

HN, Remember you said go out and talk to people? I did: InsidersTalk.com - snitko
http://insiderstalk.com

======
docgnome
Would be nice if there was an rss feed to download the interviews. Probably be
prohibitively expensive for just one person to handle though. I love the idea,
I'm just sort of afraid I'll forget about it.

Actually, audio podcasts would be really awesome. Love to be able to listen to
them while I walk to work.

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placer14
Fantastic approach. Love the simple, easy-to-read layout.

Idea: Maybe you could make certain interviews "open" where you invite your
users/readers to submit their own follow-up questions during the next few days
after it posted to the site. These follow up questions will spur discussion,
your interviewee might agree to answer these questions after the deadline, and
you'll create a "stickier" site that readers can enjoy until your next
interview posts. ;) Great work.

~~~
snitko
If I understand your suggestion correctly, then it's already done. It says
_[name] is also answering your questions in comments_ and all interviewees so
far agreed to answer the audience questions in comments. So go ahead and ask
them.

~~~
placer14
Sorry, I noticed this when reading more thoroughly through the site. (I get
over-excited with suggestions sometimes.) Looks beautiful, still! Thanks
again.

EDIT: A few suggestions while finishing your most recent interview (Space
Shuttle Engineer).

\- The video puts you pretty far from the camera and makes it feel very
distant. You might "engage" your audience more if you filled more of the frame
by being physically closer to the camera or zooming in. I suggest having your
head fill the top 3/4ths to 2/3rds of the frame instead of dead-center as
Douglas sat.

\- You cover your mouth a few times while listening to the response. Try to
avoid this, you seem anxious.

\- Smile. A LOT! It makes you charismatic and puts your viewers and
interviewees at ease.

Hope this helps.

~~~
snitko
Covering the mouth looks weird indeed. I wasn't anxious, but it definitely
made me look so. Oh, well, I'm new in that television business. Learning.
Thanks for the tips.

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fbnt
Good job Roman, I enjoyed Mallette's interview. I'm not sure if having a
completely heterogeneous set of guests is a good idea, rather than focusing on
smaller niches. This way I feel like there are low chances that I'd be
interested inyour next guest. On a positive note, the simple layout looks
really effective to me.

P.S: I know it's a bit off-topic, but knowing Roman is Russian, I'm impressed
by his american accent, I wonder how he got to achieve that. I'm Italian, I
have lived a bit in UK in the past, and now when I speak English I sound like
the Queen on crack, and there's no apparent way to fix my pronunciation.

~~~
philwelch
I get tired of hearing about nothing but startups. Maybe talking to someone
who's awesome for other reasons, like an ultramarathon runner, would be
refreshing and just as inspiring.

~~~
dillydally
How this 20-something kid made millions!!! Next on Mixergy.

I'd love something like TED but more informal.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
NPR - fresh air

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yrashk
Brilliant idea! Now if you can add content indexing (i.e. a sort of ToC) for
each interview, that will be just purely awesome!

~~~
snitko
That's a very good idea, thank you. I think I'll do it.

~~~
mrtron
Keyword tagging can be great for SEO if you do it right.

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jorangreef
Well done Roman, keep it up and you'll have something great. To make it more
intimate, what about filling the whole screen with the subject? Tarantino does
that, he keeps the dialogue going in the background with the camera fixed on
the subject.

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kmfrk
Love the concept. Looks like Ask Me Anything from reddit - yet better.

I would replace the blog description immediately, though; it might have been
five years ago when the internet was new and everything, but "things" and
"stuff" in descriptions is like nails on a blackboard to me.

~~~
snitko
In fact, IAmI is where I found 2 of the 3 interviewees so far. Any suggestions
on description?

~~~
kmfrk
Hmm, when I first saw the website, I thought something along the lines of
being at a dinner party sitting next to the most awesome guy with a story to
tell. It also reminds me of how David Foster Wallace overcame his phobia of
going to parties; he used his love for learning and told himself that there is
something to be learnt from everyone.

On another note, you should create a separate Twitter feed specifically for
news and updates pursuant to the siate.

~~~
heinel
That reminds me of a show, where in each episode, the host interviews a
celebrity in an upscale dinner setting. Beside the very enticing gourmet
meals, the topic also focuses on various aspects of the interviewee's life.

I think a good way to fix the I'm-not-sure-I-want-to-watch-the-next-episode-
because-I-might-not-care-about-the-topic problem is to have one aspect of the
talk focused on a specific theme, so that people can have expectations.

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hoop
How often will interviews be posted? Weekly? Bi-monthly? As often as you can
get content? In any event, I've subscribed to your RSS.

~~~
snitko
For now it's weekly. The next one is scheduled for Friday and I'm going to
post it on Monday. Hopefully, I will be able to do it even more often.

~~~
prawn
With a loose schedule (once a week), you may risk losing viewers who forget to
return. What about scheduling something relevant for almost every day of the
week?

