Ask YC: Feedback on BreakkUp.com

[pxlpshr]

BreakkUp was originally an idea my gf had roughly 2 weekends ago. The idea came about after receiving 4 phone calls in a row seeking advice regarding relationship troubles. I took the idea a step further by building it around a pre-established model (Digg) using open-source (Pligg). Maybe this was a bad idea on my part, maybe not...

For me, this project is an experiment in replicating models for other verticals using open-source. And, an exercise in CPM/CPA advertising and PR -- two areas I don't feel I have a strong understanding of. I'm currently working to raise money for an original idea and ad revenue will play a big part in our ability to stay afloat.

In total, from idea to beta product -- I've spent less than a week putting this together so criticism certainly won't hurt my feelings. We most definitely need to work on an About Page and Tutorial, my assumption is most females have no idea what Digg is.

If I had more time, I'd like to put more focus on the presentation of this site so it looks less digg-like, but my client work needs attention this week. Gotta keep the lights on!

I'm rather excited about BreakkUps opportunity to generate modest revenue (assuming we get traffic) because I feel the audience will often be in an emotional state when visiting, and roughly 50%+ female.

We also own these domains:

BreakupWithHim.com BreakupWithHer.com

Suggestions, comments, criticism please. Thanks guys.

[pxlpshr]

BreakkUp was originally an idea my gf had roughly 2 weekends ago. The idea came about after receiving 4 phone calls in a row seeking advice regarding relationship troubles. I took the idea a step further by building it around a pre-established model using open-source (Pligg). Maybe this was a bad idea on my part, maybe not...

For me, this project is an experiment in replicating models for other verticals using open-source. But more importantly, an exercise in CPM/CPA advertising and PR -- two areas I don't feel I have a strong understanding of. I'm currently working to raise money for an original idea and ad revenue will play a big part in our ability to stay afloat. I'm rather excited about BreakkUp's opportunity to generate modest revenue (assuming we get traffic) because I feel the audience will often be in an emotional state when visiting, and roughly 50%+ female.

In total, from idea to beta product -- I've spent ~a week putting this together so criticism certainly won't hurt my feelings. We most definitely need to work on About and Tutorial pages, my assumption is most females have no idea what Digg is.

If I had more time, I'd like to put more focus on the presentation of this site so it looks less digg-like, but my client work needs attention this week. Gotta keep the lights on!

We also own these domains:

http://BreakupWithHim.com

http://BreakupWithHer.com

Suggestions, comments, criticism please. We haven't started advertising it yet except to peers...

Thanks guys.

[ericb]

I tried this same experiment with pligg on a site I put up, freenormous.com (free samples and offers). I found that almost no one posted, even after I worked hard to get traffic and spent money on adwords. Now I get postings--they're just all SEO and spam.

It is very tough to build a community. I spent a lot of time talking to myself under different usernames. Only around 1% of users will post (maybe less, from my experience).

I also found that even with 1000 visitors a month, I was making less than $5 per month with adsense. That would be fine if it didn't take a continual flow of real posts to build content, but it does.

This soured me on adwords based based businesses, and even moreso on any business that requires a network effect to work. Now I focus on business models that offer value even when there are no other users.

It was an educational experiment, though, and for the time investment, gave a good return on enlightenment.

[13ren]

I think you've really got something there! And now for the criticism :-)

"real advice from real people" sounds a bit too much like hard-hitting investigative reporting to me.

How about "Should I break up with him?". If it resonates directly with someone, that counts for a lot more than mathematically covering the domain. I like the idea of using the exact language of the target audience, concrete and specific - use a popular idiom if there is one (it doesn't matter if it doesn't match people outside the target). For this reason, I think separating boys and girls makes sense, because you can say "him" or "her" instead of being forced to abstract generalities. Make it concrete and "relateable".

I think also that people don't actually want "advice", they just want to be listened to, get it off their chest.

