HN Explorer

Offer HN: Will Work For Karma

220 points by todayiamme ↗ HN
Hi,

HN has always been there for me when I needed advice, and for a long time I have pondered about a way to give back to this wonderful community. Today, I've finally figured out how to do that.

One thing that I've consistently noticed is that most hackers struggle a great deal to write/refine pitches, blog posts, documentation, support emails and their ilk. Further, I really do think that the founders should worry more about their code and customers than figuring out the site content.

At the same time compelling insights into the product are important. If the writer doesn't get your vision, then it really doesn't matter which side of greatness they fall into. After all how can you communicate, when you don't know what you're communicating about?

So, I'm willing to do this for you. I'm willing to write whatever you throw at me and I am desperate to give you hard feedback. Moreover, I don't want money for it. Good karma in ever sense of the word will do.

Thank you for reading this.

P.S. - I'm perfectly willing to do stuff even if it doesn't involve writing. Just email me at yesthisisananonymousid@gmail.com and let me know.

67 comments

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atomical
Who are you?
fredex
I'm sure she wants to remain anonymous judging by her email.

It's a great offer, btw. I'd feel way too guilty for her like that though.

Edited: Sorry!

todayiamme
Oh and don't feel guilty at all. I've gotten my share out of this equation and this offer is my way of paying back.

edit: no worries. That's a side effect of anonymity.

todayiamme
I prefer to stay anonymous due to personal reasons. Yes, I talk extremely openly and honestly, but it's a bit too hard to trace it all down to me.

On the other hand, who I am has little or nothing to do with how I can help you, and I want to keep it that way, for now. I know that this might seem foolish, but there are compelling, practical reasons behind it.

I request anyone reading this not to breach my privacy. I've made that offer in good faith and it would be heart breaking to face something like that.

Thank you.

jacquesm
I vouch for todayiamme's valid reasons to be anonymous.
akkartik
But how'll you get the karma?
ErrantX
Sometimes the best Karma is the private feeling of having been helpful :)
sp4rki
I think he means real life Karma not in HN
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steveplace
I've got a new product, it's had some success, but my copy is an abomination. I'd love some feedback-- the site is earningstrades.com

Thanks!

todayiamme
Of course, just give me some time to compose something thoughtful and deal with this deluge.

Oh and no, thank you.

cheesey
The "Testimonials" button underneath "User Satisfaction" really should line up with the other buttons on that row.
steveplace
yeah i changed up the font size last night, so i'll have to fix that, thanks!
dawie
I just asked for help with http://tabtrick.com/

Thanks for offering your help. I am sure good things will come to you!

tajddin
By the way, I just checked out your site (cool idea), but there're a few typos on the main page: "Your business needs <to> be on Facebook."
dawie
Thanks. It's fixed now.
aik
Cool idea. Another typo (remove the 'a' in 'create a custom' or the 's' in Pages): TabTrick let you to create a custom Facebook Pages for your business quickly and easily.
paulnelligan
really cool ... i'd like to help with this also

feel free to email me: nellboy(AT)gmail(DOT)com

todayiamme
Wow.

Thanks for the awesome response and you don't need to ask for help. I'm the one offering it. If I don't reply to your mail soon then don't worry. It's just that I have an awesome bunch of people to help and I my hands can work only so fast.

Thank you so much.

grease
I just asked for help with http://recruiterbox.com/ Thanks for this!
happybuy
I just checked out the site and the copy that jumped out at me that needs revision is the sentence: "all with one clean, zippy software"

Perhaps you could revise the copy to: "Recruiterbox is a no-nonsense recruitment tool. Publish jobs, screen resumes & track applicants - an all in one, simplified approach to recruitment . At a price that will make you smile."

grease
Thanks for the feedback, @happybuy
base
I sent you a message asking for feedback on http://vendder.com

Would love to hear what you have to say

Thanks

sp4rki
In the spirit of this thread I'll give some food for thought. The copy here [http://d.pr/Wixb] is a little hard to read because of the font's thinness in contrast to the background color. I'd bold it, or increase the size a small bit. The copy looks AOK to me in regards to content. Good Job!
base
thanks for the comments. I will improve the letter size.
Jun8
This is the first "Offer HN" submission I've ever seen, it may be the first one even, so double thanks: one for your offer, the other for (hopefully) starting this trend.
sahillavingia
I'm thinking of doing this for design. I want to set aside 5 hours every Friday to work on designs for pet projects of HN hackers. In exchange for this, I get to blog about it. :D

Would people be interested?

EDIT: doing this. I'll post once a week on HN and the highest rated project on the page (crowdsourcing ftw!) gets 5 design hours. Look out for it tomorrow!

metamemetics
Here is someone a little while back who did a Rate My X: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794251

He has a ton of programming done and the site is working, but he is clearly no designer and needs a lot of help on design [ he might have improved it some since then ]. Probably a GREAT candidate to reach out to.

moconnor
That would be incredible, not just for the people selected but as a weekly masterclass for those of us without design talent - before and after helps a lot.
scottyallen
Yes, this would be amazing. Thank you for doing this. Speaking for myself, I'm desperate for design help, but don't really know the best way to find/work with a designer.
lubos
sahillavingia is one of the top web designers here, I think it's totally worth it to get 5 design hours free off him. too bad I don't have any pet project atm :)
jtchang
That would be insanely awesome. I know for one that I suck at design and try hard to get better.
babo
You mean karma in HM terms?
metamemetics
Also, if you are an HNer and see a "Rate my X" post in the new section, be sure to give feedback. I usually upvote everyone of those I see even if I dislike the idea behind the website\service linked. After all, they are asking for criticism! Otherwise they slide off quick and I don't see anyone else commenting on them. Most people are here for commentary, but support all creators.
omfut
thats something i have never seen on HN. You must be really starting a new trend for others to follow. Bravo!
trizk
Very generous. Hats off to you man.
EGreg
I just want to say this is an awesome post. I like it :)

Well, if you'd like, check out http://youmixer.com and tell me what you would improve about it to make it viral. I'm working on another project right now, but I'm always curious how I could have made youmixer better.

