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Ask YC: Review my startup (uliken.com)

15 points by samwise ↗ HN
We officially launched yesterday, and i wanted some constructive criticism from the community. Please keep it real and don't hold back.

Couple things to remember. We're aware that this idea is not totally original. We're not trying to solve a problem but merely provide a fun way to interact with friends using your social graph.

Drop me an e-mail if you want to PM me.

37 comments

[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 90.8 ms ] thread
apgwoz
Well, it looks nice, but what am I supposed to do? Why should I vote for "me" and what the hell is a challenge? First time users need to know what's going on. I left after 30 seconds.
jsjenkins168
Agree. Looks awesome, but a super brief description of what its about would help.
manvsmachine
Seems to be essentially a "Hot or Not" type app, essentially CommandShift3 but back to using people. My first thought is what incentive is there to participate? I guess those that submit pictures get bragging rights, which may be enough for some, but I see no motive for people to vote.
boucher
I suspect facebook will not approve of their logo appearing so prominently at the top right of the page.
karthikv
Not sure if it was meant to be this way.. but the design looks eerily similar to facebook's.
danielha
purely coincidental
dangoldin
Are you sure? It seems to be as if you just took their source code - you even have their logo in the top right corner.
samwise
the padlock logo is recommended by facebook, it's in the wiki
boucher
What isn't recommended is the implication that the site is somehow sponsored by facebook, which I think they will feel this site tries to do. Intentional or not.
truebosko
Getting a bunch of debug notices if I try to visit. It's a cute debug :)
raju
Tried to use it. Just got this...

"Notice: Constant APP_NAME already defined in /var/www/uliken.com/releases/20080514175006/config/app_config.prod.php on line"

I take it that was not part of the plan? :D

Will try again later.

mkull
Your using rails, I would have expected some nice ajaxiness at least! Page loads when voting and reloadings pics were slow, ajax would help here.

Also - I would have expected clicking on either picture would count as a 'vote', rather then having to hit the vote button.

Design is nice and clean

axod
why is this fun?
maxklein
Weellll, it's okay. It does what it does, but what it does is not really for me. Sure, I'd like to click on hot chicks, but you know what I'd really love? If, when I clicked on that chick long enough, she begins to like me! Then she calls me and buys me dinner.

Now that's a problem you startup founders should solve! Getting me laid is a killer application, I tell you.

stcredzero
That's a problem that's been solved with various degrees of legality all around the world from time immemorial. I don't think that'll get anyone to an IPO. It might result in some book and movie deals, a clothing line, or a popular blog. (Heidi Fleiss and "Confessions of a College Call Girl" come to mind.)
scott_s
Hot or Not in a different form. I don't see the point.
Fuca
Money?

/ great idea, if you do not get into legal issues

scott_s
How does one make money off of this?
lancashire
I may well be alone in this view and I really don't want to sound rude but personally I just can't get excited about another one of these sites. It seems the successful ones (e.g. hotornot) in this area were the ones which were both original and fun. Unfortunately, I don't think this is either. Looks beautiful and I'm sure a lot of work went into it, but not for me. I feel bad, maybe I shouldn't have posted! Hmm..
tom
This is a neat little app. Not really ground-breaking, but hey, that's not a pre-requisite for success. That said, I think this is just a web base comparator, not a startup. I must be missing something, but what pain point are you soothing? How is this new? The fact that you have categories? Are you hoping to take all the results data and try to pull something useful out of it? Or is this just a "hey, let's learn rails and make a facebook app" type thing?
breck
Well done. Simple enough. Fun to use. I'll probably never use it again, but I'm sure there are many millions of people that would spend a dozen minutes or so on this site. With that kind of traffic, I think you have a good shot of success. My prediction is that the celebrity comparison will be the most popular, followed by the user submissions. It's fun to look at pretty faces. It would be interesting to see the patterns and clusters that develop in your data. That would be very cool if you shared the statistics with the community(or if you ever need a data junky to volunteer an analyze your database shoot me a message). Good luck.
chollida1
The facebook link in the corner makes it look like a phishing site to me. It looks so similar to facebook and has the tag that if I can across this site on my own I'd leave immediately as I'd feel the site was out to steal my identity.
okeumeni
Site not for me, don't just see its use. Sorry.
alex_c
Is there any benefit (other than it's easier) to have all the different categories on the same site?

To me, it seems that "a site that lets you compare stuff" is less appealing than "a site that lets you compare girls", "a site that lets you compare cars", "a site that lets you compare pets" tied together in a loose network and with similar branding.

Also, I should be able to vote by just clicking on the image I like more :p

wumi
clearly, by the comments below, this may not be your target audience :)
samwise
i figured that much, but criticism is always good ..... in moderation :(
mhartl
There appears to be a bug where every so often the app shows 'skip' with the same photos after submission, instead of moving on to the next pair.
samwise
issue has been resolved. Thanks for the heads up.