7 ms·

Show HN: Get coached by developers for free

59 points by ab_thomas 12y ago

onion2k 12y ago
Clickable link: http://www.askadev.com/ http://www.askadev.com/
- ab_thomas 12y ago
  I couldn't make the link clickable. I tried yesterday, waited 24 hrs and still the same issue. Thanks for this.
  - spindritf 12y ago
    You can either post a link, or text. You could have just posted a link to the announcement on your site.
unwind 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y 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.
thoughtpalette 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 :).
  - thoughtpalette 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
  We're well into 5 figures of unique visitors.
erjiang 12y 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 12y ago
  This is definitely what AirPair is trying to build. Check that out. (Not affiliated, but have used them before.)
  - ab_thomas 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
  We don't want to exclude those who can't afford it or those who have no access to payment.
  - EarthLaunch 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
  Thanks for your feedback. At this point mentors will have to manage their own time.
kylelibra 12y ago
Can someone provide details on pricing?
- ab_thomas 12y ago
  It's free. Learning should be free so we're counting on people offering their time.
oddtarball 12y ago
The sign up page isn't even HTTPS. Really guys? C'mon
anvildoc 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
  That's great! Please do add any tags you want. Maybe we should change languages to skills - What do think?
joebo 12y 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 12y 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/ 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 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
    Yep, we need to explain it more. What do you mean "explicit support for the Hacker School Social Rule"?
  - TheOtherHobbes 12y 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_thomas 12y 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?
HeyLaughingBoy 12y 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_thomas 12y 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.
Siecje 12y ago
Why not just have a link to your twitter with _target="blank"?
Siecje 12y ago
What does the interface look like while mentoring?
- ab_thomas 12y 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.
_almosnow 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 12y 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.
    - ab_thomas 12y ago
      It can be a useful resource but not for new coders.
      - eglover 12y ago
        This. The SO community is not very open to newbies and it's very difficult to get a well thought out answer that teaches the issue. Someone asks a simple question and you get a link to a Google search or some sample code that couldn't possibly make sense to the person asking. Maybe this is natural to answering such questions on forums or maybe it's the results of everyone fighting for points and upvotes. My money is on the latter. Point is there is MUCH greater value in talking directly to an expert so long as you can get in touch with one which is a tough nut to crack.
rip747 12y 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/ http://xkcd.com/979/
- ab_thomas 12y ago
  The 1st step is to match people up. Documentation can come later.
  - rip747 12y ago
    that's the problem. later never happens. with SO the conversation becomes the documentation.
    - ab_thomas 12y ago
      We're not trying to be SO. There no "documenting" feature in our roadmap, I should have said that.
      - rip747 12y ago
        "There no "documenting" feature in our roadmap" how is this better then SO? at least http://www.airpair.com/ http://www.airpair.com/ puts up their videos for free (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6ZQp3RdEU_9kFNrRB-rIQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6ZQp3RdEU_9kFNrRB-rIQ) for all to see. You might want to consider that
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
adpirz 12y ago
Simple request: filter by student / helper.
- ab_thomas 12y ago
  It's on our list : )
atmosx 12y 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 12y 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 12y 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.

59 points by ab_thomas 12y ago

onion2k 12y ago

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

ab_thomas 12y ago
I couldn't make the link clickable. I tried yesterday, waited 24 hrs and still the same issue. Thanks for this.
- spindritf 12y ago
  You can either post a link, or text. You could have just posted a link to the announcement on your site.

unwind 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y 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.

thoughtpalette 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 :).
- thoughtpalette 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
We're well into 5 figures of unique visitors.

erjiang 12y 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 12y ago
This is definitely what AirPair is trying to build. Check that out. (Not affiliated, but have used them before.)
- ab_thomas 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
We don't want to exclude those who can't afford it or those who have no access to payment.
- EarthLaunch 12y 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 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
Thanks for your feedback. At this point mentors will have to manage their own time.

kylelibra 12y ago

Can someone provide details on pricing?

ab_thomas 12y ago
It's free. Learning should be free so we're counting on people offering their time.

oddtarball 12y ago

The sign up page isn't even HTTPS. Really guys? C'mon

anvildoc 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
That's great! Please do add any tags you want. Maybe we should change languages to skills - What do think?

joebo 12y 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 12y 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/ 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 12y 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_thomas 12y ago
  Yep, we need to explain it more. What do you mean "explicit support for the Hacker School Social Rule"?
- TheOtherHobbes 12y 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_thomas 12y 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?

HeyLaughingBoy 12y 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_thomas 12y 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.

Siecje 12y ago

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

Siecje 12y ago

What does the interface look like while mentoring?

ab_thomas 12y 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.

_almosnow 12y 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_thomas 12y 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 12y 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.
  - ab_thomas 12y ago
    It can be a useful resource but not for new coders.
    - eglover 12y ago
      This. The SO community is not very open to newbies and it's very difficult to get a well thought out answer that teaches the issue. Someone asks a simple question and you get a link to a Google search or some sample code that couldn't possibly make sense to the person asking. Maybe this is natural to answering such questions on forums or maybe it's the results of everyone fighting for points and upvotes. My money is on the latter. Point is there is MUCH greater value in talking directly to an expert so long as you can get in touch with one which is a tough nut to crack.

rip747 12y 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/ http://xkcd.com/979/

ab_thomas 12y ago
The 1st step is to match people up. Documentation can come later.
- rip747 12y ago
  that's the problem. later never happens. with SO the conversation becomes the documentation.
  - ab_thomas 12y ago
    We're not trying to be SO. There no "documenting" feature in our roadmap, I should have said that.
    - rip747 12y ago
      "There no "documenting" feature in our roadmap" how is this better then SO? at least http://www.airpair.com/ http://www.airpair.com/ puts up their videos for free (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6ZQp3RdEU_9kFNrRB-rIQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6ZQp3RdEU_9kFNrRB-rIQ) for all to see. You might want to consider that
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]

adpirz 12y ago

Simple request: filter by student / helper.

ab_thomas 12y ago
It's on our list : )

atmosx 12y 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 12y 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 12y 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.