All-in-all, great job and kudos for getting it done! It looks good, functions as it should with the flexibility to fit in any given product.
I like these projects because it helps break the often-overlooked centralization of civil conversation. However, it requires knowledge most of your target audience wouldn't have i.e. Database, Handling Spam, moderating etc.
As much as centralizing conversations get under my skin, the strength in these products is the ease-of-implementation.
You plan on rolling this out into a full product or is this more a project for the OS community to snowball?
Bingo. There has to be some correlation among the products else you run into competition on all fronts. On top of this - the competition you will run into are often solely focused on that product.
In the age of equal access, how does one discern meaningful connections on a free platform?
Imagine if every time someone wrote a comment on Facebook, Instagram they had to answer a simple math question before it's posted. A lot less online bullying will happen and the poster's mind will be sharpened.
With the lack of linked content in HN profiles, you're 100% sure the person who visits any given link you have via the Right Click or Copy/Paste is a meaningful connection that has gone out of their way.
My suggestion - Build a Chrome plugin to scrape the page to discover content that passes a link litmus and programatically link it on the fly.
Thanks Bahamut - Did you bring ideas to the decision makers based on a need you saw at the nonprofit or did they approach you with something to look into?
This has been our general findings as well and we've been doing some research on the best way to market. Clearly banking on the technological advantages will be ineffective.
I'll hit you via email because your response brought to mind other things we're curious about. Thanks for taking the time to answer dsacco
I took home first prize at a AT&T hackathon here in Houston and I thought the exact same thing.
A lot of corporate ones are set up with contracts that leave your work at their mercy to continue without you. Unless there's a prize - it isn't worth it with these types of arrangements.
For social good, civil, city government, university etc - I'll do it with no expectations just to make a difference.
Very cool concept! How does the person initiating the fax know what the ad will contain? I haven't signed up, but if it's not done already - I would create feature where the person sending the fax can select the ad on free accounts.
Albeit the price plans alone are so reasonable it could void the concern with Ads.
It's not the same at all. There's a "Pending" balance and an "Available" balance.
If you were to initiate a transfer after a successful charge, you will get an error. You have to wait days for it to make it to your available balance and transfer then.
With the migration, will our data be replicated or ported over to Stripe? I.E. We start the migration and we still have access to Balanced API while we make the needed changes to comply and test with Stripe.
I want to start the migration, but don't want to lose access to Balanced all together until we're ready...
During the migration, is our information ported over to Stripe or is it replicated? I want to start the migration but it doesn't specify whether or not it will cause Balanced users to lose access to the API all together.
During the migration, is our information ported over to Stripe or is it replicated? I want to start the migration but it doesn't specify whether or not it will cause Balanced users to lose access to the API all together.
The problem is that Stripe requires sub merchants to create an account as well. Whereas Balanced, the account process was part of the API so your customers stayed in your application. That's going to be the biggest blow to the UI.
He's showing his project, it's best to keep condescending comments about the person to yourself. Just focus on what is needed to make the project better.
@Daybooks - Kudos for actually launching something. Done is better than perfect. Now on with comments that actually help the project.
Writing copy is always a pain - I still have issues with grammar and spelling, however my code is flawless :) It's a pain to proofread when you're heavily invested in the code.
The presentation is neat and clean. Until you get buzz that will do the explaining for you, it's best to put something on the front page for those who don't get what you have already. It feels intimate because you have to be in the know to have a good gist of what it does. However, it's all about your audience.
I like UI but for users with IE or older browsers, your dependence on HTML5 and CSS3 might pose a problem with adoption. Always have graceful fallback.
The images you're loading are sized way too large and take time to load. Kill the image sizes at 1080P and let responsive CSS do the rest. Faster load times and better presentation.
On the landing page or about page - show an actual example of what the daybook entry looks like. Is there a link or a screenshot?
It looks promising - is this public or private posting?
Could you pay down this fee or was it all due at one time?