You can just reply on here if you want to keep your anonymity.

paulnelligan
Hey, it's a cool idea, and one that needs to be addressed because google still haven't mastered the art of the playlist on youtube.

I think you should change the logo, it looks a bit cheap.

From what I can see, anyone can contribute to a mix, this isn't desirable, if you can figure out a way of upvoting the best mixes, you might be onto a winner ...

good luck

EGreg
Thanks for the feedback. I just wanted to correct you on one point:

mixes have two settings: visible_to and editable_by. Only mixes that are editable by everyone fall into the category you describe. People can choose "self", "friends" or "everyone" for any mix.

I think the problem is not the privacy, it's the complexity and lack of a good user flow... what was your experience going through it? Did you give up at a certain point? Was it kind of lame?

I feel like I need to get a web designer and just re-design the experience.

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[dead] todayiamme
Youmixer is an interesting idea, but have you thought of features such as localized comments on the playlists itself (if it's between friends) or chat integration?

One thing that comes to my mind is making a desktop plugin/app of YouMixer and using an online interface (or through wifi) to play the local music stored on a user's computer.

So, my friends can see my music collection on their PC and play the songs for me and we can share common likes through the youtube idea. That way you can have an interesting mix of social interaction and music. Here's a scenario;

I'm chatting with some guy and we start talking about music he opens up my page on youmix and selects the songs that he likes from my library and plays it for me. Or, recommends me something through yourube (that gets downloaded onto the player) and I tell him my thoughts about the music.

I haven't talked about streaming music due to copyright restrictions, but personalized and decentralized internet radio stations through something like YouMix would be a damn interesting idea.

Email me if you want to continue this discussion. As far as the design and stuff goes You really need to change the logo.

Take care and thank you.

Kudose
I could really use some help with pitches and how to deal with potential customers when you are the founder. I am trying to kick off my startup, http://www.quintre.com , but worry about getting overwhelmed and flat out rejected at every turn.
Dylanlacey
I don't need your help. However, it takes a big person to offer to help randomly, for nothing other then intangibles, so well done for that.

I hope you get lots of neat stuff to do ^_^

happybuy
I did a "Rate my Startup" post for my startup (http://www.happybuy.com/) a little while back that didn't get much traction:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1780988

Would be great if you had any feedback on the site you could provide. Although not purely writing, any experience or advice on how to improve its SEO would be most appreciated as the current search traffic is low.

Thank you for helping out other HN'ers.

treeface
Take this for what it's worth, but the first thing I notice is the extremely bright yellow rectangle on your home page. Maybe it's because I have eyes that are somewhat sensitive to bright lights, but it's aesthetically very difficult to stay on your site. Everything else looks great, though. Maybe just a slightly darker color..?
sp4rki
I concur. I saw this massive yellow block and closed the tab immediately.
happybuy
Thanks for the comments. Personally I like the yellow but can understand that it may be too much for some people.

Do you think its primarily just the large yellow area on the homepage, or that the yellow regions on the other pages are problematic (which are more used for highlights)?

scottyallen
Why not try an a/b test? I bet that another color will test better...
happybuy
Yes I could do that however the yellow is the primary color of the brand which would mean more than a simple change. I'd prefer to reduce the large expanse of yellow than change the primary brand color.

I also have a queasy feeling a/b testing aesthetics especially when its a brand attribute which over time may become a strength as opposed to a current weakness. In other words I think for certain things, a/b testing starts to create homogenised results and sites.

treeface
I think there's nothing wrong with the color as your brand logo, but perhaps think of making another color accent it nicely on your home page or making it a more subtle part of your color scheme. The way you have it set up on other pages is a nice compromise (even though I think it's still a bit too yellow):

http://www.happybuy.com/product/Apple-iPad-MB292LLA-Tablet-1...

I just want to reiterate: everything else on your site looks awesome (really awesome)..but that giant yellow block really hurts my eyes.

sp4rki
The color is fine as a branding point, it's just the large block of what I would describe as neon chick yellow completely throws one off if not expecting it. Its a color that would work beautifully for the logo and some highlights. As it is I feel is too much on the main page and I really don't like it on the other pages to the sides, though I think its great as a border to the search bar.

My advice? Try to invert the colors on the main page and make only the logo yellow (and to the bag in white or something like that, and use another color or maybe just the base color enhanced by shadows. And remove the yellow bars to the side on the other pages, and perhaps only use a single yellow horizontal bar to separate sections.

Edit: Use the yellow for details and highlights only (and of course the logo) not for big chunks of design.

todayiamme
Except for ghastly yellow. I think that you have an interesting idea over here. I understand that deal aggregation from something like EBay would be a tough job. Mainly due to quality problems, but if you add an ecosystem like that and track people themselves (to see if they have a good deal history or not) into the algorithm then you can have something that pulls a lot of weight.

The way I see it you could make a ranking algorithm based on price * trust, Where trust is a weighting function dependent upon the number of sales previously completed; the satisfaction recored (as per ebay et al metrics) and the cost of the article vs. the original (too good to be true scenario).

If you make something like that then I would use it in a heart beat.

Please email me if you want to continue this conversation.

bobfunk
Wow - this is an amazing offer. I'm sure you must be swamped in work already, so expect a "no time anymore answer", but I'll send you a request for help on documentation for http://www.webpop.com
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