Ask HN: Review my startup
makefive.com
makefive.com
Had a friend interning there this summer. The business model is essentially exactly what you guys are going after. I think it's a pretty smart model actually, but you'll have to work out how your product stands out from theirs.
On a side note, I think the "if you have a brain that is" comment is too condescending for me. I think HN users will understand that humor but you are going after commonfolk! Or maybe I'm just reading into it too much ..eh!
I think one big differentiator on MakeFive (at least I hope) is design and the general experience. We're really putting a lot of effort into making the site as intuitive and responsive as possible. In fact, after going live with the most recent rebuild a week ago, we're already reworking some of the primary pages to make them easier to use.
Your comment about the "if you have a brain" is certainly one we've considered carefully as well. Some likely won't understand or appreciate our particular sense of humor, but, we sort of think it's good to have a little fun with the whole thing. That being said, your point is well taken. :-)
Thanks for your feedback!
Beyond that, interesting site. Good luck!
Also, maybe something about the ordering of the lists. All the lists I've seen so far go 1,2,3,4,5, and then runners up. What about 5,4,3,2,1? Kind of builds up the suspense. :) I might just not have looked enough about this one, though.
The challenge for us is to find a way to collect this content, while appreciating the fact that many users don't want to do much more than click a single button. (I still appreciate what the folks at “Hot or Not” did by reducing the entire site to a one click navigation system.)
As such, our first approach was to reduce the barriers to entry, by cutting things out. In fact, our first iterations of the site had relatively exhaustive voting and content options. We found that most people avoided voting altogether as a result, or skipped adding the content. As such, we kept removing things and refining them until we found that people felt it was easy to click on something. (It seems that once the user now partakes in even a single list, they find that it relatively easy and as such start to get involved in others.)
We're now looking at how to include extended content, and our approach is to center this on the individual. They can list their thoughts on selections, and then maintain an area for themselves alone. As such, they can make relatively personal explanations for their selections, while still being able to include the community in their list. (We're hoping to roll this out early next week.)
We're looking at retooling our points system in tandem with this roll-out. In our minds, it would seem appropriate to reward those who add more content and thoughtful reviews of things. In the meanwhile, this leads us to eventually adding local components that would allow for more in-depth reviews of restaurants and the like.
So much to do!
2. It helps brands reach their audience We can stitch brands and advertising into the site in ways that connect with interested parties. (i.e. Dell could sponsor the Technology category for a month and build thought provoking contests around their brand.)
What's your business model? Ads?
We think this will be a nice way for people to take what would have otherwise been static content on their blog, and allow others to interact with it through MakeFive. Plus, it opens their list up to a larger community than their blog would have.
One thing that we're working on aggressively is the ability for users to showcase specific lists they've created as a bigger part of their profile. Our feeling is that this may help us better appeal to the individual who likes to broadcast what they think. (i.e. blog as personal diary, Twitter for brief snippets, MakeFive as a way to list all of the things they love/hate, etc.)
Are there specific things that turned you off about the site?
The nice part with the brief lists is that it allows almost anyone an easy entry point to a discussion. Plus, the nature of these list forces users to condense their choices, which we feel is helpful. (It does make the site nice to browse and information easy to digest.)
But as I noted, we do recognize the need to make the dialogue more involved. The element that we’re adding next week asks users to explain why they made their selections, which we’re hoping adds to the amount of content as well as the depth of conversation.
For some this won’t appeal at all; however, for people as obsessive and particular as me, it will be nice to compile my list of the best entrepreneurial books I’ve ever read, alongside extended notes on why I enjoyed them. :-)
On the plus side, I think its has potential to be another nice social hub on the internet. Have you thought about what kind of community you want to foster, and the impacts of what you're making them do? For instance, if you're making them flame each other over whether zelda or mario is better, make sure you enact some policy that forces the community to do so politely! Also, keep searching for how your users talk to each other, and add functionality that enables them to talk more easily.
“Nurturing” the community is something we’re still really struggling with. We try to stay out of the way as much as possible, but do have to pop in every once in a while when things are taken in the wrong direction. It’s a pretty organic process, and we’re certainly not “there” yet, but I think we’re learning some things as we progress with this.
We do have a fairly loyal group of users who are taking a lead in keeping an eye out on behavior, and we’ve urged them to ask people to just be decent. It seems that we’re building a good relationship with a lot of the users, and it’s nice to have them working with us to make the environment a positive one.
I like the idea of finding better ways for them to interact. We’re working on a chat system that I think might work well here. It’s a feature that I find intrusive on something like Facebook, but we think will work better here as the users don’t have other more traditional means of communicating. (i.e. I’d rather talk to a close friend on the phone than chat on Facebook, but I might have a brief question that I’d like to ask someone I don’t know as well on MakeFive, without the bother of sending an email.)
As noted, we really appreciate the feedback. If you have an opportunity, please do join up and tell us what you think of the site--particularly the parts you find to not work as they should. :-)
Heh heh heh...
From what I can see people visit the list and discuss on reddit/digg.