Ask HN: Please rate our startup Neetly | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Please rate our startup Neetly

neetly.com

32 pointsmdoyle56 comments

First of all, thank you for proving an example page, a privacy policy and a terms of service page. You'd be amazed how many "Rate my startup" posts I complete ignore because they lack these simple basics. If you are going to request personal information, you need to have a policy for it.

There's a lot I wish was different in the design (the chat could certainly be a lot better), but I love how easy it was to set up. I do wish you asked for the password twice though, I always get nervous that I'll make a typo and never be able to get back in.

Can easily implement the password change. How would you like to see chat implemented? More along the Facebook lines?

Thanks for creating a network, is it something you could see yourself using?

I would love to see chat be a shameless ripoff of StackOverflow. I'd also rather see it directly integrated on the main page for the network, possibly stacking posts and files vertically so chat can have space. File uploading could stand to be integrated in the main page too.

Voting on posts seems somewhat strange (also strange that it isn't integrated in the main page), but I may have different use cases in mind than you do. In fact, that would be a good thing to point out on the site, what do you have in mind for possible use cases?

My idea is that this would be shared by people who know each other in real life. Voting on a friend's contribution seems strange.

Another really cool feature would be the ability to share a network with simply a private URL, no need for other members to sign up if they don't want to. Each user can get their own private URL which ties them back to the email address they were invited on so you know who's who.

If you ever want to talk in more detail about this (like after the HN story falls into obscurity), feel free to contact me at the email address cryptically listed in my profile.

We are still in Alpha and so there is a lot of things we want to still do but for now we had a minimum viable product and hope to keep developing it.

We wanted to allow people to vote, just like they can on here, in case they wanted to create networks on their passions. I have a football network with my mates and we find the voting works really well. Interesting links are at the top and boring links find their way to the bottom.

We also want people to be able to chat and post/vote from the home view but for now we wanted to launch the site and then iterate afterwards. This will take place though.

With regard to stackoverflow - we will take a look. Chat is quite primitive at the moment but again something we hope to improve.

> thank you for proving an example page

Yes, this is great, but I only found it after reading this reply. I think it would help if you made the link more prominent.

Yes, it was even more buried before the start of the day and we moved it to what we hoped was a more prominent position today! We will make it more prominent, thanks for the feedback

Agreed, within 10 seconds I don't understand what the value is. If there were an example/screenshot/video explaining things I would be more willing to stay and check it out as a potential user.

I think you need to use a different word than "network". I've seen a few places in this thread where you've used the phrase "secure network". To what I would assume is the majority of your target market, a "secure network" has to do with computer networking.

To me, just by glancing at your descriptions, it sounds like you've made something like a private bittorrent tracker, or a private VPN, or something like that. I know this isn't what it is, but if I came across your page, that is what I would assume it was.

Thanks. We will look to replace the word network then and go with something more appropriate. We had never considered that people would take it to be a VPN type idea and the fact that people are means that we will definitely change the word.

Even if this app IS something interesting, nothing makes me want to sign up.

Here's why:

I think your landing page copy needs some work. Immediately when I see create your own private network, I am thinking VPN. "Socialise in groups," to me seems ambiguous, isn't socializing an inherent group activity.

In terms of design, there is low visual affordance. I am not enticed to roll over those icons, or click on the sign up button. I think "Create your own network now" is a good call to action, should be more prominant and should be followed up with a start now link or something, or get started, something to encourage the user a bit. "Sample network" shouldn't be directly next to "Create Network", it confuses what action should be taken. Sample network shouldn't be a button, just a plain link. Also that blue is far from harmonious with the rest of the color scheme you have working. The text below the icons needs more contrast with the background.

I want to see a screenshot / screencast to show me what I am getting. I still can't imagine what this thing even is.

Thanks for the feedback. The most common aspect about all the feedback posted so far is the understanding of the concept. It is clear to us that we need to review the homepage and the message the product communicates, and the placement or function of images or buttons. We never thought there would be comparisons to VPN's.

Here is a little screenshot, which in my opinion does a lot for understanding what it is.

http://grab.by/grabs/fd40f157cef16b5028333e3bf9dc3923.png

The VPN is a probably a rare thing, but to tech people when you say private network, without context it is easy not to think social.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to do this! I would agree with you and we'll consider it. It's great to get the feedback, thanks.

Neetly enables you to create one or many secure networks. You can create them for your family, friends, for a large community or for just yourself. You control invites to the network. You can use neetly to post articles for discussion, you can share files, including photos, within your network. You can also engage in chat with other people from your network.

We found we wanted to discuss some things with certain groups of people - such as work colleagues, or share pictures with different people such as family. We found there was not an effective tool out there to do it so we created Neetly. Now you can share and say what you want and to whom you want.

We are in the early stages and have decided we have a product which we can release but one that needs to be developed based on feedback that we hope we receive. We want to create a tool that you want to use, that you feel safe using and that you recommend to others so please help us achieve these aims by giving us feedback. Thanks in advance for any feedback that you give to us.

How's this different from The Fridge? http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/23/the-fridge-facebook-sharing...

We set out to allow people to create their own news networks and incorporated the cms-style options and chat options later. We want to be able to create a secured Reddit - let people create their own version of Hacker News.

I think the concepts are similar although I think we are different in a few ways. I think we sit somewhere between creating your own social network and a cms, so its suitable for groups of friends or businesses alike. The focus on is also on the network rather than you as an individual, although we will be looking to allow the user to choose in the future, for example by being able to post to all their networks in a single-click.

It needs to be a lot clearer on your homepage what you are actually offering

also if you click view sample network, you can't (or i couldn't work out how to) get to the homepage without clearing cookies.

