

Ask HN: Please review my StartUp - reiz

Please review my Start-Up VersionEye: https://www.versioneye.com/. I would like to know what you think about the idea. How do you like the landing page? Any ideas for improvements? Your feedback is appreciated.
======
ThomPete
_VersionEye allows you to follow software libraries and talk shop with other
developers._

This should be up there in the top, slightly re-formated to something like:

"Follow software libraries and discuss their progress with other developers"

Ditch the whole _"it's like this and this for that"_

Never lock yourself into other peoples definitions and never assume people
know what yelp or twitter is (unless your product is an extension of those
services)

~~~
reiz
Ok. That is helpful. I will refactor the landing page a little bit.

------
yesimahuman
I like what I think you do, but I agree with the other people here, add some
more concrete explanations of what it is VersionEye does.

1) I searched for "zlib" which is something I needed recently for Python. zlib
comes built in to Python, but I think you could include it in your results
anyways since it's kind of a toss up what comes prepackaged and what doesn't.

2) I tried to filter and the filters cleared and showed me the old results
again.

Good luck, I think it's a really great idea. I search for different packages
like this all the time, and it's a PAIN.

~~~
reiz
I put zlib on my ToDo list. I just saw that the language filter is broken.
Sorry for that. Tomorrow it will be fixed. Up to them. You can just add
"lang=Python" to the URL, to make it work. I will write a RSpec for that.

I know that it is pain to search for packages on Google. Because there is just
to much noise on Google.

Many Thanks for your Feedback. I will continue to improve it.

------
StavrosK
I found out about what it did by sheer luck, because I scrolled down enough to
see the description. Also, what's the graph on the front page? It doesn't
change no matter what I do.

~~~
reiz
Thank you for your feedback. Was the search field not clear enough? The graph
is the dependency graph for Ruby on Rails. It's standing below the the graph.
You can click on the nodes. But if that wasn't clear to you, I have to change
the landing page.

~~~
StavrosK
Well, I saw the graph and expected that I could plot dependencies for
arbitrary packages, but looking a bit more revealed that it's a site for
staying up to date on new packages. I don't know how I can plot the
dependencies of other papackages, or how that ties into the app...

~~~
reiz
In the login are you can upload your gem file and VersionEye is showing which
of your gems are outdated. The dependency graphs for your own projects is
coming soon. Also an embed button, so that you can embed the graphs into your
own pages.

------
x3c
Hey,

I'm getting application error. You must be making some changes.

BTW why are you linking https for the landing page? It'd work just as well on
http.

~~~
reiz
I am sorry for that. I didn't changed anything on the page. I guess the reason
for the error is here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4180543> Amazon
was down again.

It is not much slower with https, but the configuration is easier. GitHub is
doing the same. By default https.

------
franze
you are not google (yet) - explain what you do, what you offer - in one or two
catchy sentences above the fold.

other than that: cool & interesting idea - still a few bugs in there (i.e.:
[https://www.versioneye.com/search?lang=&q=coffeescript](https://www.versioneye.com/search?lang=&q=coffeescript),
select boxes on the search box don't remember their setting)

~~~
reiz
You are right. I am not google. I thought that the search field and the
language icons would be clear. But if not I will add some description. Thank
you for you feedback.

------
ojr
incoporate twitter bootstrap or jquery ui, front end tools are getting better
don't get left behindd

~~~
reiz
Yes. The twitter bootstrap framework looks pretty awesome. Right now I am
using the blueprint css framework. But I think I will switch to bootstrap.

------
yashchandra
clickable <http://www.versioneye.com>

------
yashchandra
I am honestly lost and do not understand what your startup does.

~~~
reiz
OK. It's a search engine for Software Developers. You can find Libraries and
additional information. And you can follow your Libraries to get notified
about new versions. How would you design the landing page for that?

~~~
StavrosK
I would put the description higher up. It's pretty clear, just hidden.

~~~
reiz
OK. I will do that. Many thanks.

------
AlaisterL
application error?

~~~
reiz
Sorry for that. I didn't change the app. But Amazon AWS was down again:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4180543> I am considering to move away
from Amazon.

