

Ask HN: Please review my idea and holding page - jonp

I'm looking to launch http://www.birthdaysudoku.com/ in a couple of weeks.<p>I've learned a lot from this community and I'd be very grateful for comments on my holding page, and any other thoughts you may have.<p>I'm also hoping that posting this will force me into launching this month.
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edparcell
Hi Jon,

Interesting idea. Seems like it'd be a good novelty gift for my family to get
me for example.

I guess you are already thinking this way, but it seems fairly natural to
offer a birthday card, and maybe a range of other geek products around this.

On the product itself, it might be good to do alphabetical sudokus also - for
16x16 sudokus this could lead to some interesting message possibilities
perhaps? Also, are there any other puzzles that lend themselves to this sort
of customization - wordsearch perhaps?

I guess those are the two ways I'd consider expanding on an appealing starting
idea.

Good luck, and let us know when you launch.

Best, Ed.

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jonp
Thanks Ed. Yes, I'd started looking at eg Cafe Press for a way to produce
physical goods like cards, mugs, mouse mats etc.

I hadn't thought of letters or the 16x16 versions. Also I guess if I do word-
search and other puzzles then there's potentially enough to print a custom
book(let) of puzzles.

Thanks again for the feedback.

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SHOwnsYou
Interesting idea, the first thing that jumped out at me was that you might
want to consider making a page that US users redirect to.

In your sample, you have the date listed as 31-7-1965. This is not how
Americans display dates. Americans use 7-31-1965.

I generalized only saying American's use 7-31-1965. That may be a standard
date convention for all of non-Europe, but I have no idea. Don't want the
important message to get lost in any confusion.

~~~
jonp
Thanks for your comment.

I'm allowing for different date formats (dd-mm-yyyy, mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd)
when making the puzzles. But it hadn't occurred to me that seeing a non-
American date on the home page could be off-putting to Americans.

I guess I could try to recognize where people are from and show a location-
specific example. Or maybe it's best to pick an ambiguous date ie one that
works under both conventions. eg 12-5-1965 should do it.

Thanks again.

~~~
jonp
Now updated to 12-5-1965.

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jonp
Clickable link: <http://www.birthdaysudoku.com/>

