

Why being invited to try Circle made me think about a whole load of other stuff - red_anorak
https://gist.github.com/robert-b-clarke/7872713

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OafTobark
I think the biggest problem I am reading here is the author making a bunch of
assumptions about what the app does or doesn't do without even trying it out
at all.

~~~
bazzargh
This morning I spoke to someone who had installed it; it had SMSd everyone in
her contacts, and she was understandably not too happy. It's not just an
assumption that they're misusing permissions.

You are asking the author to assume that apps that ask for broad permissions
are trustworthy. There have been far too many counterexamples for that
position to be tenable.

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mlisbit
Funny, I've actually installed Circle the other day, after receiving multiple
requests from friends over facebook - and hated it. Initial problem was, the
options of logging in where through Facebook, twitter, or email - but the
email option said it would take up to 24 hours to approve... really? and it
didn't seem functional - so i had to choose between twitter or Facebook. The
user interface kept jumping from one style to another between login options,
making it look non-legitimate. It also got my location wrong, with no option
to change it (I'm on the border between two cities) showing me events that
where too far. I was so frustrated with it, I un-installed it within 10
minutes - so I still think theres a market for an app like this, Circle is
doing it wrong.

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bsirkia
Really interesting read, it's a weird feeling to 1) to see a very similar
startup in the same space make "evil" choices you turned down and 2)
frustratingly see them be more successful than you. I'm working on a startup
in Vermont, which has a similar amount of startup acclaim as Huddersfield,
competing in a space where there's about 2 million Y-Combinator-backed, ex-
Googler, triple Stanford-Harvard-MIT dropout founded Silicon Valley startups
with tons of money that want to build something viral that at least pulls a
ton of user's data.

I would be interested to hear more of your takeaways, like what you would do
differently and if you think you do have a shot at going against those well-
funded giants.

~~~
red_anorak
Things I would do differently... I think my product is too clearly the work of
an idealistic technical person, and is slightly dated in the way it just
expects people to join in because it will be useful if everyone used it. It's
completely different from Circle in every way, not just when it comes to
things that can be considered "evil". For example I've purposefully made
choices like "it shouldn't need a dedicated mobile app", or "users shouldn't
have to register to see content" from a purely functional perspective.

I did always view the idea as quite risky and I probably wouldn't have gone
for it as a "pure startup". In this case I felt it was ok to do it as it could
bump start my web dev business.

Good luck with your venture. I don't think being in Huddersfield is ultimately
the reason why people haven't taken to LampNote. It was just difficult to get
any local hype initially, and that certainly slowed me down

~~~
bsirkia
Thanks for the reply. I think that all makes sense and it sounds like you've
gained some great perspective from the experience. Good luck on your next
venture, and definitely stay idealistic.

------
yesimahuman
First of all, unless you are in SF or another tech city, I wouldn't even try
relying on your local city in order to build your company. You have to think
about the internet as your startup scene, and focus on having a good presence
there (twitter, etc.). I think trying to be too local with an internet product
is a mistake for most companies.

To some extent the social space is riddled with a lack of ethics, mainly
because it's effective and users are fickle. But there are a lot of other
spaces where you don't have to make such tradeoffs and can still build a
business. Maybe those would be a better fit for how you want to run your
company?

Unfortunately, ethics kind of go out the door when you've got major investors
that you want to provide a positive return to. Imagine the pressure for Circle
to provide a return, and then imagine whether you'd even want to have that
kind of pressure on you every day (and they've been around for a while and
aren't huge yet, so I'm guessing it's by no means an easy ride for them
either).

~~~
red_anorak
Some fair points. I didn't necessarily feel that I was dependent on the local
media and tech scene, it was a more the case that they I felt they weren't
doing their job. Even if they just wrote a blog post saying "this guy's an
idiot, what he's doing will never work" it would have got a few people talking
and generated a decent inbound link. Also "hyperlocal" (yuk - the H word)
stuff is easier to grow if you can get a concentration of users close to each
other.

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unlimited_power
Am the only one who always confuses this with Circle
([http://www.circle.com/](http://www.circle.com/)), a bitcoin-based competitor
to Square (presumably).

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trhaynes
Also see the "The Circle", a recently-published dystopian novel by Dave Eggers
about a social network of the same name.

The story/plot/characters are meh, but I give it 5 stars for provoking
thoughts about hyper-connectedness, net neutrality, surveillance, over-sharing
on social networks, the ubiquity of technology, etc.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Circle-Dave-
Eggers/dp/0385351399](http://www.amazon.com/The-Circle-Dave-
Eggers/dp/0385351399)

------
woah
Why did you decide to call it LampNote? Seems pretty hard for someone to guess
what the app is about with that name.

~~~
red_anorak
Yes, it's a reference to notices posted onto lampposts. A lot of people said
they loved the name.

I did wonder how well it would travel, whether or not people from outside the
UK stuck notices on lampposts, if they called them lampposts etc.

~~~
halostatue
Here in North America, these sorts of signs are attached to any pole that can
handle them, but powerline poles are favourites because they're wood (and
therefore staple-friendly). Toronto has community posting boards that have
started going up (put up by our beneficent advertisers, Astral Media, who
would love to get out of that obligation and just advertise more).

~~~
red_anorak
Thanks for the info

