I´ve checked localmind out, and will for sure have a look at Circle. There´s also Findery, Pindrop and Banjo. Plus, you have this connect-them-all application for iOS called Localscope. There´s so much inspiration and great thinking within many of these apps.
However, none of them works exactly the way round.io does, and I still haven´t seen any service yet that does it. So we hope people will enjoy using it once we get to a more finished state.
I know it sounds ineffective, but other social networks are a great channel to go through if you make sure people understand you offering more than they can find there. Think Pinterest, who also ask you to sign through Facebook.
2. Provide guarantees you will not be a place for creeps
This again can be achieved through 1. Think Chatroulette here. Phenomenal space for people to communicate but their efforts to dwarf the creeps came in too late.
Besides these two points, here are less important ones:
- I think your value proposition needs some work. Start with examples first and highlight your strengths (the fact that this leverages people around you).
- Communicate why usernames such as mine are not valid.
- Why is it that your Facebook posts redirect to your homepage?
All in all very good concept and a lot of potential. By the way you guys are not English speaking right? ;) I recognize it from how your keyboard renders the apostrophe.
Thanks for your feedback. I'll leave it up to my colleague to answer your two main points. Just wanted to answer the last couple of questions you had.
The reason it redirects to the homepage is that for now, you need to be logged in to see any content. We intend for anonymous uses who haven't logged in to be able open direct links to posts, we just haven't gotten around to implementing it yet :-)
If you tried to register using why-el as a username, I see no reason why you shouldn't have been able to do that. We'll have a look at the rules we've set for username and see if we're a bit too strict with what we will or will not allow.
And, yes, none of us are native English speakers :-)
Hi there, and thanks a ton for taking the time! I´m Baard, one of two people currently working on this project.
1. Facebook login/signup will come.
2. Agreed! This will for sure be a top priority for us to achieve.
We´re for sure working on a pitch to make strengths and highlights stand out. We´ll probhably need some iterations to get to the point we want to be. :-)
I can´t see why your username should not be valid, I´ll put that in the todo-list. It sure should be a valid username to pick.
As mentioned, the facebook posts are redirected to home page because you´re not logged in. We´ll change this once we go out of the experimental phase, which are kind of the state the project is in right now.
Also, we´re the majority of the norwegian population at round.io at the moment, yes. ;-)
Again, thanks a ton for your feedback, it was really helpful.
I was instantly put off by having to create an account without being able to see what it does and how it works. Sorry but I am too impatient for this and I'm afraid a lot of other people will feel the same.
I have discussed the current design with people who say the same as you, and I can definetly see your point. We´re in the making of a video that explains the concept better, and will design the front page better as well.
Hoping to see you register some day anyway, though! ;-)
A few things though:
- I find the title "Get instant knowledge from everything nearby." to not really explain what Round does. Sounds more like a description of an analytic's system than a social app.
- At the bottom of the page, I can "register", but why should I? What will a registration get me?
Thanks! Yeah, we still have got some work to do there.
If you register, though, you'll become a part of a community built for sharing knowledge about what's happening, and where to find cool stuff to explore. At least, we got a gut feeling saying the patterns we implement allow the community to grow in that direction.
For example, there is no friending/following. All conversations are open for everybody to see. And we allow people to vote both up and down. The filters we plan to implement, will hopefully make the community much more noise-free than other similar services.
It's a bit of work left, but we really hope we'll make it happen in not too long.
I agree with first comment. You definitely want to be more specific in the early adopters you're targeting. You mentioned exploring, that is a great word to use and should be part of your headline, something like "Explore the world around you." Your facebook page does a good job of giving examples of what the best use cases are. It will help for you to focus on travels who want to explore the city they are in.
Actually, "Explore your surroundings" was our headline a few weeks ago. However, this headline tend to change quite often, as the ideas flow along. I guess you´re right, though. The exploration part of the app is what we want to grow, and is probhably a very good thing to focus on. So I guess in future iterations, this will probhably be focused on some more.
Inbound links are certainly welcome ;-). We offer a paid API service [0] too. If that's something you might be interested in, please let me know: chris@wesawit.com
