Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

My Only Problem With Mahalo Is A Big One

I Am A Fan Of The Site
So I have tried a few question and answer sites. The best of them seems to be Mahalo. Which is interesting since when I first checked out the site I found it to be pretty damn useless. They have done a ton of work on it and seem to have totally changed the entire focus of the place. Even though it is the best, it still has some room for improvement. Most of my problems with the site are about it being user friendly. There are many things that are still pretty confusing about the way it works.

This Is Why I Care About Mahalo Answers
For those that have never used the site, it there are two basic sections. One is a how to section where they give you a manual on things that there is no manual for. Like How To Get A Temp Job, How To Become A Teacher, How To Make Pumpkin Pie, Or How To Write A Blog Post (I should read that one someday). In my not so humble opinion this is the useless section of the site. Where the site really shines is Mahalo Answers. Now there are tons of question and answer sites, but what seems to put Mahalo in the lead is their payment system. This proves once again that the smallest amount of money involved gets rid of the trolls. Sure Yahoo answers can be funny as hell, but it’s just not that useful. No money involved. So the answers are way better quality on Mahalo Answers.

The problem is how to use the damn payment system!
I created a question HERE and put $5 up for the best answer. Right as the question expired I voted for what I thought was the best answer. Now the system keeps telling me to vote for the best answer. I have done every type of voting I can find. I even sent a message to the contact form. This thing is still bugging me to vote for the best answer. So the prize sits with no one getting it at all. This sucks because now users of the site will be less likely to give quality answers to my questions because they know they won’t get the prize. I tried to give the prize to the correct person, but the system will not let me. Either that or the button I need is hidden in some elaborate maze I can’t find my way through.

This one should get the prize
Now see the “vote” area in the upper right corner of the graphic below? I already voted and if I try to vote again it gives me an error message. Notice how it says this is voted as the best answer, but yet I am still getting told I haven’t picked the best answer. It also still shows the prize as available. Seems about as clear as mud to me. Mixed signals are bad.

So can someone take a look at my screenshots and tell me how the heck I give the prize to the best answer? This is the second question I’ve asked with a prize that can’t be awarded because of this faulty system.

Since I already voted for the answer, I figured I should also “Like” it. Whatever that does.

No matter what I did I got the alert below.

I love the idea of Mahalo, but unless they make this easier for someone to jump in and figure out right away it can only get so big. It has the potential to be the next massive thing on the web, but the learning curve is holding things back a bit I think. So did the $5 go to the person with the best answer or was there something I was missing? Hey @Jason Can you make your site more user friendly?

Why most Start Up Advice Is Total Bullshit

Most of you should know by now that I run a little start up called HeavyAsHell.com. I have been known to throw what is more than the equivalent of half a years paychecks into the site and burn through it in a month trying to get people to jump into it. Why? Partially because I am insane. Ask anyone that knows me in the real world and they will verify this. The other reason is that I really believe in the site and think that if this thing had enough resources it would explode and make some serious money back. Because of this I try everything I can to learn as much as I can about doing a start up and getting investors. Hell, even getting access to these people is pretty hard. This is why @Jason can do so well with Twist, TechCrunch50, and The Open Angel Forum. He has connections to make things happen for people like me who have zero contacts. However, there is a few problems I have with the advice people like him give to us wannabes.

Now let me be clear that @Jason is not at all the focus of this rant. In fact I would say he helps more than most. In fact, I have heard him mention things like this way less than most. I have a feeling I know the reason why. Most of the people are full of crap and he isn’t. What is this bullshit I am referring too? My biggest gripe is when I hear people say that your first round of funding should be from family and friends. Ok, sure. I could probably convince family and friends to give me $20 here and there. Hell, I might be able to drum up a few hundred if I really work at it and beg with the most pathetic puppy dog eyes. So what’s the problem? These advice givers say the amounts should be anything from $100,000 to a cool million! If I could borrow that kind of money from family and friends I wouldn’t need investors!

