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Comment by apsurd | Hacker News Reader

If you haven't researched this company already .... http://www.rateitall.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!

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I too agree with the "if you have a brain that is" being too condescending. You have to note that humor is also culturally very specific and varies across demographics. What you think of humor may not always work. (I, for example, did not find it in good taste though I did understand that it was intended to be humorous).

Point taken--we're often a little too casual with our remarks and approach. Could be something for us to be a little more careful with.

We have looked at rateitall.com and it seems like they are doing some things really well. My feeling is that they're much more product/service focused than MakeFive is at this time, but that may change. We have talked about the notion of encouraging users to post their thoughts on some of these topics as well. At this time though, it seems that the dialogue on MakeFive is often more centered on pop-culture and such.

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!

Good call on the RateItAll comparison apsurd. I think MakeFive is off to a nice start, and they are doing some smart things around avoiding duplicates and running contests. A few other list building sites that either haven't quite made it or are still trying are: Listible (gone, but they were cool), OnMyList (getting buried in spam now but also cool), and Amazon Unspun (failed).

I was surprised to see Unspun turned-off. It always seemed like a good tie in to something like Amazon, even if it was under-developed. (I suppose they had bigger fish to fry.)

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