Hello errybody.
First things first, credit to @mubashariqbal and @sethlouey with this - I came to them with this idea in January and without them this would be a google sheet and nothing more.
Came up with this, a third party site to host bots from the various platforms after the Slack App Directory came out and there was lots of talk around Facebook doing it with Messenger.
I'm sure others are working on this space too.
This is our very MVP version and a side project we have been chipping away at on weekends over the past few months.
There is lots in the pipeline and some tidying up to do:
- share buttons will be turned on today [EDIT] - Fixed!
- trying to figure the best way to add taglines without it looking hella ugly
- Mobile responsive
Timing is great for something like this. With the Kik launch of theirs last week and no doubt Facebook launching theirs tomorrow. Here is one not owned by the platform itself.
Big thanks to all the Alpha testers!
I also think its important to get into the maker process. Ask away :)
UPDATE/EDIT
We've had such an incredible launch yesterday, everything was blowing up. There was coverage on TechCrunch, LAUNCH ticker and Digital Trends, countless shares etc etc. Servers have been a bit up and down in patches while people decided to target us ha. Thanks for bearing with us regardless! Crazy response :)
@bentossell Awesome work guys, especially for an MVP! Great logo, and love the Build a Bot category. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Best of luck with it!
@uxdzen@theblackguy ahh yeah...
I gave Adam alpha access to botlist last week and then saw his launch.
Like I said, its an obvious space to look at so not surprised there are others.
Am focusing on trying to not make it an overwhelming experience when browsing, adding images where we can, we have a Build A Bot section which we hope to expand on, there are a few things in the pipeline which we think will be a great addition here
Looks really cool!
Any thoughts regarding bot creators "claiming ownership" for individual bots, so that we can add media, a description, release notes, etc?
@wilhelmklopp Yeah its on our roadmap... Maybe for version 2.
Didn't want too many moving parts for the first launch but it's definitely not been overlooked!
@wilhelmklopp@bentossell I second that. Our page is quite minimal, and not very inviting to try/install. I understand you're overwhelmed with populating the store, but letting creators own their listing is a win-win for both sides
@mmariansky@wilhelmklopp yeh it will happen. but like I said - too many straight at launch may have made it messy. Need to figure out a good process going forward.
what would you want to see added to the Meekan page?
@wilhelmklopp@mmariansky ha that is because it was not supposed to be visible yet ;)
Lots of bots are in the queue like this, half ready to be visible - I'll update this one now!
Glad to see this launched 🚀 With this being the year of the bots having a central place to search _all the bots_ makes total sense 👌
Nicely done team 🤖
@bentossell@pavelpekanov I've been working on this the last couple days, will send it to PH once I can get my facebook page approved with messaging functionality. So that it can be on sms, Telegram, Kik and Facebook Messenger at launch.
Hey @bentossell Congrats on the launch of this product. Bots are the new app, everyday there is a new BOT launched and it's getting very tricky to keep a track of what's out there.
I was submitting a bot we made at Tripnary, but I was surprised to learn that I need to pay $50 to get a "quick review" (within 7 days).. Why do you charge that? How did you come up with that number?
@goelv Hey yeah its crazy.
As you said, everyday there is a new bot launched and I only expect that number to increase.
There is already a queue of bots to add so need to have something in place or we could be completely inundated with bots that we just dont have time to get to quick enough!
Maybe $50 is a little high. That's what this feedback is for :) Appreciate it!
@bentossell I would think that you should kee it free initially to populate your database with currently available bots across platforms. Once you hit some milestones (per platform) then start to charge money. Moreover 7 business days after paying for the quick review seems long. If you are paying it should be done with 1-2 days. Hope this feedback helps.
@bentossell Because when I try to work on my stuff during the week, it's pretty hard. Already had a long day. I'm trying to schedule my life : health, family, work, friends & my projects. But I can't handle everything. :(
Awesome work @bentossell & co! 2016 definitely feels like it's going to be 'year of the bots' & there are so many of them out there, it's difficult to find them.
I couldn't agree more on not making it an overwhelming experience, that was my thinking behind Connected & it was definitely a good shout (everyone +1'd for the simplicity). Looking forward to seeing where this goes :)
@bentossell. Very nicely done. Some of the descriptions are short and don't include pictures. This forces me to go to navigate away from your page and to the bot's page to understand what I'm looking at. Just a thought... Cheers!
@adam_hanna we are definitely talking about having bot pages be owned by the makers. So they can add content and more details on the detail page. //@bentossell
@miscalzoncillos Good catch, there was one, it must be hiding... do you know a resource that hosts them?
I'm sure with the Facebook stuff launching, we will see Whatsapp bots too - we have the platform set up for it
@neilcocker Fortunately I'm in a great position to see lots of bots come in and I read a lot around the space too.
We also have a submission (typeform for now) for people to add their bots if they build new ones etc and we will review.
Already have a queue :)
Very cool idea – thanks for implementing this!
If icons etc are missing can we provide this?
Of course I searched for Yodel :) and found it via the search but cannot see it in the category list for the specified categories.
When are bots listed on the category pages?
BTW love the icon! 🚀
@mikeseeh let me check up on yodel for you :)
It is because we havent officially 'published' yodel yet - there are a lot of bots in the queue that are half uploaded. Will look into it :)
@bentossell Looks good, but what's the difference in botlist & https://www.producthunt.com/tech...? Only 3 days ago and they only got 116 upvotes. This looks to be upvoted & commented by most of the heavy hitters at Product Hunt. Is it all about marketing it better?
@mattpickle_ adam signed up for my alpha last week so its cool to see his version launch too.
Its an obvious space to look at so not surprised there are others.
We are focusing on trying to not make it an overwhelming experience when browsing, adding images where we can, we have a Build A Bot section which we hope to expand on, there are a few things in the pipeline which we think will be a great addition here
This is cool !
A nice curated list of awesome bots.
I think registering is broken at this moment. Twitter / Facebook OAuth would be nice to have :)
Are you planning to launch for mobile too (may be not natively, just "phonegappish"), that will help in killing my travel time :D
@s0ftvar What was your issue with registering? Will look at that ASAP.
Yeah I'm sure we will do that soon but didnt for basic version.
Yep mobile responsive on the way!!
Hats off @bentossell@mubashariqbal@sethlouey, this looks great for an MVP. Any reason that you're going for 'write a review' over a simpler 5 star approach, or even 'just' upvoting? As it gets busier, it'd be good to offer users filter by / order by options, imo...
@thedimmick I was suppose to implement the 5 star this past weekend, but @mubashariqbal and I were at a hackathon. Will get to this sometime tonight. :) // @bentossell
Nice work guys :)
Do you plan on actually selling things there? If not, maybe it would better described as a stash rather than a store? (look, it's now a type of product, gg @bramk ^^ )
@oelmekki if we are being picky then its not really for 'apps' either haha. The tagline helps people understand what it is... copy may change down the line for sure.
In the future if bots ask you to pay then it might well go through this too.
Lots of possibilities and not nailed down to anything right now. Which is why MVP launch here is important :)
nice! congrats on the launch Ben (@mubashariqbal and @sethlouey) nice little team you got here :P I signed up and it looks great, lots of info on literally every bot I could think of (and ones I had no idea about).. great timing with Kik and F8 happening this week.
@koridhandy@mubashariqbal@sethlouey thanks dude. Awesome team :)
Yeah theres a lot still to do and hopefully feedback here will help us think about what we may need to add
@koridhandy@mubashariqbal@bentossell thanks Kori. Always been a fan of your work and to hear you say that... I am honored.
Can't wait to try out Banana
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