

What happened to TinyProj? - mentalbrew

I signed up for it when it came out. Weekly I received an email. After a while the list of jobs became shorter and shorter. I don't think I've received one now for a few weeks. Anybody else experience this?
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kylebragger
Sorry for the silence, here's the scoop:

Over the past few weeks, the number of _quality_ inbound projects has dropped
substantially. I have a few theories as to why, but as MattBearman mentions,
an email mentioning the lack of projects probably would be a good move.

The biggest challenge now is getting quality stuff coming in on a regular
basis. I'm also working on fixing a few of the more painful interactions on
both sides (talent and project owner).

Admittedly, my weakness is figuring out how to spark growth while at the
bottom of the "shark fin"
(<http://www.longevitas.co.uk/site/images/Shark.png>) -- the initial buzz has
died down (though, interestingly, we're getting double digit signups a day
still), so organic inbound projects aren't happening much anymore, and the
ones that are have been disappointing generally.

I hope to have more updates soon.

~~~
ohashi
I will be honest, I sort of expected this to happen. I've worked with a lot of
freelancer/project sites over the years and brought 1000's buyers/sellers into
those sites. The biggest problem is finding the buyers. Now tinyproj aims to
filter buyers, which makes it even more difficult to keep a steady stream of
work coming in.

I don't think it's a chicken and egg problem, people go wherever the jobs are
quite easily and fast. Finding those jobs is the challenge. I wish I could
offer you some advice on that front but the ratio of realistic expectations
and budget jobs to $20 facebook clones is pretty low. It's hard to brand or
distinguish your quality versus a place like oDesk when they are almost as
equally faceless (actually oDesk et al may even do a better job selling their
talent with reviews/ratings/info).

I think you need to focus on the buyers, the workers are the easy part of the
equation.

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MattBearman
I was planning on posting the exact same thing HN.

I've had the same experience, the last email I had was 2 or 3 weeks back, and
it only had one job on it. I'm guessing the projects have dried up, I hope
only temporarily.

I'd much prefer it if I still got an email saying 'Sorry, nothing this week',
the silence is unsettling...

~~~
kylebragger
You're totally right - I actually didn't want to bother folks with an email,
but I think it's warranted at this point.

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MattBearman
As this is back on the first page of ask hn, I thought I'd point out that
tinyproj seems to be alive again. I got an email on Saturday with 2 projects
in it. Glad to see it goIng again.

