
Show HN: DreamCoin: Anonymously Share Your Ideas and Profit - aaronmhatch
https://dreamco.in
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aaronmhatch
Last year, I announced an app called Dude, I Got It! for anonymously sharing
ideas and getting paid for them. The app has been rebranded into DreamCoin.

It's still a work in progress with an experimental design, so if you have any
suggestions, I'll send you some DreamCoins for helping me out. If you're
interested in joining the team, please let me know. Can't offer any full time
positions at the moment.

I've received some feedback from people saying they had a hard time figuring
out how to create an idea. It seems straightforward to me, but then again, I'm
the one who designed it.

~~~
allanderek
You cannot seem to view any of the 'dreams' without creating an account. You
are going to lose a lot of potential users this way.

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aaronmhatch
Hi, yes you have to create an account to view. I've accepted that I will lose
many potential users by choosing to avoid the typical VC-funded, unethical
approach to the internet. I don't have any advertising, tracking, or selling
of user data. The way I pay for the site is by having people purchase
DreamCoins. Hopefully, I can attract people who respect this approach and are
thankful to not have their information tracked and sold, although I'm not sure
many people care about that.

~~~
allanderek
That's a very noble approach, but I don't understand how it relates to not
showing non-users current dreams? Is it that you have to _pay_ to even view
dreams? I didn't get that from the home page. I think at the very least you
need to _demonstrate_ to potential users what the product does, otherwise (I
_think_ ) few people will sign-up for something they don't really understand.

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aaronmhatch
Yes, to view a dream, users pay the price shown on the left. I thought I
explained how the site works well enough in the "How This Works" section, but
it seems like that approach isn't working. Do you have any suggestions on how
I could better explain this to people? Might it be a good idea to have the
"How This Works" section pop up automatically when people visit the site?

Is the interface confusing to you? If so, what would make it more intuitive?

I'm willing to pay anyone (in DreamCoins) who helps to develop an effective
explanation. You can cash out DreamCoins, so there's real value if you want to
help me out.

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tdeck
One comment I would share; I completely missed the "How This Works" link
because it's in the part of the page where people usually put the name of the
site, and doesn't look like a link. I might be the only person who ignores the
upper left hand corner of a page but it is one data point.

~~~
aaronmhatch
Interesting, thanks. Do you recommend changing where everything is laid out in
the header / footer? Do you initially look toward the upper right?

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bradknowles
So, I'd be happy to share some ideas for free, if that meant I could get a
look at some real entries.

Maybe that would be a way to collect more dreams/ideas that you could then
help monetize?

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aaronmhatch
Hi Brad. After letting users post for free during beta testing, we decided to
charge one DreamCoin per submission to filter out spam and hopefully to
improve the quality of the content.

After you join, you may view dreams that have a value of zero for free. You
also start with one DreamCoin, so you can submit one dream for free
essentially. If people like it, you'll accumulate coins that can be used to
view other entries. DreamCoins are also given to users as a gift at random
times, so that's another way to do it.

~~~
bradknowles
Okay, so how does value get assigned?

Is there a voting or karma process?

If so, do you have to spend DC in order to vote?

Does the poster get a chance to request a certain value for their idea, and if
so does that cost extra DC?

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aaronmhatch
The value starts at 1. The first person to view pays 1 DC to see it. If the
viewer up-votes the dream, the value goes to 2. If the viewer downvotes it, it
goes to 0. The value increments by 1 for every up-vote, and the lowest value
is 0. Too many down-votes at 0, and the dream is forgotten (deleted). It only
costs DC to view. Voting doesn't cost any DC.

The poster cannot request a certain value. All dreams start at 1.

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fiatjaf
I don't understand it.

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aaronmhatch
Hi, please elaborate on what you don't understand. Is the layout confusing for
you? Were you able to find the "How This Works" page; and if so, do you have a
recommendation on making it more clear? Thanks

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allanderek
So in IMHO the fact that this person cannot _see_ any of the dreams prevents
them from understanding. If you really do not want to show non-users any
dreams, why not just have a couple of made-up example ones?

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aaronmhatch
I have an example in the tutorial. As I say in my recent comment, maybe I
should have the tutorial / help section pop up automatically when people visit
the site?

