skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That guy was not rejected because his idea was bad. The prototypes he brought with were of very low build quality. The investors had doubts about his abilities of running the bussiness rather than the idea itself. I don't think they made a mistake.
BuiltWith Shows the Stuff a Site is Made Of
Classmates.com, Grandaddy of Social Networks, Going IPO
Google Offers Easy Embed Code for Maps
Ah...a HURD user.
Facebook In-House App Killed in Favor of 3rd-Party F8 Apps
Bottom line...something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It is better to initially price too high than too low. It is easy to lower a price but extremely hard to increase it. Go high and be willing to negotiate.
I've seen a bit of Dragon's Den. My observations, unlike VCs, these guys tend to be absolutely direct and say what they think about the idea and the ability of the founders. I've found that they tend to look for either business experience or real traction like revenue and profits. So the show isn't web 2.0 compliant.
A prototype is just to get an idea across. He easily could've hired a firm to design the product properly with the GBP100k he stood to gain from that contest.

The main motive behind these shows is entertainment. They just need to make a big showy production with drama, excitement, and hurt feelings. They are pretty lame imo. On the other hand, it's a chance for some investment, so I won't fault people for going after it.
I dislike the UI. It's sluggish and difficult to read. A list choice would be my preference. It does remind me of the million dollar home page.
Bug/Misfeature: When I type the pound sign, it gets replaced with "GBP".
"Reality" contest TV shows are anything but objective to begin with. The judges are purposely overblown so the audience will react to the judges. The contestants are selected according to personality, also for audience reaction. It's about making good television, not good inventions.
Depression as a Function of Procrastination
We have a florist's shop a block away from our house, and another one farther down the street. A year or two ago, a Kabloom opened up on the same block as the local florist. The florist was pissed, partly because the Kabloom franchisee had gotten a grant from a quasi-public agency that promotes business development in our neighborhood.

I don't know if the local florist has gotten more or less business since Kabloom showed up, but she's still in business.
Arc isn't a startup.
I like pmarca. Luck is not why he is who he is.
Here I thought I had about luck few days ago:
http://www.entrepreneur2be.com/2007/07/20/what-luck-really-i...
Another consideration is to creatively use Astrology -- language of stars and psyche to explain the mysteries of one's own life as opposed to luck. Jung describe this as the first form of psychology. (Visionary Activist Astrology by Caroline Casey http://www.amazon.com)
I guess what I had in mind is to somehow link the disqus users with news.YC users so that e.g. Fred Wilson would not have to re-register at news.YC.
Group-O-Matic (My Startup Launch!)
I am launching my startup today. All comments/questions/feedback, however harsh/cynical/insightful, will be greatly appreciated. Short version: free site to help people form local groups for regular events. Even shorter version: free alternative to meetup.com. There has not been a private or public beta. Group-O-Matic has been released with a minimum feature set I thought would be useful. I'm coding message boards right now, to be released shortly.
I am launching my startup today. All comments/questions/feedback, however harsh/cynical/insightful, will be greatly appreciated. Short version: free site to help people form local groups for regular events. Even shorter version: free alternative to meetup.com. There has not been a private or public beta. Group-O-Matic has been released with a minimum feature set I thought would be useful. I'm coding message boards right now, to be released shortly.
Na, I prefer good ole fashion palm reading with a mix of the ouiji board.
If they're saying less then who's doing all the writing that they're reading more of?
Seems to me, great service to the customer is everyone's first priority. The advantage a start-up has over a large company is their ability to have more intimate time with their customers. Once a company grows over 25 people, meeting with each other inside the company to discuss the customer seems to become more important then meeting directly with their customers.
One of the stated goals for arc is to make a lisp dialect that will last 100 years. In that context, "release early" can be a pretty long time.
The Importance of Design in Business
Dumb But Profitable. 10 Million Dollar Ideas That Shouldn't Have Worked
I agree this is another advantage startups have.

I do also think great service to the customer often gets lost behind risk analysis, corporate politics, bizdev agreements, etc. Early stage startups don't have these situations to balance and they can focus solely on the user.
Depression is repressed and suppressed emotion. My suggestion is to try another form of creativity other than hacking; e.g. poetry, painting.. building an alter... do something different to shift and release the energy that has become paralyzing and anesthetizing. It may reveal the block.
As the blog post was made by the guy over the FB platform, I can only assume this was a PR move. They wanted to kill an internal service to demonstrate that they're committed to making the platform work for outsiders. "Courses" hasn't been touched in ages (was it even officially an app??) and isn't at all core to the workings of the site (most people stop updating theirs, eventually), so why not?

