

Ask HN: Idea Sunday - IGN


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tptacek
The moderator, 'dang, has asked that these not get posted anymore:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262)

("Something about having all these ideas in one place makes the whole less
than the sum of its parts.", "Ideas are better in the wild. Let's discuss them
as they come up organically, rather than try to organize an idea-fest.")

~~~
DanBC
It'd be useful (to some people) if one account could post a once monthly
thread for idea-dumping.

People often point out existing solutions, so that's useful. Restricting it to
a single account and once per month avoids the other problems of those
threads.

~~~
mcintyre1994
Only the 'whoishiring' account is allowed to make those threads and Dang has
already rejected an idea one on that account.

~~~
DanBC
I understand the idea has been rejected. I'm still gently, politely,
mentioning that some people find the threads interesting fun and useful and
hoping that the decision is changed.

I know that halfbaked covers some of the purpose, and there are probably
reddit sub-reddits that do similar things, but still, and HN version would be
good.

~~~
mcintyre1994
Ah okay cool, I agree that they were interesting - HN would be my preferred
community to get ideas with I think. (Just say your karma, sorry if my
original post was condescending!)

Will check out halfbaked, haven't heard of that. There's a subreddit
/r/somebodymakethis which has occasionally had some interesting ideas (it led
to RES) but there's probably better options.

There was a HN styled forum posted a while back too, (found it in the
comments) [http://firespotting.com/](http://firespotting.com/) \- but it's
definitely less active and a smaller community.

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robotpony
An app that lets you track the last person to buy beer in a group of friends
by taking their picture. With an in-app-purchase, you can ensure that the next
time you meet that the app lists yourself as the last beer-monger (while still
retaining the history accurately otherwise). Great for that manager or boss
who never pays his share.

~~~
DanBC
Don't buy rounds - they lead to excess drinking. People should be buying their
own drinks.

~~~
niix
But what about those of us who like things like lead to excess drinking?

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rob3139
An app that allows people to ask for favours from their friends and anyone
within a certain radius. Could grow into a marketplace for local tasks (doing
the shopping, giving advice, menial tasks etc). Any thoughts?

~~~
tobych
The Buy Nothing Project (started by a couple of friends of mine) is a
successful model for this. It's not an app, but a network of Facebook groups.

From their 'About' page: "The Buy Nothing Project began as an experimental
hyper-local gift economy on Bainbridge Island, WA; in just 8 months, it has
become a social movement, growing to over 25,000 members in 150 groups, in 4
countries. Our local groups form gift economies that are complementary and
parallel to local cash economies; whether people join because they’d like to
quickly get rid of things that are cluttering their lives, or simply to save
money by getting things for free, they quickly discover that our groups are
not just another free recycling platform"

[http://buynothingproject.org/](http://buynothingproject.org/)

~~~
lucb1e
If I understand you correctly, this is for buying gifts for others and getting
the same in return. I think the OP meant doing something for someone else,
e.g. getting something from a store you're going to anyway, but being
refunded.

I wouldn't be as inclined to gift something to a stranger as much as I'd be to
grab something along for someone nearby. I don't need to be reimbursed for the
effort, but I also don't want to loose money on it.

~~~
tobych
Buy Nothing Project (BNP) isn't about "gifts" in that sense. Here, the "gift
economy" is "a mode of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given
without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards".

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy)

An aim of BNP is to build a hyper-local community where people give and
receive goods and services with no money or bartering involved. You get to
know the people involved in your group, because only people living within a
certain area are allowed to be in the group. And yes, groups do indeed have
people picking up things from stores for each other, or giving them rides, on
occasion. Some groups including informal lending libraries, where you can
borrow tools, equipment, household items an no charge.

Around here on Bainbridge Island, you often see tables on porches for BNB'ers
(Buy Nothing Bainbridge members) to pick up stuff. The things (a garlic press;
a pair of pants; a lawnmower) will have been listed on the group's FB page,
probably with a photo, then there'll have been a few people saying they'd love
to have it. Sometimes things go first-come, first-served; other times people
get randomly selected.

~~~
sycren
I would advise against the acronym BNP -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Party](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Party)

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keithwarren
System for product/service idea evaluation. I spend lots of time talking with
friends and other hackers about ideas and wish I had a system to create
objective evaluations of ideas based on a series of metrics. Right now we use
a shared google sheet but there is bias that occurs, for example if we score
the potential for viral growth on a 1-10 basis, we see each others scores.

~~~
yawboakye
You mean judging an idea's viability by sitting around a table and guessing?
When it comes to judging ideas errors by investors and "customers" during
customer validation give prudence to the fact that no one knows which idea
would really take off. A computerized system would make the mistake more
difficult to accept.

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napolux
Since the mods asked that these not get posted anymore, I would love a website
for easy idea sharing/discussing

~~~
yawboakye
Your circle of friends (even better if they could be potential users), and a
Google or Excel spreadsheet.

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plaxis
Accelerometer sensors to monitor natural gas fracking locations.

