Ask HN: What do you think about my startup (website and app) itemzapp.com?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9549588

by itemzapp • 11 years ago

2 9 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'd like any feedback, comment and tips how to make it better. It's priceless for me.

Thanks a lot for looking into it!

amberes• 11 years ago

Is this going to be a real product, or is it a joke? 20% of me thinks it's a joke that I'm not fully getting (I'm not native English speaking, so that might be the problem)

If it'll be a product: why not focus more on what sets it apart from the competition?

itemzapp4• 11 years ago

Hi, it IS a real product :) You can try the beta version, you just need to sign up on the website. About what sets it apart from the competition - maybe we should add something like this: for example itemz have the feature of showing all task from different projects at once, on the main board. That's pretty unusual and we probably should write more about things like that. Thanks a lot for your comment :)

mkagenius• 11 years ago

I haven't tried it yet. How is this a game, exactly?

itemzapp4• 11 years ago

Hi, it has some game mechanics, but it's not exactly a game. I mean that you get trophies for using this app like completing tasks, making projects and such. The trophies are unique and funny. You can also get them for various activities in the app like using three exclamation marks in the name of the task :) You can also compare with others, because you can invite friends in this app to share a project with you. Hope that somehow clears things up :) Thanks a lot for your comment!

anonyfox• 11 years ago

I tried it for a few minutes, and never went back to it.

The manual "enter ToDo items in a few lists, categorized as follows..." work really gets old for me, to the point that I won't ever do this again, no matter what clever algorithm optimizes whatever useful for me. Just stop asking me to manually put stuff into lists one by one. No kind of "gamification" helps with this, either.

Actually I use different kind of ToDo Apps... For example:

Evernote Premium - I don't ever manually write a note by myself, but all kinds of input channels are here collected in notebooks, just in case I need something later. A letter from someone (photographed/scanned by the mobile app, done), a cooking recipe someone showed me, some activity data from my trackers, a few GPS-triggered events via IFTTT, and so on.

Instapaper Premium - Okay, not a classical todo-list, but the "read later" aspect is kinda the same: I save stuff on the internet for reading later (buttonclick on a browseraddon, done), and on some bored weekends I go through the accumulated list and read it (if still relevant for me), discard it, or move it into a Evernote Note If I might need it for referencing later.

Apple's Todo-Appish-Thingy don't know how it's called, together with a Google calendar account, for automatically adding real todo's on lists/schedules when someone mails me something. For example on OSX mail, you can click on the text "meet later on 9PM at the restaurant?" and create an event in the calender directly. Also I can copypaste some cooking incredients from online recipes into this todo-app-thing on my iMac, and work through the list on my iPhone while shopping in the grocery store.

...

There's more, but the essence is: I just don't enter "ToDo Items" manually, tag them, priorize them, sort them, whatever. At least for me it's outright irrelevant how great you gamify your app or do clever algorithms, the data input process knocks me off.

On the plus side: I really liked the tone of your tutorial popups, it's really refreshing NOT to read the same phrases over and over again, like copypasted from decade old websites. And I'm not a native english speaker (as you can see from my terrible writing style).

Just my $0.02

itemzapp4• 11 years ago

You write pretty well, but it's not for me to judge, because I'm not native english speaker too :)

Thanks for the kind words on itemz. I get that the formula is just not right for you and I really appreciate that you explained it. We're planning to adjust itemz so you would integrate more data from various sources, but to be honest - I have no idea when will it happened. It's still on "someday" column.

But thanks a lot for your feedback it's really useful.

All best :)

Mimu• 11 years ago

WHat's going on with the testimonials lol? All are very negative and they alone kill the app instantly, I don't even know what the app is for.

hashtree• 11 years ago

- From the creators of nothing you've heard of

- From the creators of this site and its previous version

- After being compared to Duke Nukem Forever

- "I’ve never agreed to having my face used on the itemz website"

- "There are millions of task management apps. Creating another one is just stupid."

- "I don’t use this app and I‘m not planning to start"

Despite OP saying otherwise in this thread, this has to be a joke.. right? Every page/video seems to have things like this. OP, if you are serious get a native english speaker (you said you weren't one) to go through the site.

itemzapp4• 11 years ago

It is a joke but this part was indeed checked by a native speaker... Anyway, thanks a lot for your comment, we'll run a doulbe-check on the testimonials:)

Ask HN: What do you think about my startup (website and app) itemzapp.com?

Related Stories