Boston Launch: www.genotrope.com could you please check out the site and critique and comment? As a cold start peer produced database, the data is only robust for the Boston Market currently. If you are from Austin..etc.. the experience will be less than fulfilling for now, so to get the idea, use a Boston company like Lotus or ITA software in your profile. Then you will be able to see what companies are matched to you. Feel free to add your companies and founder/investor connections. thanks
First thing I noticed was the graph of companies. I figured the site was a database of corporate relationships (company A funded company B, which acquired company C, etc..). Then I saw the 'job hacks' tab, and the 'Opportunities at Emerging and Start-up Technology Companies' tab on the top. Ah, this is a job site.<p>The message needs to be clearer: This is a job site (which happens to have a nice company analyzer) or this is a Company database (which happens to have job listings). There is probably too much info on the front page.<p>I would probably lean toward the Company database that has jobs version over the other.
The entire site is a confusing mess. That chart is fuzzy and scares me. I don't even want to look at it. Text is horribly contrasted throughout the site. Constantly opening links in a new window when I don't want that. Clicking on the "Limited Access" link to let me do a search loads a page that nearly crashes my browser. Java is slow to load and other portions had to wait.<p>Don't see why you had to use JAVA to show a graph that has no real value. Cool, we can move the arrows around the central point! But it has no value .. just make it a nice static, clear image
Obviously not the most important point to address, but one of the first things I noticed was that there's a grammatical mistake (it's for its) in your introduction. It's a minor error, but it also undermines the professional image you're trying to project
From a developer's point of view:
HTML 4.0 and table layout stinks! Use CSS. Write in UTF8 and add a DTD. Use mod_rewrite to rewrite your URL (port number in a URL doesn't look profesional).<p>From a visitor's point of view:
The colors suck. And why do I have to log into the app to read the FAQ? The "welcome page" doesn't have navigation, other pages have it. BTW your home page is different from the welcome page, fix that too.
I guess I don't see the point. People are complaining about fuzzy images or whatever. I thought the interface was okay, but the question of where and how value is being added is not at all clear.<p>Also, go through your codebase, and anytime you see something like this:<p>"Please login to access 'Find Companies / Jobs"<p>...do a total re-write. I'm not logging it to an unfamiliar website, and neither are 95 percent of people.
The frontpage doesn't explain what the benefit is for the user, or what he should do to try it out. There's also at least 2x too much on the frontpage, though better graphic design would make it look less distracting.
What is the etiquette regarding asking the YCombinator community to review a site? I just recently joined and I absolutely love the interaction with other community members with submissions like this....<p>...also I have something I'm working on (surprise surprise) and I would like to submit something of this nature for all to see, once things are up. I wanted to know if asking the community to review my site is something that would get me the feedback I'm looking for (I REALLY want to know why my project sucks or won't work) or if it's something that is not encouraged.
Wow. An actual Java applet. It's like 1998 all over again. Too much for a simple graph. You should consider replace it with flash... or even pure Dom/Javascript, like these guys: <a href="http://www.genoom.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.genoom.com</a>
"Add your company and the connections to investors and past companies of the founders and executives."<p>????
So this is for company owners? Why they should reveal their connections?<p>"Adding companies and links add credit points."<p>Credits points?
Add some graceful javascript degradation. I use NoScript and your site is essentially useless.<p><a href="http://www.stevetucker.co.uk/javascript-complete-degradation.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.stevetucker.co.uk/javascript-complete-degradation...</a>
The 404 not found page is tomcat's default page. A custom page would be better. The favicon is again tomcat's default. As someone mentioned earlier, the image quality needs improvement.
uncle, uncle,,thanks, may I have another. I was expecting brutal good feedback so keep it coming. Ok, we are down now. will get it back up and try again. thanks for the pressure
Too slow to load. I gave up. But from the looks of the other comments here, it's just as well.<p>Looks like you're getting good (and ruthless) feedback. I'd expect nothing less from this group.<p>Good luck to you. Let us know when 1.1 is ready.