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Ask HN: Please review my side project i.crowdfunded.it

7 points by d3x ↗ HN
http://i.crowdfunded.it

Basically it's like a kickstarter for stuff. Right now i am just using Amazon.

How It Works

  1. Search

  2. Put stuff in cart

  3. Crowdfund it

  4. People pitch in

  5. Item is shipped once fund is complete

19 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 66.8 ms ] thread
BadiPod
Who pitches in? Friends? Family? How do they pitch in?
d3x
Anyone can pitch in. When you checkout it creates your funding page and people visit that page to pitch in.
BadiPod
Can you send me to a sample funding page? What happens to the money if you get your item partially but never fully funded?
d3x
You can create one and the user can change their item to an item of lesser value after their fund has entered "inactive" status.
BadiPod
On the checkout form, I think that you should have the zip code field prefill the city, state, and country fields. Or explicitly limit to US only. I think that people will wonder why you're not asking for their full address, most people don't know you can get city and state data from their zip.

The enlarged radio buttons don't look good on Firefox 7 Mac. In general radio/list/select fields not not scale well.

The 3% fund from you is a nice touch.

There needs to be a link which you can share with other people to help fund your purchase on the account page. Don't see a link.

http://i.crowdfunded.it/crowd_members/?id=4 Does not work.

"You currently have 0 completed funds. " Should be at least 1, right?

I like the idea just needs a little more polish and a lot more pitch. To be honest I just don't trust the service in it's current state.

d3x
Thanks for the feed back. http://i.crowdfunded.it/apple-ipod-shuffle-2-gb-silver is the page people use to pitch in. you can click the fb like, google +1 or tweet to share with others so that they can pitch in. Trust is definitely important here. How do you suggest I improve on that?
BadiPod
You need to redirect people to HTTPS, and your credit card form should have a secure lock icon as well as icons for the credit cards you accept. You should have a little promise on your form like "Your credit card information is encrypted for your protection by Industry-Grade 256bit Encryption and will never be shared."

As far as the rest of your website, for me personally, I trust websites that are polished, simple, and have professional copy. I was really impressed with Swipe.com recently and immediately trusted them.

rudasn
Shouldn't that page say to whom I am giving money?

I think it's a nice concept. People will perhaps be more inclined to give if there was some sort of feedback mechanism. Something that will tell a complete stranger that the guy who was an ipod shuffle for his birthday deserves my $5. Perhaps if I knew that this guy gave $10 to someone else last week for a school textbook? Just thinking out loud.

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d3x
I cant believe I missed that. Thats a very good idea.
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mrkmcknz
How it works page is needed but apart from that. A nice side project indeed.
d3x
Yea, I totally agree.
d3x
I just put up a homepage and I am putting up a screen cast / how it works right now. Let me know if this helps.
channelmeter
Since I'm at the age of where my friends are getting married or having babies, I can see this being useful for the really expensive gifts on wedding registries or baby showers. Heck, it could even be useful for contribution towards a honeymoon for friends who can't afford it after their costly wedding!
aviernes
I agree. I can easily visualize the pitch to business who offer registries (wedding, engagement, baby shower, graduation) as an alternate method for payment. It makes it simple for people who want to collaborate on gift purchases but who might live in different cities/states. The UI is simple, usinge SM networks to connect ppl looks easy, service is appealing you don't plan to add a charge for the service. Heck, I'd use it!... hope you get funded!
mapster
excellent. I will use this. Two items about your video: (1) you didn't discuss how to add friends/how to broadcast this fund request, and (2) the video loops.

A++ on design and simplicity.

Does the site take a % of the funds - this should be clearly stated. Local sales tax are not included in total cost of the item(s).

note: I logged in via Twitter, added xbox and checked out - got a generic error. Guess some bugs still there?

d3x
Nope, I take 0%. The only way I make money is by being an affiliate; thats why I am only using amazon right now.