

Show HN: Klavado.com – instant, free meetup creation without login - etewiah
http://klavado.com

======
faitswulff
This is great, though I wonder if the social dynamic of the participants
deciding when and where to meet actually works. I'm a meetup organizer and I
find that it's difficult to get anywhere in event planning with a
decentralized decision making process.

I have a few other thoughts as well:

\- It was difficult to figure out where to start typing to describe my meetup.
Instead of just an ellipses, a more standard input field would be instantly
recognizable.

\- I noticed that if you load the site for the first time, the blinking cursor
is on the meetup description, but if you tab away, it loads a map, at which
point there are two input fields. Then clicking in the map input field is
futile - it places the cursor back into the meetup description. But it looks
like there is only one input field, so it can be quite confusing.

\- Using the user's current location would be great.

\- I didn't see "How it Works" at first, probably because I tabbed away and
the map view expanded. But besides that, there's a lot of vertical space
that's not actively helping the user understand the site. If you eliminate a
lot of the negative space, you could end up with essentially a text input
field (a la Google) and the description:
[http://imgur.com/uY0F27D](http://imgur.com/uY0F27D)

\- Speaking of which, I think the description should mention what you as the
user have to do, instead of what happens. "You get a unique url to share with
participants" should be "Enter your meetup description and a location and
you'll get a unique url to share with participants", etc.

Overall, great work! I like the workflow.

~~~
etewiah
Wow, if I could give an award for the best feedback it would go to you ;) You
even included a screenshot - awesome!!

I wonder though why you think the social dynamic of the participants deciding
might not work. Surely the best time and place will most often be the one that
most people go for.

\- good point about the input field. I actually spent a lot of effort trying
to make it look the way it does but you are right, its probably confusing at
first glance.

\- yes, I should only show the second input if the first one has something in
it. Will fix that.

\- Will use location detection eventually but not a priority right now.

\- Totally right about the wasted space. Thanks a lot for that!

\- Also right about the text.

Wow, don't you want to work with me on this. You're just the kind of person I
need to work with ;)

~~~
faitswulff
I'm unavailable for anything non-trivial, but let's connect anyway? You can
shoot me an email - just reverse this address moc.gnukemllac@nairb. Happy to
provide this kind of feedback whenever and give more detail about why I'm
concerned about the social dynamic.

------
rhubarbcustard
The flow for creating a meet is slick and works really well. I was actually
surprised that it found the pub I was suggesting to meet at so quickly and
easily. Nice work. A few suggestions:

1\. When I can "Invite people to suggest places and times by sharing this url
with them" it would be great if there was some kind of pre-populated email
that could be send that contained a blurb about the meetup and some info on
how they would use the link they have been sent.

2\. When I return to the site as someone who has been invited it is not
immediately clear if I need to do anything, maybe a big "Yeah, I'll attend"
button?

3\. Could the meetup page show who has been invited and who is attending?

~~~
etewiah
Thanks for the feedback @rhubarbcustard

re 1: Yes, I will add some default text about how to use the site which can be
edited before sending. In fact, I need to do more explanation generally but
for now I'm going with the simplest implementation.

re 2: I'm currently working on the basis that when someone 'thumbs-up' a
place, it means they will attend. I'll re-think that today. Maybe I should
have an attend button for those who don't care about the place but wish to
attend anyway.

re 3: It is currently possible to add a comment saying '.., .. and .. have
been invited' Will that not do the job?

BTW, have you got anything to do with Rhubarb radio at the custard factory in
Brum? I'm based in Brum myself ;)

~~~
personlurking
Perhaps the invited party can comment to say they're going, though it'd have
to be mentioned that this action is expected of the user. Even if it's just
their name as a comment...but it starts to lose value if no one knows who that
person is (only among friends would it make sense). If not just among friends,
there might be a field for a link to one's preferred social network profile,
for verification (by the organizer).

I also dislike the collaborative feature because, as another HNer mentioned,
it isn't too conducive to a smooth meetup process.

If someone selects 'attending', is then asked for their first name and then,
optionally, can add a one-time pic of themselves (rendered slightly larger
than a thumbnail), that'd help too. The only issue with that is then you'd
obviously have to deal with logins, passwords, etc.

~~~
etewiah
Yes I think there is quite a distinction between how groups of friends would
use this app and how people who don't know each other beforehand would. I'm
aiming more for groups of friends (or at least people who would recognise each
other's name and have little motivation to give wrong info). For such people
who want a quick tool with no hassle around creating an account, adding
pictures etc I think klavado could be good.

------
etewiah
Ah, and just to give a bit of background. I've been working on various ideas
to help people find interesting places for a while now. My main project is
actually this (which for now is mainly being publicised in Birmingham, UK):

[http://chattymaps.com](http://chattymaps.com)

I then realised that with just a little bit of tweaking, I could use that same
codebase to help people organise informal meetups so that is what I'm trying
with klavado.

Soon I'll have to decide which of the 2 implementations has more potential.
Will be interesting to hear what others think.

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vitd
I _love_ the concept. I cannot tell you how much I hate sites like evite that
need to know my email address and spam me and show lots of huge ads.

That said, I think the name is terrible. What does it mean? Is it significant
in some other language (than English)? This may just be my age, but when I
read it, it reminds me of Clamato -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clamato](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clamato)
\- a disgusting clam-and-tomato-based juice drink. Probably not an association
you want to have with your site, though maybe not a problem for your target
demographic.

