

Review my startup - shouldget.com - empire29
http://shouldget.com

======
buro9
I think there's a lot of space in this area for time to be factored in.

Some of the questions on there already are really moving targets... the answer
changes as the market reacts.

An example might be "What netbook should I get?" and with the amount on the
market what was once a no-brainer (Samsung NC10) changes (HP Mini 210).

So you have this staleness factor that will creep in and reduce the value of
the whole site as people will learn to distrust the answers.

If you could somehow factor in time it would be a real benefit.

And I don't mean "Sort by time"... because then if you have a stack of "What
iPod should I get?" you'll be encouraging frequent duplication from people who
want a current answer.

Maybe consider actually showing when the votes were placed so that over time
you could show how the target moved.

~~~
empire29
The more i think about this, the more i agree it is a crucial aspect -
especially since the site focus on tech which is inherently a fast moving
industry.

thanks again for the feedback.

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empire29
Thanks - I would like to keep the design as clean (read ad-free) as possible.
I plan on monetizing via affiliate links to the products users are asking
about, as well as possible intelligent product recommendation which could also
be affiliate driven. The last thing I want to do is have an obtrusive
monetization mechanism when there are transparent options, or even options
that add value (recommended products, featured products (that are actually
good), etc).

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tbgvi
I'm just curious, is there a particular reason that you suggest another
browser to people using IE? Other than your personal opinion?

I don't really think that's adding anything, and if anything it will have
people using IE bouncing without giving it a try. I only took a quick look
with IE and everything seemed to work fine, so I don't really get it.

That being said I think this is a nice, simple idea that's pretty valuable. I
like it.

~~~
encoderer
Agreed. If you're serious about a business, this kind of ideology doesn't have
a place. And it's not just the suggestion, it's the wording, it's
condescending.

IMO, given the choice, you should opt for graceful degradation. But past that,
for any browser that will simply not work on your site, keep that bar and
rework the language.

What you're doing here... it seems the same to me as saying _"McCain? Really?
Maybe you should vote for a good candidate like _Barack Obama_... And don't
worry, he's not a terrorist."_ Save it for your personal blog. It doesn't
belong on a business website.

~~~
empire29
point taken - ive removed it.

also, this isnt a "business" site -- this is a side project that i was hoping
other techy people would find useful.

i do appreciate the feedback!

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ccollins
This is a fun idea! Here is a quick design suggestion. The actual voting page
(<http://shouldget.com/questions/17/votes/new>) is the most important page so
you should spend some more time on it. The design should guide users along a
path. Right now, the description / voting box / comment box are all visually
equal (see <http://i43.tinypic.com/35bz5gm.jpg>). This is bad because users
don't know what to do.

Here are the decisions everyone is required to make before voting:

\- choose which box to check

\- should I visit that external link to apple?

\- oh wait, am I expected to explain my vote in this huge text box?

\- OK I'm ready, wait a minute, I don't even have to vote. I can just view
results.

I think this page should be optimized for gathering a vote. Get rid of all the
other distractions. Without votes, none of the other features matter.

~~~
empire29
ccollins,

Very much appreciate the feedback!

\- I add the external links to the product incase voters arent quite sure what
each product is. For things like the iPad that are "well known" I agree, its
extra and may be distracting, but if the question was about two different
motherboards, as a voter I would probably need to look at a product page to
make a informed vote.

\- I was hoping the "Optionally, explain why you voted the way you did" would
let folks know it optional, but you do have a point in that many people dont
"read" when on a page. I was hoping putting the comment box under the buttons
and the arrow would help people realize its an option, but not required.

\- I have the just view results because I would (as a question asker) have
people that don't have insight on the answer not vote rather than toss up a
"bogus" vote just to see the results.

That being said, i think you have some valid points in around optimizing the
page. I really appreciate the feedback.

------
natch
Great idea, and nicely done!

One thing that really bugs me about it: it's yet another site built on the
flawed assumption that popularity equates to quality. I would love to see the
site emphasize pro/con points for each product more, and completely de-
emphasize the voting or popularity ranking feature.

