

Ask HN: Help us seed NewsTilt (YC 2010) with thoughtful comments. - pbiggar
http://newstilt.com

======
axod
Just my 2c, please rethink most of the fonts. Not a fan of those.

Also I just don't understand what NewsTilt is :/ It just looks like a blog
with some articles... Is there a clear description of what's going on
somewhere?

For example I see an article reviewing the movie "How to train your dragon".
Why would I only read it on NewsTilt? Isn't it more likely I'd google for
reviews and check out a few? I don't see how it fits into peoples behaviors
atm... Sort of seems like an online version of a hardcopy paper, but without
the hardcopy paper bit :/

~~~
pbiggar
Regarding "how to train your dragon". We anticipate that you would Google for
it, and that you would find your way to Captain Critic, see some of his other
reviews, have a read of them. The next time you look for reviews you see the
same thing, and before long you just decide to sign up for RSS.

Then you notice some good comments in the RSS (we'll be sending the top
comments with the feed). One day, one of them provokes you so much ("How dare
they say that about the matrix") that you click the reply link and let him
know your opinion.

And so on. Its not about newstilt, its about the journalist. You like his
movie reviews, you'll come back next time. We're giving the journalist
everything they need in terms of services to make it happen.

~~~
axod
Thanks for explaining. Be interesting to know how many people use RSS. I've
never got into it FWIW. If I really loved a review I would of course bookmark
the site and pop back every so often though.

I do think a narrower focus would make building a community easier though.

------
pbiggar
If the first comments on NewsTilt are the kind of quality we've come to expect
on HN, we may be able to socially engineer others into leaving really good
comments too. Help set a good example.

As a bribe, I promise to write about how well that works.

~~~
allenbrunson
From what I see so far, I think you have a promising start. I understand the
problem you're trying to solve, and this is a good attempt at a minimum-viable
version 1, as pg is always counseling startups to do. It will be interesting
to see how you iterate with this.

------
jgrahamc
Got a comment from a 'silver surfer' in my family that it wasn't obvious how
to log in to comment. Need to do something to make it obvious to people who've
never used Facebook connect before.

~~~
cromulent
I'm not on Facebook, so sites that have this Facebook connect feature as the
only way to sign up / log in have lost me as a user.

I realize I am probably in the minority, or at least not in the target market.

~~~
axod
I am on facebook, but don't want to use facebook connect. Maybe I'm also a
minority I don't know. I sort of like my facebook being separate to everything
else.

~~~
pbiggar
We don't do anything to your facebook account, we just want to know real names
so that comments will be better quality.

~~~
pie
I don't use my real name on facebook either, and I know many other folks who
do the same. Indeed, I might prefer to use my real name on NewsTilt but NOT
facebook.

As with many of the login complaints, this is probably only an issue for a
small minority of your target users.

~~~
pbiggar
Really? Interesting. I presume though that it's a name that you're invested in
somehow, and that you wouldn't like to tarnish by leaving crapping comments?

------
riklomas
From a design point of view, I think it's really great, but there's a couple
of tweaks I would make. First, I would ditch the Zapfino script font, it's
quite distracting and jars with the other fonts. Secondly, I would slightly
increase the leading on the main body text (something like line-height: 150%
works quite well for me). Apart from these small things, I think it looks
lovely, keep up the good work!

~~~
ryanb
The design bothers me a bit, actually. It feels amateurish.

------
leif
The icon you've got there (tiny newspaper on what looks like a mac monitor) is
completely unclear to me. What are you trying to say with it?

I don't know if this is true for anyone else, but for me the header nav stuff
is HUUUUUUGE and could use some aesthetic work. For reference, here's what I
see:
[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v624/adlaiff6/2010-04-14-1...](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v624/adlaiff6/2010-04-14-110308_1076x202_scrot.png)
It is smaller on other pages.

I will try to have more idea-based/conceptual/critical comments for you soon,
kinda running out the door at the moment.

~~~
pbiggar
I agree. We're iterating on the site, and I think we'll be reducing the size
of that. Its actually smaller on every other page.

The homepage is going to be more about the content, so we'll be moving towards
making the non-content elements smaller an less significant.

Also, we're to make the site about the journalists, rather than about us, so
we'll be changing the design to emphasize the journalists' brands more than
newstilt.

~~~
leif
I like this. I'm getting tired of sites that tell you what they are, it would
be nice to see sites move to /showing/ me what they are instead.

This seems like a more difficult task though, so good luck.

------
jackfoxy
Disappointment. The layout is well done. In fact my eye was immediately drawn
to the leads of the first 3 stories, from which I concluded I was faced with 3
more opinion pieces.

Disappointment because the web, tv, and all entertainment media are already
drowning in post-post-modern opinion. Eric Schmidt wants Google to get
opinions you don't share in your face (somehow). Actual news gathering
organizations have had their budgets slashed. What little objective reporting
exists is mostly rewrites from wire services.

I suppose with a name like "Tilt" I should have expected more "Look at me!
I've got a great venue and I've got an opinion!"

Objective journalism would have been a nice surprise.*

*Disclaimer: Like I said, I was drawn to the story leads that first displayed. All reactions are drawn from that experience, i.e. I did not go further.

~~~
pbiggar
The stories that we launched with are of the more 'evergreen' variety, because
we asked journalists to have a number of stories ready for launch. Since we
didn't know what time we would be launching at, and we didn't even know the
date for sure until a few days ago, it was hard for them to guarantee that
they would have stories ready to go.

From now on, stories are much more likely to be up to the minute news. For
example, check out [idavar's story on
HayStack]([http://www.newstilt.com/idavar/news/iranian-techies-eager-
to...](http://www.newstilt.com/idavar/news/iranian-techies-eager-to-learn-
about-haystack)).

However, I do believe that readers want more opinion, not less of it. I am
encouraging journalists to let their own voices be heard in the stories they
write, where traditionally they would have held back on that. Its important
for them to have a brand, and that their community likes them and identifies
with them. Opinion helps here.

~~~
jackfoxy
Good story. Good luck with the start-up!

------
ErrantX
Why when I log out does it also log me out of Facebook?? Is that a limitation
of FBConnect?

EDIT: I see that it is a limitation.. that sucks.

~~~
pbiggar
We don't like it either. On the plus side, it means you're less likely to
logout from NewsTilt, but we wouldn't have done this if we could have avoided
it.

~~~
ErrantX
Yeh, totally. It's actually put me right off (as a developer) FBConnect as a
sign on service.

------
avinashm
some random observations:

Please rethink about fonts. I would prefer "continue reading" button on right
side. "News" link can be little more prominent; centered content on "news"
page.

on the side note: are you going to let user to customize/filter/personalize
"news" page?

~~~
pbiggar
> are you going to let user to customize/filter/personalize "news" page?

Yes, when there is a little more content up. We're also going to automatically
make a nice homepage for you based on what you like, recommendations, and
facebook connect.

------
AmericanOP
I thought you guys were syndicating stories to reach the audiences who would
comment on human interest stories, etc.

~~~
pbiggar
We're working on syndication now.

------
ajkirwin
I have to say, I don't like this site. I run at 1680x1050 and when the actual
meat of the site only takes up a fraction of my screen width..

:/

~~~
pierrefar
In your browser, press Control and the + button at the same time. That zooms
in.

~~~
ajkirwin
I don't want my font size jacked up to incredible levels, thanks.

