

Reasons why you wouldn't sign up. - iamjonlee

I've realized that getting feedback for a landing page on HN can be rather gnarly. Maybe we ought to change the way we leave feedback. Instead of asking for feedback, let's write about why you wouldn't sign up for that particular service. Keep  it short and one reason per comment please.<p>Reasons why you wouldn't sign up for: www.grooovy.me<p>(I know not everyone has an iPhone, but let's not use that as a reason.)
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gbelote
I don't feel the "pain" of wanting more friends, so maybe I'm not your target
market. This probably makes me a bad person to take feedback from, but since
giving opinions is fun...

The problem for me isn't not knowing how to meet new people (e.g. going to
interesting meetups), it's getting past the social anxiety of leaving the
house and trying to make friends from strangers. At a glance, your app doesn't
help solve that -- it looks like another kind of meetup aggregator (albeit a
more casual one). While it may be something else and/or technically be a
perfectly great service to help me, it doesn't _seem_ like it helps me get
past the irrational mental resistance of going somewhere uncomfortable. So
when I look at your page and see headers like "GROOOVY FOR IPHONE" and "WE'RE
LAUNCHING SOON" and see what looks like a list view of a calendar, it doesn't
get me excited. I eventually noticed that clicking the little circles lets me
look at different "pages", but that feels like work and I lost interest
quickly.

~~~
iamjonlee
The app was directly intended for users to have a need or want to meet people
so it might be a little different in your scenario as you've mentioned in your
first sentence. We don't have any solutions as to getting past the social
anxiety of leaving the house and making friends with strangers because that's
something that needs to be personally overcome by the individual. Here's an
example: If John Smith considers himself overweight and would like to loose
weight, he needs to mentally prepare himself to begin dieting and working out.
Nothing will work if John himself refuses to make the first step. If it helps,
users can also have their friends RSVP for the event and attend the event
together.

We realize that the event list that we have on the first page seems pretty
generic and so doesn't trigger a lot of excitement. We'll see if we can do
something about that. Our next revision will probably be to get rid of the
circles completely- it seems that there's just too much information right now.
Thanks for the feedback!

------
DanBC
I want to make new friends. Let's have a read of the blurb:

>GROOOVY LETS YOU MEET >NEW FRIENDS COMFORTABLY >AT YOUR OWN PACE.

That's exactly what I need; nice and gentle and not scary. I am your target
users. I'm not looking to date or hook up; I'm not sketchy or skeezy. So, who
are these people? Where do they come from? What's the "pool of people"?

>Join or create customized >events. Chat with the people you'll meet, check-in
and add >them as friends. Finish off your event experience by >writing your
first thoughts of each other.

Wait, what? I have no idea who these other people are. Are they all just
randoms that sign up to your service? How do I know they're not crazy axe-
murderers? Are they taken from Facebook or some such? Do we pay to join? Do we
pay to send messages? Let's say I set up and event: Do I just ping people and
ask if they want to go? Or does my event get listed and other people say
they'd like to turn up? What happens if Bob (a made up name) has been to an
event and I HATE HIM? Can I not let him see events I create? Can I filter
events Bob goes to?

~~~
iamjonlee
Hi DanBC. I hope I can clarify some questions.

So, who are these people? Where do they come from? What's the "pool of
people"?

These will be people around your local area that likewise have an interest in
meeting up.

Wait, what? I have no idea who these other people are. Are they all just
randoms that sign up to your service? How do I know they're not crazy axe-
murderers? Are they taken from Facebook or some such? Do we pay to join? Do we
pay to send messages? Let's say I set up and event: Do I just ping people and
ask if they want to go? Or does my event get listed and other people say
they'd like to turn up? What happens if Bob (a made up name) has been to an
event and I HATE HIM? Can I not let him see events I create? Can I filter
events Bob goes to?

We have no selection criteria when it comes to signing up for the service.
Just like many of the public events you might attend such as concerts, HN
meetups, bowling leagues, Reddit meetups, or even church groups are consisted
of randoms that sign up for that service. As for crazy axe-murderers- there's
no way to know for sure. But the same could apply to your landlord, your
roommates, your local barista and even your next-door neighbor.

Users have an ability to connect via Facebook but it will be optional. It's
free to join, free to send messages via the message board. Your event
automatically gets listed in your local area where other people RSVP for it if
they're interested in meeting you.

