

Ask HN: Getting product feedback on Hacker News... is there a better way? - paulnelligan

Hi all<p>I'm putting this out there because I think that HN is probably the most important forum for getting feedback for new web products and interacting with like-minded folks who can help.<p>So,  recently I launched a pre-beta of my all-important web app.  My first web app,  and I was salivating at the prospect of putting it up on HN, getting feedback,  and generally leveraging all the power that HN as a community has to offer to improve upon it and make new connections.<p>I put months of work into the application, and HN was a large part of my launch plan.  It would be the moment when all my hard work would pay off and I could show it to my contemporaries around the world,  to gain some really valuable knowledge about my own product, and make new connections. Slightly romantic notion,  I know.  But I must admit to being an idealist.<p>So,  when I finally did post,  it got one upvote,  and quickly disappeared.  My disappointment was significant.<p>I've been thinking about it more recently,  and have come to the conclusion that there must be a better way of using HN for this purpose. Perhaps it's possible to establish a new list for those asking for feedback for their products ?<p>HN gets hundreds (or more) of new submissions per day,  but the most interesting and significant (IMHO) are from those on the coalface launching their products.  Surely they deserve a little bit more recognition (via their own list),  because they've put months of work into their submission ?<p>I know we use the tag 'Ask HN' and 'Show HN' for our posts of this nature,  but these tags aren't always related to new products.  Perhaps there's another solution ?,  for example,  a different tag for these posts,  e.g. 'Review HN',  or whatever works - this is merely a suggestion (but a good one I hope).<p>I would love to know other people's thoughts on this.  And if it's a question of putting some work into it,  I would gladly volunteer a few hours to help make this happen, in whatever shape or form people think is best.  I believe that HN is an amazing service and community,  but even with that in mind, it's open to improvement and change for the better.<p>Thanks for reading<p>Paul
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smiler
Hi Paul,

Is that just the way the cookie crumbles? Personally I haven't submitted
anything, but I do click the 'ask' section and read through / upvote.

Maybe the title of your original submission didn't catch people's attention -
it didn't state what the app did?

Secondly, task management is obviously a popular category and everyone has a
differing opinion on the best way to do it. It's also something that most
developers have knocked up themselves at some point, so it's not 'novel' per
say.

With regards to your functionality - Microsoft Project does tree-based tasks I
believe? (Although that's obviously a different market)

I watched your video - you could make it a bit snappier - you demonstrate the
hierachy twice over with fb and twitter - you probably only need to do it once
- or you could just say "I'll also add a couple more here" and do it really
quickly. The less you can trim off the video, the better.

The completion / uncompletion works well, with the filtering and also the
prioritisation - some nice neat little UI touches.

I wouldn't pay for it though as my personal preference for a to-do list is a
piece of paper with a list :)

~~~
paulnelligan
Hey

thanks for your comments. I agree completely.

I feel that having subtasks in a web-app is pretty novel, since I haven't
found another app that uses this type of functionality - I kind of understand
why now - it's a bit of a nightmare to code.

The video could definitely be snappier. In fact, I'm doing another version as
I type.

Thanks for your feedback.

I still maintain that showing web apps on HN is something that can be improved
upon, if we could just get a concise list, it would be fantastic. There
wouldn't be so many submissions, since it takes a good deal of time and effort
to submit an app :)

cheers

p.s. I also still use pen and paper, but I find nift.ie a very useful solution
for myself personally in many cases.

------
ryanto
> So, when I finally did post, it got one upvote, and quickly disappeared. My
> disappointment was significant.

We've all been there, trust me. This is actually a good way to tell if your
app is needed. Float a small working version around HN and other sites, if
there is little-to-no feedback then you know the market does not really need
this app.

I know it sucks when you've invested countless hours into this thing, but
getting no feedback is actually valuable feedback.

~~~
paulnelligan
sorry Ryan, I can't agree with you there.

There could be dozens of indications either way that state that your app is
either needed or not needed. Lack of upvotes on HN is the least significant of
those indications that I've seen personally.

In the end, I value customer (or potential customer) feedback far more.

~~~
kineticac
if you're looking for upvotes and horrahs just for the sake of "great idea,"
it won't be here on HN. If this service helps and benefits the HN community,
you will get feedback. Like you said, value real customer feedback.

If your glory was hinging on HN feedback, I hope they are your main target
users. If not, then it's not a problem at all.

