Show HN: Por Favor - Favors between friends
porfavorapp.comIf you're asking a friend for a last minute favour I think it's only good manners to at least bother to phone them about it. I also find the notion of tracking who'd done favours for whom rather awkward.
A favour is a personal request from a friend, I can't see this is an area that needs to be made more efficient...
For me, it depends how big the favour is. If it's to pick someone up from the airport, it should definitely be a phonecall.
Por Favor aims to fill the space where it's a small favour, like turning on the oven at a certain time or taking out the bins. Things that aren't too much of an inconvenience but are also easily forgotten.
You mention tracking favours, that's definitely not what it's about. It's about remembering to do things you said you would, not about keeping score.
I don't like the idea of turning favours into a currency.
I explicitly said that it's not about keeping track of who's done whom a favour. I'd even say that each day, any old favours get reset and hidden from view.
>> Swap walking the dog for a lift to the airport, and keep track of who owes you a favor.
This is the copy that's making people think along those lines. If it's sending the wrong message then this is the bit I'd change.
Ah, my mistake. I have no idea how that managed to sneak onto the site. I'll get it changed soon.
@ollysb, @nodata: Sorry about that. I was honestly confused why people thought it was about keeping track and kept bringing it up when I'd said it wasn't. Now it all makes much more sense
You should read "Debt" by David Graeber.
I dont get this. I need a favour so I log into an app to ask for it - rather than email, call my friend?
Secondly - I have to pay 1.99 before even asking for a favour - I take it my friend needs the app too?
Hey I want a favour - can you first download this app for £1.99 and then I'm going to send you a favour request.
I might be missing something - I can't see how this works in the real world.
The £1.99 pricing is a work in process. It shows a different price randomly. We're trying to use click through data to find the optimal price.
Everyone needing the app is an issue that we know about, and we're trying to work out a way to solve the issue so people can try it out and see how it's beneficial before having to cough up some cash.
Good luck finding a solution!
I personally cant see myself using this with my friends.
However I would be interested in an app where there was a network of people around the world - who were willing to do 5-10 min favours for each other.
Can some one proof read this blog post? Can some one provide critical feedback on this song I just produced?
Could work by karma / ratio like torrents / split into interests etc
Maybe remove the price of the app and allow people to donate if they want to have someone / access to a network to help with their 5-10min tasks.
All the best :)
I might be alone in this, but I absolutely hate landing pages like this. Your copy is absolutely correct: it IS a bait and switch.
I was ready to pay for the app to try it out, and now I can't give you money? I understand the data you could gain from this is valuable, but is it really worth it? I'm not going to throw my email address to you for an app I'm mildy interested in trying, especially after that.
Sorry you feel that way :( Awesome that you were willing to give us a try though, thanks!
As for the data, it really is worth it for me. I don't have an iOS dev license, or know anything about mobile development particularly. If I'm going to dedicate weeks of my life to this, there needs to be at least enough interest for us to break even, or it's not worth it.
Nice idea but it seems strange to have this as a separate app, if I'm always forgetting about favours, I'm going to forget to load that app all the time and respond to items.
What about a layer that adds this to my current ecosystem (gmail todos?, RTM, twitter bot?)
I like the MVP of the site but I think you could do with a bit more information on how the app looks and works UI wise.
Good luck mate
The idea is that you get a notification when they ask you to do something, then again when it's time to do it. You can load the app and see everything you've agreed to do, but you don't need to open it to use the app.
Adding a layer to your current ecosystem's definitely an option. Making sure people see any incoming alerts no matter what they're doing is what we're aiming for.
If there's a real market for this kind of app, that's great and I hope it does well. But it's not something I would ever use. (This is intended as feedback -- think of me as the type of user you'd have to work hard to win over. Maybe it's a problem you can solve somehow.)
I already have several communication channels available for contacting my friends, and the cost of adding another isn't worth the slight benefit I might get from an app that targets such a specific problem.
In general, instead of managing accounts on 50+ apps, I've reduced most things down to a few spreadsheets and shared documents on Google Docs. It takes so much less effort and mental energy when I can just keep track of everything, however roughly, all in one place.
So, ask yourself, what would make Por Favor the exception to this rule?
Can your partner get the hang of your Google doc? How about your mum? Por Favor is about making things easy for everyone. Your partner types in 'pick up some eggs when you go to the shop' and chooses you as the recipient. When you get to the shop, your phone buzzes to remind you (using geofencing).
It is another communication channel, but it's one that's reserved only for the most important people, and only when they need something. If you get a message on it, you know it needs acting on, right now.
I understand what you are going for, but in this case, I think a more relevant question is "can my housemate/co-worker/sibling/mom get the hang of email or phone?," in which case the answer is certainly "yes."
If I need something done, and it's important enough that it can't wait, it's also probably important enough to just call someone, instead of relying on a potentially less reliable middle-man service that might only add to the confusion.
I'll note that the Google Docs are generally just for my own use, with the exception of expense tracking and very simple shared lists, which I've never had a problem getting others to contribute to. (My family and friends are pretty good when it comes to tech, so maybe I'm not exactly your target customer when it comes to that.)
I definitely understand where people might benefit from Por Favor over communication channels that are less optimized for this kind of problem, but again, it's not for me. (I guess, in short, it's just too specific.)
