
My girlfriend tries to explain my startup in 90 seconds - marknadal
https://plus.google.com/108210571993357629420/posts/DhpdKmeCDmJ
======
zalzane
It looks like either reddit has discovered HN, or someone figured out that
injecting "girlfriend" into article titles garners loads of votes for reasons
beyond my comprehension.

It's pretty pathetic how effective of a baiting tactic it is, in terms of both
title and content. This is the second time this week that I've seen a
submission hit HN's frontpage that used their girlfriend to snatch votes, I
seriously hope it doesn't become a trend.

~~~
willtheperson
My girlfriend thinks you're wrong. So by law of girlfriends and internet, I
should get a lot of votes for this comment

~~~
dennisgorelik
You got it.

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pbiggar
Something about this rubs me slightly wrong. I think it's "my girlfriend" and
"My boyfriend" and "I know very little about programming, but I do know that
his startup is awesome". I don't know the words to describe it, but it feels
like a weird gender-in-CS thing. Anyone know more technical terms for this?

~~~
petercooper
_I think it's "my girlfriend" and "My boyfriend"_

I wonder if it's just safer in the tech online social scene nowadays to avoid
gender and say things like "my partner" to avoid gender related trouble. A
curious contrast against how we'd speak in regular life. Related:
<http://tomayko.com/writings/rest-to-my-wife>

~~~
darkxanthos
The problem with partner on HN is it makes me think co-founder or the like.
:-\

~~~
prg318
SO (Significant Other) is solid gender neutral verbiage IMHO

~~~
mpyne
Ah yes, but then people will think you're pandering to the Evil Denizens of
Political Correctness that are ruining discourse on the Internet.

In short, you can't win with everybody no matter what you do. :-/

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jacquesm
I wonder how many people clicked because they were interested in the start-up
and how many people because they were interested in the girlfriend.

~~~
hammock
Judging by the fact there's hardly half a dozen comments relating to the
actual product, I think you have your answer.

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hello_newman
I understand what others are saying about a possible "gimmick" by using the
"my girlfriend" line to get people to click on it. Although that may be true,
and they could be pulling a fast one, I think we are all being too cynical.

Hacker News is supposed to be a community of like minded people sharing their
interests with others who enjoy the same thing. I think it is really cute that
she did this for her boyfriend. She didn't have to do this, but she either
likes him so much, or likes the product so much, that she wanted to help him
make it successful.

I don't see how there is anything wrong with that, and if it is on the front
page, then others must agree as well.

~~~
kostya-kow
>I think it is really cute that she did this for her boyfriend. She didn't
have to do this, but she either likes him so much, or likes the product so
much, that she wanted to help him make it successful.

I don't care how cute it is. If you want cuteness, go to /r/aww, not HN. I
want meaningful, thought-provoking content.

>I don't see how there is anything wrong with that, and if it is on the front
page, then others must agree as well.

Using your logic, we can conclude that there is nothing wrong with majority of
content on Reddit. After all, people upvoted it, so there is nothing wrong
with it! So far, the readers on HN have been more thoughtful, and I would hate
for the quality of this website to go down.

~~~
hello_newman
"I would hate for the quality of this website to go down."

I do agree. I come to hacker news just for the reason you listed above;

"meaningful, thought-provoking content."

But HN is also a community. Every now and then for someone to share something
like this, I think that's perfectly fine. I do agree if people do take
advantage of this, it would significantly reduce the valuable content that I
love about HN. We have to trust that his girlfriend really did post this, and
didn't pull a fast one on us.

Everything in moderation.

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revelation
I guess it's reasonably useful for mockups, but you can not seriously design a
website (or any UI) with absolute sizes.

~~~
unalone
Of course you can. Don't be daft.

