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Comment by jeswin | Hacker News Reader

I am using a pinterest-inspired layout for an upcoming project (Collaborative poetry). Planning to come out with a beta this week, and apply for YC this month.

1. Can HNers give me some feedback on aesthetics (or other)? http://i.imgur.com/8BCE3.jpg

2. My domain is www.poe3.com. Is that an interesting hack?

Thanks in advance.

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A UX risk is that the prominent photos, as in your mockup, draw the eye and activate a visual mode of thought with specific concrete images. Appreciation of poetry also tries to trigger visual thoughts, but through words and imagination/ambiguity instead. So the concrete visuals might interfere with literary appreciation. (Consider also: often the most-appreciated text appears bare on a plain page.)

This is just a hunch, and you could perhaps test an imagery-heavy look against a spartan text-centric presentation, and see which draws more of the exact kinds of reading/engagement you want.

I read the domain first as "po"-"three", and thought of Edgar Allen Poe, but with a little thought can see it as "po"-"eh"-"three". As that, it is effectively short and memorable... I think it could work well.

Good luck!

Thanks for the excellent feedback. Planning to try a few layouts during the beta phase like you suggested.

Our assumption is that eventually most of our users will be using this via mobile apps (which is how we hope to make money).

I don't think you're going to get people to pronounce your site "poe-uh-three". If that was your intention you might want to rethink the name. I read the name as "poh-three", which frankly meant nothing to me.

Thanks. I get mixed opinions with the domain name. Some like it, some not so much. The initial idea was along "Poe3, Poetry by 3 people".

One reason I like it is that it is very short. Even with random alphabets, four letter domains are hard to come by. eg: www.poe3.com/123 (123rd poem), www.poe3.com/jeswin (my profile).

What is the philosophy behind the idea of 3 people writing a poem? To my knowledge no famous poem has ever been written that way.

This is mostly targeted at casual users. More than making great poems, it might be about the social, collaborative aspect of writing something. Actually various forms of poetry (haiku, free verse..) aren't the only options available, I also added "Six word story" as an option.

Collaborative Poetry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_poetry

Collaborative Haikoo: http://haikoo.org/explore/

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