

Ask HN: Critique my start-up and give feedback. - citizenkeys

Here is what I've done this week: http://avsquid.com/<p>I'm not going to explain the purpose of the site or how to use it.  I want to know if you can figure it out just by using it. I also want feedback and suggestions for anything that you think of.  The site isn't quite done yet, but the idea is starting to write itself.<p>I'm anxious to read the very negative comments!
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benologist
I would suggest you:

1) Do more than just video. Make full blown AV wikipedia or something. This
right now really doesn't have a place alongside Google Video Search or
YouTube's recommendations.

2) Either automate the content creation or find where the content farms get
their writers - you can't just wait for people to show up and make content for
you, you need content to lure them in.

3) Figure out how to bundle the content up into widgets that can be embedded
on other websites, turn it into a wordpress plugin, get onto that embedly
site, push the widget anywhere you can to seed links and traffic to your site.

4) Make every page compelling. It's competing with Wikipedia, YouTube, all the
search results, every page needs to be an experience and the definitive source
of stuff about x.

or, and this might be a bit harsh:

5) Do something else .... I can remember seeing it when it was avtorrents or
something a year ago and your showcase page was Andy Warhol back then too, if
you don't have traction just let it go, take what you've learnt and apply it
to something new.

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jcr
#1

When I go to: <http://avsquid.com/>

I end up at: <http://avsquid.com/channels/andy_warhol>

This makes no sense at all.

#2

I see the typical sign-in and sign-up form, but I have no idea why I would
want to do either?

#3

There is a list of video hosting/source sites with explanations of what they
are, but the list is not convincing and is incomplete. Why do I need you to
provide an incomplete list?

#4

For some reason you decided to strip out the "Jr." from Andy Warhol's real
name?

#5

You've essentially copied the description of Andy Warhol from wikipedia. If I
wanted to read the wikipedia description, I'd go to wikipedia.

#6

The list of Warhol videos is nice, but there are far better ways to search for
videos on a given topic, in particular, Google Video Search.

#7

The text "Also videos with Andy's gang: " just gives links to wikipedia
articles, not videos.

#8

I don't see any authoritative references, and the bits of text you've picked
up from wikipedia are not credited.

#9

I sincerely have no idea what your site is trying to accomplish and why I
would want to visit it, let alone sign up for it?

##

I'm sorry to be so negative, but I really don't get it. The idea of pulling
together other sources, namely wikipedia text and youtube video (or other
video hosts) is interesting but not very compelling. If I wanted either text
or video I could find them on my own -- in more complete forms/collections --
with simple searching.

EDIT: Example Search

[https://encrypted.google.com/search?num=100&safe=off&...](https://encrypted.google.com/search?num=100&safe=off&sa=G&ie=UTF-8&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&q=andy%20warhol)

~~~
citizenkeys
What browser are you using?

~~~
jcr
Firefox 3.6 with stupidity disabled (no js, no css, no referer, ...).

------
pedalpete
I don't get it. I don't have any idea what it is! I somehow started off with
Andy Warhol, then somehow ended up with a cure video and finished off being
linked out to a posterous page.

This is about as useful to me as randomizing the internets.

------
mapster
i love it. it combines things I have to do separately when watching youtube:
1\. listen to music 2\. read wikipedia page about band or performer 3\. look
at google images of artist 4\. etc.

props on making the Annie Lennox channel

~~~
citizenkeys
The wikipedia text was copy/pasted to the channel about page so there would be
some fiber for search-engine optimization.

Andy Warhol is the default page because it was intended to be an obscure
reference to Paul Graham's "Hackers & Painters" when I applied to Y
Combinator. I need to do a default "Home" channel, which I'm working on right
now. The delay with that is I also need to do some work with apache
mod_rewrite for simpler channel url's.

------
citizenkeys
Clickable link: <http://avsquid.com>

