A social network for programmers
programming.com
programming.com
Marketing guy: should I start a social network for marketers, showing a guy who's adding two and three together and getting six as answer? Would you sign up for that? No? But you expect programmers to sign up when your marketing portrays them as idiots?
I do feel the home page needs to change. Why not rotate the image and show a random community member. This would be a better representation of what a 'programmer' looks like.
Maybe there's some grand plan here, but I don't see it. As it stands no self-respecting "programmer" is going to use this site because it serves no purpose, nor does it solve any problems. We'll use StackOverflow because it does.
[1] see the landing page photo.
All you comments may be valid, but for me it just came across as quite vicious.
It's not that I'm against the concept itself, since I wanted to test the product immediately after I read the headline here, but that image instantly killed off any desire to try it.
* The links on the bottom of the front page don't go anywhere (href="#") and don't open anything for me.
* The pictures of the members sorta get out of alignment with each other in the user info page.
* considering that Stackoverflow exists and is immensely popular with programmers, what does programming.com do that's so different that would make a regular user of Stackoverflow (like me) to come over. What exactly is the 'social networking' aspect that would make me want to leave LinkedIn+Stackoverflow?
Lastly, and this is not a criticism but just a curiosity, are the makers of this website Iranian? I noticed a lot of the members in the people section were based out of Tehran.
The site looks well designed, and I think there's definitely room for a social networking site for programmers, that offers more than what Github and HN can provide to the community. Whether this site succeeds will depend entirely on what its actual features are, which is very unclear from the landing page ("Our mission" links to "#"...not exactly informative.) I would suggest putting up more information ASAP, because even a landing page just to gauge interest needs to contain enough info to capture people's interest. Also, as others have said, please change the photo.
Best of luck, I'm excited to see where this project goes!
http://programming.com/static/img/bg.jpg
This website can go fuck itself.
1) Remove the stock photo asap
2) Clearly define why someone using Github or Stackoverflow would want your service.
3) Tell us about your service on your home page.
What kills it for me is a personal bias though. We have a stigma here in the states about Iran's Gov't. I'd be fearful to give my data to a company who is at the mercy of the Iranian Government.
What country is your company based out of?
Completely clueless stock image - check
I left in a hurry.
Try to ignore the majority of comments from people offering nothing more than a self promotion of how much of a cynic they are.
Some thoughts on the site:
1. That photo needs to change, I personally like it in the same way I love parody twitter accounts like hipster programmer. However, some will view it as condescending.
2. While you're in private alpha and that's all good, if someone is singing in with a Gtihub profile it's more than likely they're a value to what you're working on. Don't make them jump through hoops to obtain an alpha code, just let them on.
3. I think you should integrate with Github on an individuals profile to browse someones repos and comment on these.
4. When I see the profile I think of CV, I'm not sure why but I keep looking for an export to PDF button. Maybe it's the recommendation feature or the layout, either way if you're not trying to become a programmers CV something needs to change here. If that is your focus then I'd say mission accomplished.
Just my thoughts and kudos on launching as opposed to sitting on HN putting down others work.
And also http://geekli.st/ - even though it's not technically programming oriented, all of the top communities on there are programming related.
Those skill choices are OK in a technical forum, but not on a "recruiting" site. There is so much more to life than a technical skill.
No matter how great your domain name (programming.com) is, and how well designed your landing page is: As long as you don't offer something that is significant better than Ohloh, I don't see how this project could gain any traction.