Ask HN: Review my project: SitesInCommon

However, you have a bit of a catch-22 with respect to the sign-up vs. experience this without signing up.

I didn't sign-up, and therefore, you can't show me anything. You also don't describe anything on your home page, so I don't know if sign-up means I'll need to download a plug-in, no plugin, do I need to tell you how it works.

A good way to demo it for people is to maybe show how many people near them visited your site? They don't need to see the person details. Maybe a 'here is what's popular near you' list, or something like that. Just to get a bit of interest going and show that you have some data.

I think a big thing you've done wrong on your site is the 'these people both read ...'. I don't care what they read if I don't read it. Therefore, if you can show me how it relates to me, that is likely a better avenue I think.

What's going on in my mind, within two seconds of the page load, is that you've used a stock image on your front page, and you've generated "These people both read Hacker News." using my HTTP referrer. So in fact these two people don't read Hacker News.

I get the cleverness of the page. But cute girls in short shorts who have nothing to do with the product have become a sort of turn-off. I feel like a trout in an over-fished lake - lures are boring.

Show me two users who actually do read Hacker News, and you've got me on the front page.

Also, I realize that you're still trying to get some data into your database, but I would really appreciate being able to put in my zipcode to get an idea of what I can do with the site after signing up.

Maybe you could:

- Display the website that is the referrer

- Use ip -> geo database to do quick matches with no signup

-- i.e. just say: "4 news.ycombinator.com readers visited today"

I am creating an account now, but maybe my suggestions could give you a more compelling frontpage.

For now, getting you to sign up is kind of the idea. We need data.

Also, it would be nice to get more information before being presented with Sign Up and Login as the only options (on the homepage). Its hard to choose either without knowing how your product works and what value it will bring to me.

I do like the locations on the HN comments though. Pretty cool.

One other thing: I have Greasemonkey, and very much appreciate your offering the product as a Userscript. That said, a lot of people might not have GM, or even know what it is. Perhaps package the script into an extension and offer both options? (http://arantius.com/misc/greasemonkey/script-compiler)

Best of luck!

"These people all read Hacker News. But they don't know that. Yet."

I parsed this as "each of these people don't know that he or she reads--as in will read--Hacker News." It sounded like an endorsement for Hacker News, rather than explaining that these people don't know that the people around them also read HN.

This was also be of help to people who travel from one area or another a lot (I go to Knoxville several times a month, for instance.)

But so far, I like the idea and I'm interested in seeing how it grows.

Can you make email optional?

That being said your site is very slow loading. Our fault?

It is kind of scary not knowing what to expect but need to sign up for your service.

(If anyone here answers me, then I probably don't need your site. OTOH, if no one responds, then maybe you're on to something.)

First, get a new name. It should be something short/clever. SitesInCommon is a bit cumbersome to say, probably because of the fact that it's three words. Words usually imply stops between them, making it verbally funky.

Your style is not that styley. Reminds me of the New York Times, which is probably not what you want to associate with. That's business, this is meeting people (presumably) for friendship. You, probably, were already going to fix this.

Your add script is buggy. Of four sites added, it froze my Firefox 3.0.10 twice. On XP. (I'm just telling you those in case you need to reproduce.) Then, it doesn't add them to the bottom and gets rid of the add button. Perhaps you can add an add suggested sites thing on the profile page for ease of use?

What you really need to attract the users is some kind of side use that they can use as soon as they've entered sites. Maybe you can let them rank specific pages within their sites? I've always wanted to do that. Tagging and searching for webcomic archives is also something I've wanted to do. These aren't your original goal, but I think they could help bring in users and make the site much more fun to use.

Finally, I can't figure out how to make your site work! I.e., I can't figure out where it tells me who lives around me and reads the same sites.