

Ask HN: business guy tries to build a website - qrisper.com - junglee

Hi folks, business guy here (meaning no techology background outside of what I learned at the job).  Found myself with a lot of free time recently (same ol story).  Took this opportunity to work on an idea that I had to aggregate opinions and generate top ten lists.  But rather than outsource, took it upon myself to learn how to code (cuz I always wanted to know how).<p>Would love to get feedback from the HN community.  Curious to hear whether or not folks feel qrisper provides a useful service.  Tips/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.<p>Jung
http://qrisper.com
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SwellJoe
_But rather than outsource, took it upon myself to learn how to code_

You're not a "business guy" any more. You're a hacker.

~~~
junglee
yes...yes i am. hooray! whoda thunk id become a hacker...

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chanux
clickable link - <http://qrisper.com>

And I suggest you adding OpenID, Facebook connect, Google friend connect etc.
There's a similar service from twitter I guess.

~~~
junglee
Actually had Google Connect...didn't really see the value just yet so I took
it out. Added Facebook Connect via Disqus for comments. Still learning
OpenID...

The thing with Twitter...you ask for best sushi restaurant in NY, followers
will respond. but that information isnt aggregated for future use...theyre
one-offs.

I figured, provide a way for people to answer commonly asked questions and
collate the data into easily digestible top ten lists.

~~~
coconutrandom
It seems like he meant add the ability to twitter a page from your site. Like
a "Tweet this" link.

~~~
junglee
I do have the addthis button on all of the answer pages...if that's what you
mean.

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vaksel
Well for one your background color choice is just horrible

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junglee
Ha! Was wondering how long it'd take for that feedback to come out. I tried a
number of different colors...just like the muted yellow for some reason.

Will definitely add a design editor so users can change the bg color.

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yummyfajitas
I didn't notice the design editor (or it's absence) in the 4 seconds it took
me to close the qrisper tab.

~~~
junglee
Hey at least you remembered how to spell qrisper! I'll take what I can get.

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coconutrandom
Some the the answers have vague or generic names which does not lead to good
Google search-ability by itself. Perhaps add the keywords from the question.
Also, if the answer is a url, you may want that to be the link itself.

But great job, keep it up!

~~~
junglee
Yeah those generic answers could become problematic. However, I'm hoping that
unhelpful answers get pushed down as more relevant answers are voted
up...that's the assumption anyway.

But great tip about adding keywords from the question to the Google
search...will definitely do that.

I'm still playing around with the links for the answers. As you saw, the
default is a Google search. I'm also toying with direct links (for urls) as
well as affiliate links.

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thebeatbox
As a fellow "business guy" who is an aspiring hacker, I have to ask: how'd you
get started?

~~~
junglee
well, having a younger brother who knew how to code helped. also, in my
previous life, i was a product manager developing web products for an
investment bank. so i had some experience with design and knew how stuff
worked. just never actually coded anything before. so i took an intensive web
dev course to build a foundation and have been learning on my own since.

i found that, with so many references and tutorials online, once you have an
idea of what you want to build, its just a matter of writing (more often
borrowing) some code and tweaking it till the frickin thing works.

it's definitely been frustrating at times. but the payoff - the satisfaction i
feel when i solve a problem or make the site behave exactly how i want it to -
it's been well worth the effort.

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iterationx
your search is a little broken, neighborhood got me 2 results with new york,
and then "neighborhood new york" got me 0 results. you're going to want to
push tags i think, you've got "favorite bar" and "best bar", you want either
favorite or best. Also i think a tag cloud would be good. i think its a clever
idea, and could morph into a popular review site, i think you'll probably need
some kinda forum to keep people there.

~~~
junglee
thanks for the feedback iterationx! i agree that search needs to be
fixed...gonna need a little help with that so if anyone wants to volunteer!

interesting point about favorite vs best. i guess you could have two different
answers...but i took them to be synonymous. im still playing around with the
types of questions and how to best word them...

also played around with tags but thought they cluttered up the site. hoping to
rely primarily on one top category and one or two subcategories.

i did have a forum set up at one point but decided instead to go with disqus
comments for each top ten list and included a prominent feedback link to
initiate open discussions. but ill revisit the idea of a standalone
forum...its mostly a matter of do i have the time to moderate...

~~~
iterationx
>>one top category and one or two subcategories

categories are really old school like early yahoo...

i guess do you want to find "best fish restaurant madison wisconsin" via the
search, or via tags?

i think the 2.0 answer is both...

~~~
junglee
hmmm...i see your point and i definitely need to revisit tags. my db was set
up with tags in mind so switching over wouldnt be a problem. looks like ill
need to do more testing!

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pj
Well, first impression: They Live is an alien invasion movie, not a zombie
movie, so I gotta question the accuracy of the data!

~~~
junglee
well, dont blame me, blame whoever voted for that movie (my fav was shawn of
the dead).

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adrianb
I noticed that the site has very good graphics. Did you do that yourself? Did
you work with an expert?

~~~
junglee
do you mean the design (logos, layout, images, etc.)? yep, all me. i noticed
that while i do enjoy working on the server side stuff, i have more fun
tinkering with the design.

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dwynings
How long did it take you to do?

~~~
junglee
calendar time...about 5 months. actual coding time...probably less than 2. the
rest was reading and learning.

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adamBA
just curious to know if you have a plan to make $$ other than through ads

~~~
junglee
outside of ads and affiliate marketing, yes i do. that wont matter till i find
an audience but a plan exists.

~~~
knightinblue
I'm going to guess that the plan involves selling the app once there's a
strong audience.

~~~
junglee
that could be a potential exit...something to dream about i guess. but lets
not get ahead of ourselves. this was simply an experiment to see if i could
really build a useful app. built - check! useful - TBD.

