
Ask HN: Review my new startup: clickthatbutton.com - trevorturk
http://clickthatbutton.com/
======
jbert
I realise it's a gag. But...

Have the site sponsored by different people each day, and record the number of
clicks on that day. Keep an archive, make it competitive.

e.g. 30th October is Obama day (just an example - not partisan), click to show
your support! Sponsor pays some rate per click (or just to hire the site for
the day).

As others have mentioned, your button would appear in many places (facebook
widget, etc), so that would add some value to the potential sponsors.

Of course, they could put up their own button, but that wouldn't get them into
your archives or the kudos of having the one and only 'clickthatbutton.com'
buzz.

I don't think I'm being serious. But then, it's not that much crazier than the
million-dollar homepage.

~~~
bigthboy
All good ideas of directions to take this, imo. Now that's insight. The have a
different sponsor every day is something I thought of while I was making my
pointless post (see bottom of this page) but neglected to mention.

------
jacobscott
There's a fine line between irony/parody and wasting everyone's time...

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Somewhere there's a real startup who posted here and nobody upvoted or
commented about their work.

I'm sure this is pressing their buttons about now.

------
vecter
Thank you for finally emphasizing the fact that not every website is a
startup.

------
brk
Unless I'm missing something, that's not a "startup" it's a webpage with a
clickable button.

What's the point? What's the business model? (seriously).

~~~
trevorturk
Well, I've always been a fan of the 37signals school of thought around
bringing simplicity to web applications. You know - the whole "Getting Real"
thing.

The way I see it, this has a better business model than a lot of web startups
nowadays. At the very least, we've got a slow "burn rate" seeing as how we've
spent about 5 hours on the project. As for generating revenue? I think we've
got a while before we have to worry about that. We're more focused on scaling
the systems than anything right now.

Over 100k clicks on day one? Here's to a successful launch!

~~~
ryanwaggoner
This took you five hours? Seriously?

~~~
mixmax
Photoshopping a nice button takes longer than you think...

------
iuguy
Hi,

I'd like to invest in your startup. Would you be willing to implement Social
networking features, file sharing (with intelligent auto-removal of copyright
infringing material) and live micro-macro-socio-splogging?

Given that you spent 5 hours on this so far, I reckon you'll be able to
implement these features in another 10. I'm willing to invest $5 for 40%.
Interested?

------
thomasmallen
Upvote this if you feel like it. What do you think of my new startup? Got the
idea at <http://clickthatbutton.com/>

------
ph0rque
Hmmm... I think you should definitely go after the enterprise market.

------
tlrobinson
I cheated:

    
    
        while true; do curl -d submit.x=1 -d submit.y=1 -b clickthatbutton=10521 http://clickthatbutton.com/; echo; done
    

edit: and apparently you (or my ISP) throttle ;)

~~~
lpgauth
We need to get this code threaded...

~~~
tlrobinson

        #!/bin/sh
    
        n=10
        while [ $n -ge 0 ]; do
        	sh -c "while true; do curl -d submit.x=1 -d submit.y=1 -b clickthatbutton=10521 http://clickthatbutton.com/; echo; done" &
        	n=`expr $n - 1`
        done
    

Change "n=10" to change the number of concurrent requests. Anyone have a
better method?

~~~
jcapote
Nice approach, My friend and I were trying to do the same thing.
[http://juliocapote.com/post/56866975/so-you-want-to-click-
th...](http://juliocapote.com/post/56866975/so-you-want-to-click-that-button)
bookmarklet version: <http://ubergibson.com/~alan/bmforge/>

~~~
trevorturk
Is hackthatbutton.com taken?

------
tlrobinson
So, why are you sending the coordinates of each click back to the server?

I'm sure it would make a nice looking heat map, but is there some other
reason?

~~~
acro
Sending the coordinates is the standard http behavior in the case of image
submit buttons.

~~~
tlrobinson
Doh. That's a pretty good reason.

