

Ask HN: 150+ new users in 2 hrs, the downside is they never came back - mdgrech23

I created a free bug tracking app. I submitted it to HN and it took off. I got some good feedback in the comments, and some users even emailed me personally. After the initial rush traffic slowly ground to a halt.<p>Am I missing something here? Did I do something wrong? Is the site just ugly and stupid or what? Any advice would be appreciated appreciated.<p><i></i><i></i><i></i>* URL <i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i>*
http://buggrapp.com/
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frankphilips
There's nothing wrong with using bootstrap to develop a quick prototype of
your web app. However, I do agree with motoford in that there is no compelling
reason to use your app. As a solo developer myself, why should I switch from a
kick-ass, free, awesome project management tool like Asana to use buggr? Asana
is built by Dustin Moskowitz (one of the co-founders of Facebook). How is your
product better then theirs? Also, I might be more inclined to use it if you
offered a free demo or a video tour rather then images. And no offense, but
buggr sounds a bit like booger, and you got the lime-green header to go with
it! I do like your concept though..just give me a reason to switch! :)

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kt9
I looked at your app and my first impression was - cool! But then I wanted to
see what it does and how it works and what features it has - a video or a tour
or something before I go through the trouble of signing up.

If you don't give me that I'm too lazy to sign up and will move onto the next
thing!

So tell me right away what and how your app does what it does and I'll sign
up.

Also bug tracking is a crowded space that is difficult to perfect so the key
here is perseverance!

Lastly if you have 150 people's email addresses, email them and ask for
feedback on your product and why they wouldn't use it!

Good luck!

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motoford
I spent 5 minutes looking, and here is my very rushed take.

What I see here is the same as I can get from a spreadsheet. IMO you need
something to compel users to use your app instead of a spreadsheet. What
features do you need? Well that's the hard part, because if you ask 10 users,
you will probably get 30 answers.

Do you use the app yourself? If not, start using it, if you already do, start
adding what you need.

I do like the simple immediate signup.

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dglassan
You collected the user's email addresses during signup right? You should send
each one of them a reminder email, and maybe list the outstanding bugs they
haven't closed yet.

You were able to convince 150 people to sign up for your app, you should
remind them about it. I remember seeing a chart somewhere recently which
showed that on average a person needs to be reminded of something about 4
times before it sticks in their memory.

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Ugnius
In browsers like IE 9, it is impossible to sign up or submit a question
without looking at source. Input placeholders shouldn't be the only
suggestion.

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codegeek
I agree with this comment. I am using IE7 (at work :) and i don't know the
input boxes since placeholders do not show up.

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prehnra
People tried it and didn't find a reason to stay. It isn't that it is bad, but
there are a lot of sites that solve this problem, with established
communities. In that situation you really need something to make your solution
stand out.

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buraksarica
In my opinion a quote of yours doesn't mean anything for yor potential users.
It's like reading Yelp comments of a coffeshop written by owner. Of course
this is not your only answer, but try to convince users by copywriting also.

