Ask YC: Online demo url

9 pointsby wonjun19 lat temu10 comments

We just read that YC prefers an obscure demo url that is not password protected, and we have the following options.

http://56.34.433.32

- url to our development server

- This is safe without a password protection, but it is less reliable and I have to keep my computer on until YC reviews our demo.

http://www.demo.com/obscure, or http://www.obscure.com

- url to our production server

- Although direct hits aren't likely, without a password protection, we are concerned that they will become accessible from search engines.

How did you guys handle this problem, and what would be the most appropriate form of the obscure demo url?

Thank you very much, and good luck to you all!

5 comments

gscott19 lat temu

> we are concerned that they will become accessible from search engines.

Add a robots.txt so the site doesn't get indexed.

User-agent: * Disallow: /

wonjun19 lat temu

Thanks a lot, that's a great solution!

tipjoy19 lat temu

You could also use a non-standard port. We are.

wonjun19 lat temu

That's another great solution. Thanks a lot!

jackdied19 lat temu

First, your post would have been comedy gold if those had been real demo URLs.

Second, consider making the demo launch a POST from the landing URL. That should stop the crawlers you won't have in the first place.

wonjun19 lat temu

yeah, that would've been a disaster. Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

mwerty19 lat temu

An obscure query string.

nextmoveone19 lat temu

Wonjun..that's a very unique name...I know a kid named Wonjun in real life. I never thought I'd see a second.

wonjun19 lat temu

That's about the 6th or 7th Wonjun I've encountered in my life.

gqgy19 lat temu

i know a wonjun on yc news and a couple in real life.