When I hear people give the advice to borrow $1000,000 from family and friends my first thought is what planet they are from. The answer of course is the planet of spoiled rich kids. If you can borrow that kind of money from family and friends then you were born with a golden spoon in your mouth. It reminds me of that horrid show Sweet 16 where they get these kids that just have no clue how the real world works. Hell, there is an Incubator I would love to get in with called Tech Stars, but I can’t come up with the $6,000 in time for the June 1st deadline. So I am currently looking at preparing for a year long shut down of everything I do online so I can work myself to death to save up that money. This is all so that I can get an investor to invest in HAH so I can show what this thing can really do. Borrow a hundred grand from family and friends? You people are on crack!

So if you are an investor and want to invest a hundred grand into my start up, I can promise you that I will make you a profit. I am the Rocky Balboa of entrepreneurs and I have that “south Paw” hook that will knock everyone in my way down for the count. If you are one of the people giving this bad advice to start ups, I would like to request five minutes in a boxing ring with you so I can try and knock some sense into your naive little brain. We obviously don’t live on the same planet, but I am willing to drop kick you hard enough to get you to see how this side of the galaxy lives. I will also shove that golden spoon so far up your ass that you will shit 14 karat turds for a year. Douchebag!

So there are several podcasts I listen to religiously. I think I should start blogging about the best ones and tell you people why I care about these shows. Many of the readers of this blog will have no clue who @jason is or why he is so damn important. Well, he has kicked off tons of tech companies and made more money than most of us will ever see. He is addicted to starting new companies and kicking maximum ass. He is also just as addicted to helping others gain the level of success that he has. He is never one to hold back information, tips, and tricks to us dreamers. Unlike 99% of the people who like to spew advice, he actually knows what he is talking about! I have learned a ton from listening to his 2 hour weekly (sometimes twice a week) podcast This Week In Start Ups. If you see me use the hashtag #twist on Twitter, that is what I am talking about.

Grain Of Salt
He is more about tech companies that have tech product, so not everything will apply to you bands and music industry types that read this blog. However, a ton of it does! It is about doing business on the internet. His advice centers around helping people create the next Google, YouTube, or Facebook type company. So doing the Hard Rock and Metal websites I end up releasing don’t fit everything he says. But because it is about doing business on the internet a ton of it can be used. In fact most of it should be heard by anyone trying to run any business on the internet. He tells people they have to move to Silicon Valley. Well, that is one of the rare things I don’t think fit me. My “start up” is more of a music site than a tech site. Silicon Valley can’t give two shits about Hard Rock and Metal. Honestly there is probably only a few other things that he says (on a regular basis) that I dismiss.

Cut The B.S.
There are several that prefer to dismiss him as an arrogant ass, but I think they do this out of insecurity. Jason is a man who will make you feel a little insecure if you do not have your shit together. If you have not done your research he will call you on it! He pulls no punches and some misconstrue that as arrogance. But think about this. If there is someone who knows a ton about business and is willing to guide you, how would you want them to act? Would you want them to spare your feelings? Would you really want kid gloves? Not if you want to succeed! He is brash, harsh, and sometimes over confident about things. In the end though, you know where he stands. People talk all the time about how they want to cut through the bullshit, but when someone does they call them an asshole. Jason cuts through the bullshit and you know where he stands. I respect that.

So why should you all start listening?
I don’t care if you are a band, webzine, record label, music press agent, or whatever else. You run a business! He talks about business. He knows what he is talking about. If more people in the music industry listened to guys like Jason the music industry would not be having the problems they are. So please just listen to a few episodes and see what you think. His podcast feed seems to be the slowest download on the net, but it is worth it. It also seems to kind of mess up when using some podcatchers. My podcatcher keeps trying to download episodes I listened to weeks ago. But it doesn’t download a single byte. It just lists it as trying to download it. Small price to pay for such great content though. Highly recommended to anyone doing business online. As with all the podcasts I listen to, it is free. There is also a great video version that is even better if you have the time.

Important Links:

• This Week In Start Ups – The point of this entire post
• The Jason Calacanis Weblog – His personal site
• Mahalo – His current web start up company
• TechCrunch50 – Great Start Up conferance he co-hosts
• Open Angel Forum – Another tool for Start Ups he founded
• @jason – His Twitter account