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Comment by allthatisreal | Hacker News Reader

quick question - how does it verify that you actually got up, instead of me just hitting the "I got up button" and going back to bed?

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hi @allthatisrael - great question. currently, the service is entirely trust-based. thought of extending the functionality in the future to include e.g. a photo challenge (in the sense of submitting a picture of your breakfast for instance). but more validation needed if that's appealing to users - and there would be still an element of trust.

how would you go about this? ideas welcome :)

Use geolocation on the phone and get the user to hook in their credit card number for automatic donations ;)

Give 'em a real kick up the ass

That's the 'no mercy' approach! ;) But you're right - there is room for improvement to make the user journey shorter and more convenient (e.g. automatic donations). Will consider for next iterations!

I'd do something like this: have the user load up X dollars upfront. When they set the time they want to wake up, configure it such that if they don't hit a button on your site within half an hour from their wake up time, the money automatically deducts.

@mds101: Yes - the current sequence of messages allows for about 30min after the set wake-up time. Brainsync.

And I like the idea to add a balance. Would also limit the amount of partial / dummy records being submitted. Some people are cautious about giving their cc details to new services like this though, see e.g. wozmirek's comment further up. Any ideas how to give these users more confidence in the early days?

@mds101: I've added a $10 balance request for first donations if users get up late. Will monitor acceptance level and look forward to additional feedback!

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