

Show HN: My craigslist erotic section replacement - p01nd3xt3r
http://www.localstrange.com

======
Bud
The reason that Craigslist is popular is because there is no BS involved. It's
plaintext. You click on something—it loads. It does not ask you where you are
or try to sneak info from your browser. It doesn't stop loading while it's
doing goofy Microsoft stuff. It doesn't stop loading while it harvests your
personal info. It's dead simple.

I'd suggest you emulate this, above all else.

~~~
d3x
nah, this is more for fun than anything. And Geo loc is not sneaky microsoft
stuff. All im doing is detecting your location.

I made this in a weekend by myself so I think its pretty cool even if everyone
on HN thinks its lame. Thanks for the suggestion though.

~~~
Bud
I don't mean to be all negative or rain on your parade; it's just that you
presented this as a replacement for a certain pat of Craigslist. But what you
appear to be designing is something very different. It won't really attract
that audience. And in particular, I agree with other commenters that people
browsing such a service explicitly do NOT want the site harvesting their
location info. That's an example of something they'd want to avoid.

~~~
d3x
I dont think its very diffrent; the goal here is for girls to check in and
then you can find them via search and video chat / txt or call them. Thats the
same value prop that CL Erotic section had. If you are saying you dont like
how I am going about that then that is possibly a valid good point. Are you
saying bad product or product / market fit? This is my first node project and
it kind of took a few twist and turns but whatever... I might just make it
something else if that does not work out.

~~~
qaexl
I would like to at least know what I'm getting in trade for allowing the app
to know my location. As it is, I load the site, it displays a blank page with
a weird icon on the left, and it immediately asks for the location ... and I
have not done anything yet.

------
byoung2
I got this error:

IP-0AF2C18B HTTP www.localstrange.com C:/psc/htdocs/default/index.php

Not very erotic...

~~~
dlsspy
To be fair, not much would make me feel dirtier than PHP on Windows.

~~~
d3x
Leave off the www and just go to localstrange.com

Sorry about that I had the dns setup wrong and www. was going to the wrong aws
instance. Its fixed now. I had to update from this account because i'm using
noprocrast and cant login as p01nd3xt3r for a few more hours.

The whole thing is writen in Node w/ Mongo. I hate windows & probably could
not get php running on windows either.

------
sbisker
The minute I type in "blonde" or whatever, the first thing Chrome does is say
"The browser would like to know your physical location" before it even begins
loading the map. I feel like if I was trying to be discrete about my erotic
actions, I'd be inclined to click "no".

More concerningly, the entire page stops loading before you make up your mind
(since the whole page is a google map, I'm guessing?) - this makes it look
like you have to say "yes" in order to use the website at all. You may want to
look into trying to get parts of the site to load first that make it clearer
that getting your location is an optional part of the experience.

~~~
d3x
it should not ask for loc on the search page. Ill fix that.

~~~
mgkimsal
well, it's not on the _search_ ('home') page, but as soon as you type anything
it takes you to the map and that's when the browser asks for location.

I think another reason CL does so well - in all services - is that it allows
me to browse wherever I want - not tied to my current location.

~~~
rhizome
One of my favorite things about CL writ large is that they don't try to be
smart, they just organize things reasonably so that people can more easily
find what they're looking for.

------
zbanks
The geoloc thing is _very creepy_. If I'm on this site, I don't really like
the idea that it knows exactly where I am (even if not _exactly_ ).

It might be better to have a button/link to enable it.

------
p858snake
"You must share your location in order to use this application. Refresh the
page and share your location with the application if you wish to use it."

CL was a no shit, simpleish text layout website, yours can't even be
advertised as a CL replacement, It's something else entirely .

------
p01nd3xt3r
You need 2 people. You are red dots they are green. My to do list.

1\. limit the zoom level so you can see users block but not exact location

2\. Integrate twilio for anon phone / txt capability

3\. Fix search and check-ins... hacking on this now. I am entering this in the
twilio Holiday Hack contest.

------
rrival
Clickable: <http://localstrange.com/>

I question using a search box for this - wouldn't categories be much much
easier for everyone?

~~~
d3x
I am not sure; possibly but I wanted to do something different so i did it
this way.

~~~
rhizome
Which is it then, something new, or a Craigslist section replacement?

------
woodall
Some sort of text chat capability would be useful. It is also a bit slow; that
may be the user's fault though. All in all, I really like it!

Linux users remember to add localstrange.com to your local settings if not
prompted:

[http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplay...](http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html#118539)

~~~
thinkdevcode
I agree, I dont have a mic and webcam on the current computer

------
thinkdevcode
this is so amusing watching the green things pop up all over the map! I am so
lost on what I am doing though...

~~~
d3x
click the green dot to chat w/ that person.

~~~
thinkdevcode
what does the green marker signify? What does the box at the top right do? the
textbox spotted @ textbox ?

------
d3x
OK i need to make it so that there are chat statuses and you can see when
people are available.

~~~
Bud
No. This is an example of what you do NOT need to do. If you try to make it
some giant glorified chat app, it will fail utterly.

~~~
d3x
I just mean make it so u can see when people are available so u dont click and
just wait. What else do you suggest.

