Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
Y Combinator’s Slinkset Launches Hosted Reddits For The Masses
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/14/y-combinators-slinkset-launches-hosted-reddits-for-the-masses/
15 comments
From HN to YC to TC to HN. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=140841
Congratulations SlinkSet team. Hard work pays off.
EDIT: I just spent more time at SlinkSet and I think they definitely have a business model in hosting their app as a HELP FORUM (excatly like the one they have on their site).
Writing a FAQ is very hard and you always leave some questions out. By hosting this feature for small businesses, they can also gather a lot of information about those businesses and their customers.
EDIT: I just spent more time at SlinkSet and I think they definitely have a business model in hosting their app as a HELP FORUM (excatly like the one they have on their site).
Writing a FAQ is very hard and you always leave some questions out. By hosting this feature for small businesses, they can also gather a lot of information about those businesses and their customers.
Thanks.
And, yeah, we've thought of a few options for targeting businesses. Help forums is definitely one.
And, yeah, we've thought of a few options for targeting businesses. Help forums is definitely one.
Congrats, Brett! remember not to break the chain, ok?
keep up the good work!
keep up the good work!
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Totally off-topic (except that it's linked from the article) but techcrunch's reddit clone is hilariously and pathetically empty.
More on topic, I'd like to see more options to customize the "editorial policy" of your site - how many votes to get promoted, how user karma works, how sites get blocked, manual overrides, and so on.
I find when I compare HN and Digg, I'm struck by how the sites have come to reflect the personalities of the people who founded them. Here it's hyper-technical and it makes you think twice about commenting frivolously, because of the potential for what seems like infinite downvoting and its effect on karma. Digg is pretty frivolous and all over the place, perhaps because karma is not visible to users, and downvoting doesn't have the same direct effect on karma.
My point being that the personalities behind the site shape the content - even if the engine is "democratic", the constant tweaking of that engine represents an editorial policy, just as much as a newspaper's.
More on topic, I'd like to see more options to customize the "editorial policy" of your site - how many votes to get promoted, how user karma works, how sites get blocked, manual overrides, and so on.
I find when I compare HN and Digg, I'm struck by how the sites have come to reflect the personalities of the people who founded them. Here it's hyper-technical and it makes you think twice about commenting frivolously, because of the potential for what seems like infinite downvoting and its effect on karma. Digg is pretty frivolous and all over the place, perhaps because karma is not visible to users, and downvoting doesn't have the same direct effect on karma.
My point being that the personalities behind the site shape the content - even if the engine is "democratic", the constant tweaking of that engine represents an editorial policy, just as much as a newspaper's.
I'm struck by how the sites have come to reflect the personalities of the people who founded them
It's fascinating how companies (and other creations) tend to carry the personalities of the people who started them. In our world, Microsoft, Apple, Google are good examples... one could go on endlessly. There aren't many general principles that seem to hold up as well as this one does.
It's fascinating how companies (and other creations) tend to carry the personalities of the people who started them. In our world, Microsoft, Apple, Google are good examples... one could go on endlessly. There aren't many general principles that seem to hold up as well as this one does.
I don't know anything about Larry and Sergei except through what they do at Google. So it's almost a tautology that their company would reflect what I know about them. I guess Jobs is a little different, but he's still synonymous with Apple to most people.
Can you think of any business whose founder is independently famous, and who reflects your theory (e.g. a musician with a talent for improvisation, who started a company that constantly changes its business model)?
Can you think of any business whose founder is independently famous, and who reflects your theory (e.g. a musician with a talent for improvisation, who started a company that constantly changes its business model)?
More on topic, I'd like to see more options to customize the "editorial policy" of your site - how many votes to get promoted, how user karma works, how sites get blocked, manual overrides, and so on.
Definitely. We've got a lot of ideas and plans along these lines. I think you're right on about the personality of the site admins shaping the content. Though in more ways than just choosing how the engine works.
Definitely. We've got a lot of ideas and plans along these lines. I think you're right on about the personality of the site admins shaping the content. Though in more ways than just choosing how the engine works.
