[HN Gopher] Show HN: Whataaabout.com - unique activity ideas for...
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Show HN: Whataaabout.com - unique activity ideas for the holiday
break
Hi HN, I've been working on whataaabout.com with a friend, while
learning to code. It's a fun little website for those short on time
but seeking new experiences. It started from a question, "when was
the last time you did an experience you had never done before?". As
human beings we need some degree of novelty, to expose ourselves to
the unfamiliar and keep learning throughout our lives. So to add a
spark to my daily routine and keep novelty coming my way, I started
collecting ideas of interesting and unusual activities I'd like to
try out sooner or later. The main selection criteria is things that
take a short amount of time and are not too demanding, nor
location-specific. I organized them based on categories like
uniqueness, humans involved, location, price, time required, and
others. I hope you like it, and I'd be happy to hear your
thoughts, as well as any cool activity ideas you might have.
Cheers!
Author : erkjs
Score : 150 points
Date : 2023-12-26 15:13 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.whataaabout.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.whataaabout.com)
| jacquesm wrote:
| Neat! In the same spirit I'm trying to put together a minimalist
| gaming platform for kids that want to learn how to code. The
| gratification of a game is such that messing with the code if you
| have access to the source is a given and so far all my kids have
| taken to hacking on the games almost as fast as they did to
| playing them. Mission accomplished, nothing like seeing a 7 year
| old modifying a game and uploading it to a microcontroller, I
| didn't expect that end result but I'm very happy to take it.
| erkjs wrote:
| Sounds great! I could probably use it myself, I'm still
| learning the basics.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Neat, I am working on the thing right now and will soon post
| an article on how it is all put together. What really
| interests me is to lower the barrier to programming as far as
| possible but _not_ to have it be some visual stuff where you
| click things together.
| knowknowledge wrote:
| Is there any way to get a permanent link? If I wanted to share an
| idea with friends, how would I do that?
| erkjs wrote:
| There's no way now, for a quick one, I'd suggest to just take a
| screenshot
| kevinwang wrote:
| I looked at a bunch of the ideas, they were all pretty good!
| erkjs wrote:
| Thank you, I appreciate it! I spent quite some time selecting
| and organizing them
| eluketronic wrote:
| The first suggestion that appeared for me was "Trying CBD". Is
| that really a "unique activity idea for the holiday break"?
| erkjs wrote:
| :D sorry about that! Well, it could be... but no, not ALL of
| them are, of course
| zenapollo wrote:
| If you do like 80-100mg, yes it def can be! Add freestyle yoga
| or deep house-cleaning and you're in for a good day.
| NewJazz wrote:
| How do you clean deep house music? The stuff I listen to is
| fairly clean as is?
| mf2hd wrote:
| Try something with dirty stinky bass.
| bicx wrote:
| I often suspect it's the trace amounts of remaining THC that
| make higher doses of CBD a good time.
| sirsinsalot wrote:
| Sounds good to me. Each to their own. It'd be boring list if
| designed to avoid value judgement.
| eterm wrote:
| Some things I noticed:
|
| The list is fairly short (70 activities total). Once filtered it
| would be easier to simply display all matching activities.
|
| Many of the "Low" cost activities have significant upfront costs.
| I wouldn't describe Archery as "low cost", nor describe Astronomy
| or a board game night as Free activities!
|
| It was easier just to read the raw JSON than browse the site. (
| The activities are https://www.whataaabout.com/activities.json
| and seem to be static, not based on parameters. )
| pimlottc wrote:
| Not sure about archery and astronomy, but free board game
| meetups are pretty common. There's normally plenty of people
| bringing games that you don't need to bring any yourself.
| Alex3917 wrote:
| Or just play Go online.
| tuukkah wrote:
| And Board Game Arena has many more online board games (non-
| premium) for free.
| erkjs wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback! It is short yes, mostly because I
| didn't want to spend more time on it before showing it to
| somebody. If the feedback is positive I'll add more. About
| displaying all activities, it's a good point, I though it was
| more fun to get one at a time, but I might add the display all
| as another option. And about the categories, I hear you, but
| take it with a grain of salt, those depends on many factors.
