I always want to be supportive of anyone building anything, but seriously... stop. Put it on ice for 6-12 months. This app sucks. Technology should be used to help people. Spend your time doing something good during the pandemic, not getting them killed.
The OP is building an app to help people meet, yet by their own admission have managed to attract one user. They asked a question about a common issue engineers face: onboarding and marketing. Your comment ignores nearly every shred of this substance. Instead you accuse them of "getting [users] killed"? Patently absurd. To cut them down at the knees in this way is counter productive at best.
In the greater context of American society, Urban Isolationism is a real problem. You can argue that it is a less urgent issue during covid, but the dangers remain all the same. I applaud the OP for trying to chip away at this problem. Crazy to think your comment is the HN-upvoted response to their efforts.
What a place this has become.
You can check my comment history, I spend a LOT of time helping people who are building things. I love makers, and like yourself, I'm a founder. I'm pretty sure this is the first time on HN/Twitter/etc I've been negative about someone putting something out into the world.
But it is a pandemic, and this app is trying to get people to do something that will endanger themselves and others. I'd even be supportive if he was just building it for when COVID slows down, but this whole post is about getting people to USE it. Right now.
People are dying... even if not directly due to the author. If they built something that helped people connect virtually, I wouldn't have said something "distasteful". But context is relevant here.
Ethics are as important to technology as code is.
(And on a personal note, I know you've heard this before... we were at RIT at the same time, and you had to take the same ethics classes I did to graduate.)
Why not spin the meetup app to be a way to connect people virtually to reduce isolation? I know everything is bigger in Texas, but there is a huge target audience (maybe even bigger:)) outside of Texas.
Just look at netflix party as an example.
What’s wrong with demanding tech addicted randos check their privilege given a scientific reality of both a pandemic and the ease at which these gadgets can influence decisions?
Is that not offering alternatives? Oh sure maybe the most cynical, but it’s nonetheless an alternative option.
Why is avoiding a blunt conversation so taboo? In a forum where open debate of all ideas is supposedly allowable, in a community largely built originally by a nation where free speech is supposedly the holiest of holies? Would the open web have worked in China or much of the rest of the world in the prior decades?
What is the goal with the rhetorical circles and shallow emotional boosting except to continually exist in Saturday morning cartoon levels of concern and maturity for reality outside of ones own immediate attention?
Startup types are a statistical minority of the human doer market. Take it on the chin that mathematically you’re ultimately as important as the child political prisoners we ignore.
You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
In the sunscreen example, someone could absolutely be designing packaging, securing suppliers, building a workforce, etc, during the winter, but if they went to the door to door phase at the same time it would be a completely disastrous exercise. It was the door to door phase that I was comparing to.
I see rude, snarky comments on HN without a good motivation, so that's surprising. Health and safety is probably the best motivation for calling anyone out that I can think of? Do we whisper gently that the building is on fire?
> Instead you accuse them of "getting [users] killed"? Patently absurd.
Balderdash! Here's an example of people getting together for a social event. And several dying.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/3-deaths-147-coronaviru...
I'd be more upset if someone didn't say something, and I'm sad to see them being shamed for saying something.
He’s lucky the lesson learned was relatively inexpensive. Everyone needs honest and realistic feedback.
Ignoring COVID, you don't seem to be able to see this from anyone's perceptive but your own. Your app offers nothing to the user they can't get in a thousand other places, better. The quality is very low compared to what people expect, the usecase is one nobody has ever asked for, yet you still have this vibe of believing people owe you an audience. Rather than making something good that people want, you're looking for growth hacks.
People are telling you directly and indirectly that this was a swing and a miss. Add on COVID, and your responses just kinda make you seem like you don't care. Don't say "the risk is personal," as though that's a magic wand that exculpates you... it just makes it worse.
Find something to work on that won't endanger people, and stop justifying building a meetup app during a pandemic. I get it, things changed since you started in November and that sucks... but they did change. Now you have to.
Ryan, if you pivot into something that helps people rather than hurts, I'd be more than happy to help you get your first users. My email's in my profile.
I would ignore the US app store, just because of the polarization and politicization of the virus.
Although true, this is unnecessarily harsh. An app to meet up with friends, doesn't imply that it will be ignoring social distancing and mask recommendations... Or kill people
Imagine someone telling you; "seriously stop... This app sucks", personally I think this attitude is pretty damaging to the community and will make others less likely to ask questions about their projects...
I'm all for safe interaction, wearing a mask, social distancing and limiting social engagements but I'm more concerned with subtle and aggressive forms of authoritarian thought becoming mainstream.