True. as someone who's been working on something for 6 months, and who finally feels almost ready to post something here, I'd say: take the startups which were obviously thrown up in the last few weeks with a grain of salt.. but don't lump the ones which have clearly had some thought (and serious manhours) put into them into the same bundle.
Agreed, it's just very hard to see quality in some of the items that get posted. That's not to take away from the effort gone into building and marketing them, I know it's hard work. I've failed in the startup world before myself. Just one of those thoughts that runs through your mind sometimes.
Yup, it might be helpful to see metrics along with every "review my startup" post. not # customers/users, since obviously the startups that post will have low numbers; but maybe things like manhours spent coding, number of people involved, time since ideation, etc.
I'm not sure how useful those metrics would be at any point, since some ideas are simple, and others complex. Plus how do you quantify time since you got the idea? Just for example.
they wouldn't be good metrics for comparing apples and oranges. you're right. what other proxies are there for how serious/committed the founders are and/or how well thought out the business plan? or do you just take all 'review my startup' links with a grain of salt?
Due to lack of any good metrics, I always take all "Review my startup" links with a grain of salt. I try and keep note of the ones that look interesting, but generally after perusing the site, I forget about it. Some are downright ridiculous, others look interesting. There's an opportunity here somewhere, I just don't see it. :)