| For example I consider board game night free because where I am
| there are many pubs with games you can play. Same with archery,
| I've been in places where with 20euros or less you can try it
| for one hour..so yes, it depends.
| gala8y wrote:
| I really like the idea and the site looks nice. It's good the
| list is short as of now, as quality of suggestions is
| crucial. I'll be absolutely looking at it, sometimes I get
| really too narrow in focus.
| erkjs wrote:
| I appreciate it!
| throwup238 wrote:
| I'd remove "Try CBD" and "Space Cake" once you've got more
| options. The latter is still illegal in many places and for
| the former is just gauche.
| wspeirs wrote:
| Plus the CBD one appeared when I had the "Kid Friendly"
| filter selected :-|
| erkjs wrote:
| Seriously or are you trolling? If so, it's some strange
| bug, Kids friendly is not a category assigned to that
| activity
| throwup238 wrote:
| Well it is FDA approved to treat epilepsy in children :-)
| NewJazz wrote:
| For me astronomy night would be much longer than an hour, and
| yeah not free because of fuel costs.
|
| More like 3-4 hours, and low (but not zero) cost.
| diggan wrote:
| > I wouldn't describe Archery as "low cost"
|
| Obviously the range is very broad, but around my parts you can
| get away with archery for about ~15 EUR per person (and up).
| That's not very expensive. What is "low cost" also obviously
| depends on the person.
| Moto7451 wrote:
| Yup. About $20 USD where I grew up, with several archery
| ranges at public parks. I'd probably spring $20 for a few
| more niceties.
| arunan wrote:
| I kinda like that it shows only one activity at a time. If one
| doesn't like it, they can always spin for a new one. Makes it
| better than the typical, google seo farmed lists. Also, let's
| you focus on one and make a decision.
|
| In regards to the costs, again, what's low cost for one might
| be different for another. My archery club allows you to show up
| and try it for a session (or two) before enrolling. Astronomy
| nights don't cost us anything or much fuel, if at all. Been to
| plenty of board game nights where there were no entrance cost.
|
| To share some contrasting opinions.
| joshuamcginnis wrote:
| My first three recommendations: shooting guns, consuming
| marijuana brownies, axe throwing. Oh my.
| erkjs wrote:
| Oh wow, you got lucky! These are probably the most hardcore
| ones
| fundad wrote:
| This reads like those SEO spam headlines that link to a
| slideshow.
| bicx wrote:
| Just don't do them all at the same time, and it should be
| pretty fun.
| serf wrote:
| just give me a button so that I can look at the list, or pre-
| cache the future results. it's obnoxious to spam a button over
| and over again on a website with poor performance from click-til-
| load.
| y-curious wrote:
| Suggestion: reset filters button
| erkjs wrote:
| Makes sense, thank you! For now, I'd suggest to reload the page
| for a quick reset
| imafish wrote:
| The name is off to me. More natural:
|
| - whaaatabout
|
| - whatabooout
| erkjs wrote:
| Ouch! I was not sure about it. Is english your first language?
| I'm asking out of curiosity, I'm italian
| cole-k wrote:
| Native English speaker, I agree with the parent.
|
| I don't think it's a big deal, though. The site itself is
| more important than the name.
|
| Edit: If I were to say a drawn-out "what about" to someone I
| would probably say "what abooout" but both suggestions sound
| okay to me.
| sentientslug wrote:
| Not so sure about this. I like the idea but for my chosen filter
| combo (which would be a relatively common one) there seem to only
| be three activities?
| erkjs wrote:
| I'll add more activities, I wanted to collect feedback before
| spending too much time on it
| hn_user82179 wrote:
| I adore this! It already has neat ideas that never would've
| occurred to me, and indoor/outdoor or active/sedentary are the
| options I'd prefer to turn on/off when deciding what to do.
| Really looking forward to you adding more suggestions!
| erkjs wrote:
| Happy to hear it, will do!
