5 ms·

Posterous (YC 08) unveils Post Editor 2.0

42 points by timf 17y ago

mrshoe 17y ago
I'm starting to see a pattern in startup strategy... Build a minimum viable product without accounts, management interfaces, rich text editors, etc. Market that product based on its lack of such features ("It's so simple!"). Once you have traction, go build all those features. Market your new product based on having those features ("It's so powerful!").
- a4agarwal 17y ago
  You forgot the part about "do those features better". :)
- savrajsingh 17y ago
  This is Apple's strategy too, and they're not a startup. :)
- raghus 17y ago
  Which kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Why build the whole thing when you're not even sure that people will care.
- u48998 17y ago
  Actually there's a next sentence to it: when we build the bare minimum service, we'll create the "awe" effect for tech-media bloggers. They'll think we're "pretty cool". and they'll follow us even for the tinniest upgrade we make. What a joke. I can't even believe this is a story on this website as well.
davi 17y ago
Language nit: "Posterous is not a microblog. It's your place to post everything." I think defining oneself to an audience in terms of a negative -- 'we are not x, we are not y, we are z!' -- tends to leave a negative association. Just flip the sign, to something more like, "Posterous is way more than a microblog -- it's your place to post everything!" Anyway, cool new features. Image crop, in addition to rotation, would probably satisfy 80% of what a casual user ever needs to do before posting. Rotation alone probably satisfies 50%. I'd be interested to hear the founders' thinking about which features they included vs. excluded in this release. I'm using Posterous to share pictures of our new daughter with friends & family. It's great for family members to be able to share their pictures of her by email -- a few of my computer-naive relatives can't handle DropBox, but can handle sending a photo in an email attachment. I am nervous about giving my content to a startup that quite likely will get acquired & disappear, but I can archive the pages w/ Zotero, so that's something I guess.
maxklein 17y ago
It's pretty good. It has solved part of my biggest problem, which was the images. Previously, I had to upload images to imgur and then link then, but now I can upload them directly. See sample: http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/HkgpEbuDGE http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/HkgpEbuDGE I'll still be using imgur though, because they only allow uploading images from your computer and they have no resize option. I usually search of flickr, right click, get the url, add by url to imgur and let it resize to 500. With posterous, I'd have to download it, resize with photoshop, reupload it, which is more work. It also does not allow me save drafts, so I'll have to keep these in my text files still. All the same, posterous is good enough for my needs. The reason I use posterous is really ONLY because of this: - The pageview counter on the right - The backtype widget at the bottom - The fact that some people subscribe using posterous - I don't seem to get much spam there If those things were not there, I would have changed to wordpress a long time ago. Yes, I know I could add some wordpress plug-ins, but I really can't be bothered, you know. And if I had a wordpress blog with a pageview counter, it would look pretentious, because everyone would know I added it, but a posterous blog looks normal because it's part of the default. That's why I use posterous - not because I love it, but because it's easy, it works, and it has some minor things I prefer over the other alternatives.
- rantfoil 17y ago
  Thanks Max, been great to see you on Posterous. For images, any uploads do get resized to a 500px version automatically. Also if you paste a raw URL to an image (must end with .jpg, .gif or .png), we download and resize to 500px if you just drop the URL to the image on its own line in the post. I use it all the time. For drafts, private posts actually work quite well. Flip it live and hit autopost to push. Thanks a ton for the feedback, much appreciated.
  - maxklein 17y ago
    I absolutely did not know that thing with putting an image url in its own line. Now I do and you're right, it's great. Just saved me a ton of time.
- thingie 17y ago
thesethings 17y ago
Yaaaay! I was using Gmail as a Posterous blog post editor (because attaching images and mp3's and then sending them to Posterous resulted in beautiful posts, something confusingly less possible with the web editor.). Anyway, I had no doubt they were cooking up something for the web editor... not because i had inside information, but just because they seem extremely thoughtful and in touch with how people actually work. (They prioritized email/mobile editing... fair enough. And probably smart, though less applicable to me.) Keep up the great work, Posterous folks!
siculars 17y ago
Good work, a4agarwal & Co. I just used the new editor to post http://siculars.posterous.com/my-i-also-think-apple-is-sauced-post http://siculars.posterous.com/my-i-also-think-apple-is-sauce.... One suggestion I would make would be to update the "Post" button to read "Update Post" or something like that when you are updating a post.
jazzychad 17y ago
There is something about the rich text editor in the web interface that makes it uneditable on iphones/ipads. This is a shame because I wanted to write a long post on the train and format it the way I like. Yes, the straight HTML editor works, but coding on an iP* is tedious and horrible. You may also get a lot more mobile and "couch bloggers" if you can do rich text editing this way as well. My $0.02.

