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jcol | 14 years ago

Every successful website starts with a focus area and it grows outward. You simply can't target every legislative policy in every state without overwhelming your visitors or pointing out the fact that your website isn't active.

A site like yours, if done properly, could go viral in certain online communities, but not in its current state.

If I was in your shoes, I would pony up a few thousand dollars and get it done right by someone who has some experience building websites that receive traction.

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jhowell|14 years ago

What would you have this "someone" do? Are there people you can go to and say, here's a couple of grand, build me a site with traction?

jcol|14 years ago

Building a website that has the potential to gain traction requires understanding how and why your users are going to use your site. Sure he can A/B test it himself, but at this rate, he's going to spend another 3 years figuring it out and by then he will have burned out and lost motivation.

People that want to visit a website that lets you vote on legislative policies and then talk about it, would likely be of above average intelligence. The fact that he has a comment system and nothing but a few "I agree" type posts and submitted it to HN for feedback is a clear sign that he doesn't understand the mechanics of building a website that people want to visit.

I'm not sure why everyone these days thinks they can just throw up a website and people will magically appear and start using it-- it's not that easy!