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Perhaps this is a bit "old man yells at cloud", and this is not
| particularly directed at you (as I see it all over the Internet
| these days) but I've grown to despise the use of fake, AI-
| generated "stock images" for sites like this. They make me want
| to get off the Internet altogether.
|
| The reason, though, that I think it's _especially_ bad for your
| project is because the whole purpose of your site is to try
| something _new_. I like the saying "Be brave enough to be bad at
| something new". So many of us get into a vein (often
| subconsciously) of always comparing ourselves to others because
| basically all of the examples we see online are the 0.001%
| experts that make it to the top of some feed algorithm. So, for
| example, why use a "perfect model specimen", complete with fake
| veins, for your "Bouldering" example,
| https://www.whataaabout.com/imgs/bouldering.png? Why use a
| "Hallmark card perfection" example of a (fake) smiling
| grandmother and her daughter,
| https://www.whataaabout.com/imgs/familyTree.png, for "Creating a
| family tree"? An almost fairytale scene for "Scavenger Hunt",
| https://www.whataaabout.com/imgs/scavengerHunt.png (though
| apparently some of the cars in the lower right are about to be
| sucked into another dimension).
|
| Your site should be about people embracing the joy of the
| _reality_ of doing something new, not more fantasy land bullshit
| that doesn 't exist.
|
| Sorry, will get off my soapbox now and go back to eating my soup.
| bicx wrote:
| For such a small project done while learning to code, it was
| probably a choice between stock/AI images like these, or no
| images at all.
|
| I think it looks fine, and ads some visual cues for what the
| activity actually is.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Not saying they aren't staged, but I still think reality is
| still a better option, e.g.:
|
| https://www.pexels.com/search/bouldering/
|
| https://www.pexels.com/search/grandmother%20and%20grandchild.
| ..
|
| https://pixabay.com/images/search/scavenger%20hunt/
| erkjs wrote:
| These actually looks great, I didn't know about Pexels.
| I'll have a look, thank you!
| erkjs wrote:
| It's a fair point and I partially agree with you. The reason
| why the images are this way is on one side because that's what
| the AI comes up with, which is clearly biased (but it took me
| long enough just to get to a photorealistic look). And on the
| other side because I think a more aspirational look will push
| you more than a strictly realistic one. If I see the muscled
| guy bouldering I think how I could become, and it just looks
| "easier". While if I see a regular person who can barely hold
| onto the wall I just think of how bad the experience might be
| and could end up not even considering it.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| > And on the other side because I think a more aspirational
| look will push you more than a strictly realistic one. If I
| see the muscled guy bouldering I think how I could become,
| and it just looks "easier". While if I see a regular person
| who can barely hold onto the wall I just think of how bad the
| experience might be and could end up not even considering it.
|
| This is the part I pretty strongly disagree with you. There
| is a reason "Comparison is the thief of joy" is a popular
| saying. People are pretty quickly going to be exposed to the
| reality of the situation, at which point the gap between
| their fantasy and reality will be a huge _demotivator_.
|
| In any case, there are lots of free stock image sites you can
| use to find images that actually depict reality. Not saying
| they aren't staged, but there are lots that I think would be
| "friendlier" to newbies, which is what your site is about.
| praveen9920 wrote:
| Perhaps adding a page for users to suggest things would improve
| location specific stuff.
| o0-0o wrote:
| This list includes taking drugs? Do you think it should have an
| age acceptance for terms and conditions?
| pants2 wrote:
| This is awesome! I have a list of activities somewhere I need to
| suggest
|
| It would be cool to have daytime/night filters too if we're
| looking for something to do at night!
| oriettaxx wrote:
| wow, super cool!
| legerdemain wrote:
| I got "visit the post office," "go to the supermarket," and
| "defrost something from the freezer."
|
| ...Oh wait, that's just my "to do" list for today.
| glennonymous wrote:
| A couple of thoughts: I'm unable to go back with my browser's
| 'Back' key. not being able to revisit an activity reduces the
| site's usefulness. Also, I'd recommend adding a feature that lets
| users add activities.
| your_friend wrote:
| The website led me to a Wikipedia article with a list of
| cognitive biases.
|
| That was fun, thank you.
| cwp1989 wrote:
| The woodworking stock photo is... funny lol
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(page generated 2023-12-26 23:00 UTC)