------
scottymac
I like the simplicity, but not sure how will monetize it? Maybe offer it as
widget for other sites? Or perhaps create a FB app? Certainly lots of
potential. And people really like clicking buttons.

~~~
Hates_
"Go ahead, click the button... That'll be ten million dollars."

------
tortilla
Needs more cowbell.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
much more

(For those missing the joke,
<http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1017105/more_cowbell/> )

------
djm
I assume this is a joke.

Having said that, if you are creative you may well be able to cash in on this
considering the attention that your site appears to be getting. I remember, a
few years ago, some kid made a page that sold ads to people for $1 per pixel
on the page. The page contained nothing other than these ads. The kid was
trying to make $1m and he did it - enough people were willing to pay a dollar
or few dollars to be a part of his idea even if they didn't really benefit
from it.

I'd look at adding advertising to the page - I'd love to watch you make a
million from a page with a button on it!

------
immad
I didn't click the button.

I didn't want to. Too many people had done it already

~~~
rksprst
I clicked it and when I found out others have already clicked it I felt cheap
and used.

~~~
swombat
I clicked it several times. The fact that other people had clicked it too made
me feel like I belong to a community, like there are people out there who care
about me and my button-clicking.

~~~
jeroen
I clicked it, and then I wanted to know how my clicking compared to other
people. Unfortunately, there are no stats.

------
ryan-allen
Sweet, all you need is some venture capital and you're on your way to the big
time!

------
andhapp
This is at the same level of madness as "I am rich" iPhone application except
that application had a cost model to it unlike this one...

------
run4yourlives
Well, your 15 minutes should be up any time now...

------
thomasmallen
Brilliant.

~~~
tlrobinson
Google Killer.

~~~
dmix
Techcrunch, is that you?

------
tptacek
Not sure about the colors, maybe invest in a designer and a copywriter, and
did you know the button was SQL Injectable? You're off to a great start, but I
worry about Facebook and Google turning this into a feature instead of a
product. Consider the enterprise.

------
aaroneous
"10087 clicks from you... Thank You"

------
bigthboy
_< grunt>_ bigthboy not amused... buttons make bigthboy angry! _< roar>_...

but in all honesty, what is the true point behind this? I am aware of people's
addiction to press buttons, but if you can convince someone to pay you in
order to press a button then you've got something. Without that, I really just
don't think this is anything more than a time-sink for those who are
procrastinating, and most certainly not a start-up. =P

------
aasarava
Anyone else remember "Button, Button" from the Twilight Zone, where a couple
is offered $200K if they push a button on a box. The only catch is that if
they push it, someone they don't know will die?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_>(The_Twilight_Zone)

Creepy.

------
forensic
I like it. I gave it around 180 clicks before I left the page. It was a good
experience.

------
rrival
This is going straight to the front page of TechCrunch!

------
m_eiman
Hm, looks familiar. Mine has chat, though. <http://click-a-billion.com/>

------
RudeDude
this shit is about as cool as a steaming shit coming out of my ass(whilst
shitting from a hovering helicopter) and landing inside an active volcano. If
you think this is an actual business model, you sir, are fucking delusional.
the jig is up, fraud

------
symptic
Make an API or an app for Facebook/Myspace or a widget for Wordpress and watch
it spread. ;)

------
mcu
Your button is bad and you should feel bad. Is this really what Hacker News
has come to?

------
tjic
A+++++++++++++++++++++

Would click again.

------
matt1
Thousands of visitors and it still says "1 clicks" -- doh.

------
mstefff
why would anyone come back to this..what the hell..i dont get it

~~~
darkxanthos
No, you do. That's the problem.

------
icey
I don't get it.

------
railsjedi
shoulda entered this into railsrumble!

~~~
trevorturk
Rails!? That doesn't scale. This is all Erlang.

------
stevesmith155
Sorry, but :yawn:

------
ram1024
i admit it, i'm a clicker...

it was just too much for me. i'm suing you for rehab therapy now to cure my
aclicktion.

they say you haven't succeeded as a business until you're sued.
congratulations, give me your money now

~~~
ideamonk
i clicke 250 without stopping... whats wrong! and checkout the speed at which
counter is running... while biggies like facebook and orkut try so hard to
engage users into social networking etc... this simple clickthatbutton has
done it with amazing simplicity! wow!

