Hacker News Reader

ptmon Ask HN: Would you use a service to unfollow everyone on your social media?

I think there was a tool called justunfollow. I never used it myself so I'm not sure how well it worked.

ptmon Ask HN: Tell us about your project that's not done yet but you want feedback on

Thanks for the feedback.

> .. is there's pretty much no such thing as dumbing down too much.

Yes, you're right. I think it's easy to forget what's basic to someone, is often very challenging to someone else.

ptmon Ask HN: Tell us about your project that's not done yet but you want feedback on

I have been working on a web app that makes tutorials for elderly people who struggle with technology. Something as simple as "turn off the wifi and turn on data" can be a struggle for a lot of people.

My plan is to make tools for making tutorials customized exactly to the users phone / desktop screen. So if an icon is on bottom right, the tutorial should mirror the same.

I have sporadically worked on it for the few months. The only issue is whether I am dumbing down the app way too much.

ptmon Updating my website from my iPad

So am I.

> 403 ERROR. The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country.

ptmon Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell

I run https://mapfight.xyz

It is a simple web app that displays map sizes without Mercator projection distortion. It hits 500$/month (google ads) on occasion.

ptmon Ask HN: Is Wordle still part of your daily routine?

Yes, it is. But I have been debating if I should stop.

ptmon Ask HN: What do you pay for your internet connection, and where do you live?

India, 8usd/month, 3Mbps down, 0.4Mbps up. (Numbers from Google internet speed test)

Yeah, it is pretty bad.

ptmon Show HN: AccentQuest – get better at understanding Indian accents

Thanks for the review.

> I hope you consider expanding to other accents.

To be honest, I would not know where to start. Indian accents are both ubiquitous and somewhat hard to understand.

If you have a list of accents you have trouble with, please let me know.

ptmon Show HN: AccentQuest – get better at understanding Indian accents

Thanks for the review.

ptmon Show HN: AccentQuest – get better at understanding Indian accents

Thanks for the review.

I will check the Mozilla voice model site and their contribution options.

ptmon Show HN: AccentQuest – get better at understanding Indian accents

Thanks for the review.

> We need more of this and less of "Learn how to speak in an American accent in 2 months!"

I agree. I think familiarity with the Indian accent will soon be seen as a major skill set. A skill set that people should maybe work on.

ptmon Ask HN: Single-person creations that have stood the test of time?

Rock garden in Chandigarh, India.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Garden_of_Chandigarh

ptmon Ask HN: What (side-)project are you working on?

Thanks. I have been manually adding the alerts. Users also have the option of submitting their own alerts.

ptmon Ask HN: What (side-)project are you working on?

I have been working on SceneRadar.

This tool displays you timestamped alerts (nudity, sex, violence or gore). So if you plan to watch a film with your child, your parents or other conservative relatives - you know when the danger scenes are going to hit you.

Since I watched lots of films during the lockdown, I thought this would be a good use of time.

https://sceneradar.com/

ptmon Ask HN: What’s the gender distribution of HN?

We can check the gender ratio [1] of the subreddit /r/hackernews (assuming the two have the same audience distribution). Unfortunately, the subreddit does not appear on the gender ratio page.

[1] http://bburky.com/subredditgenderratios/

If you check related subreddits,

/r/startups - 86:14

/r/sideproject - 91:9

/r/programming - 93:7

/r/webdev - 89:11

/r/cscareerquestions - 83:17

/r/netsec - 96:4

/r/technology - 85:15

Based on these numbers 10:1 seems like a good guess.

ptmon India’s booming dark data economy

> However, for almost a decade, it was mainly used by urban and semi urban, educated women as a revenge tactic.

Citation needed for this claim.

There a 100,000 498A cases a year - 13% of cases ended in conviction [1]. It is hard to say how many of the remaining 87% were "false".

[1] https://factly.in/the-conviction-rate-of-sec-498a-cases-fall...

ptmon Send Payments in India with WhatsApp

In India, there are many marginal businesses which are not registered as a business. I expect a lot of P2P payments to be Peer to unregistered business.

ptmon WeWork sells Meetup

I think you are referring to zooomr.com (with 3 os).

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

You click on the "Try it out" button to create a demo dashboard, add tasks and then click on register to sign up.

Sorry about the convoluted route.

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

Glad you find it useful

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

Thanks for the link. Will check it out.

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

I have added laps now.

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

I debated having an orange (semi-done) state. But I felt that the ux was getting a bit too complex. So I left it out.

Unfortunately at the moment it is binary (done or not-done).

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

Thanks for your review.

> I work out dramatically more with a little bit of social accountability.

I have experienced the same myself, and suspect that it is true for most people.

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

> duolingo owl has so much power over me.

I use duolingo as well - and one of the saddest days was when I lost a 100+ day streak. It's funny how a meaningless number can have so much power.

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

Thanks for your review.

> gamification of the Global Challenge.

I have personally experienced how powerful gamification ux can be. Especially if used for a positive outcome.

ptmon Show HN: Simple tool to make a habit of exercising

Sorry for the bug.

I think you logged-in before "trying out". I have fixed the bug now.

ptmon How to politely request customers use alternate services?

Thanks for the comments.

ptmon How to politely request customers use alternate services?

Thanks for the comments.

> Add a premium service where the user can request who will answer the question

I have considered that. However, since the support burden alone is maybe 5x of normal questions, I might have to raise prices by 2-3x at least. I might have to also add features to the site that don't exist right now. A premium service is certainly the best option going forward.

> Are you paying the experts? Can you pay them more for answering premium questions?

Yes they are paid. I already pay more if users ask for specific experts. But I still find it difficult to guarantee if a specific expert will bother turning up.

> Do all the experts have the same level? (obviously no)

I suppose that is subjective. But there are objective metrics that allow users to choose better.

> How much difference is there in the quality of the answers?

Experts with same rating / peer-rating are of similar quality.

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Thanks for the detailed comments.

ptmon How to politely request customers use alternate services?

Thanks for your comments.

My intentions are a bit less noble though. By listing alternatives, I am trying to draw attention to the pricing (my service is much cheaper) and to set expectations to match the pricing. I think some users might see this as a taunt of sorts.