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Comment by smackfu | Hacker News Reader

Is this what things have come to? "Tweet to watch this video"

I remember a couple of months back when someone posted this (tweetperview) as their new startup and everyone agreed it was a terrible idea, then they added the "no thanks" part. Still sucks, but you used to have to tweet.

news.yc post I mentioned: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2281881

a.w (mixergy) replied too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2284013

Yeah! Thanks for remembering.

I really like the guy who made this.

Agreed, and I saw the "No thanks, just show me the video" message too. This is still annoying.

At times there is also a large popup nag to sign up for the newsletter or something like that on the site (I was already signed up because I like the content btw)

I really like what Andrew does and I feel like these kinds of aggressive moves might have some negative effects on the brand.

Meetup.com does similar annoying things with a nag screen to tweet about a meetup you singed up for or are attenting and there are no profile settings to make them go away so they come back whenever you switch browsers or reset safari etc.

Anyway, know your audience and stay classy please.

I'm using software that launched here on Hacker News.

Where possible, I want to be your beta tester.

So, how can TweetPerView be improved?

I'm not sure the original idea (hold a video hostage in exchange for tweets) can be improved. It's rather user-hostile.

What might be worthwhile is the social-media-isize your video feature. An easy-to-use tool for embedding twitter/facebook/linkedin/whatever posting inside the video sounds relatively useful. Maybe have this stuff pop up when the user pauses the video, or when it ends.

Demanding that people do your advertising for you is a death sentence for using social media. You want to enable them to advertise for you, forcing it just fosters ill will.

Especially when you combine it with how people following a link on HN are expecting an article, not a video. So having to watch the video itself is the first barrier, and the tweeting ends up as the second barrier.

Have it just be a caption under the video asking users to tweet if they like it. Maybe even have it slide down into view after the video, or 5 minutes into it, or right after the best part of the video.

Blocking the video with the prompt strikes me as hamfisted. Particularly for a technical audience that's aware of how these sharing mechanisms work.

How about a "Don't ever show me this again." option? I really resent being nagged like that right up front. At that point I don't even know if the video is something I want to share since I have not seen it yet.

Or what about something less intrusive that shows up next to the video or slides down like a google video ad after I have been watching for a few minutes. At that point I'm already engaged and more likely to say, "Hey, this is really good - let me tweet it." Maybe you get more traction with the tool that way. I'm not really sure.

I’m the creator of TweetPerView. I give Andrew a ton of respect here. He really means it when he says he’s here to help ambitious entrepreneurs. He’s done a few tests on older shows, but really put it on the line by implementing TPV on a brand new interview - with Jason Fried, no less! The idea behind the whole project is to help grow an audience and engage viewers. We'll see what happens. Thanks Andrew.

A more user-friendly approach would be to do something similar to what soundcloud does with comments - I think the ability for people to leave inline comments within a video would rock. You could still tie this in with tweets, with a link to jump straight to the part of the video being commented on. You'd also be adding more value by actually encouraging discussion on the content, like a disqus for video.

I have ton's of respect for Andrew as well and that's why I had to comment about how your tool made me feel when I went to watch the video. I don't think it's a bad idea but I don't like how in your face it is and now we are talking about your tool instead of his interview and I'm not sure I would call that a win for Andrew or even for your tool.

You probably missed the "No thanks, just show me the video".

Looks like things aren't... getting real.

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