I may have missed something, but it seems that some articles i'm able to chomp, while others im not. Is this intended, or a bug? I thought one was hilarious, when to chomp it, and it said "Chomped!" I hadn't chomped it. So I was a bit confused. Bug maybe?
The hooking element is really based on intermittent variable reward. eg: when someone responds, direct messages you, etc. you can't really predict it.
Twitter's kind of like a message board that, instead of filtering by categories or topics, you filter by people. So you can also imagine, the more people you find interesting or to interact with, the more addicting it becomes.
I think this pretty well defines it. Even if it failed, it shows you had the confidence enough in your own ability to try. If you admit it failed, it shows that you're humble enough to admit when something went wrong without shifting blame.
I figure running a startup is like getting your MBA... but on crack.
Like the design simplicity. A possible idea on how to differentiate it from reddit. Consider having an option that makes it almost like a media producer.
What I mean is, while the post link is interesting, when it comes to something like Hacker News I always click through for the comments, because they're usually great. What about combining this idea with almost a kind of private access and putting the point system to more use?
For example: You have the link (or topic) that is submitted as they are now, and then the discussion that occurs from the link (or topic). As people like it, they vote it up or down (giving it points). However, all this discussion is taking place not in public view (recalling the invite only). But each day a submission goes public (also opening up comments) based on which one has the most points. This essentially creates 1 piece of interesting material a day (similar to that of a blog) based on dynamic discussion.
Been lurking for a period of time here. While ideas are being thrown out there, here's a thought.
Allow comments from within feed readers as well as comment tracking (so you don't have to try to remember... or use co.comments, etc).
Could be done one of two ways.
1. Design the 'comment module' for the large blogging platforms (blogger, wordpress, typepad, etc). Bloggers confirm their blog on the platform (to bypass captcha or similar) so a users comment goes directly into the blogs comment system.
2. Create a widget that an author can place on their site that pulls the comments from the server housing the comments. This widget would be placed directly below where "normal" comments go and would tie in as seamlessly as possible.
Could be a standalone service or it could be the next feed reader that takes a chunk out of GoogleReader (unless integration with gReader could be figured out).