

Review my new site, EndAnts.com, please. It's supposed to make you happier. - zackattack
http://www.endants.com

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alaithea
The front page gives me no idea of what I will get by registering, so it's
hard to commit to getting an account. (Maybe that would have been remedied by
the demo people seem to be mentioning.) It also does nothing to explain what
the site does or how it works, other than a vague goal.

~~~
jey
I agree. I would like to see a couple bullet points or sentences explaining
how the site will end "ANTs" for me. I don't want to sit through a demo video.

~~~
zackattack
I hear you guys loud and clear. I'm going to work on redesigning the homepage
ASAP. Thank you.

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edanm
Honestly, I read the site, nodded my head, but then realized I couldn't get
any info on what your application does. At that point, I left.

You should consider having _some_ kind of description/screenshot on what your
specific product does.

~~~
zackattack
Great idea, I will make that clear & add some sort of visual as well.

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Ravenlock
I walked it through (without registering) and thought it was interesting, but
was surprised to not see any summary of my input at the end, or analysis
provided, or anything other than to be dumped back to the start page.

I mean, a certain amount of the point is self-evident by its asking you to re-
evaluate your original statements and feelings, but I feel like it's an
exercise I would do once, learn or discard, and then never need the website
again after that. What further functionality is planned?

~~~
zackattack
OK, good feedback. I disabled demo mode. Try going through the process with
registering? This way, you can get anonymous feedback from other users on
possible thought distortions you neglected in your interpretation of the
negative event.

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dylanz
I got to the homepage and didn't really know if it was a game or what the heck
it was. I only saw "Register" and "Login" buttons, some links to what seemed
to be external sites, so... I left :)

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rstocker99
I really like this idea. I can even imagine signing up. But before I sign up I
need to see clear 3rd party validation from 3 or more reputable sources (e.g.
Harvard Psychology Prof) that this approach is effective. In a perfect world
this would be specific to your site but I would settle for a strong linkage
between the theory your site is built on and the research that backs it.

Why? Because I'm too lazy to do that research myself so I need you to beat me
over the head with it. Without that proof I just find myself thinking, "Hmmm
good idea. I could use this. But does this work? Why should I trust this site?
I could look into it but... too much work". Then I click back button. If you
have that info somewhere on the site you need to put it front and center. You
have about 10 seconds before I give up and bail.

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krmmalik
This is excellent. For more reasons than one.

First of all, from an online marketing and technical standpoint, i love how
you force me to try the app rather than giving me a chance to deliberate
whether i want to try it or not. good play on invoking my curiousity.

Secondly, and more importantly, what you are trying to achive is very noble,
and i mean that sincerely, and the way that you are trying to achieve it is
rather amazing.

I go through a re-framing process such as this often in my mastermind group
meetings, but to be able to automate this in the way that you have done is
truly amazing.

I'm already hooked, and i hope your app can keep me there. This could be a
life changer.

~~~
zackattack
Thanks for your kind words. I really appreciate it. Is this something you
would consider paying for?

~~~
krmmalik
I would only consider paying for it, if it was to actively interrupt my day,
every day to make sure that i dont get into a negative cycle.

And you'd have to organise that in such a way, that it interrupts me enough to
help me, but not enough to become a chore or an annoyance.

That'd have to be quite the balance you would have to achieve.

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joebo
I like it. Here's some feedback:

The sliders don't render correctly on chrome (they overlap the other
elements).

Step 7 didn't work for me. I clicked it and it didn't do anything. I then
couldn't figure out how to get 'back' or to restart the process. I then logged
out and then logged back in and expected to see where I left off but didn't.

Minor - it'd be nice to be able to log in with either an email address or
username. I used a gmail tracking email to "blah+edants@gmail.com" to see if I
get spam and don't want to have to enter that every time.

Neat concept! I would have liked to be able to finish it though.

~~~
zackattack
Thanks!

1) Can you please post a screenshot of the sliders on chrome?

2) I fixed the bug with Step 7. I like your suggestion about saving
progress... I will try to work that in (added a TODO).

3) You can now log in with your email address -or- username. :)

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daveungerer
Great idea, but I think it needs gradual engagement. In other words, no
registration initially. People can register after they've tried it out, but
obviously it should keep the data collected so far. That solves the problem of
having to describe what it actually does, as you can have step 1 right on the
front page.

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ivanstojic
You should (I think) adjust the amount of karma received for reviewing
negative thoughts downwards. In my experience people are the type of animal
that likes to sniff others' poo and will gladly offer opinions on them even
with a smaller reward :-(

