
Tell HN: Breakup Notifier is now Crush Notifier - theli0nheart
http://blog.crushnotifier.com/
======
Dilpil
Heres how people actually use this application.

You get crushed. Now you crush everyone you know of the opposite gender to
figure out who it was. You then email the person who crushed you. But she only
crushed you to figure out who crushed her...

~~~
Ganthor
It's the exact same thing as <http://adore.ly>, a Facebook app that's been out
since the beginning of January.

~~~
solipsist

      "Over 50 friends have been connected on adore.ly"

------
il
I'm really reluctant to bash someone else's project, and I think Breakup
Notifier and its developer are AWESOME, seriously.

But I'm a little surprised that you pivoted from an original and successful
idea to an unoriginal and derivative idea.

I must have seen half a dozen Facebook-powered crush sites like this, several
of them on HN as a "review my startup". None have taken off. What's to stop me
from crushing on everyone just to see who likes me?

Isn't the anonymous crush site sort of like the to do list app that every
developer thinks they can improve on?

Perhaps a pivot to a straight up dating site/monetizing with dating ads might
have made more sense.

~~~
simplify
What's the problem? Most of the difference between success and failure is
marketing. This is a great way to take advantage of the momentum of his
previous application.

~~~
zaidf
Yep, marketing and nuances.

 _But I'm a little surprised that you pivoted from an original and successful
idea to an unoriginal and derivative idea._

Your priorities are not aligned with the developer's, me feels. You are
worried about being "original" and not derivative--both only tangently related
to financial success, which is what the creator seems to be after(and good for
him!).

~~~
il
Maybe, but if he redirected that traffic to a crush affiliate offer, he would
be about $20,000 richer right now. Just saying.

~~~
zaidf
Now you're talking :)

------
zaidf
What about charging people to find out who has a crush on them?

The idea is, if someone _really_ cares, the other party should be ok with them
paying to find out.

Give the user 3 free guesses as to who may have a crush on them. Then ask them
to buy credits for additional guesses ;)

When I tried this, we had users taking _hundreds_ of guesses. We were trying
in Thailand so implementing the whole payment/credits system was too much.

------
AndrewO
Definitely not a new idea—I remember something like this running through the
dorms in 2000. Still, it's a good example of using the existing notoriety to
pivot and the Facebook integration is certainly something we didn't have back
then. In any event, good luck!

~~~
thorax
Yeah, be careful though. I remember an app like this on LiveJournal that went
wild. Then they came back and told people they could buy the list of all the
people who have a crush on them for something like $5. Lots of embarrassment
ensued.

------
alexophile
There was a series of these back before facebook, and >50% ( I would guess
somewhere in the 90+ range) were just traps that sent a list of your crushes
to whoever set it up.

~~~
theli0nheart
I promise you that won't ever happen with Crush Notifier.

------
joe_the_user
Isn't the first thing that happens that the person who someone has a crush on
gets a request by the application "crush notifier" that it wants access? And
isn't the second thing that happens nothing, because the person doesn't give
access to the semi-creepy app? (I've got ten other apps wanting access
already...)

------
Zakuzaa
Orkut has this feature built in right from the start.

------
mootothemax
I'm not sure if you accepted Facebook credits in your previous app, but if so
I'm guessing this could be one of the reasons Facebook banned you - from what
I rememeber of the credits API page, you're only allowed to use them on canvas
applications, not ones that use Facebook connect.

------
rohanprabhu
They had the exact same thing on a social networking site called 'orkut.com'.
It's surprisingly owned by google, and I mean 'surprisingly' because that site
belongs with the scum of the internet. Anyhoo, this idea is not at all
original...

~~~
eps
Why the scum comment? I haven't followed its evolution closely in past years,
but from what I understand Orkut managed to attract a lot of users when it
launched, but failed to retain them. Novelty worn off, everyone left. With an
exception of Brazil, where it is still hugely popular.

------
redthrowaway
Doesn't even work. I see instructions telling me to crush my friends, and no
link with which to do so or anything on fb itself.

------
kmfrk
That's so great. If I could, I would totally throw some money your way as an
investment.

------
methodin
You could always set this up for its current purpose then use the information
to power the other to bring it back from the read. If you don't mind breaking
their terms of service at any rate.

------
adaml
Some MIT and Harvard students recently started a site that does pretty much
the same thing but has a way better name:

<http://nchoosetwo.com>

~~~
Miller450
This is different "You can use nChooseTwo to anonymously suggest matches, and
to see matches your friends have suggested for you!" You match potential
couples on that, versus on <http://crushnotifier.com> you pick YOUR crushes.
Both are good concepts.

------
salemh
Allowance of a "crush" only on a dating site % similarity of a "personality"
test perhaps.

------
dezwald
great stuff theLi0nheart! I love your no quit attitude.

get knocked down 6 times...get back up 7.

~~~
a00021
Related: the "fall down 7 times, get up 8" meme does assume you're starting
from a knocked-down situation.

------
Miller450
back to where it all started!

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vicngtor
well isn't this exactly same as adore.ly except adore.ly has a much better UI?

------
jorgem
Way to go! Don't let the man get you down.

------
jdp23
good pivot.

~~~
samtp
nice swivel.

~~~
jdp23
Kind of interesting: my "good pivot" comment was sailing along pretty nicely,
up to +6. After sampt's comment started getting voted down so did mine.

------
d0m
Argh, I didn't really like to see the "Here's my new app" at 4/5 of the
article. I understand that opportunist people like to leverage situations..
but I don't like the fact that this article has been ranked first on hacker
news. I mean, the first reason I go on HN is because of the "Smart Filter".
More precisely, I have trust in HN users that only good articles are shown.
(Like I try to only upvote good articles thinking that other HN will like
them). I'm disappointed.