Wake me up when they drop "Photos."
To anyone near King of Prussia, PA, I created an Internet Startup Hackathon Club: http://www.groupomatic.com/haqsm3vj
It might work if you pick out a price you think you'd pay for it, mark it up by 100%, and slowly decrease it over time.
I like it. It's fairly clean and simple. Did you consider making it more Web 2.0ish? I am guessing that you'll add more search features ~ like search via activity or suchlike? When you click on location maybe open a new window so I don't have to use my back button. I think it would be cool to use Google's Maps API and have a "pin" where the groups are located. And one more thing ~ maybe a link to "learn more" and then give details about Group-O-Matic.
I love the doggles one. Milliondollarhomepage is actually not stupid, its smart and it didn't come by luck it was all planned out.
I thought that you need a lot more revenue than $42.4 million to file for an IPO?
I agree that John Gabriel's theory is in play. But I'm not suggesting that the people themselves are less mature, just that the net result is that SL is quite apparently more adolescent than FB.

And I think it's a great comparison. Both of these social/entertainment systems were designed to be the way they are. What are the results?

Certainly many people who have tried both and opted to spend many more hours on one than the other. What difference is there in the communities on each, the interests represented on each, and the individuals who use each? Which is better social therapy for the painfully shy? Why hasn't SL had the FB-like mainstream breakthrough they've been expecting?
Bosworth's a tremendously smart guy. The "Health URL" concept is a winner. Healthcare needs Google, but are they ready for it? It's going to be a very interesting story.
Thanks. You mean colors, icons, and buttons aren't enough to be called Web 2.0? Just kidding--I hear you. I am looking for ways to make it more fun (a proxy for Web 2.0?) while keeping it simple.

Yes, I figured I'd hold off on search by term until there were a bit more groups, but it is definitely on the list.

I've been messing around with the Google Maps API, an am in fact using it presently to geocode cities outside the US. I like the pin idea. That would give it a more fun feel certainly.

I'm conflicted about the opening public group pages in a new window. Originally, I had it like that but I wonder if it confuses people who are used to using the back button. Jury is still out.

I certainly should have a learn more cool with screen shots, huh :)

Thanks for the suggestions!
I loved Google Answers. I still miss it.
Completely Off topic here...I visited your personal website, and all I can say is 'Wow' . Plenty of useful info...keep up the good work!!
BTW You think groupomatic will be a better meetup.com? Or are you trying for something different?
Finding Funding For Your Infant Brand
As far as the open new window ~ I meant once you clicked on a group and are viewing the ABOUT GROUP box; if you click on location it opens up Google maps in the current window. I thought maybe the location should open in a new window. Just a thought :)
Thanks. I'm glad you found my person site useful. I have a lot more I am planning to write and have already half-written. I just got distracted with groupomatic.

No, I am not trying something different with groupomatic. You hit on the head. I am trying to be a better meetup.com. I imagine it will be a slow, long haul, but it doesn't hurt to be free :). I tried to start out as simple as possible and not just copy all their functionality. In so doing I've already made several departures, errr improvements imo, e.g. group scheduling, no forced site registration, group specific handles, etc.
1. Go out and tell your customers "I have this product, it does X, Y, & Z" (make sure you use the present tense).

2. Tell them it costs $D

3. Observe

4. Change D as necessary

5. Repeat until the reaction you consistently get is "Wow! That's awesome, what's your website, I'm going to buy it when I get home."

Market research is the best way to figure prices out. Alternatively, as yubrew said, comparables works. Think outside the box when you're trying to come up with indirect competitors. We are building a subscription-based web app, but an alternative to our service could be a book. That books costs a certain amount of money. Thus, we can charge at least that amount, plus a premium because, well, our service is a lot better.
To add to all the extremely good suggestions here: try out 3[1] prices in parallel: set up different websites pointing to the same content, just use different css's. Then go with the one that works best.

1. 3 is an arbitrary number; pick whatever works for you.
Oh I thought you meant something else. Right, that makes sense. Changed.
How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life
Stop with the spin in the headlines, please. There's no "drubbing" here at all, and adding "well-deserved" is as bad as something you'd expect from the Bush administration.
This is a nifty idea, one that I could see myself using if it became popular. Unfortunately, you've got a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: there are currently no groups or events in my zip code (Boston), which means I'm not likely to visit the site regularly. I know that others will have the same reticence towards regular visits, so when I have an event or group, I'm more likely to post it where people are actually watching. I know that group starters will reason that way, and so I have no reason to keep visiting the site. And so on. It's all game theory.

You've gotta break the cycle somehow and make this useful to small groups of people that are already in close contact with each other. Maybe you can convince people to organize the next news.YC meetup on it. Or maybe you can feature in some sort of asynchronous time-shifting: let people indicate their interests now, and then as groups and events appear, give them notification.