Maybe if I were back in college, where the housing situation tends to be close to a lot of other people... I could see a case where my entire suite or floor would subscribe to this service. But I digress...
Por Favor's more than a phone call or a text though, it's also a set of reminders with an alarm to remind you to act on a task at a a specific point in time.
I'm obviously rubbish at the explaining what we do thing (though in my defence we're still working out the details)
I wasn't expecting to see many people on Hacker News saying that they'd adopt the system themselves, but I was hoping that some people would see the merit in it.
You hit the nail on the head about less optimised communication methods. Por Favor is primarily about asking people to do things, then reminding them when the time is right automatically. The time might be a specific time (e.g. 6pm), or when they're next in a certain area (geofencing) (or something else that we haven't thought of yet).
Based on feedback from HN, we're thinking about selling a "Family plan" or something like that, where it's a slightly higher fee, but you can share the service with X people. It's definitely about getting lots of people invested in the system, otherwise it's just another app on your home screen (or, hopefully on your home screen)
I'm not sure I understand this correctly. After buying the app and then asking someone for a favor - now they need to plunk down for the app to view the favor? I'm not sure they are going to want to do the favor at that point.
We're still working on the app idea. Maybe it'll just be a website to start and you pay to send favours. We're in the ideas stage at the minute, and nothing's set in stone.
Do you think it's worth following up on the idea (ignoring implementation details)? Or does the implementation make the idea?
The website looks nice (but Lobster is a little overused at the moment).
Your idea is good, but not great, not £1.99 great.
If it were free, it'd be awesome, if it was 69p I could see a very very very small niche for it but what you're asking is that me and my friends each pay you £1.99 so that we have another way of nagging each other to get tasks done.
Ask yourselves "what value does this bring to people?".
Would be cool to try it out though! Maybe you could find a way of selling 5 licences at a time or something for £1.99, so that I get one and get 4 to give to friends?
Thanks for the feedback. You actually landed on the most expensive price! There's a few different prices, displayed at random. We're trying to see what people will pay for the app.
69p is a little low, as we need to at least cover our costs and everything so far is pointing to the fact that it's a niche app, not widely adopted. If we could change that, 69p might work.
It's niche but also designed for more than a single person to use at any one time, and so you shouldn't think of the pricing as "per person" but rather "per team / group / family".
As an aside, what I'd find useful is an app that pipes together mine and my friends RTM or Todo.ly or Wunderlist to-do lists so that when I add a task it also updates their accounts (I assume this is possible with the RTM api).
Keep up the good work though. Have fun with it!
Per family pricing is a decent idea. We'll have to take a look at that!
Someone else mentioned integrating with apps that they use every day, so we might take a look into the various other to do products and see of we can build on top of them
Por Favor's a to do app with a bit of a difference. Instead of you adding tasks to it, it's populated by your friends + family.
A lot of the time, people ask for favours and I say "Yeah sure" and forget about it instantly. With Por Favor, I can say yes when they ask me, and it'll automatically remind me when the task needs doing.
If there's one feature a todo list shouldn't have, it's the ability for others to add things to it. That already exists and it's called email.
Isn't email an outdated medium though? I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more). The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too.
Por Favor is about making things easy. You say 'yes I can do that' and it reminds you when it's time to act. Nothing more, nothing less.
> Isn't email an outdated medium though?
Outdated in what sense?
> I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more).
Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?
> The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too.
How are you reducing the noise? Imagine now, I have an e-mail client, a SMS client, a todo app, a txt app, 10 gaming apps that all have notifications for me to "do something", how is the issue being solved? My noise is still the same, all I've done is created (yet) another beacon for displaying signals.
ps - Hopefully, I'm not detracting you from your hard work. Trying to provide some honest feedback here that I'm hoping will help you.
> Outdated in what sense?
Outdated in that it's not targeted. I get all kinds of things into my inbox (I use filters too, but filtered things generally get forgotten about), emails from family, friends, newsletters, alerts when people reply to me on HN. My inbox is like my in tray, a list of things to work on
> Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?
Email's distracting, I try and keep it closed as much as possible whilst I'm working.
> How are you reducing the noise?
We're not reducing the noise, we're just turning it into a very specific sound that you recognise. The idea is that if Por Favor pings, you should probably look at it. If a gaming app pings, you can ignore it and look at it later. We're trying to make sure you see things that you need to see, when you need to see them.
> ps - Hopefully, I'm not detracting you from your hard work. Trying to provide some honest feedback here that I'm hoping will help you.
Not at all! It's all very useful. We literally had the idea, threw a site online and posted it on here for feedback. We don't even know if the idea's gonna work yet. We (my partner and I) have a use case for it, but we were wondering if anyone else did too.
Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?
Many people don't check their email regularly. I only check my personal email once a day in the evening. If I'm busy or on vacation it can often go several days between me checking my email.
That being said, I agree that I don't see what this adds. I already have email, SMS and phone calls. If you need an answer within a couple of days, email me. If you need an answer within a couple hours, text me. If you need an answer within a couple of minutes, call me. I don't really see where something else can fit in.
It takes away the hassle of remembering to do things. If you call me at 3pm asking me to put the oven on at 4pm, either I 'm busy working and forget or you have to call me at 3:50pm to remind me again. Por Favor automates the reminder step.
I just want to mention that this is a brilliant name for the product. It's very clever and rememberable for what the app does.
Thanks! :)