Igor_Bratnikov

I'm one of the creators of the the landing page that we launched recently while the product is still in development. The landing page has an interactive twist that gives people an incentive to share about us.

In the time its been up we've seen the majority of visitors coming back to the page several times, interacting with us a long time each visit and sharing about us on Facebook and through personal referral links. In addition we have seen a strong percentage of referrals coming back to sign up.

Along side to traditional email sign up using Launchrock we added an interactive element that gets visitors a reason to share and spread our message for us and increases our traffic. But in addition people are staying on the landing page for significant time, coming back multiple times and telling us that the game is addictive.

We used a modified game tied to a giveaway where a higher score gives a higher chance to win an awesome ski trip for 4. People are entered by filling out an email prompt after they've played a bit. They get to play longer, so they can get to a higher score by sharing on Facebook and by having their friends come play the game once they run out of lives. So far looking great like a snowball picking up steam.

Would love to hear HN's thoughts!

so is Google for google buzz, the capability of the ftc to monitor and/or do more than a slap on the wrist is no existent

the monitoring is facebook telling the ftc - we are all cool over here bro and the ftc taking them at their word

Glad to see a public stance by the internet community

Sounds like a great idea minus the fact that you have to pay! Which is probably worth it for a large company it's not worth it at our stage.

Seriously? wtf

Great as I said all HN folks are welcome! Let me know how to get in touch.

Def let's talk we like all the HN minded people we can get. Send me your email and I will contact you with some ideas. =)

Thats proper HN thinking out of the box that I like

Yup reached out to the local schools career postings today. Hopefully we can incite some talented interns as I think we have some great experiences for them.

Awesome will do! I think we have a great product and a very skilled person on our team with whom the interns will primarily work with. So a great experience for some college kids.

If you offer the student credit and make sure you abide by the schools rules so that the student can receive credit than legally you can employ the intern without monetary compensation. This should get you on your way!

Roughly it will take about a year minimum of lawyering until the argument reaches the desk of a judge. Especially since patents are federal cases. You have prepare arguments, answer all requests, prove jurisdiction, etc and take depositions of everything. A partners time is north of 500$ an hour that adds up verrry quickly when you have a team working for you

Its quite the chance that that paper on Patent trolls was written by my Patent Law Prof from BU. Who takes in mind a well balanced view on this difficult subject.

Also some great TIL about German vs Uk innovation.

Even most patent attny's that are more than happy making money off this broken systems excesses agree that there many serious problems abound

My favorite professor, Michael Meurer was my patent law professor. Great guy who came as close to being balanced and realistic on the current state of the patent world.

Can't wait to read and comment

As someone that has been on the defending side (legal representative) of a patent troll attack which is essentially the role MS is playing here it saddens you to see how low people can go with using the patent system. One of the case I analyzed was a patent that literally did not cover the technology and only a very loosely interpreting judge could interpret it as so. But the cost (at least 0.5 - 1 million dollars until a judge will even see your argument) are so staggering that we in fact encourage parties to throw around bs patents to racketeer money from parties that actually contribute positively to society by creating innovative products. Of course this also fuels the market for filing and selling/buying up bs patents.

The only way I can describe it is that its like a artery of someone that keeps eating bacon long after their doctor advised them to stop. The space keeps getting blocked up more and more. It is inevitable that serious problems are bound to occur and cause ever greater friction to innovation.

Yes great idea and my avoiding reddit while working plan has been thwarted

I think the problem goes even further than the article advertised. As someone that has been un/fortunate to go through top eng school and then law school there is a bigger issue at play for even really smart people. A lot of very smart people get sold on the dream of a cushy law job after 3 years of what really is a 1/2 decent educational process. Though many in better times would get decent jobs most would grow complacent instead of hungry and settle for a mediocre job. And this is talented people that if hungry could be achieving much. Schools in general are a sales sham, schools that offer a potential of high rewards are that much more of a sham since most of the sales efforts are already done for them

Cool idea though I wonder if you apply to a job at say a large Co or firm, most likely the resume will be looked at printed/copied into word/outlook and mailed around - smart tracking system thwarted though this is more for targeted resume applications.

Other issues is that many sites/firms etc require word or pdf resumes and are skeptical (at least for most non techie positions) of anything that is neither.

Just bc some people are lazy it doesn't mean that there isn't a sub of people that equally value the outcome of their so called shit work and would seek an alternative to the product if it didn't have the features.

Motivation is a big factor as well. G+ the motivation is vague, what benefit do you really gain? I know a bunch of people that jumped on Facebook's lists bc of privacy concerns and desire to limit dissemination of their content to unwanted people. For them their privacy >> a base amount of "shit work"... so author not quite right

As someone on the ground in Germany I can tell that a lot of Germans, even techies are still confused and not sure what the Pirate Party represents or what their actual political program is, which greatly devalues what ever recent wins they have acquired. Unfortunately a political party must be about more than just transparency and better IP policies (I agree with both though) or at least that is how the Germans see the Pirates.