A couple specific comments/suggestions:

I like the design of the site. Clean, minimalist, and directs you to things you can do with it.

It's really nifty that you go straight from search results to a "get new results by RSS" link. But add an e-mail option too! It may seem hard to believe, but not everybody uses RSS, particularly outside of tech circles. Keep the UI simple - just have someone enter an e-mail address and it'll email you when a new group appears in your location.

It'd be nice to be able to filter searches/subscriptions by keyword as well. For example, I'm interested in startup & programming groups in Boston. I'd like to be able to say "Show me all the startup organizations in Boston", and if there are none, I want to be able to type in my e-mail address, get notified when new ones appear, and otherwise forget about the site.

If you do this, you might want to show off popular subscriptions (location + keywords) on the front page. Aside from indicating that people are listening for new groups, it also could show people what interests are hottest. This could be a good signal for which groups people may want to start.

I personally would not care all that much about message boards, at least not until the site gets a lot of traffic. Then it'd be nifty, but not essential.

Rename the Help link to Help/Feedback or Help/Contact or just Contact to indicate that you're receptive to suggestions.
I agree, pop astrology is NOT what I was suggesting, it's the metaphysical science I open myself up to explore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology
Just curious, how is it different/better than say MeetUp.com?
Web App Weakness:  Dvorak nails it.
Dvorak highlights the big web app weakness no one likes to discuss. What do your customers do when you pull the rug out from underneath them or go bankrupt.
Aging Boomers lead startup growth (I would assume these are not tech startups)
What makes you assume that? Boomer's pioneered the tech industry. http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm
Because every boomer I know can barely work a computer and the US is much bigger than Silicon Valley.
The big difference is that it is free for group organizers. Meetup.com charges group organizers a significant monthly fee: http://www.meetup.com/help/organize/#org_cost I wrote a post about the implications of getting rid of this fee here: http://groupomatic.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/why-we-dont-char...

Other than that, I am trying to be simpler, more private, and add features that lead to events actually happening. I made a few departures from the meetup.com feature set already. First and foremost, I made a group scheduling feature where members help select the best date for an event. (I believe meetup doesn't have this, but I could be wrong.) Organizers can also email specific members, like those who haven't yet RSVPd or provided feedback.

Second, I allow the username space to be group specific. This is a subtle, but important, difference imo. This allows for each group to have a "Mike," "Joe," etc., i.e. it lets people use the handles on-line that they are using off-line within their local groups. It works seamlessly to the user as they just provide a handle for each group they join, which will probably be the same name each time.

Third, everything is private by default: email addresses, profiles, etc. Members can send private member and group messages that get emailed but don't display addresses. Replies forward through us seamlessly. On meetup I was put off with the fact that my name and profile information was almost immediately indexed by Google and available to the public. Maybe no one else cares about this, but I do.
Netflix Quietly Rolls Out Social Networking Features
Really, how many do you know?
Thank you for your feedback. I agree there is a major chicken and egg problem with this site. I am working on reaching out to smaller niches as you suggest. First I'm trying to interest political candidates for the upcoming 2008 election cycle. Their group organizers are generally spending their own money on meetup.com, which could be used for other things, e.g. signs. And I'm sure there are other organizers who would create supporting political groups if they knew there was a free alternative. I just need to reach them now, somehow :) As for news.YC meetups, to all out there, please consider it!

Yes, I need an email option! Working on it.

I'm working on doing message boards because the political people asked for it as their users are using them on meetup.com. I'm keeping it dead simple though (modeled after news.yc).

I will rename that Help link now. At first it was Feedback. I think you are right that Contact is better as it is more inviting for suggestion. I am of course receptive to suggestions!
I would like to add that "3. Observe" can get complicated. Initially, the metric to "Observe" should be how many people buy it. Then you can look at total revenues generated at $D price, total sales generated per customer at $D price, etc.
sorry didnt meant to down vote your comment
Indian mathematicians discovered infinite series in 1350
Gotta love it all. ;-D
I'd be glad to learn more about it if it works, but I'm currently under the impression that it doesn't actually work. Could you please provide some scientific evidence that it works?

http://yudkowsky.net/bayes/bayes.html

http://yudkowsky.net/bayes/technical.html
Like 5 ;)
Thanks for putting in the time and effort to express the site's intention. My experience on YC News has been extremely satisfiing re tech and creativity discussions.
Smiles!!!!!
Facebook Wasn't Ready For Freddi
I've been wanting this for a long time.

programming.reddit is occasionally pretty good, but sometimes there's just something interesting which isn't strictly programming per se. This fills that gap perfectly.

also: "Most forums degrade over time, but we don't think that's inevitable."

