
Show HN: Kismet – get an e-mail introduction to a fellow HN member every day - remyp
https://findkismet.com
======
coolandsmartrr
Frankly, this is already a better social experience than Facebook. Text as a
medium may be less "expressive" so to speak, but it communicates with such
sincerity in letter-form applications.

The idea of listing "Help Needed" and "Can Help" is a good idea to facilitate
conversations. Helps lubricate the otherwise awkward encounter with strangers.

I think the issue onwards will be similar to those of any community-based
websites.

1) maintaining the quality of the community members. The usage of HN is a
better source of demarcation compared to the low-barrier registration
requirement of just signing up in typical social networks. So long as HN keeps
attracting engagement from good people and weeds out undesirable usage, Kismet
is likely to continue benefiting from HN's demographics.

2) retention of active users. People can get tired of using social apps once
the novelty wears off. It would be prudent to encourage each interaction to be
interesting and inspired so that users are happy to open messages from Kismet,
especially since the app will reside in the email inbox that is typically
inundated with other messages.

3) recruiting new users. Looks like Kismet had just come into existence, when
users who provide the interaction amongst each other are lacking. It would be
worthwhile considering how Kismet will make itself known among HNers without
relying on posting a "Show HN" periodically. Promotions can aim for wider
awareness but should be aware of 1) and still keep a reasonable barrier of
entry to maintain userbase quality. Perhaps referrals for organic growth, but
how?

Boy, I wish there were more ways to meet smart strangers.

Congrats and thanks for the launch.

P.S. Feature request: Location info (e.g. City) to find/match with users in
proximity feasible for a coffee meetup

Bug: Can't seem to update user info after initial registration

~~~
Jaruzel
> Boy, I wish there were more ways to meet smart strangers

This, 100%. Eventually every social media platform becomes overrun with people
whom I have nothing in common with, causing me to eventually disengage.

Can any one suggest any online communities that are at the same cerebral level
as HN?

Right now though, I'm signing up to this Kismet thing.

~~~
mistersquid
[https://www.metafilter.com](https://www.metafilter.com)

It leans left, and the userbase can be quite critical of information
technology especially bro culture.

Last I checked, Metafilter has active meetups in different cities even outside
the US.

The userbase comes from diverse backgrounds skewing toward the highly
literate.

It costs US 5$ to create an account. Best 5$ I’ve ever spent.

EDIT: Fix typo.

------
cdubzzz
Love the idea. But daily seems like quite a lot? I would sign up for a weekly
version.

~~~
toyg
Agreed. The best solution would be a configurable scale. Something like daily
/ twice a week / weekly / twice a month / monthly. So I could set it to daily
when I’m out looking for a job, and turn it way down when I’m not available
(holidays etc).

Would love to have a version that goes “full tinder” even (no pics, just the
same sort of simple bio as this, but with tinder’s “swiping” approach for
quick elaboration).

~~~
remyp
This is in the works. In the meantime, there is a 5 day “snooze” feature to
make it easy to keep the volume down. The link is in your welcome email.

------
dewey
The landing page is great, you immediately know what's going on and what it's
about but I agree with the comment saying that the name is not that great. I
also though about the wifi scanner first.

~~~
Cyberdog
The loading animation needs to be thrown in the garbage where such anti-
patterns belong. The landing page isn't that complex - how much is it slowed
down by having to load and execute the code to do the needless loading
animation?

~~~
remyp
Agreed -- it's going away on the next update. The only reason it's there in
the first place is that it's built in to the template.

~~~
O_H_E
Aside from the animation, I really liked the design.

What template/service did you use

------
kiike
I think you put a lot of effort in developing a quick and easy registration
process. I loved how it was unveiling fields as you were progressing on the
process. However, the email registration template contains stuff that is not
mentioned on the homepage, such as a trial period. Here's what I got:

\----8<\---- For reference, here's your login information:

Login Page: Username:

You've started a day trial. You can upgrade to a paying account or cancel any
time.

Trial Start Date: Trial End Date:

If you have any questions, feel free to email our customer success team (
hello@findkismet.com ). (We're lightning quick at replying.) We also offer
live chat ( ) during business hours.

Thanks, Kismet and the Kismet Team

P.S. Need immediate help getting started? Check out our help documentation (
). Or, just reply to this email, the Kismet support team is always ready to
help!

If you’re having trouble with the button above, copy and paste the URL below
into your web browser. \----8<\----

~~~
remyp
Ack, I forgot to update the plaintext version of the welcome email template --
there is no trial and Kismet is completely free. Thank you for pointing this
out!

~~~
kiike
No problem, I supposed that would be the issue. Glad i could be of help!

------
imglorp
Kismet is also the name of a popular wifi scanner. 232,000 hits on google.

Consider a rename?