As of our first version, we don't plan on having any blocking or filtering
features in place. Like any other service such as meetup, grubwithus, or
reddit, you can't control whether or not other people show up to your event.
If you have concerns about your safety and privacy, it would be best to apply
common sense and notify your local law enforcement. If it is still a concern,
you can choose to participate in events farther away from your local area or
limit the number of people who are allowed to join your event(decreasing the
chances that Bob will be one of the attendees). Bob has no way of knowing what
events are created by you or what events you have joined unless Bob personally
checks each and every event made in all the cities in the database.

I hope I've answered your questions and resolved your concerns. Thanks for the
feedback!

------
DanBC
I thought the > on the first page was connected to the email submission thing.
I didn't notice it at first. I didn't click it. I only knew to click it after
reading another comment here about the little circles and then I saw both <
and >, and realised they were clicky.

Suggestion: Make the extra pages much easier to find, make the < and > more
discoverable, make the little circles more obvious.

~~~
iamjonlee
Now that you mention the >, it does seem like it's connected to the email
submission. We'll definitely look into making it easier to navigate or
redesign it to not even have to scroll at all. Thanks for the feedback, very
helpful!

------
ianpurton
There's a lot of "Coming Soon" sites out there. So I don't sign up for that
reason. I figure if it's any good then I'll hear about it again when they're
up and running.

Also, the tag line.

"GROOOVY LETS YOU MEET NEW FRIENDS COMFORTABLY AT YOUR OWN PACE."

I'm not sure what it is you have.

Hope this helps.

~~~
iamjonlee
Like you, I also don't sign up for a lot of sites until people start talking
about it. If I keep hearing about it, it must be good right? All I can say is
that I'll probably start signing up for more of those sites now that I've
realized how difficult it is to get conversions ;).

Thanks for the feedback on the tagline! I agree, it needs to be more concise.
Definitely helpful, thank you.

------
bartonfink
I don't like going out in most cases, and I like it even less with people I
don't know already.

~~~
iamjonlee
I'm sorry that the app doesn't have any usefulness for you. Thank you for your
feedback anyways!

------
hitokirikensan
The email submission area should stand out more. This is one of the major
points for the homepage so the user should be able to identify it and its
purpose immediately and feel inclined to submit. Also, the response after
sending the email is very dry.

~~~
iamjonlee
I believe the email submission area is actually one of the first things I
notice when I visit the landing page. I'm not sure if the problem is the email
submission area. Does anyone else have a problem with this? I agree that the
response after sending the email is dry- I'll figure out a better message to
thank the user for their submission in the next revision. Thanks for your
feedback!

------
iamjonlee
I'll go first:

The page seems a bit bland. The design is clean and clear but it doesn't have
the "pop" that makes it stand out from other landing pages like the camera
plus app. Maybe it needs more color to brighten up the page

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millie
The idea doesn't "pop" for me. I don't see why I should try this vs. the
alternatives (like Match.com, Meetup, grubwith.us). I need to feel persuaded
that this is going to work where the others did not.

~~~
iamjonlee
You've made a good point. I should have clearly stated the differences as a
selling point in the landing page. I originally thought that it would be
alright to just let the visitor read about app and be able to spot the
differences on their own, but it takes too much time to do so. I probably
wouldn't scroll all the way to the last page myself.

We're different than the alternatives because we allow you to take control.
You decide on the location where you'll meet for breakfast, lunch, coffee
etc., when you have the time to meet up, and how many people you are
comfortable with meeting at one time. Other people come to the event to meet
you.

You can say that we're trying to make it comfortable for the user to meet new
people by allowing them to create events at their pace, in their neighborhood
at their favorite restaurant.

Thanks for the feedback, very useful!

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pixeloution
at a glance it doesn't seem interesting to me. Trying to think analytically
I'd say it just, in a boring way, tells me what it will do, not what it will
do for me.

Which car would you buy:

* (a) The new Zappino is slick, good-looking, and modern.

* (b) The new Zappino: Women will find you irrestible and Men will be jealous.

Your landing page is (a).

Edit: as an added note, I was so un-thrilled by your landing page that I
_just_ noticed there's more information to be had, on my third look.

~~~
iamjonlee
Your examples hit the spot. We definitely need to spice up some of the
copywriting on the site. Thanks for the feedback!

As a note, your b example works. I ended up googling 'Zappino' :).

