Ask HN: Need feedback on startup social learning site | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Need feedback on startup social learning site

tinyurl.com

8 pointsbdmac9716 comments

Yes. Don't be afraid to post your real URL here. A TinyURL looks unprofessional, shady and gives the impression that you're not quite sure about the success of your startup.

Auto rejecting tinyurl links would be nice.

You are right I would love to post the real URL but HN seems to auto-reject them even if the posts are weeks apart. I don't think it's too outlandish to ask for a second round of feedback as long as you're not abusing/overdoing it.

I have made legitimate changes to the site as a direct result of the initial feedback I got here. I simply want to see if the people that looked the first time like the changes I have made and have any more feedback.

How else should I do this?

If every startup did this, News.YC would no longer be about news. Personally I saw your site once, didn't quite like it, then was basically tricked into clicking it again because of the URL. I don't appreciate that either. If you want feedback, feedbackarmy.com is a good place, or start with your friends and family. When your product is nearing release, then ask News.YC. Or do what you did -- see if it's a viable product by asking once -- but no more.

Any more is overdoing it.

My appologies for tricking you into clicking it again.

I see many requests for feedback that appear to be early in a site's lifecycle. Might it not make more sense for HN to just allow you to repost a URL after a certain amount of time has elapsed? It could even add something to the title indicating it's the n-th request for feedback. Start-ups are an iterative process so to only get feedback one time is a bit short-sighted, isn't it?

Is there another site that provides something like this? If not, maybe that's something else I should create! :-)

Good start. Here is some feedback:

1. What does "Flexible learning environment" mean? I don't think this phrase adds any value.

2. "Learn from people you know and trust": Not sure if the people I currently know possess the best knowledge. I've been out of school for a few years.

You need to iterate over your landing page copy a bit more. Get some help from friends or classmates.

3. The text on the features page (/features) is too verbose. Most people won't read all of it. Make it shorter and to the point. Also, more pictures or screen shots would make it easier to understand.

4. The typography of the word "Cafe" in the logo makes it hard to read. Black on dark blue does not provide enough contrast, and the font is too faint to make the logo memorable. So my advice is to: a. Choose a high contrast color scheme and b. Choose a more prominent font for both words in your logo.

The logo also seems to be inconsistent across the pages. For example, it looks different here: http://www.cafecourses.com/courses/31-integrating-authlogic-...

5. The "Feedback" div on the left occludes some of the text on the features page. I realize that I'm on a small laptop with 1024X768

6. Hmm. Are these courses or tutorials? "Adding CAPTCHA to your site" sounds like a one page tutorial.

7. You need to iterate over the copy in the "About" page. It is hard to follow, and can be structured better. For example: you should encourage people to upmod great content, rather than vote down courses. Especially when most of the content is written by you.

Best of luck.

Buddy,

I think you already asked for feedback a couple of times. You should improve the site based on those then come back for a second review.

i suspect he doesn't want feedback, he wants users/eyeballs/traffic/SEO, and has a clever way of getting it (ask for reviews).

No, what I REALLY want are suggestions on improvements on either:

a) the site/design/functionality b) the idea itself

The site is completely free and the few Adsense ads are not even breaking even yet so it's definitely not about the money.

i appreciate this, but based on your participation and submission history, your motives seem like they could be questionable.

I agree and certainly see how you might think that. I have mostly been a reader up to this point (as I am on most blogs/forums I read).

I have now posted several (4 maybe? not sure how to see) requests for feedback. The first time was amazing. The next few times (which were spread apart to avoid seeming like spam) got almost no response.

I was unsure if it was a timing problem or what (memorial weekend, buried by popular breaking news, etc.) so I have tried several additional times. I thought that at least the people that were helpful the first time might like to see that their suggestions were taken to heart and implemented in a very timely manner (considering I'm a solo operation).

If you have a suggestion for some other site/forum that can provide the kind of great feedback I got that first time, I would certainly appreciate it and try there and simply continue reading here.

That's what I'm trying to do (get more feedback). I got such amazing feedback here the first time that I'm just trying to get more of it. I have made all the improvements from the first round of feedback already as well as some changes that were the result of usertesting (from usertesting.com).

In the interest of full disclosure the site that is linked is http://www.cafecourses.com. I have asked for feedback previously.

I would have included the URL in a comment but HN does not even let the original poster add a comment to their URL post until someone ELSE adds a comment for them.

My feedback:

Why does the site ask for my photo if I'm using Facebook to login?

There's a lot of text after I finish registering. I think it's confusing.

Thanks for the feedback. I have not finished fully integrating Facebook. I'm using RPXNow and I think I can get to your profile pic through that somehow but just haven't had a chance yet. It's certainly on my list of things to improve.

As for the text after registering... are you referring to the "What Now?" page? I've been trying desperately to minimize the amount of text on most pages! :-(

I would really like to see a video about what you offer, and a demo account with some demo data so I can see the layout.

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