~~~
DiThi
It sounds exactly like "nailed" in Spanish, but with K instead of C.

~~~
etewiah
Yes, the original concept was for the Spanish market but I thought I'd try
using it with this anyway.

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adamc
This looks useful -- wish it had a better name ("klavado.com" might not be
that easy for English users to remember.)

Minor nits: Would be nice if "end" was obviously optional, and start could
start at a more intuitive time than midnight. Also would be a nice touch to
show the local timezone (e.g., EST or whatever).

But I think it is an awesome start.

~~~
etewiah
Yes, I have struggled with names. I also own moodleboard.com and I thought of
using that but I think klavado.com is better.

Thanks for the pointers about the timepicker - you are right. I will update it
later this week.

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brute
I tried to find out, how many countries use a 12h clock instead of a 24h
clock, but the best I could come up with is Wikipedia:

 _" The 24-hour clock enjoys broad everyday usage in most non-English speaking
countries, at least when time is written or displayed. In some regions, for
example where German, French and Romanian are spoken, the 24-hour clock is
used today even when speaking casually, while in other countries the 12-hour
clock is used more often in spoken form."_

and this link: [https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/34950/which-
large...](https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/34950/which-large-
countries-use-12-hour-time-format-am-pm)

~~~
etewiah
Wow, good point - I hadn't even thought of that. I'll consider using the 24h
clock instead.

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NellyFurtado
I´ve been looking for something like this. I really like it. One use case, but
very specifically optimized for that. I love the simplicity. Agree with most
of the improvements already mentioned, but given this is v0.1 (props for
launching early!)...keep it up!

~~~
etewiah
Thanks for the big up Nelly ;)

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superplussed
So the term "meetup" has become been "kleenex"ed to the extent that it is OK
to use it in the marketing of a project meant to compete with meetup.com? I
like the project, I just find this interesting.

~~~
etewiah
ha ha - yes I realise its a bit of a buzzword. I initially thought of klavado
as a 'place polling app' or a 'doodle.com for places' but I found most people
I showed it to just saw it as something for planning meetups so I just went
with the flow...

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jarcane
Back button hijacking is the devil.

Please don't do that.

~~~
etewiah
mmm, not sure what you mean. Its just regular emberjs pushstate. What did you
experience with the back button that you did not like?

~~~
jenskanis
I'm not able to return to HN from your website by clicking the back button.

~~~
etewiah
Ah okay. Thanks for pointing that out. Its my mistake. The link I've posted is
to [http://klavado.com](http://klavado.com) which immediately redirects on the
client side to [http://klavado.com/welcome/easy-
meetup](http://klavado.com/welcome/easy-meetup). When you click the back
button you return to klavado.com but that immediately sends you back to easy-
meetup. My apologies - that is a mistake on my part - I will fix it and push
that change out tonight.

------
bttf
Great app, great UX and nice use of what looks to be liquid-fire. One
question; the feedback bar you have fixed on the side; did you accomplish that
by using any specific ember addons?

~~~
etewiah
Well spotted, I do indeed use liquid-fire - and I will make better use of it
in the next iteration. The feedback bar is actually quite independent of the
rest of the site: its from uservoice.com ;)

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slashedzero
This is excellent! One feature that's a definite that I couldn't figure out
quickly: a "find meetups near you" button!

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juhq
Some thoughts:

* Map marker should be draggable

* Email invite

* Facebook share / invite

* Optional signup

* Friend list for members

* Ability to easily invite friends to meetup

* Fix the medium resolution

~~~
etewiah
Hey @juhq, that's great feedback - I really appreciate it.

Apart from the first point, they are actually all things I'm working on. I
wanted to put it out there now just to get an idea of how useful people would
find this tool and how much effort I should put into it. Would also be
interesting to hear what people think should be my priorities.

For now, the next thing I'll work on is to allow people to get notifications -
basically an option to provide an email address to which I can send a maximum
of 1 message a day if something happens in the meetup.

As to a draggable map marker, I don't really see the value in that. When you
add a place, people can vote on that place. If the marker gets dragged to a
different place later, the votes become meaningless.

~~~
vitd
FWIW, I would not use the site if it required me to enter other people's email
addresses. I would also advise my friends not to use it as I wouldn't want
them to enter my email address into it. I don't know if not being able to
enter email addresses would make it a non-starter for your typical user, or
not, though.

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romankolpak
Very interesting project. I found the UX pretty solid.

Although, I couldn't zoom the map with my mouse wheel. Is this intended?

~~~
etewiah
Thanks romankolpak - and this is version 0.1, hope to improve on it soon ;)

With the map zoom, I set this on my map: "scrollwheel: false". This was
because it was annoying on tablets and mobiles - without that set, when you
try scrolling the page on a mobile with the map where you touch the screen,
only the map would move.

Perhaps I need to detect when the user is on a mobile or tablet and only then
disable it....

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mokkol
This site is awesome! Great work etewiah!

~~~
etewiah
Thanks mokkol, I appreciate the appreciation ;)

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iagorodriguez
Love the tool but, I think it could be extremely useful to add recurring
events

~~~
etewiah
Good point, thanks. Will consider adding some concept of a collection of
meetups. This will allow users to group a bunch of meetups in one space.
Within than collection a particular meetup could be set to be copied to
different dates.

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joaquinmunoz
Klavado.com is awesome! Congrats!