Though in more ways than just choosing how the engine works.... I was being diplomatic. See my profile.
Have it scrape your blog/website and auto-post any new links as if they were user submissions.
It already does that (I was in their beta). You just go to Settings -> Feeds. Input your blog feed. Done.
Excellent! I've been waiting a long while for something like this :)
Some suggestions: - When adding a feed, include feed detection code, so that I can type in a URL and have the feed auto-detected, instead of having to find the exact feed URL - Allow a threshold for downmodding like HN... only submitters with X or more karma can downmod.
This looks great and I look forward to seeing it evolve and get better!
Some suggestions: - When adding a feed, include feed detection code, so that I can type in a URL and have the feed auto-detected, instead of having to find the exact feed URL - Allow a threshold for downmodding like HN... only submitters with X or more karma can downmod.
This looks great and I look forward to seeing it evolve and get better!
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Nice work guys.
Someone please explain to me how your personal reddit, hosted or not, is different from any other forum software such as, say, phpBB2, just as an example. Maybe other forums aren't quite as focused on the voting aspect (though it does exist). Some people see that as an advantage, though. I guess the whole point of having your own social news a.k.a. forum site is so you can dictate what can be posted and what not, to keep the quality and focus on a special subject of your interest.
Forums treat all threads as equal. Usually they are listed by the time of the last post. You can get any thread back to the top by "bumping" it. Within threads all posts are equal and listed by time of entry. In a long thread the only way to see the best comments is to read the whole thing. Voting mechanisms are either poorly implemented and almost useless or not available.
For many subjects a 'social news site' style of threading is probably a better fit than traditional forums. Right now everyone knows how to use a forum. Despite Digg, reddit etc. social news sites are still a niche. But I have often thought when using forums that I'd like to be able to vote up a comment or thread. Over time, a 'social news site' interface might become a widely used alternative to traditional forums.
For many subjects a 'social news site' style of threading is probably a better fit than traditional forums. Right now everyone knows how to use a forum. Despite Digg, reddit etc. social news sites are still a niche. But I have often thought when using forums that I'd like to be able to vote up a comment or thread. Over time, a 'social news site' interface might become a widely used alternative to traditional forums.
You are right as are the other commentors. However it seems that the difference between a 'social news' site and a forum aren't huge, i.e. forum software could be spruced up with a few lines of php and they'd be the same.
I still participate in some old-style forums/bulletin boards (as well as Reddit and HN).
The other day I found myself wanting to vote on threads and feeling irritated that I couldn't.
The other day I found myself wanting to vote on threads and feeling irritated that I couldn't.
Threaded comments? That's a big deal though you could add that to forum software...
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Great Work
nice work guys. can I browse the slinksets that have been created? I saw typehype.slinkset.com on the homepage and thought it was cool -- I wonder what other ones have been created?
I've made an Internet Law slinkset:
http://ilaw.slinkset.com
Have just setup a Slinkset board:
"Room.YC Blogs" - Aggregating 120 Blogs of Hacker News' top users.
http://roomyc.slinkset.com/
"Room.YC Blogs" - Aggregating 120 Blogs of Hacker News' top users.
http://roomyc.slinkset.com/
In the future the site hopes to integrate drag-and-drop widgets and ad placement, but with a company that currently consists of only two co-founders, these are probably a ways off.
Yeah, that sounds impossible for two people to implement. rolls eyes
Yeah, that sounds impossible for two people to implement. rolls eyes
Yeah... this was an odd Techcrunch review, it sounds like they were negative just because they couldn't think of anything obviously positive to say. Techcrunch has mostly stopped covering startups at Slinkset's level, but Y Combinator is interesting.
If you ask me, TC's proclivity toward reviewing very early stage YC startups is a bit questionable; what about those startups that are just as interesting, yet didn't have the good fortune of being part of the YC lineup? I guess that's what your 2-10% buys you, beyond the seed money.
