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Comment by CryoLogic | Hacker News Reader

What's your plan for acquiring users? I've built several small social networks, and the biggest issue is always getting new users - and keeping them active.

The technical part is more or less a front-end, a back-end and some databases.

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Want to build a big one? My plan to acquire and keep users is to create a fun, engaging, and rewarding experience. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're a huge fan of skateboarding. So you follow Tony Hawk on our network. Tony post a rad pic of him doing some insane trick. Being a huge fan, you like many other people may be thinking, "I wonder what board he's riding?" With our network Tony can tag the board he's riding, right down to the bearings and trucks, and you and the rest of his followers can then purchase them. Also, consider SnapChat as a great example, the idea isn't world changing, but it is really fun, and people respond well to fun.

If you're interested please shoot me an email telling me about yourself, the projects you've worked on, and any examples of your work that you feel comfortable sharing. robby@sibipix.com

You seem driven and perhaps I'm wrong, but having had experience with building communities, I can tell you that it's very, very difficult to rely on your users to build/create value in a consistent way.

I find it hard to believe that users will be tagging products correctly and consistently. I think you will find your time being eaten up trying to moderate the system and keeping users inline.

There is also the Participation Inequality rule (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/) where 90% of users are lurkers, 9% are contributors, but only 1% make up the bulk of contributions.

Hey! Thanks for the interesting article. It makes a lot of sense that 90% of people are "lurkers." I would love to see some user interviews with these people to try and figure out what, if anything they are getting out of lurking and not contributing. I agree that consistency in tagging will be a challenge, but one that I think is solvable and scaleable. Please let me know if you'd be interested in helping create this. You sound like you've had some awesome experiences and I'm definitely interested in hearing more about them. Please reach out to me privately so we can talk. robby@sibipix.com

That's an interesting idea, but why does Tony Hawk want to spend the time tagging all the parts in his skateboard? Does he get a commission?

Maybe Tony Hawk's fans can do all the work in exchange for some credits which can be used for other things.

Through gamification, tagging and user participation can be done.

Is Tony Hawk on your network, or is that just an example?

@ksherlock @japhyr Tony Hawk was just an example. Think of any person with influence or who wants influence in this scenario. Why would they want to? It's a fun and engaging network for both them and their fans. People with influence are always looking for new ways of connecting with fans, admirers, followers. If either of you are interested in love to connect to see if we would work well together. Please reach out to me privately. robby@sibipix.com

Also @japhyr, I'm really jealous you live in Alaska, I would love to go heli skiing there!

> The technical part is more or less a front-end, a back-end and some databases.

With an attitude like that you're doomed to fail.

Probably more doomed to succeed. Scope creep is one of the biggest things that kills startups. KISS and get the MVP out. If users like it, move forwards - otherwise pivot.

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