I can't help but feel all these websites miss out on what makes Hacker News great: density of information leading to a quick scan of the zeitgeist. I just feel constrained looking at this website's frontpage.
Many side projects don't have eye candy. Maybe skip the screenshot altogether, and just give a summary + link, which is what "One Thing Well" did. http://onethingwell.org
I agree. This is a good idea but the giant thumbnails are very hard to parse since they clash with each other. Would be nicer if it was a simple uniformly styled text list with taglines, and user interaction (mouseovers/expands/something) to show thumbnails?
Thanks for the feedback. Prior to the current styling, I had a screenshot with title, author, description, etc to the right. I found it cluttered and difficult to read through a list of projects. I'll keep working on it and see if I can find something.
Since most of us check HN multiple times throughout the day I don't think it matters that much, especially since the rate of project submission will be relatively (to HN) low.
One slightly negative impression: while there are already lots of good submissions and it looks like people are using the heart button, there are very few feedback comments so far. I particularly like the idea of a smaller, more tight-knit group of HNers giving each other feedback, since it seems nearly impossible these days to get any attention for a Show HN post without preexisting internet fame or a voting ring, so I found it a bit unfortunate that Breakpoint seems be starting out more in the direction of show-off gallery than a place for substantive discussion and critique in the HN vein. I'm not really sure how to remedy this. Perhaps placing more emphasis on discussion vs. screenshots could help?
"(...) there are very few feedback comments so far. I particularly like the idea of a smaller, more tight-knit group of HNers giving each other feedback (...)"
This is one of the reasons behind my Google+ community for and about Internet Startups [1] - currently the largest one about this topic - where you can post under the "Introduce your startup" category and get precious feedback.
I totally agree. I think the main issue at this point is in order to have really good, constructive feedback, you need actual users. Maybe over time, once people start using projects, there will be more feedback.
I love the idea! But I think it would be great if people would be able to change their thumbnail screenshot that is shown on the popular and latest list. I've added my project[1] but I changing the lead screenshot is not possible which is a shame. It's also not possible to delete screenshots, which should be a must-have feature.
The phrase "hand-whatever" has lost its novelty. I'm reluctant to make such a short and flip comment, but I can't be the only person who cringes every time I see it.
Although it looks like one of the screenshots I added is not displaying. Could just be hackernews traffic maybe, I noticed there is also an image error with the ad in the sidebar.
[edit] Looks like both screenshots are showing now.
Given that most Show HN's never hit the front page (mine was in the 1st page of the 'new' tab for just 20 minutes!), hopefully this fills in a niche that seems to be missing from HN. Good work!
As others have said, the screenshots management bit needs to be improvement - it's a bit of a guess as to what'll work best right now. But I imagine that will come with time.
Nice work. I'm glad you are tackling it [1], now it's off my table. Hopefully your site is back up to let me signup. The UI could benefit from simplicity.
I'd suggest adding features to keep people coming back. E.g' rss and email subscription for 'hot' projects. Otherwise it might get pretty lonely when you get off the hn front page.
Hi, I am sure you are aware, but as I tried to load my project, your site crashed. I ran this on a VM with a spoofed IP as well, so Im not sure whether it is all domains or not...
