

Ask HN: Review my app: Wappr - bearwithclaws
http://wappr.com

======
bearwithclaws
Wappr is my lil weekend side project (and also my first app!) that provides a
votable list of app requests powered by Twitter.

It's a simple app with the purpose of providing
entrepreneurs/hackers/developers ideas & inspirations on what app to create,
based on feedback from the public.

I would love to hear your feedback.

~~~
antileet
Oh my, I noticed that this app automatically posted something to my twitter
account when I voted up an idea to test it. I am sure this is going to greatly
piss off many people because you're promoting something random on their feed
without telling them. You're venturing into facebook territory where you're
posting something on people's public stream, and _especially_ without even
telling them that this is happening.

This is a massive betrayal of trust, and, in my opinion is something you
should disable immediately, or atleast give people the option to post if they
choose _after_ voting it up.

~~~
bearwithclaws
The settings could be changed thru the top link. Would you suggest that I turn
it off by default?

~~~
rdrimmie
It should absolutely be off by default. The way these things spread is one
tweet that is your message, then the next tweet that says "sorry I didn't mean
to post that". Just make a button or a checkbox that says "Tweet this" and
lots of people will do it. The behaviour should be opt-in, just like email
subscriptions.

------
mscantland
Your app should have a "how much would you pay?" field. The answer is probably
zero for most of these.

~~~
benatkin
It's also probably zero for wappr itself.

~~~
adnam
Meaning? Gmail is also free.

------
sahueso
I'm very impressed that that's your first app. I started programming my first
serious web site recently, before this I just made small sites to learn how to
use CSS,PHP, Javascript and MySql, however I doubt that whatever I make will
come looking as good as that. What did you use? From what or where did you
learn? Another thing, could you please recommend me a book that covers
everything in general about making a site? From programming it to handling
issues like balancing the load between servers, etc. Thanks a lot.

~~~
bearwithclaws
For CSS, I learned most from 'CSS Mastery'; For Ruby on Rails, I'd recommend
'Simply Rails 2'.

I don't think there's any book that covers everything. Server/hosting wise, I
leave everything to Heroku.

~~~
techiferous
"Server/hosting wise, I leave everything to Heroku."

Heroku is great in that it commoditizes the hosting. It's nice for a first
side project but if you're planning on doing multiple side projects I would
recommend Linode.com (or some other VPS). For just $20/month you can host as
many apps as you want (which is a lot if your side projects don't get much
traffic). For Heroku, it's $36 per month per app, isn't it? I have a side
project on their free version but it seems that if it gets two web requests at
the same time it's too much traffic and an error page is displayed for the
user.

Using a VPS like Linode.com is a lot more work but it's actually a plus
because you get to increase your skills while having fun. :)

------
dangrossman
I like the idea. I actively look for "I wish there was a [website, app,
plugin, extension...]" threads in forums sometimes just to get some
inspiration.

In Chrome 4.0, there seems to be white "vote now" text running down the left
side of the page, barely visible against the gray background, after I maximize
the page. It might be a bug that only shows up upon resizing the browser?

~~~
bearwithclaws
Thanks.

Ok, got it fixed (text-indent problem). You must have a really big screen.

~~~
dangrossman
Just a 22" at 1680x1050, they're pretty common now.

<http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php>

~~~
thenduks
It's just that people with resolutions like that usually don't maximize their
browsers (wasting 600+ pixels with nothing but white).

~~~
dangrossman
Do you have anything to back that up?

I have 1.4 billion data points that say plenty of people maximize the window
at least sometimes :)

~~~
thenduks
Are your datapoints from Google Analytics? If so keep in mind that they are
reporting 'screen resolution' not the dimensions of the browser window...

I'm sure you're right though, most users (especially Windows users) maximize
their windows... What I meant was most people _here_.

------
epall
I'm seriously depressed by the number of requests for social networking
aggregators (Twitter+FB+Wave+Buzz or whatever).

~~~
badave
I'm seriously depressed by the number of social networking sites.

~~~
chuhnk
I have to agree with your and epall's comment. Social Networking is over
saturated and we need to move onto the next step, which is doing something
more useful with our "connections" and identities on the net.

~~~
gloob
_we need to move onto the next step, which is doing something more useful with
our "connections" and identities on the net._

I'd disagree, but I know I'm in a small minority. I've never entirely
understood the desire that people apparently have to bring their real-world
identity onto the Net; I've always felt that going in the opposite direction
(trivially changeable pseudonymous identities or just straight-up anonymity)
would be more interesting[1]. Ignoring the oft-cited benefits for political
dissidents, etc., I sometimes feel like we're losing the whole "on the
Internet, no-one knows your a dog" thing, which I find a little saddening.

[1] Though "interesting" (my word) and "useful" (your word) are somewhat
different criteria, I guess.

