Ask HN: Please review my idea and holding page

[jonp]

I'm looking to launch http://www.birthdaysudoku.com/ in a couple of weeks.

I've learned a lot from this community and I'd be very grateful for comments on my holding page, and any other thoughts you may have.

I'm also hoping that posting this will force me into launching this month.

[edparcell]

Hi Jon,

Interesting idea. Seems like it'd be a good novelty gift for my family to get me for example.

I guess you are already thinking this way, but it seems fairly natural to offer a birthday card, and maybe a range of other geek products around this.

On the product itself, it might be good to do alphabetical sudokus also - for 16x16 sudokus this could lead to some interesting message possibilities perhaps? Also, are there any other puzzles that lend themselves to this sort of customization - wordsearch perhaps?

I guess those are the two ways I'd consider expanding on an appealing starting idea.

Good luck, and let us know when you launch.

Best, Ed.

[jonp]

Thanks Ed. Yes, I'd started looking at eg Cafe Press for a way to produce physical goods like cards, mugs, mouse mats etc.

I hadn't thought of letters or the 16x16 versions. Also I guess if I do word-search and other puzzles then there's potentially enough to print a custom book(let) of puzzles.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[fezzl]

I second this idea. Put the puzzle on something tangible, like a shirt, a cup, a birthday card, etc. Then it would make a more meaningful birthday gift. Manufacturing, of course, is another question...

[SHOwnsYou]

Interesting idea, the first thing that jumped out at me was that you might want to consider making a page that US users redirect to.

In your sample, you have the date listed as 31-7-1965. This is not how Americans display dates. Americans use 7-31-1965.

I generalized only saying American's use 7-31-1965. That may be a standard date convention for all of non-Europe, but I have no idea. Don't want the important message to get lost in any confusion.

[jonp]

Thanks for your comment.

I'm allowing for different date formats (dd-mm-yyyy, mm-dd-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd) when making the puzzles. But it hadn't occurred to me that seeing a non-American date on the home page could be off-putting to Americans.

I guess I could try to recognize where people are from and show a location-specific example. Or maybe it's best to pick an ambiguous date ie one that works under both conventions. eg 12-5-1965 should do it.

Thanks again.

[albahk]

Off-topic - In China, they use the following format 1965-07-31 which to me as a geek makes a lot more sense. From largest unit to smallest. It also conveniently auto-sorts in chronological order if you name files like this.

[jonp]

Clickable link: http://www.birthdaysudoku.com/