

Show HN: my weekend project - stumbleupon for videos - stollercyrus
http://cyrolaughs.com/videos/1605610326-1kAG39jKi0lI#.Ts18MnNZiz0

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ashleyw
Does it use any algorithms to figure out what I might like most given my
voting history, or is it just random?

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stollercyrus
It is trying to use your voting history during a session to line up the best
video to show you next without repeating.

It balances certain priorities. It starts by showing you popular videos and
then based on how you vote shows you similar ones, while mixing in new videos
so that they can get profiled.

About 20% of the time it will show you a random video that h received positive
reviews overall.

If people have ideas about cool algorithms to try, I'm all ears. How is it
doing?

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adrianwaj
There was a site called Nowmov (backed by Ashton Kutcher) that did something
very similar, but took videos from twitter as ones to show. It's been shut
down after a number of improvements, it is now called nowbox - a set top box
and tv guide of youtube channels, apparently.

You could let people sign-in with youtube, grab their likes, favourites and
subscriptions - analyze the tags of those videos and try and tailor videos
around those. YT already has a recommendations tab so you'd be playing second
fiddle to that.

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aeontech
You do know about <http://video.stumbleupon.com/> right? :)

Not that that takes away anything from your project of course :)

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stollercyrus
I really like <http://video.stumbleupon.com>, but I feel like I spend 90% of
the time stumbling after a few secs.

I wanted to try to make a site where I want to watch a higher proportion of
the videos all the way through. Figured that it would be a fun weekend
project.

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aeontech
Mad props on sitting down and actually hacking something out :)

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stollercyrus
Thanks. My goals was to release as fast as possible. Probably going to add
accounts so people can get credit for submitting awesome videos.

Figured it would be fun to use even before I had that part finished.

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nmridul
Nice attempt. I had created <http://mustwatchvideos.com> couple of years
before (still running great), just to filter the wheat from the chaff. It is
very difficult to find really good videos from the thousands out there on the
net. Most of the popular ones are either some tv shows or albums, but the real
gems though small in number are really gems.

Edit: One thing to watch out for is the spammy and porn# submissions that you
need to moderate each and every day. Its a huge effort specially when you
accept user submissions.

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stollercyrus
Cool site. Thanks for the tips and advice.

I tried to challenge myself to keep things as simple as possible and to
minimize click count.

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stollercyrus
When my friends and I were sharing videos online this weekend, I realized that
a lot of times we just wanted to have something interesting play. It was a
drag having to rack our brains or look for new videos to watch. Hopefully this
will be fun.

I'd love as much feedback as possible.

Also if you have fun and interesting videos, please submit them.

Added bonuses: It seems that watching embedded videos means that you don't
have to watch ads before a youtube video starts. You also don't need to resize
the video or click play.

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amandalim89
love it!!! brilliant idea!i usually 'stumble upon' videos via facebook when my
friends post anything interesting.

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stollercyrus
Thanks. I'm glad you like it.

Most of the videos that I've enjoyed recently come from friends on Facebook
and Twitter too. Wanted it to be easier to find videos that like-minded people
enjoy.

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FlightOfGrey
I like it, it would be better if it had a few more options your opinion on the
video instead of just awesome or dislike, maybe a middle option would be good?

Also if this is successful and people actually use which I will when
procrastinating, maybe add some other genres like extreme sports, interesting
etc?

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rupzilla
This is pretty cool. I like <http://www.shortform.com/>. You can browse by
keyword then press Play, Pause, Next, and Previous. It's great for people who
want to stumble on videos for some time.

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ofca
cool project! one design advice though. Remove the large yellow rectangle
above the video that shows your history. I like the idea, but dont make it so
dominant, it kinda distracts too much. :)

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stollercyrus
I moved the messages to the bottom. Do you think I should just get rid of the
box all together?

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ofca
super mate! yeah, try it without the box. ill have some free time tomorrow so
ill try to do a little mockup if you want :)

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stollercyrus
Good stuff. I'd love to see a mockup of what you have in mind. Thanks for the
support.

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switz
If I hit awesome, it shouldn't load a new page. It should just vote "Awesome"
through AJAX therefore I can continue watching the video.

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stollercyrus
Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree. Hopefully I'll get that out soon.

I'm thinking that after you click awesome the button will change to a "next
video" button. Is that what you had in mind?

Are there any other places that you think I should be using AJAX?

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cfontes
Nice stuff just spend ten minutes watching it ! keep it up.

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stollercyrus
Thanks for the support :)

