Tell HN: My side project, Startup Wiki | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: My side project, Startup Wiki

startupwiki.co.uk

38 pointsErrantX30 comments

I posted this a while ago - but as a self-post not a link so it got very little notice :)

It's in much better shape now and someone suggested I submit it again. Please jump in and help out listing startups!

(inspiration was hnstartups.com which sadly ended up full of spam)

(I made hnstartups.com) Yeah... it did :/ and I didn't have a lot of time when I did hnstartups to put in a captcha. I like yours better, good work!

I loved the simplicity of hnstartups!

This mostly started as a way to play around with a wiki-like site and community moderation tools :) and it kinda grew features from there.

Isn't this similar to crunchbase?

yea it's going to be tough to compete with crunchbase and/or tracked.com

It's only a fun side project; if Crunchbase is missing something useful (one suggestion was already made today) then I probably will add it - so there might be a use.

I would try to increase security when you get around to it. Or at least prevent debug output for production servers.

http://startupwiki.co.uk/search?q=+a%27%3BDROP+TABLE+*

What differentiates you from http://younoodle.com/ and http://crunchbase.com ? The UI is cool by the way.

> The UI is cool by the way.

Thanks. It needs a bit of work but is getting there.

> What differentiates you

The ui? :) But seriously Im not really aiming to compete unless people really like it. Just a side project to play with in my spare time - and hopefully it will be a useful tool alongside those sites.

Oh, more hacker friendly too I hope - the code is open source (http://hg.errant.me.uk/startupwiki)

Is there a way to lock an entry, like a bio? I could see some grumpy ex-coworkers taking their grumpyness too seriously and defacing entries.

Looks like a fun project!

not currently. probably there will never be. There is a patrol page I keep an eye on to check whats been updated and make sure nothing bad is posted.

I added my project, though i would recommend either a phased sign up sheet, (step 1, step 2,...) with multiple forms, possibly some javascript validation before you submit the form, or don't refresh the form data after it submitted (why do i need to re-enter in everything instead of just what had an error). Possibly a get satisfaction or other feedback widget so you can get user feedback quicker.

I like the UI.

Why do the revisions use a "global" incrementing id for their public-facing revision number? It may be more user friendly to make a per-startup revision number so they're in chronological order (as in, "Initial revision, revision 1, revision 2" instead of showing "Initial revision, revision 13, revision 14".) I was confused by that particular aspect when I first saw it.

A friend of mine did something similar for Austrian startups: http://www.startupwiki.at/ (in German, but it's basically a short summary for every company, information on where to get funding, and so on)

Might be interesting to add regional filtering to your project?

A jobs section on the homepage might be useful. It could just list recent job edits on any of the startup page.

(Impossible CAPTCHA) + (Form That Zeros Itself on Error (including missed captcha)) = Really really annoying user experience.

I missed 7 CAPTCHAs in a row before giving up. Perhaps you could turn it down a notch?

I didnt realise it never saved your progress - easy enough to fix tonight.

seeing reddit in this list, i wonder to myself: at what point is a startup no longer considered a startup? when is it better to start using "startup" in past tense?

Reddit was acquired by Conde Nast - I would suggest that this means the company has graduated from startup status?

The aim is still to document it though - if it was a startup in recent years chuck it on.

The benefits are a) you get to see what people like YC funded in the past and b) you can see a list of the projects different people worked on.

In 5 years time this Alexis' page [1] (for example) could list all sorts of things :)

1. http://www.startupwiki.co.uk/founders/alexis_ohanian

For people reading Startup Wiki, it might be interesting to follow a startup through the full life cycle.

I would change your ordering of the recents. Looks like when you update your entry you go back up to the front. Definitely could be abused. Overall I like it.

I was thinking something like this would be great. Keep getting a few people ask where they can find co-founders. I'll point them at this now :) Well done.

I have a domain and part built site more specifically tailored for that - but some family issue got in the way of finishing it... stay tuned maybe :)

Why are you publishing the IP addresses of people who update their listings?

"Updated 6m ago by 196.210.182.81"

it's a wiki :)

Yes but I question what function it serves and whether that function outweighs the drawback of potentially discouraging some people from participating. The last thing a new site needs is obstacles to user involvement and I would imagine your geek audience could be more sensitive to online privacy issues than, say, the more general audience of Wikipedia where this practice was first ingrained. Just my two cents.

what about if I obscured part of the IP on the front page?

EDIT: done. Your right that is better.

Clicking on the logo doesn't take me back to the home page. You might want to fix that :-)

nice and clean UI, i have used kohana php framework before, its very clean and easy to use, idea for side projects.

one thing i noticed is that you haven't have a customized 404 page(maybe you need to put your app in production mode:(.

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