~~~
aw3c2
It also means "fate" or "destiny" in a couple of teeny-tiny languages.

~~~
ahstilde
Hindi, one of the teeniest languages.

------
burritofanatic
Please do not change the name, it's great! Last week, I ran across kismet and
declared it as my new favorite word. So, it must be, kismet.

------
pavlov
Really nice. I hate the network growth hack games that social media companies
play, so I never signed up for Facebook, LinkedIn and their ilk. This seems
like a concept with the right amount of personal control.

I hope Kismet won't eventually start spamming me with "fun", "personalized"
mass messages that have emojis in the subject line and advertisements from
partners in the message body, like so many others these days.

~~~
remyp
No plans to do stuff like that. I built Kismet for fun, not trying to force it
in to being the next billionty dollar startup or whatever.

------
trevyn
I like it! Including the name! Should wait until I fill out my Kismet profile
before sending first intro though.

Clipboard copy link did not work on iOS/Chrome, had to go back and copy
manually. Profile edit fields were hard to edit in iOS/Chrome, they don't
scroll horizontally.

I'm fine with auth-by-email, but should be time limited, I feel a little odd
about permanent-link-for-auth.

Auth-by-profile-edit should include an "X-Kismet" tag or something, to prevent
another service using similar auth style but actually grabbing a Kismet token
and serving that to the user without their knowledge that it's a Kismet token,
see what I mean? Or maybe I'm just being overly paranoid. Which is an
achievement, since I'm usually pretty cowboy about these things. :-)

~~~
remyp
Thanks so much for pointing out the clipboard copy bug -- I should've caught
that.

I have similar feelings about the link for auth. It'll almost certainly change
on the next version!

------
remyp
Hi everyone, thanks for trying out Kismet. Happy to answer any questions, and
I would love any feedback you might have!

~~~
JacobLinney
Hey, I really like the idea of this, but I don't have time to network
everyday, have you considered allowing custom intervals? I.E. 1/week?

~~~
remyp
Yes! It's next on my list of updates to make.

------
zupa-hu
I would encourage people during signup to keep kismet in their profile so as
to spread the word about it. The kismet word + auth code may be enough to make
me curious and look it up. Alternatively, a replacement string may be
suggested once auth was done, like “I’m on Kismet, come join to meet random
HNers like me.”

------
zupa-hu
I’ not sure the [just reply to this email] is a good idea when the unsubscribe
link works with a single click.

------
petercooper
Is the introduction mutual? That is, if I get user X, does user X also get an
email with the same intro for me?

I wouldn't want to feel obliged to contact every "match" if they don't seem
interesting to me (and vice versa) but there might be such an obligation if
they knew I'd got them.

~~~
remyp
Yes, it is! As you mentioned, that's by design, though if you're asking the
question that means I'm not communicating it well enough :)

------
superasn
Great concept. I was just wondering Having an email address in profile is
pretty common for HNers, so kismet can also send a verification email to any
email it finds in profile for verification too. This might reduce the friction
and encourage more people to signup.

------
gargarplex
Great idea. Signed up. Intro'd to someone interesting.

For checking the profile, please use shorter codes or increase the size of the
<input> that displays the code. I ran into a bug by accidentally selecting
part of the code, not realizing that it scrolled on..

------
pmiri
I like it so far. The instant first email match is great, but it happens while
I'm setting my info, so it leaves introductions to be a little.. barren?

------
scribu
Neat idea!

Sadly, it doesn't seem to handle non-ASCII characters. I entered my name,
_Cristi Burcă_ , and it got saved as _Cristi Burc?_.

------
jrheard
Pretty sure I know the answer to this, but: can I remove the code from my
profile after it's been verified?

~~~
remyp
Yep!

~~~
Serow225
Dumb question, is it a 'risk' to leave the code in your profile? As in someone
could crawl profiles looking for Kismet codes and then altering random
people's profiles. If so, maybe it would be worth it to add text suggesting
that people remove the code from their profile after verification is complete?
Cheers

~~~
remyp
The verification code and the auth code for your profile are different and are
generated in a different way, so it's pretty low risk to leave it.

------
smrk007
Immediately after I signed up for Kismet, while I was updating my profile, I
was matched with another HN member. So basically, since nothing had been
updated, they won't know anything about me from the intro. Not really a major
problem, but I just wish it had waited for me to update my profile.

------
rayalez
Wow what a brilliant idea! Thank you so much for making this project, signed
up already =)

------
tootie
Is there a specific bent to this? Business networking? Recruiting? Dating?

~~~
DoreenMichele
I am a woman. I have signed up. Anyone who uses this as an excuse to try to
ask me for a date (or otherwise chat me up romantically) will not be well
received.

I get too much of that as is. I am hoping this service is the solution to my
problem that when I say to a guy "Let's talk!" or "You can email me", about
99% of the time that is interpreted as an opportunity to hit on me. No, me
saying I would be willing to discuss X specific issue further is absolutely
not code for "I am looking for romance and I especially enjoy being treated
like an airhead and sex object." (There was a recent incident and I am still
pretty wrapped around the axle about it.)

