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jcc80on [dead]

Would I be signing up to be a buyer? A seller? I love the picture you've chosen and understand the prelaunch page is just to wet the appetite but the copy is beyond vague.

jcc80on How Can I Turn Small Talk Into a Conversation?

Same here, although I didn't contemplate the change. It just sort of happened somewhere in my late 20s. Late bloomer I guess? Always thought I was smart and understood people. But, now realize I missed plenty by not really getting it and finding what was interesting about others.

jcc80on I sued a telemarketer and got $4,000

It's pretty obvious - he needed to feed & cloth himself. For some, (perhaps you?) there must be some catastrophic event to create day to day money problems. For many people, especially the often young students or mothers who work these jobs, day to day money problems are just a fact of life. Should people plan better so they don't have to compromise and do things they disagree with? Of course, but that isn't everyone's reality.

edit: Or maybe he just wanted money for Spring Break...

jcc80on IAcquire Banned From Google After Link Buying Allegations

The fact that news like this are so rarely brought into light is the real news. People want their rankings to improve yesterday. If you won't tell them we can move you up to the first page or #1 in X amount of days, someone else will say it. At GrowTap, I've never promised any results to anyone - which loses us plenty of customers. But, at least I don't have to worry about the sky falling down or crushing some poor guy's small business.

It's really shocking just how forward they are with explaining everything - but I guess at that point they knew the guy was writing the article one way or another. Was wondering where Conductor's link buying operation went, and now I know.

jcc80on Buffett: Free news unsustainable

Exactly - Republicans watch Fox, Democrats watch MSNBC & everyone is happy hearing what they already believe.

jcc80on Buffett: Free news unsustainable

"The logical conclusion of this perspective is that the people who currently are paid to be reporters, editors, writers, photographers, etc. add little to no value to the world."

They do add value - the problem is they aren't getting the revenue generated by their work. It's being siphoned off by the cut/paste/add some commentary aggregators. "Old" news will continue to exist, but with smaller budgets and less resources to do "real" reporting.

jcc80on Ask HN: Pitch deck question about team members?

I've never smelled a pitch deck but I'd say absolutely yes. The team section isn't just a rundown of precious startups - it's you. What have you done, built or hacked that shows these people you're someone who gets things done/they can trust with their money. It's all part of the story - what can you tell them that they'll remember & be impressed with that ties into why this idea, why you, why now.

If you're thinking about not including it due to lack of confidence, that's a mistake.

jcc80on Hiring experiment: hiring experts in 20 minute chunks

Or http://www.edviso.com

jcc80on Pingdom copied our idea, success?!

Yes, success. Suppose it validates that it's a cool marketing idea. I'm sure you have others (and those will be copied too...if you're lucky). Think of where else you can post this to get some attention (sorry I have no suggestions). Maybe show side by side of the UI in the blog post?

jcc80on 37signals lists web designer directory Sortfolio on Flippa

I must be missing something because I don't understand why they are so desperate to get rid of it. If it's really making $200,000+ per year just hire someone for 1/4 to 1/3 that to handle it.

jcc80on Zynga's Going Down.

The Forbes article definitely isn't praising Zynga. But, I also didn't read that it stated the loss of users had anything to do with Zynga. The article writer actually infers that the loss of users would have happened regardless.

"but they must know that if they had waited just one more month to sell, they wouldn’t have been able to command anywhere near that price after losing so many users."

It just references the omgpop acquisition because it was very recent which makes the story more interesting.

jcc80on Microsoft says goodbye to Windows Live brand

Hysterical - I started to formulate a theory on this that leadership distracts themselves with these types of tasks just as a person might engage in avoidance. Of course, I'm about 56 years late: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality

jcc80on Microsoft says goodbye to Windows Live brand

This happens at small businesses too. And, it's actually a lot sadder because truly nobody cares. At least MS will get some blog posts about people being confused or complaining. Small business execs who are hyped up for a re-branding usually don't even get that.

jcc80on What makes one appear smarter and more sociable?

For someone in his early 30s whose hair is starting to thin out the results are interesting, though expected. I won't lose many social points but will pick up a good amount of perceived smartness when the baldness battle is finally lost. And to throw the "I'm a fun-loving extrovert" vibe out there for special occasions, I just throw on some shades.

jcc80on We Rejected Dan Shipper (And What I Learned About Hiring)

It's anybody who you hire at your startup - until they leave and then all of the sudden they are C players. Because, if you only hire 'A players' and you have decided to hire John Doe #4 for some combination of skill, experience and vibe, then John Doe #4 is now an 'A player' by default until proven otherwise. And thus the myth continues - "We only hire A players."

jcc80on Turntable.fm: Where Did Our Love Go?

