I can get feedback from my website from a group of programmers any time I want to. They pretty much invariably say "Bah, who in their right mind would pay for that? I could reproduce its output in Excel in, like, five minutes." Thirty thousand dollars later my answer is "Gah, my customers pay for it. Could you concentrate on the things which are actually important here? Mistakes, usability issues, things that will interrupt conversions, etc?" and then they say "Oh, well, the page doesn't validate. Maybe it could use an RSS feed."

sigh I spend time answering emails describing the difference between "web site" and "application". No, my customers would not benefit from an RSS feed, thank you.

Asking my mother has its own problems: "It's wonderful, dear. It would be even more wonderful in teal."

Its at that point where I think "If I were hiring myself as a consultant to read this feedback and search it for actionable insights I would bill myself $100 and report 'Sorry, there is nothing useful here'." Which makes paying $7 and giving a somewhat more diverse set of people micro-tasks pretty darn appealing. I can give them actual tasks, they will perform them because I am paying for completion, and I can analyze the results.

The initial customers of Feedback Army seem to be folks with niche websites. The kind of stuff HN would probably flag if it were posted here. Also some folks aren't as plugged into an online community and may be uncomfortable posting there. I know I'm this way. I don't blog publicly and HN is the only board I interact on. So I'd use something like Feedback Army over risking my standing on a forum such as this for something off topic. That said, the feedback is paid for and there is nothing stopping someone from going back for multiple rounds in a few days on the same site. I think the free feedback givers might burn out a little quicker.

I guess that makes sense.. I wasn't thinking from the perspective of a non-developer or someone not as well connected, in which case I could see them wanting a generic service that offers feedback.

> why would I pay $7 for Feedback Army when there are so many free alternatives?

Just like you would pay someone for surveys. If you pay, you are gauranteed to get feedback.

After actually using the site myself, I must admit I am absolutely floored. It was well worth my $7 and I received great feedback within the first 10-15 minutes. I guess you really can't judge a book by it's cover.

A+++++++ would use service again!