[neoveller]

I'm not sure what angle you're asking this from--the originator of the idea, or someone who might want to use a service?

Regarding the former, that's answered in the OP, so you probably mean the latter.

A) Why do you browse HN? I will assume here that it is because you want to keep up with hacker news. Another possibility is that you want be stimulated/inspired by interesting ideas and premises for startups. While the traffic and postings on Upboat thus far haven't been overwhelming, I've enjoyed reading people's ideas and commenting to probe them deeper about them. It keeps me on my toes for ideas I might have in the future. It also gives me the chance to become an early adopter/user of a service I personally find impactful and needed. I get to be a part of that, if other Upboaters agree.

B) The social aspect to Upboat lets me see how people I follow are upboating. This eases the friction of finding potentially great ideas I would like to upboat for the reasons in A. Although the follower/followee social network thing is overplayed and contrived by now, I feel the social filtering it provides is a compelling reason to stay active and upboat ideas I find valuable and want my followers to take a look at.

[avalaunch]

I think what revx may be alluding to is the fact that you're currently selling more to the person with the idea instead of the idea backer. Your home page is a good example. It asks "Is your startup idea valid?". Contrast that to IndieGoGo's home page which says "The world's funding platform. Fund what matters to you." or Kickstarter's which encourages you to "Discover great projects" with the goal of "Bringing Creativity to Life".

You're clearly solving a problem for those seeking idea validation but are you also solving a problem for those willing to give validation? Both KS and IGG do a really good job of tapping into a very visceral desire to help others succeed and to be a part of something bigger than oneself. If you can do that with Upboat you'll have a winner.

[neoveller]

Have an HN upboat, sir. I think you hit on a point I wasn't even thinking nearly enough about. I naturally enjoy hearing out ideas and knowing my feedback is heard, but I overlooked the possibility of that being uncommon. Light incentives (specialty accounts for early adopters) might be in order per the kickstart model. Thanks!

[ArekDymalski]

While I totally agree that you'll need to incentivize the potential users to use your app, I think that right now you've subconsciously taken the right path. To attract the users you need sufficient number of interesting ideas to show to them. That's why targeting the entrepreneurs,developers and designers (as someone brilliantly suggested) is a way to go for now imho. After that you can focus on implementing changes aimed at acquiring "normal" users. And that can be a real challenge. The perks/benefits seem to be already proven solution. I also thought about turning the "upboats" into some kind of game of prediction - can the user guess which idea will take off? Something like here: http://www.upboat.us/idea/c4861c9bf49ce663 ;)