Some things to check in your YC application

[pg]

A surprisingly large percentage of people fill out the application form incorrectly. Most of these mistakes we can deal with, but there are two things you really want to get right:

1. In the question asking about the details of each founder (name, age, education etc), one of the things we ask for is an email address. Do please include one. If we want to ask you questions about your application, or invite you for interviews, we need to be able to contact you.

2. In the questions asking for the YC usernames of all the founders, and of those who will come to CA if funded, please make sure that these fields contain nothing but YC usernames (not proper names), and that the second is a subset of the first. It's amazing how often the first field contains fewer names than there are people whose details are supplied later, or (more strangely still) the second field contains a name that is not in the first.

[DaniFong]

I don't know if this was my client acting up, or perhaps an unconscious mouse movement, but I've been trying to update the application for a while now. For some reason the update button isn't working (is the server hosed? Is the internet cafe that I'm at breaking?) but when I checked the two fields you mentioned, all but one of the names were eliminated from each (and the intersection was zero).

(Edit: I was using commas instead of spaces, which might account for the weird behavior. Does YC search the usernames for each token? Because then only the last names would have had no comma, and so they they would remain)

So, I can't really remember if it was just me, but it's possibly a bug...

[blored → DaniFong]

I've noticed that when I was editing the application and left the window open for a long period of time (maybe 30 minutes - 2 hours) I would find that clicking 'Update' would return an error. I'm not sure if Refreshing my page helped, but when I clicked the back button my application would be saved. I only remember it from the trauma of the prospect of losing my data. I thought it was a time-out issue.

This happened to me a while ago, I would say late August, early September.

[pg → blored]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66604

[robmnl → blored]

I got that error quite often too, "link expired".

Save regularly, then it works out alright.

[pg → DaniFong]

What do you mean by "isn't working?" What happens when you click on update?

[DaniFong → pg]

Well, it says "loading" and "waiting for YCombinator". It does this for an arbitrarily long period of time. It's quite possible that the network providing wireless changed something which breaks AJAX, because since this morning I can only get Gmail to work in HTML mode here. I think that this service with used all across the bay area though (it's called Freeva, I think), so that might explain why many people are having problems.

Edit: Does edit work? I wonder... Okay. Apparently, yes for here, but not for another post I made.

[pg → DaniFong]

It's the same server (in fact, the same process) you're submitting this comment to.

[DanielBMarkham → pg]

FWIW, I got a server timeout earlier today when I took just over 30 minutes to start on my application. It looks like it is easy to lose your cookies just under normal use.

[pg → DanielBMarkham]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66604

[DanielBMarkham → pg]

Thanks. "Save your work every 5 or ten minutes" might be a little more clear for numbskulls like me than "We recommend you save regularly by clicking on the update button at the bottom of this page. Otherwise you may lose work if we restart the server." -- Saving regularly to me just means every so often when I think about it. This may vary according to the intensity of what I'm doing. And restarting the server does not sound like a normal occurance, so the instructions were taken as more of a general warning that a specific immediate threat. After the first loss, I saved in a much more regular manner.

[nailer → pg]

"We recommend you save regularly by clicking on the update button at the bottom of this page. Otherwise you may lose work if we restart the server."

Implies one would only lose work is when the server is restarted - an event that usually doesn't happen multiple times a day.

[gabrielleydon]

After i submitted my application I went back to read over it again and I noticed only one of the three YC names were left in the fields for cofounders YC names and the list of YC names of who will move to the bay area. I am 100% positive all three names were there when i submitted the first time because we went over it a few times before hand. (I spent a few years as a video game tester so i noticed it was missing immediately) So maybe there is a problem with the app if these fields have consistent missing info.

I fixed the fields and resubmitted so hopefully the problem was corrected for me but just a heads up for YC. It might be worth looking into.

[alaskamiller]

Reading, comprehending, and filling out an application should be the first way to cull people.

[pg → alaskamiller]

We do treat it that way. But today I came across an otherwise promising application that didn't have any email addresses in it. I had to call them on the phone and leave a message telling them to add their email addresses. Obviously this does not scale.

[bootload → pg]

"... I came across an otherwise promising application that didn't have any email addresses in it ..."

Is the application via online form? Would it be scalable to verify addition of email address on submit?

[pg → bootload]

I've been resisting adding lots of structure to the form so that people can email drafts around when working on their applications.

[bootload → pg]

"... I've been resisting adding lots of structure to the form so that people can email drafts around ..."

Maybe there should (a few) mandatory fields (contact email + phone + first name + last name) like a login. Leave the rest unstructured. You don't need your life details, just a username and email address that uniquely identifies users and allows contact.

[dcurtis → pg]

Do the verifications upon submission only, not on saving. There, problem solved!

[alaskamiller → pg]

:(

My application had my full contact info on it so I guess it can't be mine.

[mwerty → pg]

My guess is that the team worked off s2007 app and missed the addition of email as a requirement.

[mattrogers1]

I have pressed the submit button!!!

Was there supposed to be a confirmation that it was recieved?

Just double checking, peace of mind really. Thanks for the motivation and continued inspiration YC.

[german → mattrogers1]

It now says resubmit, good luck with your application!

[mrtron]

pg: do you read apps that are not submitted?

If so, it could help to have a delete button for people like me that went through the process just to see what type of questions you were asking.