    
    
      e.g. (and just making this up as an example)
      Monday - new video goes up
      Tuesday - you moderate/seed/encourage some commentary and follow-up questions
      Wednesday - interviewee responds in a specific follow-up entry (bit like Ask Slashdot or whatever it was)
      Thursday - maybe a text-only interview by email/IM, or a guest spot/entry?
      Friday - three curated links of similar about-my-job articles or links (e.g., Reddit)
    

Admittedly, that does impact the simplicity of what you have now, but I do
think a finer schedule could help your stickiness.

~~~
snitko
I don't have much to lose yet, with all the success on HN I have only 2
feedburner subscriptions so far. But your advice is good, I will definitely
give it a thought.

~~~
prawn
I gave your site a plug on Twitter. Not the sort of thing I would return to (I
don't really like video on the web), but I like the idea and effort. Would
definitely keep an eye on it if there were transcripts but, to be honest, it's
not a service I'd pay for. (Same goes for Mixergy though I barely remember to
skim those transcripts and usually just read some bullets/highlights if
available.)

You could look at paid spots though, especially if you had more than one
interview a week. A tech company might pay your hosting bill for the month if
allowed to feature one of their developers?

Another thing might be trying to complement a HR service and make yourself
valuable there. Can't think of anything off the top of my head, but a bit of
brainstorming might uncover something.

~~~
snitko
Thanks for the plug on twitter. I definitely don't mean viewers to pay me for
watching interviews, that's absurd. Also, my current hosting bill is $20 a
month and I see no reason for me to ask anyone to pay it. What I'm interested
in is growing the project to the level when I will be able to make something
even more interesting out of it. That requires some established audience.

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howard_yeh
i'd love to see some hacker news ppl being interviewed

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makulia
Awesome project! It will be great if you can provide text version of interview
under video version!

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kmfrk
I just remembered something important regarding the use of Vimeo. From the
usage guidelines (<http://vimeo.com/guidelines>):

># Do Not Upload Videos Intended for Commercial use

>* Businesses may not use Vimeo to externalize their hosting costs. Vimeo
(including Vimeo Plus) is not a business service.

>* You may not upload videos containing ads before or after the video, unless
given prior written permission from an authorized member of the Vimeo staff.
Videos with any advertisements in them, including links to commercial sites,
regardless of content, will be removed.

>* We reserve the right to allow certain commercial content for those
businesses who have coordinated sponsored advertising campaigns or direct
partnerships with Vimeo.

To which extent this applies to your project in its current and future is
debatable, but I would make sure it doesn't catch you by surprise, in case you
haven't already. :)

~~~
snitko
It does not apply to me for now. I'm not using Vimeo for commercial purposes
yet. If I ever want to place ads, I'd probably switch from Vimeo to my own
hosting.

~~~
kmfrk
I know, but you are externalizing your hosting costs by using Vimeo, and I
haven't seen anyone use it like you do. I was just wondering how their rule
applies.

~~~
snitko
I pay for the vimeo account, so I'm not exactly externalizing costs.

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horacegrant
Insider stalk? That sounds no fun.

~~~
camiller
That was the first thing I thought when I read the headline. Ranks up there
with Who Represents (www.whorepresents.com) and Pen Island
(www.penisland.com).

Edit: I still think it is a good idea, but the domain name lends itself to
obvious jokes.

~~~
mnemonik
I thought everyone learned this lesson after expertsexchange.com... That has
to be one of the oldest running jokes on the net.

~~~
snitko
Not being a native speaker it never occurred to me and all my native speaker
friends to whom I mentioned the domain name never said a word. I think maybe
it's not all that disastrous.

~~~
mnemonik
Totally agree that this case isn't that bad at all. Just thought that most
people were familiar with the running joke about expertsexchange.com.

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paraschopra
I watched one of the videos. Great Job, Roman!

~~~
snitko
Thanks, I appreciate that.

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mrtron
Very interesting content!

Maybe do what mixergy does and have some info about the interview and a
transcript?

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TeMPOraL
Wow... I'm sitting here, mentally mapreducing the HN RSS, barely awake, and
then this news item pops up, I load the page and I'm like: "...ee... WHAT?".
Then I got flooded by the wave of excitement and pleasant emotions. Awesome
idea! :). Though I'm too excited to go to sleep now :(.

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arihelgason
Really cool - reminds me of a book I still enjoy picking up from time to time
called 'Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium'

It was spun out from a column on word.com back in the .com days.

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js2
Made me think of <http://thestory.org/>

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olegk
Needs interview transcripts.

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spoiledtechie
I really enjoyed the Air traffic controller interview..

~~~
snitko
Me too, I think Airon is a great person. It was a great pleasure to interview
him.

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danielnicollet
nice concept. what's your biz model if you have one?

~~~
snitko
The business model is to get some traction with an interesting content, then
figure out the business model.

~~~
kmfrk
Fusion Ads or The Deck Network might very well want to place their ads on his
site.

