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Comment by gault8121 | Hacker News Reader

HN, we're an open source nonprofit, and we'd like to collaborate with other developers. Check out our code here: https://github.com/empirical-org/quill

And if you'd like to contribute, we've got a few interesting projects in the works, including building a free writing section with NLP! You can reach me at peter (at) quill (dot) org

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This is actually nice looking and has a great purpose. Maybe they didn't select you because there's no billion-dollar exit strategies for education services..? I think it could make a really great product though.

We are a nonprofit. We are a commercial nonprofit, and intend to make a sustainable revenue, so we really don't fit into the nonprofit mold. We probably would have had a better chance as a for profit. The nonprofit app was surprisingly sparse.

Ah. Well, as they say on YC they are being extremely selective with non-profits and considering them to be "charity" (their own words). I personally wouldn't take it to heart at all if YC didn't select your company.

This is interesting! Why didn't you put simple words correction (as in the homepage) instead of the user having to retype the whole sentence in the exercises?

The core idea here is that by writing out a complete sentence you learn the context in which a word is being used. For example, if you're learning "There are elephants at the zoo", you need to learn not only the word "There", but also the context "There" + "are elephants at the zoo". Writing out a complete sentence helps bind the concept to the context.

nice homepage. i love the text on the mission page actually. why nonprofit? can you try selling this to schools? my team also embrace the "learn by writing" concept and recently launched www.dailythem.es -- we are reaching out to English as a Second Language students and schools in Asia to develop something more classroom specific because teachers just don't have time to grade enough students' essays

We are a commercial nonprofit, and we do intend to sell to schools. We're a nonprofit because we're looking to build a sustainable revenue, but we are not looking for an exit. Our main focus is on collaboratively building educational resources, and being a nonprofit encourages people to volunteer their time to contribute.

We're open source, and if you're interested, you can pull out code here - https://github.com/empirical-org/quill

That makes sense. All the best. I will be keeping out on your site let my school contacts know

Cool. Reach me at peter at quill dot org if you'd like to learn more.

Wow - I could use this. Great demo on the home page.

Thanks - we're open source, and we'd love to work with other developers interested in contributing.

why the email is "optional"? you should try to get emails instead, and build a mailing list of people interested in your product!

It is optional for students, required for teachers. Our focus is on 6th-8th grade, and students at that age often don't have school emails.

English is not my first language, and I also find it useful. Maybe it could be worth having a look at other 'segments'( students learning english?)

Love the concept! Keep at it :)

Thanks! The YC bump would be nice, but it doesn't really make a difference. Focus on the experience you're creating for your users, and the rest is marginal.

Wow, this is really cool!

this is cool

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