new items and give them their "30-seconds" of fame. Plus it would keep the front page very fresh feeling.It's like singing in front of Simon Cowell for American Idol tryouts. |
How to beat the chicken egg situation with user-content driven website? | mrphoebs: You need to seed content first. That's how reddit got started with the founders submitting stories under different user-names. Take offline ads(news papers) and list them online (throw in some OCR software like ABBY to scale it). It should get you started. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | jayair: I submitted a Ask HN post about our service (Personal Trending Topics) and didn't get a response - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1118331I posted it at a time when there was a lot of other stuff getting posted so it got buried really quickly. And now I feel discouraged to post it again... |
Please review my start-up - planergize.com | megamark16: The plan viewer was a little flaky for me as I scrolled along the timeline. All the bouncing around seemed to detract a little bit (at least for me), but than that's just a first impression, I might get used to it if I used to service a lot. |
Please review my start-up - planergize.com | Maciek416: Interesting idea.I think the copy on your landing page needs some work. In particular, the intro paragraph ("Planergize is an online service that ..") seems a bit muddled. I wasn't sure at first whether your site was about plans, or about wedding planning (given the badge in the top left). I think you should easily be able to summarize what your service does without getting into the details of how you construct plans.Good luck with the site! |
Please review my start-up - planergize.com | imp: I thought the name was a take-off on "plagiarize". I was expecting it to be a system where you enter a student's homework and it would do a search and tell you if it was plagiarized. Sorry, I didn't actually try the service, but I just thought I'd share my confusion with the name. |
How many of you look at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest? | mnemonicsloth: I always read /newest first. I figure there's a pretty good incentive.Early votes have the greatest impact. So at the cost of a little bit more time spent foraging, you can promote more stuff you're interested so it will get talked about by lots of smart people. I think I get a better collection of saved links too, but that's subjective. |
Please review my start-up - planergize.com | guiseppecalzone: It's took me over 30 seconds to figure out what the site does and I'm still not 100 percent. If I were a normal user, I would have bounced by now.Improve the landing page? Pictures and some points on what it does could be helpful.Good luck! |
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