I have been here 8.5 years. There are about three people I can email
occasionally. No, that distinctly does not include certain folks on the
leaderboard magnanimously inviting anyone on HN to contact them, they would
love to talk to you. And I am getting pretty fed up with being patient and
wondering what I, personally, can do differently. That isn't getting
sufficient results.

I strongly suspect most female members of HN will have similar feelings on the
matter, which is the only reason I am mentioning it. So treating it as a
dating service probably won't go well.

------
devgrips
That's a great idea!

------
tomsmeding
Do two "matched users" both get an email pointing to each other, or does the
other not know that they were matched to you?

~~~
remyp
Matches are 1 to 1, so the person you see in your inbox gets an email just
like it with your info.

------
stephenr
So, forgive the cynic in me, but if this is completely free, who pays for it?

We _know_ the model web social networks use.

~~~
remyp
I do. Server bills for something like this are incredibly low -- I might throw
in a 'donate' button or charge a small amount for premium features in the
future but in the meantime I'm happy just to have people using it.

------
aaavl2821
nice! is the matching random or is it based on mutual interests that users
indicate in their profiles?

~~~
remyp
At the moment it's simply random, but intelligent matching is on the roadmap.

------
ioddly
Cool, I tried it and it worked.

I do think a week would probably be a better default setting.

Can I take the hash out of my profile?

~~~
remyp
Yep! I need to add that feedback to the form :)

Match interval settings are in the works; in the meantime there is a ‘snooze’
feature that will pause matches for 5 days. The link is in every message.

~~~
ioddly
I don't think the snooze worked: Pretty sure I triggered it yesterday, but I
got a match just now.

~~~
remyp
Sorry about that! Just squashed a bug related to this -- could you please send
an email to hello@findkismet.com if it happens again or you see anything else
strange happening?

------
eximius
May I recommend making the links in the emails clickable? (i.e., HN Profile in
the intro emails)

------
waytogo
A decade after social networks got popular people still do not understand how
relationships are formed.

They think you can get a buddy, find friends, be not lonely anymore with a
single click. FB, Instagram, Tinder and today's Show HN seem to be simple
fixes to break out of loneliness.

They are all like sweets—they are tempting, tasty and shortly after consumed
you are hungry again. Hungry for social encounters. So you consume them again
and the vicious cycles starts.

Building real-life relationships is not easy. There are many ways to get
there. A pure online play is not the answer.

~~~
fao_
> Building real-life relationships is not easy. There are many ways to get
> there. A pure online play is not the answer.

I disagree. Personally I've found that real life friendships are much more
fickle, many disintegrate because of distance, or time, or some other reason.
On the contrary, the people whom I have made friends with through the
internet, through for example, IRC or Slack. Have become much more long
lasting, and quite lengthy. Even if one of us does not respond or get a
response from the other for a couple of months, it does not matter. One of us
eventually reconnects or bumps the conversation and we resume practically
where we left off. Most of my real life friends have difficulty even
responding online.

Sure, this is not a cure-all for loneliness, but such a thing does not exist
in this world. At some point we shall all be lonely for some time, even the
most devoted partner gets busy or has things to do. It is not the cure-all,
but these 'pocket friends', like all friends, help.

~~~
HappyKamper
> Even if one of us does not respond or get a response from the other for a
> couple of months

This kind of interaction does not fit my description for a friendship.

>Most of my real life friends have difficulty even responding online

Is taking one month to reply on IRC not to "have difficulty even responding
online?"

~~~
fao_
> This kind of interaction does not fit my description for a friendship.

It depends on your age. A huge chunk of my friends are in University right
now, so they have very little time to dedicate to social interactions, and
when they do, there is pressure for it to be physical interaction.

In addition, many of my friends are suffering with various forms of illnesses
and depression, and a lot of them are makers, that delve into projects
headfirst. All of which can sometimes create long gaps in contact.

------
myfriendslinky
Really cool idea, I look forward to my first intro ;)

------
davidjnelson
Wow, I love this! Great creativity and execution!!!

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Z_M_
Nice, will try it out.

------
sharemywin
kis·met

ˈkizmit,-ˌmet/Submit

noun

destiny; fate.

"what chance did I stand against kismet?"

added the google search definition:

~~~
sharemywin
Although, it obviously doesn't.

I personally have always felt it had a romantic undertone to it.

~~~
matte_black
I think the service may be far more interesting if it was a hackernews dating
service.

~~~
trevyn
38/M/Santa Monica, email in profile ;-)

------
gphofficial
test

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t1o5
An apt name ! There is a bollywood movie by the name “Kismet Konnection”

------
qu1mby
This is dope.

I second a name change. How about [http://hn.chat](http://hn.chat)?

