Show HN: Content underload

by joeroot • 13 years ago

23 31 13 years ago

himerzi• 13 years ago

Hi, i'm one of the creators. We're interested in personalised content curation but wanted to take it back to scratch. To do this we're manually curating online content for users with one hand-picked article per day for each user.

We really want to build a relationship with our users and find out what makes them tick whilst delighting them with something new each day.

ahtomski• 13 years ago

How will you know what I like?

joeroot9• 13 years ago

Hey I'm one of the creators of Delight.

We're using Twitter as a starting point. We hope to work out what makes you tick, but ultimately that will only come from a conversation with you - thus why we've chosen to individually curate and pick content for all our users by hand.

If you pass us on any more info by clicking on "Tell us more", we'll use that too.

sarreph6• 13 years ago

How are you monetising the service? Charging people for curation?

tnorthcutt• 13 years ago

You should tell `himerzi` that they are shadowbanned on HN.

adyus• 13 years ago

Have you considered using hunch.com to help with this?

sarreph6• 13 years ago

How do you plan to 'delight' everyone?

joeroot9• 13 years ago

Hi sarreph. We hope to delight by understanding what each individual likes. From out initial testing, we've found that our first article is a pretty good starting point for tech "people" when we use their Twitter markers to inform us. From there we get a lot better if the user offers us valuable data points - either by reading the article or even better replying to our suggestions with feedback.

We'd all become tried of algorithms claiming to know who you are. We wanted to take this back to first principles and try to understand what captivates people.

sarreph6• 13 years ago

That's an interesting initiative. However, aren't you, by definition, using an algorithm to track Twitter usage in order to tailor results?

kmfrk• 13 years ago

Comment by @himerzi who is shadowbanned (surprise!):

"Hi, i'm one of the creators. We're interested in personalised content curation but wanted to take it back to scratch. To do this we're manually curating online content for users with one hand-picked article per day for each user.

We really want to build a relationship with our users and find out what makes them tick whilst delighting them with something new each day."

spindritf• 13 years ago

"Twitter: We'd like to see you follow"

I don't understand this part. Should I give you my Twitter handle so that you can see whom I'm following, or a Twitter handle of someone I enjoy reading on Twitter?

joeroot9• 13 years ago

Hey spindritf, good point. That was terrible copy. We've updated it to hopefully make more sense. We'd like your Twitter handle. This seeds us with our first few data points!

Gigablah• 13 years ago

A couple more I noticed:

"its a terrible habit" -> it's

"thats been hand-picked by a human" -> that's

jasonkolb2• 13 years ago

I'd like an example or something before I give out my email. I have no idea what I'm signing up for.

Hansi• 13 years ago

I agree, I have no intention of giving out my e-mail without an example.

joeroot9• 13 years ago

When you signup we spend some time trying to understand you by exploring your Twitter profile (followers, links, retweets etc.). Once done, we either recommend you an article from a curate pool of articles which we've come across before, or by browsing sources we think will have interesting content which you might not be looking at already.

We then send you an email with a link to the content and an explanation behind our reason. If the user replies or reads the link, we keep going. If they don't we stop! Ultimately to do this well, we want to have a conversation with the subscriber (almost like bibliotherapy).

For example, were someones Twitter data points indicative of an interest in Programming Languages and Education, we might send them http://worrydream.com/#!/LearnableProgramming, with a brief explanation on why. If they reply saying they don't like long form, old content, then we'd make sure to adjust the next article accordingly. Hope that helps!

zokier• 13 years ago

Are you planning something for people not on twitter?

jasonkolb2• 13 years ago

Thanks! You should put this on your site :)

musicrooms• 13 years ago

I've signed up a couple of days ago but no mail so far? (twitter: odinovereem)

Show HN: Content underload

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