The best products usually are not the most popular. I prefer to pay $50 more
for better shoes, or $20 more for a better flashlight, or $200 more for a
laptop that has features the other laptop does not have, like a magsafe power
cord. But the majority of people instead choose mediocre products, and you end
up with the votes actually detracting from the solution (because people tend
to claim they chose the best product for the money, even when they didn't).

Great start though.

~~~
empire29
Thanks - any thoughts on how to rank pro/cons? It seems like it would be a
manual process. Is the ranking or pro/cons something you think users could
"vote" on?

Interesting observations.

~~~
JoshTriplett
Many people might come to the site asking the question "which laptop should I
buy?". However, that doesn't mean they have the same question, because that
question has a variable in it: "I". The laptop _I_ buy as a computing
professional will differ greatly from the laptop someone else might buy.

I think you want to direct all people with that question to the same page, but
then make it easy to distinguish themselves and their criteria with simple
statements. For instance, under "Which laptop should I buy?", you could then
have distinguishing statements like "I use my laptop more/less than 8 hours a
day." or "I care more about weight/screen size.". Make a game out of it, and
simplify the ranking process as much as possible. For instance, put the
question at the top ("What laptop should I buy?"), put two "person" icons on
either side of the page each with a speech bubble saying "I use my laptop more
than 8 hours a day." and "I use my laptop less than 8 hours a day.". Then,
users can drag laptops under the left or right user icon depending on which
statement fits the laptop better.

You don't necessarily even need opposing statements on the same axis; if you
let users categorize laptops between any two arbitrary statements, you then
have the information that user U believes laptop L better fits statement S1
than statement S2. Put enough of those together and you can derive some useful
information.

Then, when a user wants to _ask_ the question "which laptop should I get?",
they can rank some statements they agree with, and get a laptop that fits
those statements.

~~~
empire29
I 100% agree that each persons situation is the critical aspect. If it wasn't
review sites (since they are usually general) would be able to fill this
niche.

The idea behind the slider on the Home page wasn't to make people think there
is 1 question they should look at, but rather let them see all the questions
other people have asked about that item (laptop). Maybe it would be better to
have "clicks" on the slider to take the user to the "Ask a Question" page.

------
tsally
Just FYI: this is what it looks like in Firefox with NoScript:
<http://i.imgur.com/b85b2.png>. Javascript can be required for a site, but
usually layout is built so it looks ok without it.

~~~
empire29
yup - think its a problem with the jquery slider plugin im using. ill go back
and see if i can fix that up with some CSS.

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eagleal
People based recommendations sites, get a lot of spam when they grow. Eg. A
company spamming on the competitor products, and things like this. It's a too
much populated space.

In my opinion, focus on a niche, like recommendations for engineers, or make
it as a complementary to Octopart (YCW07, search engine for electronic parts).
And if you do great, then you may apply to YC.

------
gcheong
I like the design.

A couple thoughts:

What is the incentive for people to provide recommendations (votes, comments)?

Why would I get better recommendations from here vs. Amazon reviews or any
other review site specific to the items I'm considering vs. a knowledgeable
friend?

~~~
empire29
You ask some tough questions - ill do my best to answer.

1) the incentive.. to be nice person and help other people out, and possibly
appeal to people's desire to give advice and be listened too? Maybe having
accounts, and public "status" (ala stackoverflow) might help incentivize use?

I was tossing around the idea of adding tags/categories - and using some
metric to designate the "mayor" (ala foursquare) of that category/tag and then
people that are very active could be "candidates" or something .. i dont know
about the terminology, but something to highlight active/respected (have to
figure out how to compute what "respected" is) users.

2) My personal experience is consumer reviews are the best reviews. Be it
amazons/newegg's product reviews, or forums. "Commercial" review sites can be
good (Toms, etc.) but its difficult to get a comparison review between
products. You generally have to do a bit of leg work because most of these
reviews aren't juxtaposing several products saying which one is better, and
also so much of the choices depend on the particulars of your situation.

Sure, you can eventually figure out what the best option for you is, but it
can, and often does, take a long time to do. Alot of the time I just want well
informed people in a particular niche to take a glance at my general situation
and say "This is the best option for you"

------
MichaelGG
"Internet Explorer? really?"

Really?

