Ask HN: Getting product feedback on Hacker News... is there a better way?
I'm putting this out there because I think that HN is probably the most important forum for getting feedback for new web products and interacting with like-minded folks who can help.
So, recently I launched a pre-beta of my all-important web app. My first web app, and I was salivating at the prospect of putting it up on HN, getting feedback, and generally leveraging all the power that HN as a community has to offer to improve upon it and make new connections.
I put months of work into the application, and HN was a large part of my launch plan. It would be the moment when all my hard work would pay off and I could show it to my contemporaries around the world, to gain some really valuable knowledge about my own product, and make new connections. Slightly romantic notion, I know. But I must admit to being an idealist.
So, when I finally did post, it got one upvote, and quickly disappeared. My disappointment was significant.
I've been thinking about it more recently, and have come to the conclusion that there must be a better way of using HN for this purpose. Perhaps it's possible to establish a new list for those asking for feedback for their products ?
HN gets hundreds (or more) of new submissions per day, but the most interesting and significant (IMHO) are from those on the coalface launching their products. Surely they deserve a little bit more recognition (via their own list), because they've put months of work into their submission ?
I know we use the tag 'Ask HN' and 'Show HN' for our posts of this nature, but these tags aren't always related to new products. Perhaps there's another solution ?, for example, a different tag for these posts, e.g. 'Review HN', or whatever works - this is merely a suggestion (but a good one I hope).
I would love to know other people's thoughts on this. And if it's a question of putting some work into it, I would gladly volunteer a few hours to help make this happen, in whatever shape or form people think is best. I believe that HN is an amazing service and community, but even with that in mind, it's open to improvement and change for the better.
Thanks for reading
Paul
6 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 30.2 ms ] threadI'm not sure what the solution is, but the problem is definitely there. So you'll get at least one upvote from me in the hope that THIS post of yours stays in front...
Is that just the way the cookie crumbles? Personally I haven't submitted anything, but I do click the 'ask' section and read through / upvote.
Maybe the title of your original submission didn't catch people's attention - it didn't state what the app did?
Secondly, task management is obviously a popular category and everyone has a differing opinion on the best way to do it. It's also something that most developers have knocked up themselves at some point, so it's not 'novel' per say.
With regards to your functionality - Microsoft Project does tree-based tasks I believe? (Although that's obviously a different market)
I watched your video - you could make it a bit snappier - you demonstrate the hierachy twice over with fb and twitter - you probably only need to do it once - or you could just say "I'll also add a couple more here" and do it really quickly. The less you can trim off the video, the better.
The completion / uncompletion works well, with the filtering and also the prioritisation - some nice neat little UI touches.
I wouldn't pay for it though as my personal preference for a to-do list is a piece of paper with a list :)
thanks for your comments. I agree completely.
I feel that having subtasks in a web-app is pretty novel, since I haven't found another app that uses this type of functionality - I kind of understand why now - it's a bit of a nightmare to code.
The video could definitely be snappier. In fact, I'm doing another version as I type.
Thanks for your feedback.
I still maintain that showing web apps on HN is something that can be improved upon, if we could just get a concise list, it would be fantastic. There wouldn't be so many submissions, since it takes a good deal of time and effort to submit an app :)
cheers
p.s. I also still use pen and paper, but I find nift.ie a very useful solution for myself personally in many cases.
We've all been there, trust me. This is actually a good way to tell if your app is needed. Float a small working version around HN and other sites, if there is little-to-no feedback then you know the market does not really need this app.
I know it sucks when you've invested countless hours into this thing, but getting no feedback is actually valuable feedback.
There could be dozens of indications either way that state that your app is either needed or not needed. Lack of upvotes on HN is the least significant of those indications that I've seen personally.
In the end, I value customer (or potential customer) feedback far more.
If your glory was hinging on HN feedback, I hope they are your main target users. If not, then it's not a problem at all.