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Rate my startup: voke.fm

2 points by gusgordon ↗ HN
Hey, I just got finished building a prototype of a little web app.

The concept is basically a wiki-Siri - a very simple Q&A site, where there is only one answer to every question. It could also be thought of as a Wikipedia for questions, where the lengths of answers is limited (currently to 300 characters).

Right now it is only a website, but if it gains any popularity then I would like to bring it to mobile. I think another long-term goal would be performing actions and getting real-time data based on user input. These actions and data would be integrated into the editing interface.

Anyway, please let me know what you think of this prototype. Thanks!

URL: http://voke.fm

9 comments

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pmtarantino
Hi Gus. While I was reading the description, it seemed a light Wolfram-Alpha, but then I tried it and it gave me always "Voke doesn't have an answer to this question yet.", for everything I asked.

Do you have any answers yet? Or they are all user-contributed?

gusgordon
It's all user contributed. I know there isn't much right now because no one uses it, and it just opened up. Try things suggested by autosuggest for a better idea of how the site should work at this point.
vishnumenon
I don't mean to be critical, but how does this differ from WikiAnswers? Your explanation could just as well be describing that. Also, I think having the question input perform a search, and return similar questions, would be a necessary improvement.
gusgordon
No need to worry about being critical. The problem with WikiAnswers is that it sucks. It is essentially a spam site and doesn't offer dynamic answers (Voke doesn't yet, but I want it to). User queries can be dealt with in a much better way, for example like Siri. The problem with Siri is that it doesn't have many features and often just redirects to Wolfram Alpha.

And a similar questions feature is something I would like to add, but this is just an early prototype and I think the autosuggest does a decent job. Definitely a good idea, though.

badabam
"IF IT GAINS ANY POPULARITY"... you've got a huge chicken-and-end problem here my friend.
gusgordon
I'm very aware of this. It has good potential to grow through SEO and since answers are timeless the chicken and egg problem should diminish a little as time passes. Not really sure how to overcome this problem, I guess all I can do is hope I get picked up by a blog or two...
livestyle
You need to aardvarkify it... Have you thought about using open graph at all?
gusgordon
Yes, and I don't think it would be a good idea, but I'm not sure. One of the biggest reasons people like Wikipedia is because Wikipedia is independent and very trustworthy with its users. I think having that type of structure is key.
livestyle
digg into how aardvark itterated on their project..

p.s Open Graph brings a trusted personal expierence to each iser