Hacker News Reader

Comment by alttag | Hacker News Reader

One of the problems I had was that the link to learn more about a project sends the email. I was curious, and there wasn't much (immediate) explanation of what the consequences of the link were, so I clicked.

Yes, one of the pages that's linked in the sent email is to the guidelines saying "don't click unless you're actually interested", but the consequences of clicking links isn't explained before the project list is presented.

(In much of the web, links don't have side effects. Things that do are typically buttons. Maybe this is a design issue?)

EDIT: Grammar, clarity.

View on HN

You're right -- it was a big issue for folks, which is why I ended up scrapping it in lieu of the new process:

- you get the project email and click "learn more" - that takes you to a page w/ details and an "i'm interested" button - clicking that button tells the project owner - the project owner then chooses to initiate contact further (which is why it's helpful to have a URL on your account.) - that is what sends the first email

It was intended to both cut down on project owner email overload as well as fix the confusion around what exactly happens.

Also, I plan to let folks attach a blurb of text as to -why- they're interested in a project. Should be an interesting experiment.

To be honest I prefer the way it was before. Clicking the link would send the email. That was the beauty of it. Cluttering the interface with webforms all over the place will just make your service more like dozens of other out there. Of course, you would have to require good descriptions from the project owners.

But I still love the interface love the simplicity of the interface. Email, never gets old.

I hear you. I'm going to leave it as is for the next send and watch what happens. I think it's still sufficiently simple right now, since it only adds one click (which I think could be called a confirmation click) to the intro experience on the talent side. Time will tell, though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com