I get the vibe from the site that it has a gossip quality... almost like two people discussing the problems of a third-party. I don't know if that's something you want to cultivate, or if it would help the site or not - just mentioning it as an observation.

You're sure to have a problem with trolls sooner or later, causing grief amongst those in an emotional state. Possibly, a very clear message and an effective way for users to deal with it is more important than preventing it 100%. Making it seem like third-party ("my friend has this problem...") could add a distance, that makes it easier for people to speak freely.

[narag]

I find the idea very clever and, in a sense, funny. I'm not a native English speaker and I have doubts about what "break up" exactly means. Is it limited to *friend relations or does it include married people too? If it does, there is a lot of interesting advice that people need: laws, children, compensations...

In general I find very important the evaluation of the partner's personality. There are traits that help detect annoying behaviours or even personality disorders, that are more easily identifiable "remotely" through a written report than in the flesh by the blinded-by-love partner.

The site not only can help detecting the abuse, but also help making a decision and running for the hills :-)

I would suggest: 1) bootstrapping the site with the help of professional psychologists (and if divorce is included, lawyers) to "set the right tone" and 2) putting some machinery in place to prevent bitter people that always give the destructive advice. A bad behaviour in a partner could be solved with a frank conversation. No one is perfect.

I find the looks of the site a little too "packed". It seems to mimic Digg, but Digg uses softer colours. I would add some "air" (margins, smaller icons...).

[dotBen]

Just to say, if you're using the open-source Pligg you really should consider some kind attribution to say that you are using the software.

Pligg has that weird Allegro GPL (or some similar name) as it's license model. I can't remember what it says about attribution, but it would be "playing nice" to put "powered by Pligg" on the site anyway.

I also think the current domain is a bit sucky. The two domains you have open up the opportunity for a delineating men vs women users - which could be interesting from a branding and advertising perspective.

[Mystalic]

I don't care how obvious the purpose of the site seems to you, I don't care how much you don't want one, but the EASIEST thing I should be able to find is the "About" section, whether it's a 2 line blurb ont he front page or a separate page.

People need things explained to them and leave if you don't.

[pxlpshr]

The one-liner is available for non-registered accounts on the rectangle image to the right of the site... the big letters read WTF? :)

We're working on the formal About / Tutorial stuff this week.

[culley]

Post to Craigslist personals to drive traffic.

People hitting up the personals likely have funny stories to share.

[pxlpshr]

Just wanted to say thanks to all the feedback, was not expecting this much and we really appreciate it!!! We're going to incorporate a lot of the changes and suggestions that have been mentioned thus far, I only wish I had more time and 10 arms!!

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I'm not a big believer in the whole "social media" thing, but I do like this site. It's entertaining and besides that, I can see it being useful to get a different perspective on relationship problems. The nice thing about this is that for it to be useful you don't need commenters who are "experts," just people who can see things in a different light. Sometimes that's all it takes!

[maxklein]

It's a good idea and will be successful with very little effort. But you NEED to make the comments possible without signing up for the first few weeks, you'd have made me bookmark it if I had been able to leave a comment Because I'd have been curious to go back and reply. But no, I could not comment, could not be bothered to sign up and so moved on

Comments open for a few weeks, spam on yahoo answers and fluther and in a few weeks you'll have a big site. Send me a thank you note then.

[jobenjo]

I'm the co-Founder and CEO of Fluther; please don't spam our site. We have a dedicated group of volunteer moderators that remove spam, so it will be a waste of your time.

My honest advice on building a real community: it takes a lot of work, love, and time to incubate. There is no shortcut. Get your friends using it. Add good users one at a time. Make sure it works with for small group, and just keep building.

[pxlpshr]

Great point and something I've considered doing but it's not in the pligg setup config, so I'll have to dig into the code to make it happen. (i'm a designer but I know a little PHP)

Since you've confirmed this notion, I'll make it a high priority to get it done before we start marketing it. I don't really like the idea of "spamming" though.

Thanks for feedback!

[fallentimes]

I like the open comments idea - what do you think is a good way is to stop the inevitable spammers that come with openness though?

