Ask YC: Feedback for programming code/info sharing site | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Feedback for programming code/info sharing site

We could really use some feedback on our site... we want to make it useful but we don't really know if we've succeeded or not :-/

The site is for sharing and finding code and programming knowledge... you can read about it at www.siafoo.net/help/about

View on HN

The site as a whole is a good start, I'd say. I like the filter setup, it may get unwieldy as the number of languages/subjects multiplies, so you'll want to think ahead on scaling.

I think a little less text in the bubbles on the about page is a good idea. You can catch it all in the backup text below if you've caught the reader with the short version above. But the page layout looks pretty good overall. Maybe give it one more coat of polish, then try a couple of divergent ideas and mock them up, then ask us to take a look and compare?

I'll admit to being favorably prejudiced toward your site's purpose, BTW, so my response may be more enthusiastic than you'd get from most of your targets. ;)

Yeah... the filter design is pretty much a short term fix, I'm not sure what the next stage in its evolution should be. Maybe start limiting the displayed keywords to the more popular ones, I dunno.

I think I agree about the bubbles on the about page... I suppose it's better to have shorter text blocks and more bullet points, images, etc?

I'm glad you like the site's purpose at least... it would be really unfortunate if we had designed this to solve a problem and everyone had just said, 'what problem?' ;)

I agree about the about page, and "we are working on it". And I know the filters are eventually going to become nearly unusable but I am hopping a clever idea presents itself before then.

Also 'favorable prejudice' is always welcome... much preferred to hateful bias :)

Here's an actual link http://www.siafoo.net/help/about

In general we want to know what wastes most of your time when writing code... and how Siafoo can reduce this wastage.

Well, I'm not really sure I grasped the most important features in the first 10 seconds of browsing. Perhaps a few example projects? For instance, it would be a good move to put up a pre-built page for someone interested in learning a new language or framework - Lisp, C, Python, Cocoa Touch. This way devs could immediately see how the service would help them (since most devs don't know all of these languages).

You should also consider a screencast demo.

You know the problem with developing something, is that you know everything about it... and so it's hard to figure out what to explain and show to a normal user in 10 seconds

As far as the new language frameworks I did start writing something of a "C++ crash course for non-C++ programmers"... but those things take much time and editing... and it's difficult to motivate the average user to contribute content to a random site.

The screencast is a good idea... Also I've been toying with the idea of putting some sort of collapsible 'scratch pad' or pastebin on the home page since I always end up pasting important SQL into /tmp files

You didn't grasp the most important features, but did you understand the purpose of the site? Because that is perhaps the most important thing, I think. If we can get people interested in the site then they will read about the features (maybe?).

I just took another look. The purpose is pretty clear, and like you say, that's really important. But I think it is also important for your site to show (not just describe) a prospective user how they can benefit.

It looks to me like there too much info on the homepage, like explaining all ur features. Even your "about" is in the homepage itself. Maybe you want to trim down the content on the homepage

Are you referring to the homepage when you are logged off? There are only three things on it... the about bubbles, activity, and a login box.

Also the blue bubbles at the top of the about page were actually designed for the homepage because we were trying to fix the "Uhh... what does Siafoo do exactly?" problem.

Maybe the bubbles should have less text and some graphic representation of what it does.

I didn't see the page before you added the elements, so it may very well be an improvement, but it is currently distractingly busy. One suggestion would be to cut down on the text in the bubbles and move from paragraph form to something closer to bullet points.

When I saw the page, the bubbles were the first thing my eyes were drawn to, so they really ought to provide a light and easy overview. Once you've sparked peoples' interest, you have all page to feed them text, but a cluttered first impression is a large turn off.

Edit: As I look at the site some more, I still find that my largest problem is how cluttered everything works. In particular, articles with a large number of tags tend to really bloat up. It would probably help if they were de-emphasized or boxed up more by default.

As far as the functionality goes, it seemed to be fairly good. I haven't had enough time to really dig in, but I haven't seen anything worth complaining about yet.

I agree about the about page bubbles... they do distract and their contents should probably be moved to other parts of the page... while leaving something small at the top.

I also agree about the articles, etc. in general the semantic information surrounding them should be somehow de-emphasized in the browse pages

Well... it is more like the home page bubbles are on the 'about' page :-D They originally existed to solve the problem of 'how can we tell people what the site is about if they only go to the home page?'... maybe they still aren't concise enough? We already trimmed out so much, the first drafts were huge!

Yea they were like freshman year term papers...

I'd just like to say here that we were science majors and have no idea what we're doing as far as marketing the site goes... so thanks for all your inputs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com