Questionable, sure, but there's an easy answer. Right now on the Techcrunch homepage there are two stories about small startups. One is a blog and one has $1MM worth of funding.
Techcrunch doesn't really cover prefunded startups anymore. They do more mainstream news about Facebook and Yahoo and Apple. As far as pre or microfunded startups go, YC is as good as it gets, so Techcrunch covers YC startups. Certainly they are much better than the average unfunded or microfunded startup.
Techcrunch doesn't really cover prefunded startups anymore. They do more mainstream news about Facebook and Yahoo and Apple. As far as pre or microfunded startups go, YC is as good as it gets, so Techcrunch covers YC startups. Certainly they are much better than the average unfunded or microfunded startup.
Well, I'd have to disagree. The only difference between a YC startup and a non-YC startup is (1) access to advising resources, and (2) a bit of pre-filtering due to the selection process. Of course, there is also the $15k of funding-- but for many entrepreneurs, getting 10-20k of seed money is really not too hard (you could probably drum up that much "dumb" money from family and friends-- after all, how many jobless or underpaid teenagers do you know who were able to persuade their folks to buy them cars?).
For your statement to be true, it seems that either the advice dispensed by YC advisors is sufficient to transform a bad idea into a good idea or alternatively, that the YC selection committee only selects ideas destined for success. While these points do hold /some/ water (good advice never hurts, and pg et. al. clearly know a thing or two about entrepreneurship), it is still important to note that YC makes mistakes from time to time and that (participated in YC) -> (good startup) does not imply that (NOT participated in YC) -> (NOT good startup). Heck, even the first implication is a fallacy.
Regardless, at the end of the day, you're asking me to assume that founders who either don't make the cut for YC or whom didn't apply in the first place are either inferior entrepreneurs or are pushing a bad idea. This is simply not true.
Entrepreneurship has been around for a LONG time and plenty of people are working their butts off for a shot at launching a successful, growing startup. For some, YC provides the perfect opportunity to actually sit down and execute an idea; for most, YC is either not an option or is simply not necessary.
In the past couple of weeks, TechCrunch has reported on YC startups with surprising frequency. Given that it is fairly difficult to get TC to profile one's startup, it seems a little suspicious that whenever a YC app launches, it gets a (typically positive) write-up. In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leading to a lowered-barrier-to-article for YC-funded startups is sound if not altogether true.
For your statement to be true, it seems that either the advice dispensed by YC advisors is sufficient to transform a bad idea into a good idea or alternatively, that the YC selection committee only selects ideas destined for success. While these points do hold /some/ water (good advice never hurts, and pg et. al. clearly know a thing or two about entrepreneurship), it is still important to note that YC makes mistakes from time to time and that (participated in YC) -> (good startup) does not imply that (NOT participated in YC) -> (NOT good startup). Heck, even the first implication is a fallacy.
Regardless, at the end of the day, you're asking me to assume that founders who either don't make the cut for YC or whom didn't apply in the first place are either inferior entrepreneurs or are pushing a bad idea. This is simply not true.
Entrepreneurship has been around for a LONG time and plenty of people are working their butts off for a shot at launching a successful, growing startup. For some, YC provides the perfect opportunity to actually sit down and execute an idea; for most, YC is either not an option or is simply not necessary.
In the past couple of weeks, TechCrunch has reported on YC startups with surprising frequency. Given that it is fairly difficult to get TC to profile one's startup, it seems a little suspicious that whenever a YC app launches, it gets a (typically positive) write-up. In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leading to a lowered-barrier-to-article for YC-funded startups is sound if not altogether true.
>Regardless, at the end of the day, you're asking me to assume that founders who either don't make the cut for YC or whom didn't apply in the first place are either inferior entrepreneurs or are pushing a bad idea. This is simply not true.
No, I'm not. I'm saying Techcrunch doesn't cover startups anymore.
>In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leading to a lowered-barrier-to-article for YC-funded startups is sound if not altogether true.