it isn't, it just requires eternal vigilance on the part of moderators/editors. the SomethingAwful forums are in the 10s of thousands and they're still quality because of Lowtax's willingness to ban people.
Data and Codata
I'm glad Reddit is back - well, in a way. And thanks to the Hacker News team.
Film about Ramanujan (math genius died at 33) being made
I don't think you mentioned the number one reason why you did this... to reach out to programmers in general and then trick them into wanting to do a startup via peer pressure, so we have more founders and you have more options to invest in. ;)
In-text ad, content injection prototype
the first thing that came across my mind when i read about the israeli startup going for its 2nd round funding was - 'woah i could do that. hey,wait a sec. i am doing something like just that' . got the in-text architecture in place. right now can support html ,and basically any media,etc . chk it out.
Building a (fast) Wikipedia offline reader
wish i could.. still exploring all possibilities
Love the idea. Very curious to see how it will play out.

One concern is that the trolls will upmod all stories that are already upmodded (for instance, automatically upmodding all comments and links posted by PG) in order to increase their vote's worth. One observes similar things on reddit already. It is much easier psychologically to jump on a trend than to do something truly interesting, but the truly interesting and innovative is rarely awarded immediately with recognition.
Bayesianism: The Rationalist's swiss army knife, power saw, and flamethrower
You should read the introduction at http://yudkowsky.net/bayes/bayes.html first if you aren't familiar with Bayesian reasoning. The introduction is a bit repetetive, so skip over parts of it once you understand the idea.
You should read the introduction at http://yudkowsky.net/bayes/bayes.html first if you aren't familiar with Bayesian reasoning. The introduction is a bit repetetive, so skip over parts of it once you understand the idea.
Number Systems and Data Structures [pdf]
Is this a ycombinator company?
This sounds like something I would pay attention to even more than news.yc. Awesome.

I especially love the innovative karma policy.
This is great (hacker) news. Thanks!
I'd also recommend Chris Okasaki's book Purely Functional Data Structures if you want to learn more. He has a whole section that goes in depth about the equivalence and has several examples, including implementations in Ocaml and Haskell.
Dick Costolo from Feedburner: The wizard is in
The Beam of Light That Flips a Switch That Turns on the Brain
This post completely decontexualized the situation.

RSS Feed Readers barely qualify as a free-standing product--of course you can't charge for them and expect to be wildly successful.

There's a big, not so subtle difference b/w "charging for any and all software" and "charing for software that users want AND creates value."

Mike is being sensational--and it's working.
"We're going to have a group of human editors who train the system in what counts as a good story"

A knowledge based system - I am eagerly awaiting the new voting system.
Raising Money: Every morning wake up and say to yourself 'They need me more than I need them.'
Surfing As GoogleBot
How mean is "mean"?

Would the new news.yc ban richardkulisz or pica (assuming they both stayed on topic)?
That's fixed by scaling the vote weight offset by how popular a story is. That is, the first voters on a new story are scaled more than the later voters. Voting on pg's comments and stories probably shouldn't affect vote weight, for the same reason he's not on the leaderboard.
Random thought: this shows the importance of choosing good names. If they had called it "startup.ycombinator.com" to start then they couldn't rename it to "hacker news" now. Same is true in programming.
Cool. Who are these oracles judging good vs. bad stories going to be?
Interview with Richard Moross and Stefan Magdalinski of Moo.com
Pica's comments on reddit seem to be invisible, so I can't say, but richardkulisz, definitely. His comments are loaded with ad hominems.
I look forward to seeing where this idea leads the site, but I do have one suggestion...

While I'm interested in all things hackerly, I first started visiting this site for tips and stories specifically about startups. My point being: while most people here are all for changing the focus to anything hacker-related, I'm sure there are many newcomers who are looking specifically for startup-related info. Perhaps we can retain a sub-site, startup tag or filter that will show only startup news for those people?
I don't know if they'd want to be outed, but as you might expect I'll be one of them.
i am converting 2 sites to blueprint too. it's simple and damn efficient. also created a script to generate the CSS with color schemes.
If we manage to reproduce the sort of links reddit had in mid 2006, we'll have plenty of startup related stuff mixed in.
The Monks Who Made Millions Out of Printer Ink
New Biometric System Verifies Iris of Walking Person in 2 Seconds
Good luck to you Paul (and co.) I'm very interested to see how this little experiment pans out.
Text Rasterization Exposures: Awesome article about font rendering techniques, lots of screenshots
I'm sure there will too, but a feature that allows you to only view startup news might be a welcome addition for the portion of news.yc visitors (which I'm guessing is a majority) that come specifically for startup information. At the very least it will differentiate the site from the likes of the MAKE blog, hackszine, etc, which I'm sure will carry a lot of the same content.