~~~
ivanstojic
The invite-a-friend form is broken on Firefox 3.6.8. I only get a text field
with an URL in it by default (<http://www.endants.com/?r=42>), and no way to
submit the form even after I enter an e-mail.

~~~
zackattack
Your feedback on both these points is noted. I'll fix both of them. Thank you!

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h0h0h0
Hey Zack,

Thanks for putting something like this together. I found it very helpful in
dealing with some of my own unpleasant thoughts and incorrect self beliefes.

Here are some corrections that you can make to improve the site.

1\. Style it a little nicer. Just throw on a coat of CSS and you'll be looking
good. 2\. give me a way to save out of the steps. 3\. The rankings seem off.
it was telling me i'd be ranked 1709 out of 1928 when i completed it but when
I finished it I was only ranked 19 out of 19.

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Debugreality
I was reluctant to sign up because I suspected you would be asking for my
credit card details. If it is free to register then you should mention that.

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hapless
Eliminating negative thoughts is unlikely to make you happier. The world is a
complicated place. The appropriate response to problems is sober assessment,
not positivity.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/books/excerpt-bright-
sided...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/books/excerpt-bright-sided.html)

~~~
zackattack
Sonja Lyubomirsky (among many others) would disagree with you (PhD, Stanford,
A.B. Harvard, Summa cum laude). Check out these peer-reviewed papers for some
evidence <http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/papers.html>

What good is living in a pessimistic world? In some cases, like finances and
life-threatening situations, erring on the side of pessimism is probably the
best approach (though it's definitely debatable; for example, check out the
New Yorker article on cancer treatment and hospice care that was posted
earlier, and please do note the results in stopping treatment inexplicably
extending prognosis in cases of certain carcinomas).

Anyway, the site is not designed to turn you into a cheery moron. It's
designed to help you stop thinking false, incorrect, and negative thoughts, by
showing you irrational distortions you're automatically invoking (out of
habit).

The solution, my friend, is not dogmatism - the solution is not an all-out
rejection or embracement of positive psychology. Instead, the solution lies in
critical thinking and honest evaluation.

~~~
hapless
Peer review and publication are not what make science what it is. Positive
psychology is not science. Insisting on a particular epistemology is not
dogmatism.

~~~
zackattack
Why is positive psychology not a science? It could easily be considered a
subset of ethology.

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muloka
With such a simple registration form, why not just include it on the page?

Also options for OpenID, Facebook Connect, etc would be great as it would
reduce the need for me to worry about one more username and password.

Less Worry only produces Greater Happiness.

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Joeboy
The negative thoughts I looked at seemed to lend themselves to more than three
of the distortions. Could we be allowed to select as few/many as seems
appropriate? That would actually be less effort than having to choose the best
three of five that seem to fit.

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tmcw
Er, bug report: you can login without a username or password. By clicking 'Log
In'

~~~
daveungerer
Yeah, but after reading your bug report it turned out to be a feature for me.
Because there's no way I'm registering for an app if I have no idea what it
does. Thanks Zack, this is a brilliant idea. Now just listen to the other
comments about how your front page should give an idea of the mechanics of
your app.

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mdolon
I tried the demo but after 2-3 steps it said I was still at step 1 of 7. When
I tried to refresh to see if that was accurate I was told I had already
checked out the demo and to register.

~~~
zackattack
Thanks for the feedback. The demo mode is a two part process:

A) 1-2-3

and then ...

B) 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

I have temporarily disabled demo mode for now, (to encourage people to simply
register accounts to check out the community features), but thank you - I can
totally understand why this would be frustrating

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substack
Modal dialog boxes make me sad/depressed/angry.

~~~
zackattack
Thanks, feedback noted. In today's instant click -> results environment, a
popup that doesn't yield gratifying change would totally cause frustration
build up. I'll work on eliminating all of them ... :)

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paulhart
Argh, just went through the full seven step program and the "I'm done!" button
isn't responding!

I'm feeling frustrated ;)

~~~
zackattack
Ahh, found the bug. A bunch of blank space in TextMate caused a foreign
character to appear in the source. Thanks!

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yosho
can someone please explain the purpose of this application? the demo isn't
working and I don't want to register when I don't know what the website is
suppose to do.

Kind of frustrating reading 10 comments and still having no clue what it does.

~~~
zackattack
Although it is 100% my responsibility to explain the site to you, it really
only takes 20 seconds to fill out the 3-field registration form. (How could I
make the brevity of experience more clear?)

Anyway, the idea of the site is that you list a negative experience that you
had, and then you list some of your thoughts about it, and then the site helps
you find distortions in your thinking in order to shift you to a more balanced
and positive feeling in your mind and body

~~~
JangoSteve
It's not just a question of the amount of time it takes to fill out a
registration form. It's the added mental overhead of adding yet another
website that has my email and/or personal information.

Furthermore, (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) in the context of
this website (with no design and no information about what it actually does),
you have zero credibility in my book. So I'm sorry, but no. If you cannot take
5-10 minutes to add a paragraph or two to the site about what it actually
does, then I cannot take 20 seconds to register for the site in order to try
to figure it out myself.

EDIT: I realize you've sort of explained it now in this thread, but the point
I'm trying to get across is that this is the thought process your typical
visitor is going through.

~~~
zackattack
I agree with you 100%. I'm redesigning the page.

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mattmanser
I jsut tried to review someone else's thoughts (which were about how the site
design didn't display properly in the browser).

Unfortunately it would not let me submit the page. Using Chrome btw.

~~~
zackattack
Thanks. I fixed the bug - I was failing to json_encode the string.

The user's thoughts were amusing, though I did design for an 800x600 display,
which I thought to be pretty standard today.