No, they don't. Techcrunch covers YC startups out of laziness and journalistic inadequacy. They want to give the appearance that they still cover early stage startups, but they don't. They only cover YC startups. YC offers an easy filter for TC to have some stories to give the outward appearance that their blog hasn't changed over time.
No, I'm not. I'm saying Techcrunch doesn't cover startups anymore.
>In light of this, my conclusion that YC and Arrington have some sort of friendly or financial relationship leading to a lowered-barrier-to-article for YC-funded startups is sound if not altogether true.
No, they don't. Techcrunch covers YC startups out of laziness and journalistic inadequacy. They want to give the appearance that they still cover early stage startups, but they don't. They only cover YC startups. YC offers an easy filter for TC to have some stories to give the outward appearance that their blog hasn't changed over time.
"Certainly they are much better than the average unfunded or microfunded startup."
If you aren't saying what I've asserted you're saying, please explain the above. Also, did you edit your original comment? Perhaps I misread it.
In any event, it remains awfully convenient to chalk up the evident YC fetish at TechCrunch to mere editor laziness: I've seen plenty of seed-funded or non-funded startups in the past months-- heck, TC pays folks to sort through the mountains of press releases that arrive every day; I'm sure that there is no dearth of interesting, upstarting startups to profile.
I've always gotten the impression that TechCrunch serves up a fairly decent mixed bag-- except when they seem to exclusively cover YC-funded startups. Hence, my prior remarks.
If you aren't saying what I've asserted you're saying, please explain the above. Also, did you edit your original comment? Perhaps I misread it.
In any event, it remains awfully convenient to chalk up the evident YC fetish at TechCrunch to mere editor laziness: I've seen plenty of seed-funded or non-funded startups in the past months-- heck, TC pays folks to sort through the mountains of press releases that arrive every day; I'm sure that there is no dearth of interesting, upstarting startups to profile.
I've always gotten the impression that TechCrunch serves up a fairly decent mixed bag-- except when they seem to exclusively cover YC-funded startups. Hence, my prior remarks.
Connections are always important. In an ideal world, ideas and startups would stand on their own merit. It wouldn't matter who you know.
In practice, it can't work that way. It's not that people are evil, it's just a question of how to be efficient. I can't spend my time listening in detail to every pitch of every person who says he has a great idea. It's jut not possible. I need filters to spend the little time I have on interesting stuff. Filters include my friends recommending me something. That gets my attention.
At the corporate level, a good filter is YCombinator: if you made it through their selection process, it tells me something. It's not a guarantee that you will succeed, but at least you passed some basic smoke check. Which in turn gives you an unfair advantage, because now you get easier access to smart employees, advisors, business partners, etc...
Alain - fairsoftware.net
In practice, it can't work that way. It's not that people are evil, it's just a question of how to be efficient. I can't spend my time listening in detail to every pitch of every person who says he has a great idea. It's jut not possible. I need filters to spend the little time I have on interesting stuff. Filters include my friends recommending me something. That gets my attention.
At the corporate level, a good filter is YCombinator: if you made it through their selection process, it tells me something. It's not a guarantee that you will succeed, but at least you passed some basic smoke check. Which in turn gives you an unfair advantage, because now you get easier access to smart employees, advisors, business partners, etc...
Alain - fairsoftware.net
I wanted to mess with reddit (open source), and it's been a pain.
This is great.
But why do you required login before the test drive? Was this a technical issue?
This is great.
But why do you required login before the test drive? Was this a technical issue?
I am now using this as a task/bug/idea tracker internally. It could work out really well. :-)
I would love to hear how it does.
Honestly so far it seems to be really good. The voting enables anonymous feedback, which already, only one day in, has lead to some surprises in how we perceive our priorities. For example, I thought I should do a mipmapped particle system, but it turns out at least two people disagree with me.
Also, it's as easy to use as basecamp (and an order of magnitude easier than bugzilla or trac) so lots of people are using it.
Also, it's as easy to use as basecamp (and an order of magnitude easier than bugzilla or trac) so lots of people are using it.
This software is super great.
http://design.slinkset.com/
Enjoying it.