my new project
Web and SaaS
anonymous crush messaging
SHOW HN2011
119points
113comments
#80of 1,097 in 2011
Top 8%of 2011 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
2 positive, 26 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 33 critical, out of 66 comments about the project. Thread score -0.47.
Idea: 2 for, 16 againstDesign: 0 for, 5 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 4 againstPerformance: 0 for, 4 againstExecution: 0 for, 3 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Cute video and design.
From 2 comments
Nice design and video but the problem with these services is that anonymous mail notifications are generally disregarded as spam by many people.
alienreborn on HNI would never use it, but that video is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Good idea nonetheless.
chamza on HN
Good viral idea.
From 2 comments
I think you'll find you have the wrong demographic here on HN. You need a bunch of 14 year old girls to get this one to go viral. Of course, you've got a great viral loop if you…
joshfraser on HNI like this idea a lot, but you absolutely need to kill the logins and just use facebook connect. It solves so many problems with the service, and will help it go viral, AND will…
vessenes on HN
Objections
Anonymous notification emails may be treated as spam.
From 2 comments
Nice design and video but the problem with these services is that anonymous mail notifications are generally disregarded as spam by many people.
alienreborn on HNI really hate writing this, so if this comes off as needlessly harsh I sincerely apologize, but I see a lot wrong with this site. The first problem is that it's nothing new. I…
AgentConundrum on HN
Error messages and password recovery reveal which emails are registered.
From 2 comments
Ok, let me see. Back in 2005 a friend sent me one of these crush anonymously. I didn't want to guess on the site who it was, but I wanted to know who it was. They had this…
chegra on HNAvoiding information leakage, whether in terms of error cases (e.g. incorrect padding on crypto showing a different error, leading to a padding oracle attack) or in terms of…
daeken on HN
Idea already done before; similar sites existed.
From 3 comments
Looks like a re-hash of eCRUSH, launched on Valentine's Day, 1999.
jtsnow on HNHasn't this scam already been done? Years ago there were a flurry of sites like this. They'd send spam to sadfsdfsadfhrtrth@yahoo.com (fake address that I'd only ever used once…
jellicle on HNI really hate writing this, so if this comes off as needlessly harsh I sincerely apologize, but I see a lot wrong with this site. The first problem is that it's nothing new. I…
AgentConundrum on HN
Name 'poke' sounds sexual; 'crush' is juvenile.
From 2 comments
Im sorry but its hard to get past the name. "Poke" is just too sexual. It might appeal to some people, but I can imagine a lot of women having negative associations with being…
mooneater on HNgreat idea. i could see this becoming very popular. i recommend fixing the message mismatch between crush and poke. it's possible to have a romantic/sexual interest in someone…
mkramlich on HN
Site has redirect loops and errors under load.
From 3 comments
This webpage has a redirect loop
stefanobernardi on HNRight now I either get infinite redirection loops for the front page, or internal server errors. Seems somebody hasn't expected so much traffic...
perlgeek on HNIt redirects to de.secretpoke.com and then I get an error message. Hope you get it up again shortly. We're sorry, but something went wrong. We've been notified about this issue…
jfritsch on HN
Requests
Support multiple email addresses per account.
From 2 comments
What happens if I have more than one email address and my crush enters a different one than I did?
michaelcgorman on HNI really hate writing this, so if this comes off as needlessly harsh I sincerely apologize, but I see a lot wrong with this site. The first problem is that it's nothing new. I…
AgentConundrum on HN
Use Facebook Connect instead of logins.
From 1 comment
I like this idea a lot, but you absolutely need to kill the logins and just use facebook connect. It solves so many problems with the service, and will help it go viral, AND will…
vessenes on HN
Show Terms of Service in English.
From 1 comment
I don't have much to say about the functionality, but I did notice that while the site is in English, the default view for the "Terms of Service" is in French, and there seems to…
dprice1 on HN
Questions
What happens if the crush enters a different email address?
From 2 comments
What happens if I have more than one email address and my crush enters a different one than I did?
michaelcgorman on HNI really hate writing this, so if this comes off as needlessly harsh I sincerely apologize, but I see a lot wrong with this site. The first problem is that it's nothing new. I…
AgentConundrum on HN
How is the email phrased to avoid looking like spam?
From 1 comment
I've had this same (ok similar) idea, kudos to yall for making it happen! I'm curious how you phrase your email. I've seen many "CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT WHO HAS A CRUSH ON YOU"…
sequoia on HN
Alternatives named
eCRUSH
From 1 comment
Looks like a re-hash of eCRUSH, launched on Valentine's Day, 1999.
jtsnow on HN
Orkut crush feature
From 1 comment
In case you didn't know, orkut had this feature for quite sometime. I'm not sure if it's still active though.
sankara on HN
messageunicorn
From 1 comment
This is very similar to http://www.messageunicorn.com
grandalf on HN
FitFinder
From 1 comment
Worth pointing out it's just been covered in TechCrunch EU as well: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/02/04/not-sure-if-she-likes-you-just-send-her-a-secretpoke/ Sounds similar to…
swombat on HN