Ask HN: Review my social network web app startup - Refynr.com | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Review my social network web app startup - Refynr.com

10 pointsRefynr7 comments

Refynr.com - Connect to Twitter & Facebook. You make Keyword Lists. Refynr finds all the matching tweets & FB posts, and puts them in one simple Stream. Refynr saves everything permanently, so you can review your Refynr Stream any time. If you want, Refynr can even send you a Daily email with the latest, so you can "catch up" with what you missed any time.

First, I know the home page still kinda sucks: http://solowebstartup.com/why-does-my-startups-home-page-suck-be-honest

Second, the design of http://Refynr.com is _mobile first_, so it looks/works well on iPad/iPhone (landscape), Android devices, and then on Mac & Win FF, Chrome, and Safari. Yep, it looks like hell on IE for now, cuz I used jQuery Mobile Alpha for the UI.

Third, I'm mostly looking for feedback on what Refynr does and if it could be useful for you. And how can I make it _more_ useful?

TIA, Aaron Longnion - Solo Founder & CNO (Chief Nerd Officer)

First thing that jumps out:

Why try it? It refines & backs up your Social Networks based on your keywords

I have no idea what that means, and I know those terms. If I don't know what it means, then Joe Average won't even know what it doesn't mean... if you get what I mean...

Anyway, you need to make the purpose of it clear and obvious. What does it actually do? Explain it below and I'm sure me and others will try and help you come up with a better way to express it.

I guess the screenshots with details didn't help?

Here goes: 1) It connects to your Twitter & Facebook (oAuth) 2) You make a list of keywords you want to follow (up to 20) 3) Refynr looks at those you are Following on Twitter, and only shows matching tweets in your Refynr Stream 4) Refynr does the same with your FB News Feed and shows those posts in your Refynr Stream 5) Refynr saves all those "refyned" items in it's own database so that you can view them at your leisure (overcoming the limited time that Twitter saves tweets for search, etc) 6) Optionally, Refynr can send you a Daily email of your most recent items in the Refynr Stream

More clear?

That is more clear. My summary would be: Filter your social media streams by keyword.

I'm not entirely convinced whether that's a compelling product. I don't have a need for that. What I look for in my social media streams is stuff that I wasn't explicitly looking for. For stuff on known subjects, I use RSS and follow the right blogs.

Now, I may not be the target audience, so take this with a grain of salt, but it's probably worth going out there and finding who it is that you're really helping out with this, to make sure that it is actually solving a real problem.

Do you have a use-case in mind?

I think that most of the things i find interesting on social networks wouldn't fit into my defined buckets of keywords...

One of my favorite features is the daily email update (which will hopefully scale) that makes sure I catch any topics I am interested in, in case I wasn't able to keep up with my Twitter feed. I would still like to see the ability to add negative keywords to exclude Gowalla/4square type of posts.

Who rotated the StumbleUpon icon 90 degrees? :-P

clickable: http://Refynr.com

Reply on news.ycombinator.com