Ask HN: We build Neighbor SN, But no one is Interested – Is neighborhood dying? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: We build Neighbor SN, But no one is Interested – Is neighborhood dying?

4 pointsprovlem10 comments

Hi,

Couple of days ago, We launched network that connects Neighborhood first which would then allow further connecting with people in your Colony, Area, State, Country and Finally Globally as you scroll down in "strict reverse chronological order" based status feed.

The whole social network runs without "Add Friend" button. The time you signup, you automatically become friends with all the people in the world but your feeds are based on your Location (i.e, Landmark, Colony, Area, City, State, Suburb, Country and Global users). No interest based post as this would defy the logic of connecting neighbor first community.

We only launched MVP version of the product at Pincode.app and started asking for review and feedback from various people on social media without first approaching and advertising to specific location - but all of them failed to show Interest on the network.

We wanted to know, we build wrong thing or we lack in Design and Marketing? Your feedback will be helpful

Landing page - https://pincode.app/#!/landing

Sounds like a cool concept. I am trying to use it but stuck trying to set my profile. I live in a small city and couldn't answer some of the questions and my profile could not be accepted.

Area is required Minium 3 character Only Alphabeta, Numbers, Dashes, Underscores and space allowed in Area

Colony is required Minium 3 character Only Alphabeta, Numbers, Dashes, Underscores and space allowed in Colony

Landmark is required Minium 3 character Only Alphabeta, Numbers, Dashes, Underscores and space allowed in Landmark

Pincode is required 2 Only Alphabeta, Numbers, Dashes, Underscores and space allowed in Pincode

You can repeat Area, Colony with City name if you live in Small places. Landmark can be set based on whatever you have.

But Please note whatever Area, Colony you will put - People in your provided Area and Colony will only see - It's Peer to Peer based location generator.

Whatever you put your neighbor needs to provide same information so that they can see, But as soon as they scroll down until City, they will see what other people are posting from that city.

After a quick view:

1) Typos - "Already has an account?" => "Already have an account?"

2) Don't use input type=number for phone numbers, use input type=tel

3) Provide an option for e-mail & password registration, not just phone

4) SHOW me what your site is without making me watch a video

5) Other little quirks... the "Developer" link in the footer goes to some scammy-looking "Golang Developer" outsourcing thing? What?

Also, the word 'Colony' (repeated multiple times throughout the site and video), has quite negative connotations these days (not sure where you're based... India? If so, usage there might be different)

Colony / Society is basically area beyond Landmark covering people in the whole society. It could also be people living in Same 50+ floor building as the colony name.

The whole area is peer-peer based generator, whatever you provide your neighbor should have similar location data.

But as you scroll, you will anyhow meet at one point either in Landmark, Area, Colony or City or State or Further.

1). Typos => Fixed, thank you for pointing out!

2). input type=tel => There is validation happening and current change will need a change in backend validation too. For now, I have noted down and will change as we add new features after a couple of period.

3). Provide an option for e-mail & password registration, not just phone => To help fight spam - Email registration has been avoided. With a phone, it's less SPAM.

4) SHOW me what your site is without making me watch a video => Yes, you can see the whole site without video, but limited to only global posts. Local posts are only visible when you sign in.

5). It's gone now. It was by mistake - developer API will be there for business users to provide a status update for their business in their local area.

I don't think people know or want to know their neighbors anymore, at least not in America.

Yes, but people might be interested in knowing what happens in their City?

I personally don't care much more than what I already get from peers, existing social media, and local news coverage - and maybe occasionally an events site (local, not some generic rebrand optimized for SEO). We had a similar concept based on social connections here in Germany from the time before Facebook gained majority market share (wer kennt wen), if memory serves correctly they tried to pivot target audiences a few times but ultimately had to fold around 2010/2011 despite substantial media backing. Hate to put it this bluntly but I don't personally see a benefit of having to check another social media site with information I don't care about. I already have ways to talk to and stay in touch with people around me.

PS: I'd also like to echo the negative sentiment of the "colony" wording. I get your explanation, the term itself is still weird to see.

I understand.

Also, the word "colony" has been replaced with "Society" in all dom visible places.

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