

Show HN: CollabFinder, find developers and designers for your next great project - sahadeva
http://collabfinder.com

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mrsteveman1
I don't think Facebook logins are a good way to handle user registration for
something like this, perhaps I'm in the minority but I don't even have a
Facebook account anymore (on purpose).

I don't think it's a good idea to pull Facebook friends from their API for
this purpose either, are you actually processing those or is it client side?

~~~
sahadeva
We are processing the connections so we can show you friends of friends on the
site. The thought being that it's much easier to start chatting with someone
if you know you have friends in common. If you do signup you can sort everyone
on the site by how many mutual friends you have, which is pretty amazing.

Using Facebook also allows us to protect against spammers, recruiters, etc.,
and we can make filling out your profile easier (though we still have work to
do there).

What alternative site would you want to be able to sign up with? Github?
Twitter?

Thanks for the feedback.

~~~
SpaceDragon
I'd like to chime in by saying I'm interested in using the service, but
recently quit Facebook like a bad habit and have no intentions of ever going
back.

By making registration as Facebook only, you may be excluding some of the best
people.

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sahadeva
CollabFinder is a network of geeks like you looking for collaborators. No
recruiters. No MBAs.

It's the place to go when you're looking for someone to help you with your
next big idea. Browse developers, designers, illustrators and writers by
skill, interest, location and how many friends you have in common. Then chat
with anyone with one click.

And if you're looking to do a new startup tag yourself with "Y Combinator" or
"Summer Camp" or "TechStars" to get pitched by people like you. Want to see
Python developers in San Francisco who want to do a Y Combinator company
related to education? No problem.

Try it out now at CollabFinder.com and let us know what you think.

Saha, Gil and Simon.

~~~
bantic
I love the idea of making it easier for people to find one another to collab
on things. How will you keep out recruiters, though? Seems like they always
end up on these things and start increasing the noise.

~~~
sahadeva
Stopping recruiters from messing with people on the site is one of the big
reasons we use Facebook - we can block anyone who abuses the system easily,
and potentially block the companies using those recruiters. If we make the
stakes high for companies abusing people through reckless recruiters hopefully
we can change how companies think twice about hiring them. We also built in
some simple triggers to make reporting abuse super easy, and we monitor how
people are using the system closely. Hopefully in the future we can watch for
suspicious behavior patterns based on what we learn.

Thanks for asking :)

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jackmcdade
The join forms on this site are abysmal. I hate to say it, but as a
designer/developer, I couldn't even get my profile on the site. You gotta fix
this if you want to get enough users.

~~~
sahadeva
Thanks for trying it out - can you tell me what issues you came across in the
signup form? We're working on making it easier, but wanted to get the site out
there and get some feedback.

~~~
jackmcdade
It was completely unstyled, validation was unclear, and if I filled something
in wrong, it wiped my form data.

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hkarthik
I like the idea, seems similar to BuildItWithMe.

However, requiring Facebook for sign up kills it for me. As a dev, I'd rather
use email/password.

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iDhruvKumar
Can't access the website, It's saying Database Error...

And the only way to sign up is via Facebook?

I am a Developer, But i am not a Facebook user, Having different/normal way to
signup will be good.

~~~
iDhruvKumar
I guess i am the only one who can't Login and i see the database error only
when i am logged in..

Can you check it out, It's on line number 150
(/ap...../..ls../facebook_member.php)

~~~
sahadeva
Should be working fine now :)

~~~
iDhruvKumar
Nope, Still can't update my profile.

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bjtitus
Tried to get in touch with some people on the site but it says "Join
CollabFinder by creating your public profile" every time I try to "add to my
profile"

~~~
sahadeva
Thanks for trying out the site - can you be a bit more specific about what
happens when you try to sign up? Did you get a facebook dialog popup? Would
love to help you get it sorted out - just launched and we probably have a few
bugs lurking that we're not aware of. Also, refreshing the page might do the
trick...

Thanks.

~~~
bjtitus
I reset my browser cache/cookies and that reset the Oauth token but once I
login with Facebook it redirects me back to the "add to my profile" page where
I choose that I'm a developer and it either kicks me to the same page as above
or a page with a few bullets on it that appears like an unfinished/unstyled
page.

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Lukeas14
As a developer/designer looking for a marketing/business person I feel left
out.

~~~
sahadeva
We'll be adding more skillsets in the future - thanks for the feedback.
Anything else you like / don't like?

~~~
Lukeas14
I would like to see design samples in the same way that you show code samples.
And the "see who you both know" functionality might work better with linkedin
than facebook. What would be really nice is if you could tap into meetup.com
so you could see the backgrounds of people you're about to be at an event
with. Other than that I love the idea and your execution of it.

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iusable
Love the simplicity of this one. Awesome work Saha & co.

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Rojah
Simple interface, I like, looking forward to seeing it grow

