Quick scan

Crux

A free 3-day hackathon for high school coders, launching in Sydney on July 10 — eight weeks from now. A community of 112,858 Slack members. And a landing page where the FAQ answers don't load.

All findings based on publicly available data — landing page, Hack Club Slack, GitHub, X, event aggregators, past event recaps

Website Quick win The FAQ answers aren't loading — the questions students and parents most want answered appear blank

Every day the FAQ stays broken, a student or parent who can't get answers assumes the event isn't ready — and with July 10 eight weeks away, that is costing registrations. The FAQ section on crux.hackclub.com shows questions but the answers don't render. A student or parent asking "what is Hack Club," "where do I stay," or "what happens each day" clicks through to nothing. This is likely a JavaScript rendering issue — but from a visitor's perspective it looks like the event isn't ready. For a free event targeting students who've never heard of Crux before, a broken FAQ is the fastest way to lose registrations. July 10 is eight weeks away. Every day this stays broken is a day the page is failing the people most likely to attend.

Action Fix the FAQ rendering bug today. Then confirm every key question has a visible answer: whether accommodation is included, what the daily schedule is, what happens if a student doesn't reach 35 hours in time, and what past Hack Club events have been like. These are the four objections that stop a high school student from applying.

FAQ structure — questions that must have visible answers

Is accommodation provided?
[Yes — participants stay at [venue/address]. Add any conditions.]

What do participants eat? Are meals included?
[Yes/No — add details about what's covered each day.]

What time does each day start and end?
Day 1 (Thu 10 Jul): Arrival from [time]. Kickoff at [time].
Day 2 (Fri 11 Jul): [time]–[time] build day.
Day 3 (Sat 12 Jul): [time]–[time] demos. Close at [time].

Who is responsible for participants overnight?
[Name the supervising adults and their Hack Club role.]

What if I'm at 30 hours — can I still qualify before July 10?
Yes. [X hours/week] gets you there.
Check your Hackatime total here: [link to dashboard]

What have past Hack Club events been like?
Sydney Campfire recap (February 2026): [link to blog post]

Website Quick win Accommodation and logistics aren't explained anywhere — a parent who can't answer basic questions won't give permission

For a high school event, the parent is the gatekeeper — a teenager who wants to attend still needs permission, and a parent who can't answer where their kid sleeps won't give it. Crux is a 3-day in-person event in Sydney, July 10-12. The landing page doesn't confirm whether accommodation is provided, what meals are covered, what time each day runs, or whether adult supervision is in place overnight. For a high school audience, the parent is a gatekeeper — a teenager who wants to attend still needs a parent's permission, and a parent who can't answer basic logistics questions won't give it. This isn't a design problem. It's missing information that is currently blocking conversions.

Action Add a logistics section to the page — above the FAQ, not inside it: where participants stay, what's covered (accommodation, meals, travel subsidy if any), the daily schedule from arrival to close, and who is responsible for supervision overnight. One paragraph. It removes every logistical objection a parent has and makes the event feel real.

Social proof Quick win 112,858 Slack members and none of their stories appear on the page — the experience looks abstract instead of real

A student deciding whether to invest 35+ Hackatime hours needs to feel what the experience is like — and a page that describes an event without showing one is asking them to commit to an abstraction. Hack Club has run dozens of events — Arcade, Zephyr, Assemble, Counterspell, Sydney Campfire — and has 112,858+ members in its Slack. One personal blog recap from the Sydney Campfire event (February 2026) exists but isn't linked from the Crux page. There are no photos from past events, no quotes from past attendees, no sponsor logos. A high school student deciding whether to invest 35+ Hackatime hours for a shot at attending needs to feel what the experience is like, not just read what it is. Right now the page describes an event. It doesn't show one.

Action Pull 3-4 photos from the Hack Club Slack #scrapbook channel from any recent in-person event. Add one quote per photo — first name, age, which event. This takes 2 hours and is the fastest way to make the page feel like something a real student would want to be part of. The Sydney Campfire blog post already exists — link to it from the page.

Offer Medium effort The qualification pathway (35+ Hackatime hours via Horizons) isn't explained step by step — students who want to apply don't know where to start

A motivated student who lands on this page cold and wants to qualify has to find the pathway themselves — and most won't, which limits registrations to students already embedded in the Hack Club community. To attend Crux, students need 35+ tracked hours on the Horizons platform via Hackatime. The landing page doesn't show how to check your current hours, what Horizons is if you haven't used it, or what to do if you're at 20 hours with eight weeks to go. A motivated student who lands on this page cold and wants to attend has to find those answers themselves — and most won't. With July 10 eight weeks away, there is still time to drive students toward hitting the threshold if the pathway is clearly laid out.

Action Add a 3-step visual guide to the page: "Step 1 — Start Horizons at hackclub.com/horizons. Step 2 — Code in the browser. Hackatime tracks your hours automatically. Step 3 — Hit 35 hours to unlock your Crux invite." Include a note on how to check your current Hackatime total. This turns passive interest into active progress toward qualifying.

Social Strategic Crux is only visible inside Hack Club — school coding clubs, CS teachers, and hackathon aggregators don't know it exists

Crux is only visible to students already inside the Hack Club community — and the right students at school coding clubs and STEM programs who would love this don't know it exists. Based on public promotion visible, Crux is being promoted within the Hack Club Slack and to existing Horizons users. There are no posts on Australian CS teacher forums, no listing on MLH, Devpost, or Hackalist, and no outreach to school STEM programs. The event is free and the community behind it (Hack Club, 112,858 Slack members, 18,900 X followers) is substantial. The limiting factor on registrations isn't the event — it's that the right students outside of Hack Club's existing audience don't know it's happening.

Action Submit Crux to MLH's event calendar, Devpost, and Hackalist this week. Write one post in r/learnprogramming with genuine context about what the event is (not a press release — describe it the way a student would). Email three Australian STEM programs (STEMShare, Code Like a Girl, CSIRO STEM Professionals in Schools) with a direct invitation for their students. Each of these reaches an audience that is already interested in exactly what Crux offers.

What's next

The highest-value moves aren't visible from the outside.

Everything above came from public sources — your landing page, Slack, GitHub, event aggregators, past recap posts. There's a limit to what that reveals.

The biggest opportunities for growing registrations — what's actually blocking students from applying, which outreach channels would move the needle fastest before July 10, how to make the qualification pathway a growth driver instead of a barrier — only show up when we look inside. In 30 minutes, we'll identify which of these findings would have the fastest impact on registrations before July 10 — and you'll leave with a prioritised action list.

Book a free 30-minute call

— Raoul Wijnberg, Bottleneck Diagnostics