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Ask HN: Review local used textbook startup

4 points by ABrandt ↗ HN
Hi HN,

Please take a look at my friend's startup, matchio (matchio.com). They're trying to create an easier way for students to buy and sell textbooks with their peers. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

7 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 30.5 ms ] thread
cryptnoob
1) "Welcome to Matchio! Get started by viewing our intro video!" --- THIS Gives me a video that is too big for the window it's in. (Firefox 3.5.9, 1024 x 768 monitor, browser is maximized)

2) "OR WATCH A 60 SECOND VIDEO TOUR" --- DOESN'T do anything, even though it looks like a play link

3) Why must I have a .edu account if I refuse to use Facebook? Are non students not invited?

4) The slidedown and slideup at top and bottom of screen are cool, but I get confused by the up/down arrows. On the bottom, they are reversed, and on the top, down arrow seems like "minimize" to me.

5) On http://bradley.matchio.com/tos.html , I'm getting some weird characters in place of the apostrophes. "Click your "I’m buying" or "I’m selling"

6) I love the graphics. I wish my sites looked half this good.

adelevie
Great idea, I want it at Penn State.

You should get data that links textbooks to courses. Then all you do is enter your current schedule. When you pick the next semester's classes, students get matched up.

tfurusa
Hi there, I'm Tatenda the Project Manager. Thanks for the feedback, we only launched less than week ago but the response has been positive. Yes we have textbooks linked to courses at Bradley University. This is our primary entry point, and is an edu sign up only.
shafqat
Good idea. But how do you make money?
tfurusa
Thanks. It is a free to use service for now. We are exloring various monetization methods. For the moment, advertising sales are keeping the lights on. Any suggestions?
slindstr
Very cool idea! Looks great! Here's a couple of critiques:

1. On the main graphic in the middle of the page where it says "Matchio is The best way to buy and sell your books locally. Period." the letters run together when I view it in Safari 4.0.4

2. On the very bottom, the "Learn More" section, I feel that this is kind of an unnecessary use of JS animation. This section is asking for feedback, and provides useful links so if you don't expand it you might never see this info. I would just keep it expanded.

3. Everything under "Feedback" in the learn more section does the same thing.

4. Privacy policy and Terms of Services links don't do anything (I'm guessing they already know that though)

5. I also noticed in the source that there's a lot of inline Javascript, some in using JQuery, some not. I would try to keep it consistent and I'd throw it all inside of $(document).ready() to keep the markup cleaner, plus everything inside here will be ready to be used immediately after the DOM is loaded.