

Ask HN: Help beta test my startup and possibly win $50 - tyohn
http://unbig.me/contest_3_1_10.php

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tyohn
If anyone is at all interested: Almost all the traffic from HN skips the ads
via the "Click to close and continue" link at the top right - while the
majority of Twitter users let the ad run for a full 12 seconds.

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scumola
We're an impatient group. :)

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CoreDumpling
Seeing that you require an email address, the first thing I looked for was
your privacy policy. Unfortunately, the lightbox screen doesn't scroll in my
browser (Opera 10.10) so I couldn't skim through all of it.

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thinkbohemian
Use a disposable email address!! I'm a developer on one (whyspam.me)!

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matthijs
You're service has some nice features, I happen to have also created a
disposable email service :) dispostable.com

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thinkbohemian
seems like disposable email is the new web-programmer's "hello world". Just
wish someone told me that before i started mine ^_^

I like your interface, very clean. How do you plan to monetize/keep-it-going?

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matthijs
Yeah there are quite a few out there ;), most of them use some kind of
template php script though (they all look alike).

For now it will run like this, no ads, we mainly use it to test new stuff that
we might use in the future for other projects.

For example the smtp server is custom to make sure it can handle huge amounts
of mail (to learn some more about writing high performance servers). Also the
realtime "new message" notification system is written in node.js which we are
now using for different projects because it works so well.

~~~
thinkbohemian
Cool, keep up the good work and viva privacy!

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earle
There are also very specific legal requirements for running contests of any
type. I would suggest contacting an attorney!!

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tyohn
Thanks!

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cj
This isn't a startup.

I don't think you'll find many people willing to annoy their followers/friends
with advertisements, even in exchange for some pocket change.

~~~
tyohn
I think your vision is a little short sighted. I think business could use this
on their own social media sites and alike.

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cj
I don't quite understand what you're saying. Do you mean businesses that are
on Twitter and Facebook would use this to make extra money?

I'm not sure if that's what you meant but if so: Businesses are on
Twitter/facebook to try to connect the current/prospective customers in order
to encourage repeat business. Adding advertisements to short links would
detract from that mission.

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tyohn
The site also lets you connect/link your own ads to display with the short
links you create. For instance say I ran a retail business... I could "target'
my own links to display my own ads. So when a user clicks on an one of my
unbig.me link in the retailers Twitter stream - one of the retailers own ads
could display.

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ErrantX
I run Chrome with an ad blocker - the test link gave me a blank screen with a
non-obvious loading meter in the top left (which said click to cancel on
hover).

Seeing as a large number of people use ad blockers that's not a great UI
experience - quite a few people could even click back/close because they think
it is the page their visiting loading.

~~~
tyohn
That is a very good point. I've been thinking about that issue for awhile now.
Thanks for the input.

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sjsivak
Am I the only person that really hoped "unbig.me" was a weight-loss related
app? And the banner at the top reads "Use unbig.me to to shorten your link and
earn $". Obviously you should remove the "to to" and overall that just feels
like someone talking in txt to me, which I hate.

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tyohn
You're not the first person to tell me that. If the concept isn't successful
I'll change direction to a weight-loss app :)

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olalonde
Can anyone explain me the value of URL shorteners? I never understood this
"cool" trend... OK, they're useful for SMS (that's why it's so popular on
Twitter), but what else ?

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danskil
Hmm...i got a casino advertisement...to a news website doesn't seem too
targeted.

~~~
tyohn
Yeah it's by no means perfect but I am working on it. And I need more
advertisers to match more effectively :)

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tyohn
I’d appreciate any thoughts about the giveaway and or the concept. Thanks!

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vkdelta
'possibly'

