Hey guys, I just wanted to say that we really did consider the HN crowd when we made this. PG and I had a conversation where it became clear that the core of this project needs to be don't offend HN. Check out the bottom of this page: http://rescuetime.com/intros and our faq: http://rescuetime.com/profiles/faq
We realize that the whole point of this breaks down if it ventures into the creepy side. We'd rather do something creatively useful and beneficial for our users with their data they're trusting us with.
Quoth PG: "After all these years of moderating Hacker News, I understand it very well, and it is going to hate this project unless the entire design spec is “don’t offend HN.”"
That's prescient feedback. I want you to succeed, I really do. I understand the vision for the product. But tell me: which part, specifically, of "We automatically developed a CarFax report on Patrick McKenzie for distribution to recruiters" is supposed to convey value to me?
I thought I had forgotten CarFax's value proposition, so I Googled them: "Don't run the risk of buying a used car with costly hidden problems." Nope, looks like I remembered accurately. That sounds catastrophically against my interests.
How about this? "We automatically discover what you're great at by comparing you to other people who are great at it, and optionally introduce companies looking for great people to you. It's like having a resume which updates automatically and comprehensively matches all the buzzword bingo without you having to do any work you're not already doing."
Yeah, I admit, the carfax analogy is not the best one. We don't really use it anywhere on our site - mostly because it's not really accurate. Your wording is much better and truer to what we're building. Can I use it? :)
Please, use it or anything else that suggests you are not using Oceanian MiniPax/Google levels of insight into my activities to tell prospective employers that I spend too much time on HN.
We realize that the whole point of this breaks down if it ventures into the creepy side. We'd rather do something creatively useful and beneficial for our users with their data they're trusting us with.
-B