Hayhuy meeting us with its really impressive Web 2.0 design acted peevishly for not registering me at first but I succeeded at 3rd try. As a part of my job, I care details in websites; for example, I tried to log in with a username and password which did not exist and I liked that the website directed me to the registration page instead of saying “there is no such username”. If you are registering to tens of website everyday, then forgetting which website you registered is not a symptom of Alzheimer.  The first negative aspect is that the system is asking us to pick a username. Even we are doing this, we should be able to sign in by our e-mail addresses as an alternative to our username. Since people become absent minded day by day, we hope this deficiency will be fulfilled as soon as possible.

Hayhuy not allowing us to sign in with our e-mail addresses directed us to control panel when we signed in with our usernames. When we saw that we had 3 new messages, we had a short megalomania crisis as thinking “Wow, what a popular man I am, everyone jumped in as soon as I stepped in…” When we checked our inbox, we saw the warning as “there is no message here” and read the entire page by paranoiac looks but then we noticed that there were messages sent by Muhtar in the right bottom of the page (Muhtar is ‘elected head of government of a village or of a neighbourhood within a town in Turkey’). We thought, “Local elections were years ago. What would I do with muhtar? Would I receive certificate of residence?” But then we wanted to look “messages sent by muhtar to see if it is important or not. Is there any fire drill or earthquake shelther project etc.?”

When we accessed to the messages, we saw that they were information messages sent by the system (yes they were information messages, not spam messages. )

If you ask me why I mind this muhtar issue so much, I want you to pay attention to some details. Muhtar is used instead of website moderator or administrator; however muhtar is a passive personality. We discussed this issue in Fk# before. Secondly, it is quite localized case. If Hayhuy uses a concept like muhtar in a global project, we have to consider it. While an administrator concept should create a powerful image in minds, I do not understand why definitions such as “muhtar” or “Hayhuy district” are chosen like trying to create a special jargon as in bobiler.örg. If the project is global, then call it Obama, CEO or Chairman of Hayhuy Executive Council…  Before offering a swanky membership, shouldn’t you find a swanky administrator title? Is Muhtar swanky enough? No it is not as for me.

The most boring part of Facebook was to hate our friends when their replies in thousands of stupid tests such as “What character of XXXXXX series are you?” “Which teletubbies character are you?” “Which neurons of your brain are women and which neurotransmitters are men?” “Which television channel are you?” and etc.

When Gayet.net was tried first time, this test(osterone) issue that we said “Waooww, so amazing” became boring soon. The application which became uncontrollable by Facebook tests was a great waste of time. However, as Persian king ordered his men to design chess when he understood that playing backgammon was just a waste of time; the problem was not playing game but the content of game.

Hayhuy based on this logic found that the best way to know people is to ask them. The website is a brilliant idea enabling you to meet with people possible to feel like you by ordering questions asked by members. If test concepts in Gayet.net or Facebook are backgammon, then the question system in Hayhuy is exactly the chess.

From my point of view, honesty is the most important issue when asking a question. For example, it was so easy for me to convince a psychiatrist applying roschach inkblot test to me that I have a schizoid personality disorder It is same for Hayhuy. Hayhuy assumes that you act honestly and acts by this assumption; however, we should keep in our minds that people answer honestly only a small amount of questions asked to them.

Users do not only answer questions in Hayhuy, but also they can send questions to be answered by others. All these questions, of course, are published after controlled by moderators.

It is a scandal for not giving rooster as a choice (while chicken exists) in the question of “If you were a barnyard fowl, what would you be?” I think, moderators should be careful for subconscious associations while picking questions. I do not know any man around that will answer this question as chicken.

I think the question as “Should access to Hayhuy be restricted by the Council of Ministers for addiction?” was prepared by moderators to measure user loyalty. However, gaining user loyalty is the hardest part of a web project; it is clear that they should work some more for that issue.

You can skip a question without answering if you click “skip ciğerim” (bobiler would say that “skip geç” – ‘geç’ means skip in Turkish); however you can not learn who picked choices or rates of choices if you skip. (Either you will answer or skip it; your answers are added to your profile, even if you can remove it from your profile, this is a waste of time of course…)

Questions and their related social sensibilities stand out as an important issue in Hayhuy. While first answer of the question “Which one of the following names leaving his/her name in the last century has a world view close to you?” is Ernesto Che Guevera, the second choice is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In my opinion, the first choice should be Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the website of which most users are not Cuban. This is one of the disadvantages for allowing users to prepare and publish their own questions. Moderators should examine questions deeply whether it has any content disturbing any social group before publishing questions.

Hayhuy does not show you correct answers for questions with only one true answer such as “What is the total measure of internal angles of a triangle?” I think that this is a great deficiency for such knowledge questions. However, if the purpose is not to get right answer but to find out users knowing answer, such a structure can work quite well.

Let’s review the Swanky Membership issue. Hayhuy adopts Gold/Premium membership options like a dating website as an income model. However, to be honest, extra features offered by this membership option are not enough to make Turkish users to pay. Even though people pay for a dating website, a social community website even with an original idea as Hayhuy can not get efficiency by paid membership system.

How many people want to pay if Sosyomat.com offers a premium membership? If Hayhuy organizes sponsorship works with companies regarding with adolescents instead of premium membership, it can be a start-up making more profit. As introducing a product to users by asking a question about a product (advertorial), it is also possible to display advertisement by reaching certain target audience. For example, for an advertisement about Efes, a question can be asked to users like “What kind of drink do you prefer?” and Efes Beer advertisement can be displayed to those picking “Beer” answer. If I were Public Relations Manager of Efes, I certainly would love that idea. It is same for all brands. Displaying Burn advertisement to those picking “Redbull” answer for the question “Which energy drink?” can be an impressive advertisement method though it is aggressive.

Let’s say for now that Hayhuy has a successful idea and a design certainly as it should be; however more sensitivity should be displayed for moderating questions in order to ensure people to spend more time within the website. We look forward to meet with Hayhuy administrators soon to give you other details; also I want you to know that dear friend Mehmet “Izon” Turaç seeks ways to contact with us.