Interesting that the "marketing guy" wanted him to lead off his SXSW talk by discussing how turntable's traffic was down. That just seems crazy to me and Chasen rightly ignored this advice and deemed it a "defensive" way to start of his talk.

jcc80on GMail: designer arrogance and the cult of minimalism

You could also use Gmelius to use icons and text plus lots of other options like removing ads. I'm enjoying so far.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dheionainndbbpoacp...

jcc80on The Problem With Marc Andreessen

Page view journalism. "Hmm...that article on how AH should have made more from the Instagram deal blew up. What other negative angle can I take on these guys while their 'hot' to juice some page views?"

jcc80on The One Step Every Entrepreneur Should Take Before Launching a Business

This is good - .10 for non-demographic targeted and .50 to target a demographic. But, the fact that the question types are all multiple choice / ratings and don't allow respondents to give short answers like Pickfu is a downer. The insights from people saying why they chose an answer is the most valuable info.

jcc80on Time To Get Past Facebook And Invent A New Future

I think Louis CK said it best, "Everything is amazing and nobody's happy."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

Sorry but Social mobile local (or as people cooler than me are calling it, SoMoLo) is still pretty new. You're just going to have to "suffer" through a little more.

I get the author's point that it seems like the same things are getting made and funded over and over. But with only about 1/2 the U.S. pop. owning smartphones, you can't blame people too much for trying to stake their claim. Anything more innovative might be too early anyways.

jcc80on Google Drive detailed: 5 GB of free space, launching next week

That's good to know. But, what about the person who doesn't have 500 RSS subscribers to raise hell for them? Yes, it's "free" (I get email, you get to serve me ads) but that doesn't make it right. Email is very personal and to ban someone without notice, without telling them what they did wrong and no clear process for resolution is outrageous.

jcc80on Comparing Startup Ecosystems: SV, London, NYC

Ah, yet more information to considered when I finally move from the startup hub that is CT. Biggest surprise for me was the relative size of Boulder.

"Silicon Valley’s ecosystem is currently 3-times bigger than New York City, 4.5-times bigger than London, 12.5-times bigger than Berlin, and 38-times larger than Boulder."

jcc80on Meetings.io - Simple, online meetings

I somewhat agree that "normal" folks won't notice - at least they wouldn't specifically mention anything about stock photos (and these don't look terribly "stocky" compared to others). But, overall the trust or incentive to take the next step that needs to be captured in the first 5-15 seconds will be lower. Even if they can't express it, it just wouldn't feel right in their subconscious.

Also, if possible have the photos set up so the person is facing towards the action you want them to take - the get a meeting room button. Anyways, just a tip, I think it looks very clean overall. And, just went to a meeting room and the onboarding is great. I was in a meeting room within 10 seconds - very nice.

jcc80on Quora’s Demise

That's a really good point I hadn't considered - diving into Q&A deeper. When boards were announced I was not a fan at all and don't use them. Your suggestions would definitely fit better, imho.

jcc80on Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 2 Notes

Being in my early 30s, it's pretty funny to think about someone in college today taking notes about the late 90s. It doesn't make me feel old...yet.

jcc80on Side Project: 1 Month, $10,000

I'm curious if you found a local pro photographer or diy because the photos look outstanding. They definitely provide a huge level of credibility from my perspective.

jcc80on $8M in Funding and a Lawsuit to Boot? Game on.

I'm curious if you've reached out to the big players in the textbook oligopoly before this?

As to their lawsuit, good luck. I never understood why my books were so expensive (early 2000s). Of course if you're using the chapter titles of their texts as someone mentioned, I'm not an expert on copyright law, but it just feels wrong.

jcc80on Lean Domain Search Now Checks the Availability of 2,000 Domain Names per Search

I've used this tool but not yet purchased any of the favorites I saved. I knew a few domains I wanted to buy so went to LDS and opened up the link to the registrar from there so hopefully credit was given (can't freeload).

Only thing I'd change so far is maybe moving the search bar slightly higher on front page, make it and the button bigger and putting light grey text in the search box. But, you've probably thought of all of that already, just my personal style. Anyways, this has been my go to tool for searching for domains since I found it here a month or so ago. Thanks for building!

jcc80on CNN to buy Mashable for $200 million +

So far the comments seem to be negative. Just want to say congrats to Pete Cashmore. I don't know him and don't really read Mashable. But, I'm sure him and his team have put years of their lives into making Mashable a success. When he first started, I bet he never imagined a day like this would come. He made it happen. Good for him.

jcc80on HireArt (YC W12) Helps employers screen job applicants through work samples

Just went through the process. I'm glad that you can take a few cracks at the video before you choose to upload it. Overall, people's opinions will be colored by how employers use the process.

If a company wants a bunch of work done for free then maybe it's a signal to move on. If the company uses the tool to respect the time of the applicants and make hiring more efficient, it's good for everyone. Perhaps HireArt can guide employers here on the best way to use the tool.