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http://www.askadev.com

by ab_thomas • 12 years ago

59 59 12 years ago

askadev.com

onion2k• 12 years ago

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

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

I couldn't make the link clickable. I tried yesterday, waited 24 hrs and still the same issue. Thanks for this.

spindritf• 12 years ago

You can either post a link, or text. You could have just posted a link to the announcement on your site.

unwind• 12 years ago

The landing page is very ... thin in terms of actually communicating what it means to "connect" or be "coached".

Is this a 1:1 real-time (textual) chat? Voide chat? Another forum like Stack Overflow (which, btw, is spelled just so, not as a single word)? A video conferencing system? E-mail-based service to let "developers" answer questions that way?

In effect, it tells me too little, which causes me to skip it.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

It's a private messaging platform. You contact a developer or another student if you like and decide between the two of you how you facilitate a session.

joekinley• 12 years ago

Why should I as a developer use your service over, say, Toptal, where I can get paid for the same service? What's your USP? Where is your advantage?

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

From many interviews with potential users and beta users we know Student Users need lots of ways to connect with help. Of course, we're in the early stages so the USP isn't nailed down but it's been built upon the results of the interviews. It's definitely free though, so if you want to get paid to help people that's cool this isn't a useful service for you to provide your expertise through.

iamthepieman• 12 years ago

This seems like it could be useful. If I'm not getting answers from stackoverflow or my questions don't really fit within the Q&A framework of other sites then I likely have a very specific problem or concept I am trying to get a handle on.

This doesn't seem to facilitate that kind of specificity. For instance, I have a question about best practices for setting a mobile version of a desktop single page application. As specific questions they vary from, "Should I create a separate mobile site, splitting my codebase?" to, "Should I treat tablets as desktops with touch events?" or, "Can I rely on testing tools and emulators to test a mobile site or should I be testing on actual devices?"

I don't really want to search for people who claim they know css and javascript and then have to go through a vetting process to determine if they can actually help me.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

The focus of this version is on coders finding mentors and pairing partners. The USP isn't nailed down but we'll make this clearer on the landing page.

thoughtpalette2• 12 years ago

I think it's a great idea and will probably attract those devs who contribute on StackOverflow just to give back to the community.

That mustache is amazing as well.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

Thanks. It will attract those who spend time over genuine answers and not those gameing the SO system for points.

Power users win a mustache delivered by a founder :).

thoughtpalette2• 12 years ago

Yes! I think that's the gist of what I was getting at. People who genuinely care about helping others and (typically) have a great time doing it.

joshka• 12 years ago

Have you got funnel metrics on how many people get turned away at the signup screen?

I feel that the site doesn't hit the threshold where I feel the need to sign up for this by the point where you're asking for my details.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

We're well into 5 figures of unique visitors.

erjiang• 12 years ago

I'll tell you what I hope this can be:

I and co-workers often need domain-specific help, usually with annoying or complex tools. I could spend a few hours doing the research, or I could pay a chunk of money for 30 min. of someone's time to walk me through.

Example: I need someone to help me fix some build config problems in Xcode. I'll pay for an Xcode expert to spend 30 min. and walk me through fixing it over Hangouts.

Example 2: I have a lot of experience with autotools[0]. I'd be happy to sign up as an autotools expert and either help people get started with autotools or get people unstuck on autotools problems for a bit of cash. Ideally I'd just set a price, add some tools to my profile, and have money start rolling in.

askadev.com seems close, but right now it feels like it's focused on fuzzier mentoring help between junior and senior devs instead of trading domain-specific knowledge. It might be as simple as just marketing towards that a little more.

[0] I know nothing about autotools, actually.

lbotos• 12 years ago

This is definitely what AirPair is trying to build. Check that out. (Not affiliated, but have used them before.)

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

I completely understand why you'd think that but we're not trying to be AirPair. We're a match making service and that's it. It's up to users how they connect with each whether it's through PM, voice, video etc.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

We don't want to exclude those who can't afford it or those who have no access to payment.

EarthLaunch• 12 years ago

Here's my opinion. I too wish this was for-pay, and I signed up with that expectation. Helping people is effective and enjoyable, but only if someone values the help enough to pay for it. I'd be happy to even guarantee the work and not be paid unless they were happy with the result.

What always happens with free sites is most of the highest-value people won't offer their services, so it gets focused around less experienced people, which is more efficiently solved by non-live sites like SO.

girinambari• 12 years ago

I personally had situations where people mix up mentoring with do my work. I helped lot of people, out of those only one really worked as mentor-mentee, all others are like please have access to my computer and do it for me. I think your website will address that issue, where I can simply say, this is how it works, go and try.

But, if it is FREE service, users may misuse (or) mentors may not spend enough time. There should be some benefit structure. When I say benefit, it doesn't mean monetary, it could be anything else. Look at StackOverflow, no monetary benefit, but people go there because "reputation", which in-directly helps in lot of ways. Good luck!

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

Thanks for your feedback. At this point mentors will have to manage their own time.

kylelibra• 12 years ago

Can someone provide details on pricing?

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

It's free. Learning should be free so we're counting on people offering their time.

oddtarball• 12 years ago

The sign up page isn't even HTTPS.