There are plenty of advantages to relative sizing, and in general it's a good
policy, but there are many excellently-designed web sites whose sizes are
absolute – just as there are many shit designs that're responsive as hell.

~~~
kaoD
Eveytime I open a website with absolute sizes I want to cry. Most of my
monitors have either crappy or too big resolutions.

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orangethirty
Now do one where she does not mention being your girlfriend, and include a
better close at the end. Better yet, use <http://videorascal.com> (I dont own
it or work for it).

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paigalhaes
Link to Accelsor <http://accelsor.com/>

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pbiggar
> My boyfriend Mark is way too much of a perfectionist to post his startup on
> HN.

I used to be worried about doing self promotion too, partly a cultural thing
(being Irish) and partly because I was worried that people would judge us.
This had a really negative effect on my last startup, esp in talking to VCs. I
would work on that.

Edit: I just noticed you did in fact post it yourself, so great start. I never
did a Show HN for <https://circleci.com> and I regret it.

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mnicole
Despite the Reddit-esque linkbait title, I could understand the sentiment
about someone being worried about doing a ShowHN themselves.

However, my problem with the video is that it didn't really add anything to
the non-audio version of the same video currently on the homepage. It mentions
the exporting, but doesn't show it. It speaks to responsive, but doesn't show
it. I'm not sure if these features aren't baked in yet, but I didn't get
anything out of the audio version that I didn't get from the non-audio one
coupled with the features page. In fact, the voiceover distracted me from what
was actually going on with the demo (particularly looking at the weird stuff
going on at the bottom) because it wasn't talking about what was going on as
it was happening nor the extensibility of the features being shown, but rather
just spoke to the product as a whole from someone that seemingly doesn't know
what the scope/final product will be.

Since she's non-technical, it probably would have sold viewers a lot more if
she'd been using your tool to create her own page to show just what a breeze
it actually is to use.

In the same vein, I think your website could really use some work; the video
of the product should go at the top, not the weird <video> of the skewed
color-picker (that doesn't need to be there at all, really). Your features
should also be on the homepage.

Also, considering the current crop of alternatives in this realm and the more
advanced options those have (<http://webflow.com/> in particular), I think it
would benefit you to show your pipeline and what people can expect down the
road.

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sushi
I feel like this could be more useful if you let users export images as well.

I know plenty of folks who need to do image manipulation but don't want to
spend time learning Photoshop and rightly so, for small image tasks.

~~~
marknadal
We currently allow you to download (export) a zip of the page, which includes
the images you drop in.

Or do you mean image manipulation itself? If you are good at it, you should
join us! We'd love to have you open source it. :)

~~~
sushi
Well one particular use case I know of where it could be useful is that many
people who work in marketing need images for campaigns. It doesn't have to be
too high resolution or anything just simple 600px wide images for facebook or
twitter.

Now since marketing is run by marketers and they don't necessary know
Photoshop or image editing software, they could use some simple tool which
lets them drag drop images, text etc with intelligent spacing and margins.

Once they have put images, text in order they want they can get a screenshot
of the canvas which they can use for campaigns. My girlfriend is a community
manager with a digital agency and she would kill to have a simple tool like
this. Since you already have something similar you just need to add option to
export the screenshot of canvas to be used for campaigns.

I wish I could help but I am more of UI/UX designer than developer and
currently working my ass off on some client projects.

~~~
marknadal
Ooh, gotcha. So just a simple command that would basically do a print-screen
for them. Nice idea, I'll have to add that in! Thanks!

Yeah, no joke, I know what you mean about client projects :P.

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stevep98
Your girlfriend thinks you're just a 'good friend'. Impedance mismatch.

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acangiano
Micro feedback: the email address field looks like a button.

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dvt
Cute girl? Check. Start-up related? Check. 90 seconds? Check. Congrats, you've
got exactly what HN is looking for in a front-page post.

~~~
wwwarhawk
Or, Reddit.

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chacham15
Is anyone else disappointed to find that on a product demo, the top half of
the comments page have nothing to do with the product?

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nvr219
My wife really liked this link.

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jordan_clark
Girlfriends aside, the interface is fantastic. I would use this. Good job.

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n9com
Great stunt to get on front page of HN. Keep on hustling!

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helloamar
Good work!

