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sunkan

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This comment makes me really happy. This is exactly what we were shooting for. We wanted to create a compelling user experience for Craigslist users and make it a joy to use craigslist. Wanted the experience to be on par with some of the best consumer Mobile apps on the market. It was a lot of hardwork in going through multiple design iterations to finally arrive at this.

1. There is some upfront fee and they get a percentage cut of the revenue we make.

2. You are right, craigslist doesn't have an API, so whether you are licensed or not, you have the same tools at your disposal. We did typical HTML scraping, but our amazing Dev team did some really smart tweaks to present the data in a beautiful way.

That seems to be a bug or those missing listings do not have lat/long. We will look into it and try to fix it. I wish craigslist provided API access to their data. Also there are licensing restrictions, so we do all the processing on the client and the app has no server component.

I am the OP and CoFounder of Mokriya, the company that built Mokriya Craigslist. It has innovative UI that is never seen before in any other apps. Would love to know what HN thinks of the App. It is a complete redesign of Craigslist on Mobile from the ground up, with innovative UI. Here is some press about the app.

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/02/20/craigslist-ap...

http://techland.time.com/2013/02/20/its-craigslist-only-on-a...

http://pandodaily.com/2013/02/20/what-if-craigslist-had-desi...

Happy to answer any questions on how we built the app and thought process behind some of the UI and UX in the app.

Can you recommend any of the third party design firms that are good with game design ? I run a shop similar to what you do, but we are mainly focussed on building products for Startups and now venturing into Enterprises.

" Good training in writing is available and worthwhile. If you really want to get better, seek it out. "

Do you have any pointers for resources ?

If I remember correctly, you were going to reinvent the Address book on iPhone. If I may ask, what was the reason behind pivoting from that idea to a private social network.? Curios to know the reasons behind abandoning the idea of building a better address book.

I worked at Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UW-Madison (across UW-System) on enterprise student systems. Typically, professors have little say on the technology that gets used in the schools. It is mostly the IT department that makes most of the calls. Easiest would be to get someone at the top interested. You can email me (in profile) and if I like the idea, I can put you in touch with the CIO at one of the universities that I had worked at before.

Be warned that the sales process is pretty long at universities (especially the public ones) and everything has to go through an RFP.

Picking BackType 15 years ago

From afar, I think you made the best decision. BackType is probably one of the few companies in the valley tackling hard tech.

[dead] 15 years ago

Totally agree!

But this kind of snake oil is being sold all over the internet and I haven't seen this level of critical analysis applied to others doing something similar, but under a slightly respectable garb. Examples: Tim Ferris and his 4-hour work week/body, Gary V with his Crush it, Ramit Sethi and his Earn 1k infomercial http://earn1k.com/

He should probably right a book about blogging your way to riches by working 2hrs a week and he would be on NYT Best Seller list and an eventual Angel investor and speaker at various startup events.

How come everyone misses the fact that the app doesn't make the company. I think color actually redefines "social". If these guys are successful in executing their vision, their current valuation will seem a no-brainer. I seriously don't understand all the negativity and backlash around their launch.

This is coming from a guy that couldn't get their app to work. Every time I try to take my picture, the app crashes. But I don't think that really matters.

Isn't this the same community that proclaims, if you are not embarrassed with your initial product release, then you haven't released it early enough. ?