[marketer]

Socialmoth was also a community-driven support website. They let you expose personal tidbits on a public forum. You might try e-mailing them about it, see what sort of problems they had.

I think the UI design of the site is great, but the social design needs a lot of work. Breakups are quite personal and messy -- it seems like the last thing people would want to do is expose details on a public forum.

[pxlpshr]

A youth teen would probably disagree with you regarding their comfortability exposing personal information on the web.

A benefit of BreakkUp is that we're not trying to be a social 'networking' site, it's mostly geared for individuals to use with relative anonymity.

[adityakothadiya]

Just for your info - You might need to give credit to Pligg according to their licensing terms somewhere on your website. You need to link it to their original site. Something like -

Powered By: Pligg | Legal: License & Source

I do same with http://siliconverge.com on About page.

[pxlpshr]

Thanks and I will do that when I make changes to the footer / about section this week.

[pxlpshr]

Opinions on tag line?

COMMUNITY-DRIVEN ADVICE or,

BRUTALLY HONEST ADVICE (original tag line)

[maxklein]

Don't forget your target! It's not this crowd - go to fluther and read the quality of the submissions there. That's basically who you are targeting, so customize your text for them.

Add a button to send this to your friend. Take a look at "AddThis", it's easy to integrate and will take care of that problem for you.

I like "Community-driven advice", as brutally honest sounds a bit scary. Teenage girls are sensitive about this stuff, it's the WHOLE world.

It still sounds a bit technological, but I can't think of anything better :)

[iloveyouocean]

I think you should have two voting options: 'Break Up' and 'Stay Together'. With only the option to vote 'Break Up' can there ever really be another conclusion?

Perhaps you can also have 'color coded' comments to denote the position you are taking.

[pxlpshr]

I agree, looking to build in this functionality in the near future.

[trickjarrett]

My main issue is with the domain, the double k hurts. You're appealing to non-web 2.0 people and so typoed domains are not going to be that good. You should look for maybe something that is real words. Other than that, great stuff!

[shiranaihito]

It's really, really difficult to come up with a relevant, concise dot-com domain name that's not already taken.

[fallentimes]

Hilarious and useful. Just forwarded to some of my more uh..."outgoing" friends.

[Ilia]

Interesting idea.. like the design, not sure about using pligg though, had some bad experience with it, but good luck with the 30 day mark, it sounds like a plan

[jbenz]

The blurb about your site with the "join now" button looks like an ad because of the placement and because it is roughly 300x250 pixels.

Cool logo.

[simianstyle]

Nice concept, but i'd work on the design a bit. Overuse of the color red might be a bit much for some users.

[pxlpshr]

If we get any traction, I will definitely put some time into improving the overall look of the site. I really want to get away from the digg-style, but I just don't have time right now to dedicate.

[ScottWhigham]

I love the look - very clean, very nice. I don't know about the idea but I think it looks quality.

[elai]

There's no button to say don't breakup, only to breakup. Talk about negative!

[pxlpshr]

hahah, yeah I thought about that too... but figured "don't breakup" was implied by drama not getting pushed to the home page. I've got a lot of ideas for a version 2.0 though, that deviates away from Digg/Reddit style while retaining core functionality that makes it fun to use.

[josefresco]

Watch out for Silahsiz Kuvvetler the Turkish hacker.

Seriously ;)

[trezor]

My honest opinion, and this is about the idea, not the implementation.

If you need the relationship advice from the internet, the god damn internet damnit, it's long past time to finish it off.

[pavelludiq]

http://emo.com/ was taken? I don't want to sound like a troll, but i will, so don't take it personally, but when im in an emotionally bad situation the last thing i need is advice from random people on the internet. I also find it boring/stupid to try to give advice to random people on the internet(hey, im doing that now :D). There is a difference between a community and a mass of random people you know, the former i trust(sometimes). Hope you don't fail miserably or get bored/frustrated with you project, just thought some opposition would help.