Offer HN: Will Work For Karma

[todayiamme]

Hi,

HN has always been there for me when I needed advice, and for a long time I have pondered about a way to give back to this wonderful community. Today, I've finally figured out how to do that.

One thing that I've consistently noticed is that most hackers struggle a great deal to write/refine pitches, blog posts, documentation, support emails and their ilk. Further, I really do think that the founders should worry more about their code and customers than figuring out the site content.

At the same time compelling insights into the product are important. If the writer doesn't get your vision, then it really doesn't matter which side of greatness they fall into. After all how can you communicate, when you don't know what you're communicating about?

So, I'm willing to do this for you. I'm willing to write whatever you throw at me and I am desperate to give you hard feedback. Moreover, I don't want money for it. Good karma in ever sense of the word will do.

Thank you for reading this.

P.S. - I'm perfectly willing to do stuff even if it doesn't involve writing. Just email me at [email protected] and let me know.

[metamemetics]

Also, if you are an HNer and see a "Rate my X" post in the new section, be sure to give feedback. I usually upvote everyone of those I see even if I dislike the idea behind the website\service linked. After all, they are asking for criticism! Otherwise they slide off quick and I don't see anyone else commenting on them. Most people are here for commentary, but support all creators.

[SingAlong]

I used to use the upvoting more like a HN-only bookmarking service. But you've enlightened me. I'm changing my policy now.

[Jun8]

This is the first "Offer HN" submission I've ever seen, it may be the first one even, so double thanks: one for your offer, the other for (hopefully) starting this trend.

[sahillavingia]

I'm thinking of doing this for design. I want to set aside 5 hours every Friday to work on designs for pet projects of HN hackers. In exchange for this, I get to blog about it. :D

Would people be interested?

EDIT: doing this. I'll post once a week on HN and the highest rated project on the page (crowdsourcing ftw!) gets 5 design hours. Look out for it tomorrow!

[EGreg]

I just want to say this is an awesome post. I like it :)

Well, if you'd like, check out http://youmixer.com and tell me what you would improve about it to make it viral. I'm working on another project right now, but I'm always curious how I could have made youmixer better.

You can just reply on here if you want to keep your anonymity.

[paulnelligan]

Hey, it's a cool idea, and one that needs to be addressed because google still haven't mastered the art of the playlist on youtube.

I think you should change the logo, it looks a bit cheap.

From what I can see, anyone can contribute to a mix, this isn't desirable, if you can figure out a way of upvoting the best mixes, you might be onto a winner ...

good luck

[dawie]

I just asked for help with http://tabtrick.com/

Thanks for offering your help. I am sure good things will come to you!

[aik]

Cool idea. Another typo (remove the 'a' in 'create a custom' or the 's' in Pages): TabTrick let you to create a custom Facebook Pages for your business quickly and easily.

[tajddin]

By the way, I just checked out your site (cool idea), but there're a few typos on the main page: "Your business needs <to> be on Facebook."

[paulnelligan]

really cool ... i'd like to help with this also

feel free to email me: nellboy(AT)gmail(DOT)com

[perucoder]

Great idea! I just sent you an email to review my site at http://www.maziesoftware.com/

[todayiamme]

Wow.

Thanks for the awesome response and you don't need to ask for help. I'm the one offering it. If I don't reply to your mail soon then don't worry. It's just that I have an awesome bunch of people to help and I my hands can work only so fast.

Thank you so much.

[happybuy]

I did a "Rate my Startup" post for my startup (http://www.happybuy.com/) a little while back that didn't get much traction:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1780988

Would be great if you had any feedback on the site you could provide. Although not purely writing, any experience or advice on how to improve its SEO would be most appreciated as the current search traffic is low.

Thank you for helping out other HN'ers.

[todayiamme]

Except for ghastly yellow. I think that you have an interesting idea over here. I understand that deal aggregation from something like EBay would be a tough job. Mainly due to quality problems, but if you add an ecosystem like that and track people themselves (to see if they have a good deal history or not) into the algorithm then you can have something that pulls a lot of weight.

The way I see it you could make a ranking algorithm based on price * trust, Where trust is a weighting function dependent upon the number of sales previously completed; the satisfaction recored (as per ebay et al metrics) and the cost of the article vs. the original (too good to be true scenario).

If you make something like that then I would use it in a heart beat.

Please email me if you want to continue this conversation.

[treeface]

Take this for what it's worth, but the first thing I notice is the extremely bright yellow rectangle on your home page. Maybe it's because I have eyes that are somewhat sensitive to bright lights, but it's aesthetically very difficult to stay on your site. Everything else looks great, though. Maybe just a slightly darker color..?

[JarekS2]

Just sent you an email - we need help with http://disqourse.com - a lot of help! :)

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[jagtesh]

Hi, I'd be very grateful to you for your feedback and thoughts on http://grep42.com.

Thanks! :-)

[steveplace]

I've got a new product, it's had some success, but my copy is an abomination. I'd love some feedback-- the site is earningstrades.com

Thanks!

[todayiamme]

Of course, just give me some time to compose something thoughtful and deal with this deluge.

Oh and no, thank you.

[cheesey]

The "Testimonials" button underneath "User Satisfaction" really should line up with the other buttons on that row.

[Kudose]

I could really use some help with pitches and how to deal with potential customers when you are the founder. I am trying to kick off my startup, http://www.quintre.com , but worry about getting overwhelmed and flat out rejected at every turn.

[danielnicollet]

I'd love your feedback on our copy and overall message at http://commerce.exorbyte.com - thx! (infous AT exorbyte.com) Thanks!!! You'll get more than Karma if you can help us!

[atomical]

Who are you?

[todayiamme]

I prefer to stay anonymous due to personal reasons. Yes, I talk extremely openly and honestly, but it's a bit too hard to trace it all down to me.

On the other hand, who I am has little or nothing to do with how I can help you, and I want to keep it that way, for now. I know that this might seem foolish, but there are compelling, practical reasons behind it.

I request anyone reading this not to breach my privacy. I've made that offer in good faith and it would be heart breaking to face something like that.

Thank you.

[fredex]

I'm sure she wants to remain anonymous judging by her email.

It's a great offer, btw. I'd feel way too guilty for her like that though.

Edited: Sorry!

[jamiequint]

In case OP runs out of cycles I'd suggest people try out http://wordspa.com I've had good experiences there in the past.

[Dylanlacey]

I don't need your help. However, it takes a big person to offer to help randomly, for nothing other then intangibles, so well done for that.

I hope you get lots of neat stuff to do ^_^

[grease]

I just asked for help with http://recruiterbox.com/ Thanks for this!

[happybuy]

I just checked out the site and the copy that jumped out at me that needs revision is the sentence: "all with one clean, zippy software"

Perhaps you could revise the copy to: "Recruiterbox is a no-nonsense recruitment tool. Publish jobs, screen resumes & track applicants - an all in one, simplified approach to recruitment . At a price that will make you smile."

[base]

I sent you a message asking for feedback on http://vendder.com

Would love to hear what you have to say

Thanks

[sp4rki]

In the spirit of this thread I'll give some food for thought. The copy here [http://d.pr/Wixb] is a little hard to read because of the font's thinness in contrast to the background color. I'd bold it, or increase the size a small bit. The copy looks AOK to me in regards to content. Good Job!

[atestu]

I just sent you an email asking for help for http://watchth.is/

Thanks in advance!

[trizk]

Very generous. Hats off to you man.