Really guys? C'mon

anvildoc• 12 years ago

I would be interested in seeing this also emphasize skills beyond "languages". For me, I know a lot of my skills are more around design and soft skills -- I would love to be able to advice a developer on how to handle a problematic product manager, or how to design a system. I tried to put that in my profile, I'll see if I get a bite ;]

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

That's great! Please do add any tags you want. Maybe we should change languages to skills - What do think?

joebo• 12 years ago

Wording suggestion - I had no idea what this phrase meant: "You have at least 1 year commercial XP or skills that match." After about 2 minutes of thought I deduced that it must mean experience. I first thought it meant XP = Extreme Programming

primitivesuave• 12 years ago

There's really not that much information about the service, which will immediately deter users who want to know if this is a tool worth exploring before investing the time to explore it. The [last YC startup class](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/courses/lec07/) is a great resource for improving this.

Also, in this age of hackers and god particles, you really should use SSL for apps like this.

jfaucett• 12 years ago

my thoughts exactly. My UX:

first thought - looks nice, ok so, I clicked on "I can help", which is just signup, ok well I want to know what I'm signing up for, do I earn money helping others, is it a time donation thing? so then I clicked on "about" which tells me nothing, then I just went away.

I think the idea is interesting and with some more details I would have probably signed up. Also the "You believe in best practices." was kind of odd to me. I dunno if anyone else thinks this way though, but I don't believe in best practices, I do believe you should know the best practices for your field and understand them, so you know when to apply them and when not to.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

Yep, we need to explain it more. What do you mean "explicit support for the Hacker School Social Rule"?

TheOtherHobbes• 12 years ago

There are lots of small weirdnesses scattered around a website which doesn't really have much detail.

It's a good idea - I was thinking open code review would be a super useful thing for many people - but a demo of how it works in practice would be worth a thousand XP points.

I'd be deeply reassured if there was explicit support for the Hacker School Social Rules.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

Yep, we need to explain it more. No money's involved, we're not keen on reputation like SO. What would be worth helping for?

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

Thanks. We'll take a look at the class and SSL is on our list!

HeyLaughingBoy• 12 years ago

I think this would be far more useful if it were based on other forms of domain knowledge. As the landing page shows, StackOverflow, etc. already exist. There's tons of online help for software development already.

What is lacking is one-on-one assistance/short term consulting for software developers/entrepreneurs in other knowledge areas related to business development. Take the StackExchange concept to a new level with individualized assistance.

Have an idea for a web app based on snow removal? Hook up with an expert in the field for a 30 minute tutorial on if your idea has legs, what you need to know and where to start. Want to explore adding operator interfaces to your Lean Manufacturing software but don't know how to design/manufacture hardware on a small scale? Find an expert who can give you an overview of what you need to know to get started and perhaps contacts that can take you further.

I'm throwing ideas out there based on actual needs I've seen people on various software forums having, and I think there is a real need for a service like this. And it's probably a lot more profitable than Founder Dating :-)

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

They're good ideas there's several sites out there that cater for them. We don't want to charge. What's been built is from many customer segment interviews. We'll be improving on it over time of course.

Siecje2• 12 years ago

Why not just have a link to your twitter with _target="blank"?

Siecje2• 12 years ago

What does the interface look like while mentoring?

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

We're a match making service and that's it - profiles and messaging like Linkedin I guess. It's up to users how they connect with each whether it's through PM, voice, video etc.

_almosnow2• 12 years ago

"Stop wasting hours searching Stackoverflow..."

Terrible choice for an opening phrase to your website. You are putting yourself in a position against SO which IMHO is one of the few websites that are actually really helpful for the community (definitely not a waste of time).

My honest advice, don't get cocky... at least not so early.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

That comes from months of research including customer discovery interviews. It's a fact that over 90% of new coders waste hours on Stackoverflow searching for answers.

chuckcode• 12 years ago

I'm sure that a lot of people spend a lot of time reading through Stackoverflow's answers. Not sure you're taking the parent comment to heart when you classify that time as wasted. Stackoverflow might not be the optimal solution for finding answers but it certainly adds enough value to the community that they deserves some respect for their approach.

samuirai• 12 years ago

Imo it's a very good thing that they have to spend a lot of time researching. Along the way they will see and learn many different things and in the end provides experience. Thus I agree with _almosnow.

jpetersonmn• 12 years ago

Definitely not a waste of time to search SO. Sure I've looked there and couldn't find the answer I was looking for. But if I think about all the answers to problems I've found online, 90% of those were answered by stack overflow. (existing questions, I've only had to ask a couple there)

rip7473• 12 years ago

the problem with services like this is that once that issue is resolved, where is it going to be documented? I highly doubt that someone is going to take the time to enter in the question and solution somewhere for all to reference should they have the issue.

http://xkcd.com/979/

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

The 1st step is to match people up. Documentation can come later.

rip7473• 12 years ago

that's the problem. later never happens. with SO the conversation becomes the documentation.

adpirz• 12 years ago

Simple request: filter by student / helper.

ab_thomas23• 12 years ago

It's on our list : )

atmosx• 12 years ago

Is this going to be a paying service?

I'm not a professional developer, I often have design-related questions (e.g. what's the best approach to create an app which supports modules - as in code that changed models/views/controllers - a-la wordpress using Sinatra or Rails?).

Can this website help me connect with more experienced developers? Is it only for professionals?

conradk• 12 years ago

What's in it for developers who give their time to people not willing to pay? As I understand, this platform is just a chat between people, no mention of payments at all.

Sure, it's nice to give time, but giving time privately for only one person to see seems less interesting than answering stuff on SO (or similar dev focused sites) where everyone benefits, not just one person.

S4M• 12 years ago

I subscribe as a mentor, and then I realized that I could do with a mentor in Common Lisp or Assembly, but then I was unable to change my status.

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