

Tell HN: Listened to HN's and User's Feedback, Here's What We Did (Styckyd.com) - kerryfalk

The original launch thread is here:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2285320<p>The feedback from HN and the users we've been talking to lead us to realize that the problem that we had was a little worse than we thought. We were doing a very bad job of quickly communicating what we do and how we can help - basically we weren't telling you WIIFM. There were also a few other suggestions for fixes, including some usability things that we're still working on.<p>We have redesigned the landing pages for users and potential forum partners to be much more concise and increased the call to action.<p>Homepage for buyers/sellers: http://www.styckyd.com<p>Homepage for forum admins: http://partners.styckyd.com<p>What do you think?  Is this better? Any other feedback/suggestions? We're starting to get much more interest from forums and other communities but we can always make it better.
======
ZackOfAllTrades
Not in your target market, but from a general perspective:

What kind of story are you telling to people? The about page is about the team
not what the team is doing. I was expecting something about the service and
what it does.

Stop using the word passionate: I keep seeing it when I look at your stuff and
it sounds like marketing speak.

I don't understand why you are partners with Forum Admins. I don't really get
that at first glance.

Why can't I leave comments on the blogs? You talk about listening to people,
but I don't know how to comment.

Don't show enthusiastic reviews when there are none. Move the parts details up
and to the right to fill the space. Social proof is only useful when it is
positive. Right now you are showing people that nobody is using the service.

Tactic: I don't know the budget you are working on, but if it is nonzero,
start buying car parts and listing them. You have 7 total right now and that
does not bode well with a potential customer. Even if it is a niche market, I
would want at least triple digits in terms of items.

Cool idea though. Good luck!

~~~
kerryfalk
_What kind of story are you telling to people? The about page is about the
team not what the team is doing. I was expecting something about the service
and what it does._

Hmmm. That's an interesting thought. There are actually two "About Us" pages,
one for forum admins and one for users. Our thought was that we wanted to
build credibility behind the fact that we are part of the market that we're
targeting. I think special interest groups are particularly harsh to anyone
not within the group, like the hacker vs. non-tech guy.

 _Stop using the word passionate: I keep seeing it when I look at your stuff
and it sounds like marketing speak._

I didn't even realize we were doing that. I'll keep an eye out. Thanks.

 _I don't understand why you are partners with Forum Admins. I don't really
get that at first glance._

It definitely makes more sense to the admins. We've built a plugin for
vBulletin forums as we want to power their classifieds systems. Forum
classifieds are not ideal for buying and selling.

 _Why can't I leave comments on the blogs? You talk about listening to people,
but I don't know how to comment._

I'll be adding this, thanks for pointing it out. Right now I'm using Tumblr
and their API to publish the blog to our site, I need to figure out a good way
to integrate the comments.

 _Don't show enthusiastic reviews when there are none._

This is something we're grappling with right now. You're definitely not wrong.
I do want to be able to highlight the functionality, though. We'll think more
on this one.

 _Tactic: I don't know the budget you are working on_

This is something we're considering and will probably do. When we have a
model-specific forum on board we may buy some parts specific to that vehicle
to generate a few transactions.

Thanks for the feedback.

------
kerryfalk
Clickable:

Homepage for buyers/sellers: <http://www.styckyd.com>

Homepage for forum admins: <http://partners.styckyd.com>

