

Ask HN: Review my website soundkey.com - sendos

This is my first website, and it is in alpha version, but functional. It would be great if I could get feedback on (1) The idea behind it and (2) The website itself (layout, etc)<p>Thanks!
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giu
Nice idea, nice web site layout, nice presentation. Now to my questions. How
do you ensure that a common word (e.g. 'Bruschetta') is pronounced _right_?
Can user obtain a certain trust level (like Translators over at Twitter), so
they can approve the correctness of a pronounced word? Or, expressed in a more
general way: how do you fight trolls (Yes, I'm quite interested in spam/troll-
fighting techniques :)?

~~~
sendos
I think that barring any obscene sounds, all variations on a word will be
allowed. So, Bruschetta might have several entries. However, I'm planning on
adding user voting (1-5 stars or thumbs up/down), so if there are many
variations on a word pronunciation, we get to see which are the most popular.

Because, after all, it's interesting to see how a word, say, "Nuclear" or
"Tomato" is pronounced around the country or around the world. (I may add a
geographical location field, so the speaker can identify where they live
and/or where they were raised)

For trolls or people who just want to submit obscene or "gag sounds" e.g. the
sound "dish" for the entry under the title "tomato", I will be adding a "flag
this entry" so people seeing the bad entry can flag it so that I and/or some
moderators can review it.

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amix
Why not use unique URIs, like: <http://soundkey.com/165pgx> or
<http://165pgx.soundkey.com/>

Seems to be easier than having users copy-paste keys around.

~~~
sendos
As of now, the website supports soundkey.com/key/165pgx

I need to figure out how to make soundkey.com/165pgx work, and I will be
adding that feature when it's ready (I guess I can use .htaccess to redirect
whatever comes after soundkey.com/, but I'm not sure how not to redirect
actual pages of the website, e.g. soundkey.com/browse-sounds. Maybe by moving
all website content to a subdirectory, e.g. soundkey.com/site/browse-sounds)

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kjf
This is a great idea. Simple to understand and well executed. An API would be
hugely beneficial. I think that's where it could really take off.

~~~
sendos
Yep, I will be adding that.

Can you guys recommend the preferred technology to use? I'm new to this field,
and I've heard about different ways to go about this, e.g. JSON. Are any of
the options superior to the others?

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soyelmango
Wow, I love the idea, and you're definitely targeting a problem that faces
many people.

My observations:

\- Why is the intro text set as an image? I know you have alt-text there, but
it just seems an odd thing to do now-a-days. Also, when I send links to people
to recommend they have a look, I often copy-paste the blurb to explain it. I
can't do that easily with this.

\- Soundkey is too new a concept to just add it to a design as "soundkey:
XXXXX" - not everyone is curious enough to find out what a soundkey is.
Encourage users or designers to place it closer to the difficult words. A hint
would make it clear that help is available "How to pronounce my name: go to
soundkey.com/XXXXX" - in other words, promote the help first, and soundkey
second. Over time, I see this has the potential to become a generic (as in
hoover)

\- Provide an easy to copy link, much like how URL shorteners present you with
the entire link to copy. Currently, I have to see the key, remember or copy
it, browse to your site, then enter it (...into the _little_ box at the top
right of soundkey) What I'd prefer to do is copy and paste the URI that takes
me straight to that soundkey. Every thought, click, key press makes people a
step less likely to use Soundkey.

\- I'd swap positions of "Tell it like it is" and "Soundkeys in action" - the
business card image tells me straight away what you do, without having to read
the description. In fact, highlight the addition of the soundkey on the 2nd
card. Just imagine that users are completely lazy - they don't want to read
the text, they don't want to play 'spot the difference' between the two cards.

Honestly, great idea, and keep us posted on your progress.

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JangoSteve
This is pretty cool idea, and the "SoundKeys in Action" slideshow was
definitely helpful.

It seems like the ubiquitous use-cases you're aiming for will rely heavily on
the trademark as well. Have you successfully trademarked "SoundKey" for the
many uses you've illustrated? I'm just curious, because it seems like a very
obvious description of what it is (like trying to trademark "WebDesign" for a
web design company). If so, then that's amazing and I think this has the
potential to really take off.

On a lighter note, the pronunciation of "Waves crashing on the beach" is
hilarious: <http://soundkey.com/browse-sounds/58-waves>

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Roridge
I often just use Google dictionary which spells the word phonetically or just
plays the word to me.

However, I like your idea that you can embed the sound key into something
else, and have sounds which are more like audio semiotics. (audiootics?)

They layout could be more compact, specifically on the browse-sounds page. Why
not just put the player to the right of the word on the same row. OR hide the
player all together and just have a speaker button.

A future idea might be to create a clever algorithm to highlight the syllables
as they heard, or the sound being played like a progress bar over the word.

Good luck.

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evlapix
The thing I appreciate most about the site is the "SoundKeys in Action" slide
show. My imagination didn't get me there, but your slide show convinced me
this was a necessary service (for somebody) almost immediately.

I think this is a great "outside the box" idea, yet still grounded in that it
solves a problem.

I hope it is very successful.

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jrnkntl
clickable: <http://soundkey.com>

I like the idea, you should provide an API so that websites that teach
languages can hook up with that.

Bug: your last sample ends too early

~~~
sendos
Yes, adding an API is on my To-Do list

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Alex
Here ya go
[http://opinbot.appspot.com/reviews/show/agdvcGluYm90chwLEhVy...](http://opinbot.appspot.com/reviews/show/agdvcGluYm90chwLEhVyZXZpZXdzX3Jldmlld3JlcXVlc3QYyWUM)