~~~
aresant
I agree - the color and top bar you chose for IE8 (which is a conscious
decision - use the tools your audience uses!) distracted me to the point that
I didn't get much further.

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CoryMathews
Kind of surprised I have not seen this before. Its a good idea and you
implemented it quite well.

------
ericwaller
I like the concept, but when I clicked on the "blackberry smartphone" example
I got no search results
(<http://shouldget.com/search/?q=blackberry+smartphone>).

~~~
empire29
eric,

thanks - fixed that .. There are still relatively few questions since this is
the first real public exposure outside friends/family.

------
tdoggette
Why is search behind a link? It seems to me that that might be one of the main
things people want to do on the site _first_ \-- see if anyone's already asked
about what they're looking for.

~~~
empire29
Good point .. its behind a link because it was an easy place to put it :)

I think ill make a search field in the interim that appears in the right
sidebar on pages, and look for a more permanent spot in the header for it
later.

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abecedarius
_Checkout these recent questions_

"Checkout" is a noun. "Check out" is the verb.

 _Helping you find best technology products & services around._

Missing a "the"?

~~~
empire29
danke - all fixed.

------
a2tech
Nice clean design-what are your plans for monetizing it?

~~~
idoh
It ought to monetize really well with ads because the users are intenders.

------
TrevorBurnham
Looks nice. Similar to Bestcovery: <http://bestcovery.com/>

~~~
empire29
Thanks! its a similar concept to bestcovery, hunch, retrevo,testfreaks, etc.

The reason why i dont care for those sites very much is they are so generic,
and because of that, have a hard time really addressing and comparing based on
the particulars of each person's situation.

I would compare it more to a yahoo!answers specifically for tech
prods/services, or even a stackoverflow system geared more towards tech
products/services.

------
jseifer
I'm not really sure how you'd thoroughly fix this but clearing your cookies
lets you vote multiple times.

------
djb_hackernews
This would be super easy to do with stack exchange.

How much time did you put in to it?

~~~
empire29
This is a project I did to learn Ruby on Rails. Im sure I could've done it
faster with the stack exchange framework. I started it about 4 months ago and
i worked on it on and off, did a redesign, learned how to run a VPS (which is
awesome btw, any non-.NET dev who programs for fun (not work) should pick up a
cheap VPS!) under linux ... In terms of hours its hard to say. It certainly
wasnt the most efficient process since I did everything on my own and much of
it was a learning experience.

------
antidaily
I like the idea. I get asked weekly about laptops and cameras from friends and
family.

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truebosko
Remimds me much of <http://hunch.com/>

~~~
empire29
I've seen that site before .. I just never have good experience with the
psuedo-intelligent recommendation engines.

In my experience so much revolved around the particulars of your situation
which seem to be very difficult for a computer (and sometimes even humans!)
reduce to computable data.

But i agree, its like hunch, or yahoo answers, or any of the other
recommendation sites out there.. I just wanted something good for tech so I
could ask about what watercooling kit i should get for my gaming rig, or what
not.

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singer
You linked to an IE article from July 29, 2008. Really? Welcome to 2010.

~~~
empire29
Man .. I knew poking fun at IE would come back to bite me

Touche on the date ;)

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fnid2
The gray text is too hard to read.

~~~
empire29
fnid - thanks - anyone else of this opinion?

I can see where youre coming from on some of the smaller grey fonts.

~~~
encoderer
Yes, in the "Checkout these recent questions" section. All the gray text there
is difficult to read. Right now it's blatant form over function.

The darker near-black gray text you have seems fine to me.

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rgiar
very nicely focused on the tech space. attractive, will use :)

