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Ask HN: Feedback on Hackthonia.com

17 points by andyangelos ↗ HN
Slowly launching http://hackathonia.com to help organize, promote, and capture hackathons. Currently using with just one event, but would be awesome to gather feedback while continuing to improve the utility. Thanks.

15 comments

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stcorbett
I know there are a lot of hackathons happening out there. Does Hackathonia aim to be a platform to launch and run them? I think there could be some useful tools around hackathons, helping organizers organize and promote them, helping teams get involved in as many as they want to get involved with, or helping sponsors find a hackathon to sponsor that suites their mission. From the page you've got up now I'm not sure who you are aiming to help or how.
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[dead] andyangelos
Thanks Sean. I am working the founder to test the site for a conference coming up in August, and hope this provides an easy way for me to promote, organize and collect information for their hackathon portion. On the developer/participant side - the site will also provide a showcase for products and projects built during hackathons - a sort of deviantart.com for developers. There is a better run down of the "plan" at http://www.hackathonia.com/About
TimCourtney
We're using Hackathonia to manage the Hackathon at SocialDevCamp Chicago and we're excited at the progress. I think Hackathonia is a concept whose time has come because it will help Hackathon organizers and participants manage hackathons easily and build up clout over time. Pete's really passionate about this and I couldn't be happier to see SDCChi as the inaugural event to test this site.
rlm
Too bad it doesn't work outside of the US (unless you somehow map the zip 2100 to a part of Copenhagen, Denmark).

I'm amazed how many sites completely disregard the international audience.

andyangelos
So the theme is "let users know about conveniently located competitions." definitely a possibility when more hackathons are using the site to organize. Chicago today - the world next.
binarymax
Love the Concept and layout. I would definitely use it but, alas, I am not in the USA and have nothing I can fit into 'Show near zip'. Any chance you could internationalize it?
[dead] openfly
I've taken some time lapses at hackathons...

But it's less amazing when it's a soft hack than it is when it's a hard hack.

Hackerspaces.org has a monthly synchronous hackathon that happens at spaces across the globe as well.

Details here: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Synchronous_Hackathon

agentargo
I love hackathons. With more content this could be something that I would use. As far as feedback. Geolocating on the homepage for hackathons near the user would be an instant way to demonstrate the usefulness. Just a thought.
aagha
Cool design and layout.

What's the radius you've set for your search? I put in an East Bay zip (in the SF Bay Area) and nothing came up.

Vindexus
I'd change this text: "Hackathonia is about bringing bright, motivated people together to build amazing apps in competitive yet collaborative, team-based competitions known as "Hackathons"."

I'd put something like:

"Hackathonia is a great way to find "Hackathons" near you. Hackathons bring bright, motivated people together to build amazing apps in competitive yet collaborative, team-based competitions."

That way you get to the meat of what you do faster.

andyangelos
Great suggestion, Vindexus. Some of the text definitely needs to be less verbose.
abraham
Couple of quick thoughts:

Don't make me create yet another online account. Just about every hacker will have an OpenID, Twitter, FB, or Google account.

Use square avatars. I can't imagine all that many people have 160x190px images hanging around. Also use http://en.gravatar.com/ as a default.

Include a more link in the "tweets tagged" box. Maybe to Google's realtime search: http://www.google.com/search?q=%23SDCChi&tbo=1&tbs=r...