

Feeback on my new site, please... - jamesvito
http://digidorm.com/

======
gstar
I like your cool retro logo.

First impressions:

\- It just looks like a blog, and I didn't immediately get it.

\- Seems to be a group-blog-per-university (isn't that market stitched up by
facebook?)

\- I looked around, still going "huh?" and clicked on your intro video,
watched it for 30-40 seconds of cartooning, and I still didn't get it.

~~~
jamesvito
Hey Gstar - essentially, Digidorm is a tremendous blogging system. But members
don't just comment - they create the content - kind of like Allvoices, which,
along with Digg and Technorati, were models for the function of Digidorm.

The University List is HOPEFULLY the first clue to visitors that the site
drills down to many individual universities.

"Hmmmm" on the video not communicating the sites intention. Perhaps you have
some advice on how to amplify my efforts to communicate that?

And I think - professionally and personally - that FB has bascially become
Twitter Jr. I don't think the groups satisfy the need of both the community
members (students, faculty, parents, advisors) to be forthcoming about their
real experiences (one big reason is anonymity, which Digidorm provides) and
the universities to engage in well-archived citizen-journalism about the
university.

Does that make sense? I'd enjoy answering any more queries/critiques.

~~~
gstar
It might be worth making those about/university/help links under your logo
significantly bigger - I missed them on first view.

You don't get much attention time on the web, get in there -fast- .. a 10-15
second video is probably much more appropriate for an intro.

------
pbhjpbhj
You need my "ancestry" for me to register. Is that user driven or do you just
get more money for the db with ethnicity info, it has a "*" in the sign up
page; <http://digidorm.com/user/register> .

The page loaded very slowly for me, YSlow report 5000 DOM objects on the
registration page ??

Asking for a matriculation or student ID might reduce signons from non-
students even if you can't verify them - once you have some you'll be able to
create a pattern.

I was impressed you had an apparently comprehensive list of uni's - I thought
Open Uni might catch you out - you should play this up "every Uni" and
emphasise the global nature of the site.

Your CC link at the bottom strongly suggests a CC-license but none is made
clear; this suggest to me you're trying to con me in some way.

Advertising being the top of a main menu listing (Services) suggests that the
point of the site is to make you money with targetted ads. That may be true
but you perhaps want to be more subtle about it.

Edit: the logo ain't retro it's horribly 80s corporate looking. The colour
scheme is bland. Align that search box or I'll go mad! The guy in the suit is
not a good try at a hero shot - hot coeds is the standard. What are you doing
to avoid astroturfing?

Just my initial thoughts from a couple of minutes contact.

------
jamesvito
Hey - I wanted to add a bit about my post to have my new site Digidorm.com
critiqued by the Ycombinator community. I'm a brand spanking new start up -
went live a little over 4 weeks ago. I spent 3 years working at Arizona State
University, did my masters in social media marketing, and then consulted for a
while with universities around the country. I realized that ALL universities
want social media, but for copious reasons cannot accomplish a coherent
presence (lack of resources, silo-ed workflow environments, high turn over, et
cetera). So I created one core social media site for EVERY university on the
planet that I could find. I'd like to have feedback about the function of the
site mostly - is it intuitive? does it add value as a core social media
presence for higher education? Yes, it's light on content, but I just went
live - does the site somehow communicate its intended values? would you use a
site like this?

------
adriand
I'm not one to nitpick over spelling, but since it's your tag line, I thought
I'd mention that "Its your university" should actually be "It's your
university" - as in, "It is your university".

I mean, geez, what are they teaching in university these days anyway? ;)

------
kevinholesh
Do you need ads on there right away? I think you should try to build up some
readers and contributors first. When I see ads on a brand new site, I really
question their motives.

It's fine to monetize your site, but wait as long as possible until you do.

The "Share/save" thing automatically popping up is really annoying. If I rest
my mouse there for a second, it pops up and confuses the hell out of me and
usually gets in the way of the video I'm trying to watch. Have your viewers
click on it to bring it up.

------
myoung8
Brutal honesty: the site's design is terrible. There is no call to action, the
page is WAY to cluttered, and there is no sense of visual consistency.

UI aside, what is the goal of this site? Why would a college student use it? I
couldn't find a good reason from the 10 seconds or so I spent poking around
(and that's more than most people will spend)

------
zaidf
What you currently have is a blog.

From reading your comments, you want to let uni folks open share stuff. I'd
start with working at a grassroots level with people at a COUPLE of unis to
make the site useful on those campuses.

I am against the idea of mass launching on a million campuses. My experience
says it's a recipe for disaster.

------
ewingpatriarch
_way_ too much text. Users don't read[1].

\--

[1] :
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000062....](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000062.html)

------
systemtrigger
Nice name, gutsy vision. I see this is for anyone associated with a school, to
participate in a group blog. That's a big group of potential users. I drilled
around a bit and notice you've put a lot of work writing copy, under the hood.
There's an inherent chicken-and-egg problem with these social forum projects
but with your social media skills I'm sure you could climb that mountain. My
focus on the site itself would be to think about how to articulate message in
a more obvious way up top.

------
JimmyL
Like many have said, it is unclear what your site does/where the content comes
from.

Also, fix your spelling - the sub-banner "Its Your University" should be
"It's".

------
proee
What problem are you trying to solve by creating this site?

~~~
jamesvito
First, its supposed to give students/parents/advisors/alumni - the REAL people
- who have to navigate a universities multiple obstacles/administrative
hurdles the power to publish about what is really going on. Essentially, it is
meant to take the 100% share of the authority to project the universities
reputation away from the marketing dept and distribute it more evenly amongst
non-employees who have lots of information to share.

Second - after years working with universities, specifically on technology,
social media, and their intersections for broadcasting authentic messaging
about the university - I realized that many universities wanted/needed this
type of tool, but were lacking resources to build it and keep it coordinated.
So I built it for them...and for the students/parents/alumni. Like many social
media sites, Digidorm.com is meant to create a place where true stories about
a service/products can be shared and learned from.

~~~
luchak
I still don't get it. You've described an abstract issue: universities have a
fair amount of power to control what messages about them are disseminated. But
what are the use cases? Why would I want to visit your site? Give us a couple
of specific examples, preferably in the form of stories.

Also, I would say that the interface needs to be revamped. Right now it's just
confusing: it looks like a blog, none of the posts are even marginally
relevant to me, and I have no idea how to get to any content I want to see --
or even what that content might be.

I could see a case for the existence of some sort of university-targeted Stack
Overflow-like site. Basically public Q&A boards for particular universities,
structured by topic, and with a good method for pulling useful content to the
top. Maybe this already exists and I don't know about it, or maybe it's not
what you're going for, but I at least know why I would use it.

------
recurser
If you could get a list of IP addresses somehow, it would be handy to direct
users straight to posts about their particular university (assuming they're
accessing from on-campus). I couldn't see the university list on the iPhone -
you might already be doing something like this.

------
jamesvito
Wow - thanks for all the fast feedback. I will respond tomorrow, but for now I
definitely have the clue that the sites function and purpose need more in-
your-face presence and explanation. I'll jump on that quickly.

