14 Day HN App » Day 7: What is Rankoro.us?
Good progress last night. Long way to go. Thought I'd take a break and explain a bit what Rankoro.us is...
My November Startup Sprint entry, Rankoro.us, hopes to create new conversations around always controversial "Top 5" lists. I know there are dozens of apps where you can create and share lists and LivingSocial flooded Facebook with them a year ago but I think they failed in a few ways (or didn't even try):
- They had no class. Not in the way Quora and Hacker News do. LivingSocial Top 5 lists had a real spammy Farmville thing going on.
- They didn't create thoughful conversations. Most of these lists are a "I'll show you yours if you show me mine." Conversations were limited to Facebook comment threads which tend to degrade to mainly LOL's and OMG's pretty quickly.
- Their UI's are secondary. As Hipmunk (flight search), Workflowy (first TODO app I've ever really liked), and Tumblr have shown, you can take an old "idea" and make it new again with a thoughtful user interface.
Rankoro.us is going to move the conversation off of Facebook and onto a site built completely around lists and the conversations they create. Here's why it's going to work:
- Nothing is more contentious than a Top Five list. Opinions are like.... err... bellybuttons... everyone has one. I think Top Five lists in particular spur better conversations than a simple question, etc.
- Initial product research has been positive. I'm convinced. Mom thought it was a brilliant idea. A friend of mine said she'd "totally use it".
- There is going to be a reputation/karma system. I hope this makes people want to get involved and, more importantly, encourage high-quality comments and thoughtful lists.
- It's going to be self-promoting. I'll spend sometime on SEO but the majority of the promotion will be by the creator of the list.
- The UI will be great. Ok, since I've 2 full days and 2 nights left to write it (day job, soccer tonight, and then Thanksgiving) , the MVP might not be the bee's knees but if it gets any traction at all it'll be slick in a few weeks after launch.
- You control the conversation. All lists will be public but to get involved in a conversation you must a) have a list yourself (put up or shut up) and b) be "connected" to the user via an invitation/follow model. (Note: The workings of the commenting is still being figured out).
I've included a few Microsoft paint drawings I made to try and convey the idea to my friend Pepe who is doing the design work.
Figure 1. The list creation flow. Left to right, top to bottom.
Figure 2. The Top 5 page and conversation.
Figure 3. Slightly refined Top 5 page.
