Entirely agree with you. They are nothing but script kiddies. Anyone can download Metasploit, Nessus, Nikto, etc. and test for thousands of vulnerabilities. Then they either turn vulnerable servers into botnet zombies or steal their data and post it on the web. I've seen no sign they have any 0day exploits (which would make them the real deal), just some basic SQL injections, XSS, and brute forcing.
Reddit has quite a few stability/uptime problems. Probably not his fault, but a scary prospect nonetheless.
EDIT: Did I get downvoted by someone who thinks Reddit is stable? It clearly isn't and anyone who thinks otherwise is dreaming. I guess I'll stop going against the HN hivemind just to keep my account in good standing. This place feels more like Reddit every day.
Building the prototype is the easy part. If you're going to do 40% of the work, ask for 40% of the equity. This is assuming he has no revenue, no customers, and no other partners. Being accepted into an accelerator program doesn't make this a guaranteed success and even that 40% could end up being worth $0.
You're the first developer on board. Get more equity, 2% would be good if they are giving you half-salary. 1% would be good if they are willing to do full salary.
Walking away from lowball offers makes you worth more in the long run.
That is a much better question. Although I can't tell you why in this specific scenario, I can tell you that middle markets can be tough because they're not the cheapest or the most expensive, which are two common selling points.
I follow the needs of an industry. If you understand an industry, you can feel which direction to take it. I've never understood how or why people would use any other method.
Too many people these days think they are entitled to everything for free, especially on the internet. I dabble in angel investing and you wouldn't believe how many people think they are entitled an investment because they think they have "the next big thing" -- if they are so sure, bootstrap it and prove it!
Starting a website based on how profitable you think it is, or how profitable strangers on the internet tell you it is, is the worst idea I've heard in a long time.
Let's be realistic; it took him 3 years to get this far, so he probably only commits minimal time to it. It's not a bad thing, but this is the internet, you can't move that slow and expect success.
Maybe you think I'm being too blunt but I've seen this situation time and time again. It's really tough to start a site when you have a full time job, but at his pace, it's nearly impossible.
He has the scrapers and a functional site, okay great, that's the easy part. Now here's the hard part: iterating the site hundreds or thousands of times. So if he took 3 years on the easy part, how long do you think it will take for the hard part? I didn't hear any mention of him quitting his full time job.
He has a full time job and maybe some money in the bank, The cold truth is that if he really thinks "this site is exactly what America needs" and wants to bring this site to life then he needs help.
Damn me for being realistic and wanting to give the guy some REAL advice that he can take to the bank. I know everyone stays happy when you just repeat the same old mantras in every thread and call it day, but that's not my style.
What if you only have 30 users after putting 3-4 years into this? You don't know burn-out till you've experienced it.
You can't target everyone because everyone doesn't care. You can't target everyone because you don't have the budget to support it. You can't target everyone because you will never reach the critical mass needed to sustain it.
Unintelligent people usually avoid politics because it is a highly complex subject. Your website is not perfect for them because your website doesn't simplify anything for them. Getting the average Joe to care about legislative policies will require you to understand why they avoid it in the first place.
See all of these things you aren't taking into consideration? Someone with experience can save you the trouble of having to figure them out on your own.
All I'm saying is that if you find someone to help you polish this up, you can avoid a lot of common mistakes and save yourself a lot of time and frustration.
Building a website that has the potential to gain traction requires understanding how and why your users are going to use your site. Sure he can A/B test it himself, but at this rate, he's going to spend another 3 years figuring it out and by then he will have burned out and lost motivation.
People that want to visit a website that lets you vote on legislative policies and then talk about it, would likely be of above average intelligence. The fact that he has a comment system and nothing but a few "I agree" type posts and submitted it to HN for feedback is a clear sign that he doesn't understand the mechanics of building a website that people want to visit.
I'm not sure why everyone these days thinks they can just throw up a website and people will magically appear and start using it-- it's not that easy!
Every successful website starts with a focus area and it grows outward. You simply can't target every legislative policy in every state without overwhelming your visitors or pointing out the fact that your website isn't active.
A site like yours, if done properly, could go viral in certain online communities, but not in its current state.
If I was in your shoes, I would pony up a few thousand dollars and get it done right by someone who has some experience building websites that receive traction.
EDIT: Also, the amount you have may not be necessary. It just makes your site look dead when you have 350 pages of legislative bills with no comment activity or voting activity. You would have been better off starting with just a few and building it up from there. Personally, I would have done medical marijuana bills because everyone has something to say about that.
You should probably seed some interesting political discussions to get the comments going. I'm surprised it took you 3 years to build this-- it could have been done in a weekend and with a much better UI.
Not impressed.