I find your reaction... odd? He's won a grant to develop a tool that has the potential to help out people with a real problem. Why should that disgust anyone?
The app was described as a "social network". As someone who has experience with suicide (both from my perspective and from losing people), I have to question what a difference that will make. How exactly does it work? If he can't explain, perhaps a mockup of the UI might answer a lot of questions.
Of course it has the potential to help someone. Everything has potential but how realistic is that? The chance that this will make a difference seems really low to me.
I hate to be the negative guy on HN but suicide is a serious matter and I can't see why anybody would give grants to 15 year olds to build 'apps' to 'prevent it'.
Usually, no. But we're not dealing with "will my photo sharing startup succeed?"
>unless suicide is an area where you have more potential to cause harm than to do good
It's extremely difficult to give good advice to a suicidal person. Almost everything can be interpreted as negative. Your dealing with someone who is in a dangerous mind set. Even telling someone "it'll get better" can make it worse. This is why I stressed the importance of experience.
Some information: http://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/comments/1cep2h/psa_wha...
Um, yes, you have serious potential to cause serious harm.
But what causes people to be suicidal in the first place? In my experience, feeling like they don't matter. Apps by themselves can't do anything about that feeling, yes.
But apps are used by people. And apps can help put you in touch with people who can change your life. Who can help you understand that you are important.
Apps can also put you in touch with yourself, and help you grasp your own context.
Perhaps this specific app will work, perhaps it won't, but writing off any and all apps seems a bit premature.
Also, while this specific app may not be able to help, doesn't it seem at least possible that some app, some day might? It seems prematurely dismissive to write apps off as wholly ineffectual. Unless suicide is a case where you're likely to do more harm than good?
That depends a lot on context. In some cases, yes.
>What if the app carries out similar functions as a hotline?
Who would you talk to? A volunteer? What happens when 4chan gets their hands on this app?
>Unless suicide is a case where you're likely to do more harm than good
See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6757098
As for displaying a hotline number, you can find that information on Google. Literally search "suicide" and the first thing listed is a phone number you can call for help. If the app is just a number of a suicide hotline, then it's a pretty pointless app.
What may be more useful is a collection of services and communities (ie. suicide hotlines by state/country, communities like /r/SuicideWatch, general information). However, that sounds a lot like a website and not an app.