~~~
chuhnk
"changeable pseudonymous identities" have their place on the internet, in chat
rooms, on blogs, throw away accounts on reddit, etc. But imagine how much
"spam" is accumulated by allowing something like this to occur. Our identities
right now are facebook profiles and twitter accounts, connections being
friends or those we follow or are followers of. What do we do with them? Post
ramblings of what is happening in our daily lives, tweeting about the
something that people may interesting. Millions of us using all this
technology for something that amounts to nothing but keeping ourselves amused.
Think of what we could actually do. I am not righteous by any means or a do
gooder, but with all the connections we form, the groups, the followers, the
friends, the masses that flock to whats cool, couldn't it all be geared
towards helping people?

------
tom_ilsinszki
A single sentence should be enough to describe what Wappr does. It probably
could fit next to you logo too.

~~~
gridspy
A bakery for half baked ideas

Idea nursery

Inspire developers

Make your dreams real

~~~
tom_ilsinszki
My simple guess for that 1 sentence: 'Wish for a Twitter app.'

------
DeusExMachina
Great app!

Some time ago I was thinking about creating something similar. I am one of
those developers that finds figuring out what people want extremely difficult.
But I did not think about it in terms of twitter, so it appears you
implemented it better than I would have done.

A possible way to expand it could be the possibility to tell people when
something already exists or if you are developing it. It could become a good
promotion channel.

------
nathanh
This is a great concept, but it might be more useful if it aggregated problems
people have instead of apps people wish for. From a technical perspective it
would be harder to pull off, but we all know that end users rarely know what
they're looking for.

------
rendezvouscp
It’s a nice little app. Its purpose was fairly obvious to me once I read two
tweets and the design is nice.

Do things automatically get voted up on Wappr if someone retweets a tweet on
Twitter?

It’d be cool if you could subscribe to a particular want or desire; for
example, I’d want to subscribe to anything related to personal finance because
that’s the business I’m in. You could probably even monetize it by offering
more advanced features like that.

------
techiferous
Some design feedback:

* "What is Wappr?" -- the font size and style should be the same for the whole phrase.

* The slidedown should be much smaller. Wrap it in a differently colored box with rounded corners (perhaps a background darker than the page background).

* Add another color besides the light blue.

* Increase the contrast on your Wappr logo (either black letters or darker blue background).

* You have too many font sizes. I would pick three font sizes and stick with them (and make sure the font sizes aren't too close to each other).

* The "sign in with twitter" animation when you click "vote this" is really cool.

* Make the previous/next/page links more prominent (or change them into image links).

* The twitter icon at the bottom of the page needs to breathe (it touches the fat footer).

* I really like the light, simple, zen-like feel of the design.

* Your fat footer spans the whole width of the screen. If your header did the same it wouldn't feel like the page is completely squished into the middle of the screen with unused space on the edges.

* I like the subtlety of the divider separating the list from the header.

------
iaskwhy
I'm a faviconist claiming that every site needs a favicon.

Very nice and simple idea, I've been working with some similar stuff and
believe there's a bunch of work to do with what people say. Given that it's
free what people say on Twitter, etc, I'd say thinkers should start finding
interesting stuff there, even on the most simple 140 characters.

Also, since it's your first app: good work!

------
stuntgoat
Don't stop at ideas for webapps. What about ideas for creating jobs or
reducing environmental problems? I guess you could crank out other sites that
used collective decision making fairly quickly, now that you have the
template. Build a network of these sites and sell it to someone.

If you had groups for people to join it might make sorting easier; we still
have to sort through people with ideas that cannot type URLs in a browser:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1119184>

Also, allow me to unvote. I accidentally clicked on voting for some top app to
see how test how voting worked.

Please don't have me default post to Twitter when I vote for an idea after
logging in with Twitter; that is sort of annoying.

Consider how search engines are going to index the ideas from your users.
Create a URL object for each post and have the relevant content there. ( such
as other users' comments about how to improve the app idea )

How do I submit ideas from the Wappr site?

~~~
bearwithclaws
Awesome idea.

The default post to Twitter settings has already changed.

You could submit your ideas by starting your tweet with the any one of the
following phrases:

“I wish there was an app ...” “I need an app to ...” “I want an app that ...”

------
adrianwaj
This is also a great app to find new users for any particular site that
already fulfils a request. Thus, there could be a field where people can write
the name of an applicable pre-existing app with a note, with that also being
tweeted out to the requesting user. Then, bunch all the notes and source
tweets that apply to the same pre-existing app together.

Ideally, you could also group similar requests together for developers to
approach jointly to raise funds using a note they place below, that also sends
a tweet out once inserted, or, these people can be informed of a suitable app
once launched.

So, you'd be building a directory (eg <http://twittown.com/>) of existing and
proposed apps, tied to the tweets you've recovered, each with user responses
as submitted on the site.

------
lisper
I love it! I think you may be seriously underestimating the potential of what
you've done here.

