

Ask HN: What should I do with UberGoose? - joshuarr

UberGoose is a 'social catalog' that provides a forum for people to rate and discuss things. I think of it as Wikipedia meets Digg with a bit of Facebook and Amazon thrown in. Items can be goosed, which improves their popularity within a category – more popular items get more exposure. Additionally, goosing things adds them to your profile, so other friends and other users can see what you like. The goal is to become the go-to destination for user based ratings, reviews and discussion forums on the internet.<p>The site is currently stuck in private alpha. Really, it's a prototype, as it only hints at the site I imagine. It has several critical flaws due to its incompleteness, but is still kind of fun (but obfuscatory) to play with. The alpha test site was useful as far as putting together a development roadmap, but at this point I've exhausted my development funds. The current site was built in rails.<p>I've taken this about as far as I can for the time being and so I am looking for help moving forward. Ideally I would like a talented rails programmer and/or business guru to partner up with, but I don't know how to go about finding someone who fits the bill who would also be interested in working on the project for equity.<p>Any advice is appreciated, but I'm much more concerned with how to move forward than how to improve the current site.<p>Thanks!<p>http://www.ubergoose.com
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asimjalis
Cool. Also it has a nice viral element.

Could you just open it up to the world instead of keeping it behind the alpha?
What's your fear? What's the worst thing that could happen?

Here is why it might be a good idea to open it up. When I went to the site I
liked the layout and the appearance but I didn't really understand what it was
about. So I was not motivated to sign up for an alpha. If more of the site was
visible I'd "get" it and might want to sign up.

Another neat feature would be if I could invite some of my friends.

Also it would be nice if I could just interact with it, at least get a basic
feel, or get a demo, without the sign-up. That would help me decide whether I
wanted to sign up or not.

I have noticed in my own ventures is that when I release things and people
start using them and sending me feedback that becomes an incredibly powerful
source of motivation and energy for me to keep working on the stuff in the
evenings and on weekends. The lack of motivation only occurs before the
release. So it's good to get the release out of the way quickly -- even if it
is a flimsy and pathetic release. Sort of like a newborn baby -- flimsy but
functional.

If the back-end does not completely work yet, is there a really simple, really
tiny scenario that it could implement so that it could be useful? Think
minimal and simple and throw out all the elaborate features that you need more
people to implement.

Another thing I have found useful is to add a feedback form somewhere so that
early users can send me direct feedback. People say the weirdest things which
can lead to some interesting results.

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joshuarr
Opening it up is top on the to do list. The private alpha taught me a lot,
including that the private part was not a great idea. Keeping it locked up is
a huge deterrent. But even that takes a rails developer - which I am not.

There are forums for feedback, but maybe a specific feedback link would be
better.

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asimjalis
Could you post on Craigslist for a Rails developer to work with you on the
project? One of my friends found someone that way and did several projects
with him.

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asimjalis
Neat. The site looks pretty good.

What are some examples of things people would categorize?

Who would use this? And why? Who is your target market? What age group?

Could this work as a FaceBook app?

~~~
joshuarr
Thanks!

It started out with music. So there's a category for Music/Bands/Rock. The
site provides most of the categories and tags are used for specificity.
Popular tags can be promoted to categories as needed.

I use it to engage more with my favorite stuff. There's not much activity
right now, but say you're interested in indie ska, or any niche category.
Following that category allows you to discover new stuff as people add, rate,
and discuss things. Or maybe you're in a ska band. You can create a page for
you band, add some music and videos and start sending links out to your
friends. They goose your page up, and all of a sudden you get a lot more
exposure than you would on other music sites.

It's essentially a recommendation engine.

Age group is broad as there are categories for anything imaginable. The
inspiration comes from a desire to make the long tail more accessible.

There are lots of good ideas on paper for integrated facebook apps, iphone
apps, toolbars/bookmarklets, browser plugins and syndication widgets. You
should be able to goose stuff from anywhere, and there are lots of fun ideas
to engage users, like top five lists, quizzes, hot or not type games, etc.

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joshuarr
<http://www.ubergoose.com>

