

Feedback on Idea: dashnine.org - raffi
http://kindling.dashnine.org/

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raffi
Hi, I've been floored ever since discovering this community. A group of people
with similar interests to mine that I didn't even know existed. Finding this
community led me to an idea. What if there was software to help people find
communities? Especially those who want to promote something. After doing some
reading on correlation algorithms, I put together kindling. Let me know what
you think. ~~ Raphael

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tstegart
Interesting. Is this a side project or a portfolio piece? Or are you looking
for feedback on how to build a business on it?

~~~
raffi
Right now this is a tech demo. Looking for feedback on the idea itself. If I
find I've hit a nerve (i.e. a problem others want solved) then I would like to
move forward with the business building route.

~~~
tstegart
I think the idea as currently implemented would have low usage. Not that its
not technically incredible, but I would put it into the category of a hobby
site rather than a business. Its a fun thing to do, but people have many, many
ways of finding different communities, and actually, its kind of fun to search
through the different ones until you find something that fits you back. Are
you a TechCrunch person, a YC person, a DIGG person? All of them? Its kind of
an emotional thing to find a "community." In order to go from hobby site to
business you'd need to get people to come back repeatedly, and searching for a
new community just isn't something a person does often. The numbers for a
business just aren't there.

However, with any problems, there are always ideas for solutions. For example,
if you really did want to turn this into a business, you'd have to solve the
problems above. Find people who would search for related communities often,
and who want to do it quickly and with good results.

I think one idea would be to focus on your notion of promoting something. The
people who do this for a job are PR or media placement people. They might need
this sort of thing. When they have a client that wants to get the word out, or
wants to advertise to their audience, one important consideration for a P.R.
or media placement person usually is" "well, where can we find their
audience?" A company might tell them, "well, this is where we usually go to
tell people what our new product is." And a P.R. person could use your site
and say "have you tried X, Y, or Z too?"

So thats just an idea. Obviously, tuning the site to P.R. people and seeing if
it makes sense is a lot of work, but thats really what separates a business
from a hobby. This is exactly where you run into the classic hacker's dilemma
(ok, its not classic, but it sounded like a nice phrase): turning your mad
coding skills into something that people actually want. It can be a coding
marvel, but until people actually want it, its not a business.

It sounds like you have the skills down, you just need an idea. Apparently,
around here they're a dime a dozen, so if you're here to build a business,
your execution skills will come in handy.

~~~
raffi
Thanks for the well thought out reply. I'll post the link to Sphinn.com (a
Digg-like site for PR/Marketing folks) and get their take.

Part of my goal getting involved here is to find potential partners. Has
anyone used HN to do that?

~~~
tstegart
I assume so. People post stuff all the time looking for founders or new
employees.