~~~
lucifer
It is a good idea & there is definitely a potential migration path to a market
place for software development. It won't be trivial but having an automated
classifier to unify similar/duplicate wishes would be very nice.

------
nandemo
This is interesting and hope HNers will use it. Frankly I'm puzzled by
attempts to do startups that are basically targeted at other geeks.

However, there's potential for a lot of "abuse". The top suggestion now is:

 _I wish there was an app where you could report a car whose alarm has been
going on for hours, and car thieves will read it and steal the car_

I hope you don't try to ban that sort of thing, though.

~~~
waterlesscloud
While the requested app isn't something you'd actually make, it's a useful
request in that it's a real problem, and people voting it up indicates they
want a solution to that problem.

The essential trait in a startup founder is the ability to find workable
solutions to problems people want solved. This is the public doing their part,
now founders have to do theirs.

------
dconti
I think it's great. Having organization (so you can minimize dupes and easily
sort through items) would be a great next project and would keep the utility
high. Per the other post, i think you could do a little bit to make it an
interesting source of leads for anyone who tries to solve one of the posted
problems.

Nice work!

------
vais
Please add the ability to search.

------
unignorant
Interesting! Perhaps I missed it, but I feel that you need some way to break
down the suggestions into categories.

Also, of course I don't know your long term intentions, but something like
this would seem difficult to monetize.

~~~
bearwithclaws
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm thinking of categorizing the suggestions using
hashtag (e.g #iphone, #web, #android).

There's no long term intention or any intention to monetize from this. I just
started on programming and wanted something to code for (instead of just
banging on the books).

------
resdirector
Awesome. Should get more and more useful as we approach the singularity
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity> :)

------
stralep
It's a nice site!

My JavaScript was turned off... When I clicked "what is wappr" nothing
happened. Could it be a nonJavaScript friendlier (just a little :)

Nice work!

EDIT: JavaScript in my browser...

------
thenduks
So how do the people wanting something (poster and voters) find out about it
when it gets made (or told about it if it already exists)? Am I missing a
feature?

------
lawn
The site looks good but I'd like it a lot more if it was unobtrusive (works
without javascript). Not a biggie but still.

~~~
smanek
In my experience the cost (in terms of engineering time, if nothing else) of
supporting degradable javascript is rarely worth it for a consumer facing
startup.

The extra "N" hours it takes to support something that a fraction of a percent
of your users will need (which is only a handful of people for a small
startup) could be better used on adding new features, marketing, adding
polish, etc.

~~~
nostrademons
For an app like this, the cost is pretty negligible. First you build the site
so that it's functional (but not necessarily all that polished) in straight
HTML with no JavaScript. Then you add the JavaScript to make it even easier to
use. It falls out naturally of your incremental development process (you do
develop incrementally, right?)

I've done a lot of the works-without-Javascript polishing for google.com, and
it's very far from being our most expensive feature. It's mostly just a matter
of remembering that you have HTML + CSS under all that JavaScript, and that
the HTML does what you intend.

~~~
prodigal_erik
This. Maybe you can get away with useless HTML for a solidly non-technical
audience, but I for one judge it more harshly than broken images and typos.
It's not even hard, just a basic display of diligence and competence.

------
fname
More importantly, is anyone working on an app they see suggested here already?

------
necrecious
Have you heard of appswell? It is a voting system for iPhone app development.

------
vinhboy
clicking "what is wappr" should toggle slideup slidedown, not just slideDown.

~~~
bearwithclaws
Had it fixed. Thanks.

------
maxklein
Do you do this with the twitter API?

~~~
bearwithclaws
Yes. I use this fantastic Twitter gem by John Nunemaker:
<http://twitter.rubyforge.org/>

------
abraham
I still don't know what it does...

~~~
lucifer
Don't you wish there was an app that reviewed "review my app" submissions and
posted what it did on HN?

------
diN0bot
how do i post an idea? would be nice to have an input box on the website.

------
ddemchuk
Oh man I was loving the css work on the site until I hovered over What is
Wappr?...please please tone down that blue drop shadow when you hover, it
looks like a bad mistake because of the amount of blur.

Otherwise, great design!

