

Ask HN: Rate my site. - eam
http://www.bulldogbyte.com/

======
bugs
I can't even tell what the site is for without looking at the top of my window
and then I still don't really get it.

~~~
eam
It's suppose to help college students find textbooks within their own school.
For example at my campus I see many times on bulletin boards students selling
their textbooks. It's a great thing, but visibility is limited. By posting on
the site, other students can search and get in touch. They can just meet up on
campus and exchange the textbook.

~~~
bugs
I don't want you to have to explain that to me though I want the site to
explain that to me when I visit it.

~~~
eam
Great point. I'm going to have to brain storm. I might do a video or something
along those lines.

~~~
covercash
Or how about just a few words on the home page along the lines of "Buy and
sell used text books on your local college campus"

------
joshu
I like the idea a whole lot. I heart markets and marketplaces.

\- The point of the system should be crystal on first view.

\- I don't get the name at all.

\- I'd pick a specific uni or set of universities to bootstrap and learn from
before going big across all schools.

\- I'd scrape the universities for required books somehow so I could know
about books, even if I didn't have them available.

\- I'd allow searching by class (details in the previous step)

\- Facebook login?

~~~
eam
Thanks Josh, it's an honor to know that you like the site idea. I named it
after my school's mascot, the Bulldogs. You see, initially it was only
intended for my school, but then one day I decided to go nationwide in order
to grow faster. Of course, that didn't happen, at least not yet. Right now I'm
hoping to implement many of your suggestions, but being the only person
working and having little time in my hands is tough. I wish I could find some
help!

~~~
towndrunk
Georgia bulldogs?

------
NathanKP
I can't search unless I log in? Sorry but I'm not the type of person to sign
up for a site just to do a search. I would use Google instead.

Try to go login free if you can.

 _(Edit: This was a misunderstanding due to the way Bulldog Byte handles
search terms for which there are no results.)_

In addition, just looking over the site I'm noticing numerous small glitches
like buttons being cut off (up at the top of the "Learn More" page "Get in
Touch" is cut off short in the latest version of Safari), and lack of space
between a period at the end of a sentence and the first word of the next
sentence. (Also on the same page.)

These are small things but they make a huge difference in the presentation and
overall feel of your site.

I'd say that you have a little bit more work to do. Keep up the good work
though.

~~~
eam
You can search while not logged in, you just can't see the students contact
information. Try doing a search for "math." And Thanks!

~~~
NathanKP
Ah, I see the source of my confusion. I searched for a specific book:

"Blink Malcolm Gladwell"

Bulldog Byte didn't find any results, yet it didn't tell me that there were no
results. Instead it just showed the "You're Not Logged In" message, so I
assumed that meant that I had to login to view the search results.

You might want to add a message such as "No results found! Want to try again?"

~~~
eam
Hmmm... it should have said "Found 0 Results" right above where you see
"You're Not Logged In." I'll try adding more emphasis on the next release.

~~~
NathanKP
I see it now that you mentioned it. The problem is that it is so small
compared with that big yellow "Not Logged In" box. The yellow color grabs all
the attention such that at first glance I don't even see that small text
above.

I would suggest that you make the text at least 20-30 pixels high and put the
message below the "Not Logged In" box. That will make it much more obvious.

------
theycallmemorty
1) When I clicked in the 'Title, author or ISBN' box the text didn't go away.
That's annoying. I'm using FF 3.5 by the way.

2) I didn't know what the site was for at first glance. The banner with the
University logos... is it an ad? Are those logos special for some reason? I
didn't really know.

3) I typed 'Artificial Intelligence' into the search box and clicked Find. It
told me I wasn't logged in. On second glance it looks like it found 0 results
and the 'not logged in' thing was tangential. If that's the case you should
emphasize one over the other.

------
DTrejo
Work on your word choice.

This sounds pretty blah: "We're a college based community networking together
for a common goal."

Also you might want to reread the rest of the text on your about page and
elsewhere; try to make it more concise and clear. Also make the column of text
less wide (and thus more readable).

Also, don't dilute your purpose too soon; focus on one major thing, books for
example. Your about page suggested you are going in multiple directions at
once. Do one thing and do it well.

~~~
eam
You're completely right, I'm jut not the best writer. I am hoping to rewrite
that section soon as a lot has change since the launch of the site.

 _Do one thing and do it well._

I agree, I had all these ideas (and continue to have) and thought it would be
great to have them on the site. However, after reading an article, I believe
it was from 37signals, I realized that I was doing too much and that I should
keep it simple and focus on one thing for now. Since then I have stop rolling
out any other features, other than the ones that are currently available.

------
holdenc
I need something cool or useful on the first page or I am gone. (Still not
sure what it does)

------
eam
Fellow HN readers, please review my college-based website. I've been working
on it in my spare time. Forgive me if it doesn't look that great, but I am the
sole programmer/designer for the site so I can't just focus in one thing. For
the most part the basic functionality is there. All feedback is appreciated,
thanks in advance!

~~~
DarrenMills
As a designer I tried to ask myself the first few thoughts I had when I land
on the page. The bar on the top that has all the logos initially feels like
advertising space. Perhaps you might consider putting that underneath the
search bar. Also add a little more emphasis to the search bar itself would
help draw the eye. Perhaps something as simple as a border around it.

Those are just my initial thoughts. Your choice in graphics is very sleek, and
the over feel is very clean. I feel with a few simple changes you can push
your bounce rate lower though practical design.

------
profgubler
Quick recommendation on a way to make money, with this. If your site doesn't
return a result for a book, why not query amazon or half.com and link to a
listing on their site getting the potential affiliate fee.

~~~
eam
I actually been contemplating this idea with Chegg, but I just don't have that
much time to work on it at this point.

------
jarsj
Remove the radio buttons. Just focus on textbooks or cluster results and let
user drill down if he's interested. Learn from Google.

------
maximilian
It didn't have any math textbooks I would want. Also in Safari the search
field "ISBN..etc" text didn't go away upon clicking.

~~~
eam
Right now there are only 41 books posted, so it is most likely that the book
you're searching will not be found. This will hopefully change once more
people start using the site.

------
jfarmer
This was Chegg's original business model, and they hit on the right solution,
IMO: textbook rentals.

