Good question. I had posted a "Tell HN" when I started it, but it just didn't get much traction. My thinking was that a lot of HN "meta" type projects die off after a month or so, and one that requires an email is even a tougher sell. So I waited and tried other things to gain traction. I had wanted to do this earlier, but wanted to get somethings in place before and just never got to it. Glad I posted it now though! I need to do some other write-ups based on what I've learned (thanks peterc for that idea) as I'm sure that will help too.
Yeah, having the "history" is a big deal. People are far more reluctant to sign up for things that look fresh out of the gate because it's an unknown quantity, there's little social proof to find, and because so many people give up on projects in the short-term.. There are some "tricks" you can employ to lower these barriers a bit but since I'm still using them, I'll have to write about them a little further down the track!
Yeah, it's tough to get traction. Especially without some kind of history. And for people who like to participate in all sorts of different fields, you constantly have to keep proving yourself.
It's too bad human psychology works that way and ideas can't be judged at face value. I'm sure there's a lot of amazing and useful ideas that just didn't have the personal history behind the implementers that failed to gain traction. HN gives me hope though, since there's a ton of smart people who are willing to give new ideas a chance.
