zlacker

>>jjcm+(OP)
Congrats on the hard work, and the idea is fine, but the problem is that tech like this is a cheap commodity in a massively oversaturated space, and without a hook that makes the platform exceptional (innovative/clever/beautiful design, unique aggregation features, inherently interesting content, reimagined user/content/moderation dynamics etc etc), this kind of thing is dead in the water because it lacks a network effect. Add in the upfront subscription model and failure to launch is basically assured.

When I visit the root domain I shouldn't be greeted with a marketing splash page, you need interesting content in the user's face right away, entice their curiosity and drive the user to explore the site... even as a fellow developer, my first instinct is to abandon the page as soon as I'm greeted with the cliche startup marketing page. Consider the user experience when I visit reddit.com or news.ycombinator.com or any other link aggregation competitor. What you have now is a tech demo, not a platform. Sorry if that's a little harsh, but I mean well! Good luck!

>>root_a+Ih
> .. but the problem is that tech like this is a cheap commodity in a massively oversaturated space, and without a hook that makes the platform exceptional (innovative/clever/beautiful design, unique aggregation features, inherently interesting content, reimagined user/content/moderation dynamics etc etc), this kind of thing is dead in the water because it lacks a network effect.

How about said hook being? "absence of dark patterns" .. which is possible because of stable funding, so there's no enshittification dynamic needed to make money.

>>ephbit+ji3
This is definitely the idea, but are there enough educated consumers willing to spend money to avoid being trapped in shittified experiences? That's the question that matters.

>>jeremy+9j3
“Enough” is relative, how many do you really need to sustain the site?

>>Zetice+rs3
Paying the servers is not enough. For it to have a future, it really needs paid employees. See also: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZpDnRCeef2CLEFeKM/money-the-...

>>jeremy+Sx3
Couldn't disagree more, both on future vision of what this could be, as well as the implication that I said, "paying the servers is enough." "Sustain the site" involves growing the site, but none of that involves obtaining millions of users.

Also lesswrong is a cesspool of pseudointellectual bullshit. Eliezer Yudkowsky's ideas don't stand up to reality on average, and the people who "follow" him tend not to understand the relationship between methods of thinking about the world and methods of predicting how the world will behave.