If you roll over the different options 'post, share and chat' it gives you some more info about what we are trying to do. We will look to make it clearer.

There is a return to neetly home in the top right hand corner (after you have clicked sample network) - again can make this clearer.

I also had no idea what it was meant to do from the tagline - at least say social network or something. It was not at all obvious that you could roll over those pictures - they need to look more clickable. Like others on this thread, I didn't spot the Sample Network link at all until it was pointed out.

I will often watch a screencasts on the front page of an unfamiliar website if I can't figure out what it does - maybe that is worth trying?

Like others I assumed this was something like a VPN - so the term "network" needs some work.

Also the three icons and text for Post/Share/Chat look like they should be links - I spent a while clicking on them trying to find out what kind of features are supported, which was a bit annoying.

I did eventually find the sample network - no idea why that button is next to the register button it should be far more obvious!

Looks quite nice actually - I might use this to share stuff with immediate family members.....

Thanks. Yes, we are discussing the term "network" between ourselves currently since its quite a prominent issue in the feedback. We are also discussing the home page layout/functionality in terms of the three icons.

You could be really cheeky and call it a social network...

Would be nice if it allowed you to create a random temporary network as a demo (without asking for login/password).

I'm not going to sign up just because the idea sounds like it might be fun. I would want to try it, but not sign up for it.

Allow anonymous users to create a temporary network (or whatever it is), and put a box with a random network name already in there so I only have to click one button, and make it say something like "try it now".

We can enable that functionality quite easily. Will consider further. Thanks for the feedback!!

There's another article on HN today that could be of interest to you, where signups increased by 60% when they moved signups from the front page. YMMV.

http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/signup-...

thank you. useful.

The mouseover on the icons on the home page doesn't work for me in Firefox 3.6.12 - it does work in IE, Safari and Chrome.

I think it is a good execution. What I don't like much is the dark design. I think that the header is too gloomy.

When you sign up you can change your header. If you go to settings, design then you can change the colour of the headers and icons

I agree. It's good that you can change the default, but the default needs to be better. Design matters.

Looks pretty cool. In your blog you wrote "Disporia" instead of Diaspora. I guess they're one of your main competitors, so knowing the correct spelling is important.

For inspiration, comparison, pricing plans, you can check out KickApps, Nexopia, Ning, ShoutEm, slinkset, SocialGO, Yammer

Very good, only thing is a lot of the things I was expecting to be clickable are not. For e.g the icons in the menu, or the big pictures on the homepage which look like buttons and make the user want to click it :-)

Good job otherwise!

So it's... Yahoo groups? I hope you've done it a lot better than they did. Their interface is horrible. Almost every group I'm on, most people just use the email list because the Yahoo interface is so horrid.

It is similar to Yahoo groups but it can also be used like a secure reddit. So you can create a network, like Hacker News, invite who it is you want to join your network and then post (just like Hacker news) interesting articles that people in the network can then comment on. We also offer the users the ability to share files. So we hope we offer something different, and better, to Yahoo groups.

sounds like you could study Yammer for some inspiration.

Minor'ish: On the main page I was confused if "Display Name" was an alternate name for "Network Name". It was only in following through that I properly understood it was the name for the User.

Really like the idea. It's kind of like the 37Signals stuff, although a bit less formal, and more about social groups. Could be interested for running projects though.. will try it.

Excellent, glad you like the idea. If after trying it feel free to drop us some feedback on here or via the contact us section the site. Thanks

I am not able to access the URL. Seems to be broken.

Seems to be working for me ?

I tried again and it is still down for me.

looking at the front page and the about text, I still have no idea what this is. "secure network" suggests it's something about a VPN, but the example looks like some sort of private social network. I think it would help to clarify what exactly the product is on the front page with more familiar phrasing.

the idea looks nice though.

We will look to explain it better on the homepage - Our unique selling point is the ability to create private networks which can be joined by trusted people, and for the individual, the ability to be part of multiple networks which are separate from each other. So if I am a member of a friends network and a family network, my family don't get to talk or see my friends. If I am a small business, then I have the ability to communicate with my small distributed team in a social/group like way. If I am part of a study group, I have the opportunity to share documents and research links. It is entirely possible that I might cross paths with the same people on different neetly networks, but my relationship is primarily with the networks I am a member of.

We obviously, like you say, need to explain that better on the homepage so everyone gets what it is as soon as they hit Neetly.

"Social networking with private spaces."

Informally, you can just say "Facebook with private spaces." Yeah, it's probably more than that. But it's easier to key off of concepts people already know. See http://steveblank.com/2010/11/08/hubris-versus-humility-the-...

Call them webs. Seriously.

"Create your web." It has just enough confusion power to get people talking about your site, like "tweets" did for Twitter. Network is too technical sounding. Everyone uses "the web" so they're familiar with the term in a positive way. Enabling users to say things like "You should join my web" could be powerful.

I also got the impression that it involved VPN in one form or another, for what it is worth. Guess being a techie alters your perception of things ...

Is it made in ASP and .Net? It's a pretty strange technology for a web startup. Can I ask why you chose to use it?

Hi, simply because we have most experience in those technologies.

I'm not sure it's a "strange" technology. The .Net platform is great for startups.

Bad wording. I simply meant unusual.

Nothing seems to be happening when I click the "Create" button. I am using Chrome 6.0.472.55 on Windows XP.

Sorry about that. Will check it out. We've tested on all major browsers/operating systems so we'll revisit.

no joke: this is very simple yet good idea if you can do it right. many ppl still looking for something like this for their small communities. seriously. been in similar business. you just need to push it hard enough(probably not in geeks space, but to small businesses owners etc)

by private "network" I thought you meant some sort of VPN

It's down for me.

Great domain, nice design, just not sure what it is or what a network is. Is it a forum?

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