At this URL the comments can still be found: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1358309
I don't like it, but I accept it. There aren't so many important YC companies right now that this is a real problem. I suggest: write a blog post with your open letter, promote it on Twitter, here, and Reddit, and let it pick up steam that way.
Hacker News isn't a complaint board for YC companies, so start by refactoring your story so that it doesn't appear like you're trying to use the site that way.
Or, you know, get on with your life. I've written off Wakemate. They can keep my $5. Best of luck.
It's explicitly against the site guidelines to use HN posts to send messages to YC, and has been many years. We ask anyone who has a message for us to send it by email. This is the first time anyone has used HN to try to send a message to one of the companies we've funded, but that seems close enough that it's reasonable to kill it. There was certainly nothing in the post to engage one's intellectual curiosity.
Nevertheless, I see posts like these pop up on hacker news from time to time and thus considered it 'fair game' for wakemate too. Apparently not.
I respect you for dismissing Wakemate. You offer valid reasons elsewhere in this thread too. But it matters more to me. It's not about that lousy five bucks for me, of course it isn't. As I said in my original post. that 5 bucks represent trust (and, on their part, commitment.) Admittedly not much, and they do not have to give it, but hell, They'd be a much better company if they did try to keep that trust.
A "what happened to wakemate then?" post may have survived.
That aside, there seems to be a lot of assumption that the post was deleted. This may not be so. Enough "flag"s can do it too, of course, but I get the impression that there are super users who can dead a post in one strike :-)
PG: Hacker News improvement suggestion: for any post that gets deleted - show the username of the one who deleted it so when "showdead" is set to "yes" it shows this. An explanation would also be a nice thing to have as part of this mechanism. I'm going on the assumption that you follow Guido's BDFL model.
I have no evidence for this but I think there is a policy of the mods not discussing a) that they are mods and b) their reasoning etc.
I kinda agree; many forums end up degrading into arguments about which mod did what and for why.
EDIT: possible happy medium - a text field where a mod can jot down why it was killed...
A possible approach is to allow the mods to have aliases to their usernames (and PG and company can be the only ones knowing the correspondence of alias to username). This way - HN users could see the history of deletions of a particular mod without knowing the actual user.
Granted, HN users are smart and someone could probably create a data mining app which would find the actual user by looking at pattern of deletions, topics of posts, etc... but that's life and that's what you get for having a lovely place such as HN.
So it was a moderator kill. On that score I believe YC alumni are the mods :)
The discussion the original story hoped for is already happening here. Let it do what it's going to do and then go away.
Good point, I missed how fast this shot up.
It sucks that it got deleted, I just want them to update me on their current status as promised, and I'm sure (and the upvotes seemed to agree) that a lot of HN people feel the same.
This would have won them a lot of sympathy and trust.
It's not all good, though. Their web interface is a PITA to use (the textfields are their custom javascript code instead of textfields, and this completely breaks conkeror), and the data the device collects is encrypted so that you can't access it without their website.
The Zeo is worth $200, but it's not a perfect product. I would have liked a VFD instead of a LCD for that kind of money, for example. And hiding my own data from me is pretty evil. If someone made a competing device, I would buy it instead of the Zeo. Probably.
Edit: I agree with everything jrockway said. I've seen improvements in my sleep, but it's not a miracle device: you get what you put into it. My problem was that I was sleeping a lot (10-11 hours wasn't unusual) and still felt tired in the morning and often went back to sleep. Since using the zeo, I've been able to reduce the amount of sleep I get to a more reasonable level (7-8 hours) and I feel pretty good in the morning. I've also been waking up earlier in the morning, giving me more time to do things I want to do before going to sleep. Sometimes I was too optimistic and set the alarm too early, though, and went back to sleep anyway. That rarely happens now, however. That said, I can't way whether my improvements in sleeping are due to the zeo or just a placebo effect.
Having hard quantitative data lets you analyze how your habits affect your sleep. For example, it's completely obvious to me now how drinking alcohol before sleeping negatively affects your sleep. The quality of my sleep went down and I'd wake up several times during the night. I'm hoping I can figure out more things like this like jrockway talked about (it's not perfect since you can't do something like a double-blind study, but you can try to emulate the scientific method).
The headband is fine. The alarm clock has a similar interface to any other alarm clock. The alarm sounds are really pleasant to wake up to (no beeping). I would recommend this to more people if it weren't $200, though to me it's a bargain for sleeping better.
Several units have already shipped and have received overwhelmingly positive responses. While the vast majority of backorder customers understand our difficulties, it's clear that a subset have grown increasingly frustrated, and understandably so. We think this reflects on the great enthusiasm for our product. However, these concerns must be addressed, and we intend to address them. To alleviate the frustrations of our most eager customers, we are offering to expedite orders for those who upgrade to our Pro Package offering. For a minor fee, you will be bumped to the front of the queue and enjoy also all the benefits provided for by the Pro Package. We feel this is the best solution for all. Details will be forthcoming on our website.
If you have a startup, talk with your customers. Build a community. You want your customers to be happy with your product and tell it to all of their friends. I told several people that I was getting a wakemate, and showed them how cool it was. In the months since, they ask about it, but all I can tell them is about my disappointment from yet more delays.
the [dead] link: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1358309
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1358462
Could have been an interesting discussion.
How about, we just assume it's not going to work out for them, and be pleasantly surprised if it does?
If wakemate does not communicate openly, even if there is a big problem they may do a lot of damage to future YC start-ups that plan on HN as their first place to gain traction.
It may be that the Wakemate devs have perfectly fair and reasonable grounds for not delivering yet; being open and honest with their customers about where they are and what they're dealing with could well win back some of their lost credibility.
It's not "emotional" for a customer to reach out to the company and ask for some straight dealing.
Way to go, moderator.