42 points by timf 17y ago

I'm starting to see a pattern in startup strategy... Build a minimum viable product without accounts, management interfaces, rich text editors, etc. Market that product based on its lack of such features ("It's so simple!"). Once you have traction, go build all those features. Market your new product based on having those features ("It's so powerful!").

a4agarwal 17y ago
You forgot the part about "do those features better". :)
savrajsingh 17y ago
This is Apple's strategy too, and they're not a startup. :)
raghus 17y ago
Which kind of makes sense, doesn't it? Why build the whole thing when you're not even sure that people will care.
u48998 17y ago
Actually there's a next sentence to it: when we build the bare minimum service, we'll create the "awe" effect for tech-media bloggers. They'll think we're "pretty cool". and they'll follow us even for the tinniest upgrade we make. What a joke. I can't even believe this is a story on this website as well.

davi 17y ago

Language nit: "Posterous is not a microblog. It's your place to post everything." I think defining oneself to an audience in terms of a negative -- 'we are not x, we are not y, we are z!' -- tends to leave a negative association. Just flip the sign, to something more like, "Posterous is way more than a microblog -- it's your place to post everything!" Anyway, cool new features. Image crop, in addition to rotation, would probably satisfy 80% of what a casual user ever needs to do before posting. Rotation alone probably satisfies 50%. I'd be interested to hear the founders' thinking about which features they included vs. excluded in this release. I'm using Posterous to share pictures of our new daughter with friends & family. It's great for family members to be able to share their pictures of her by email -- a few of my computer-naive relatives can't handle DropBox, but can handle sending a photo in an email attachment. I am nervous about giving my content to a startup that quite likely will get acquired & disappear, but I can archive the pages w/ Zotero, so that's something I guess.

maxklein 17y ago

It's pretty good. It has solved part of my biggest problem, which was the images. Previously, I had to upload images to imgur and then link then, but now I can upload them directly. See sample: http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/HkgpEbuDGE http://blog.cubeofm.com/private/HkgpEbuDGE I'll still be using imgur though, because they only allow uploading images from your computer and they have no resize option. I usually search of flickr, right click, get the url, add by url to imgur and let it resize to 500. With posterous, I'd have to download it, resize with photoshop, reupload it, which is more work. It also does not allow me save drafts, so I'll have to keep these in my text files still. All the same, posterous is good enough for my needs. The reason I use posterous is really ONLY because of this: - The pageview counter on the right - The backtype widget at the bottom - The fact that some people subscribe using posterous - I don't seem to get much spam there If those things were not there, I would have changed to wordpress a long time ago. Yes, I know I could add some wordpress plug-ins, but I really can't be bothered, you know. And if I had a wordpress blog with a pageview counter, it would look pretentious, because everyone would know I added it, but a posterous blog looks normal because it's part of the default. That's why I use posterous - not because I love it, but because it's easy, it works, and it has some minor things I prefer over the other alternatives.

rantfoil 17y ago
Thanks Max, been great to see you on Posterous. For images, any uploads do get resized to a 500px version automatically. Also if you paste a raw URL to an image (must end with .jpg, .gif or .png), we download and resize to 500px if you just drop the URL to the image on its own line in the post. I use it all the time. For drafts, private posts actually work quite well. Flip it live and hit autopost to push. Thanks a ton for the feedback, much appreciated.
- maxklein 17y ago
  I absolutely did not know that thing with putting an image url in its own line. Now I do and you're right, it's great. Just saved me a ton of time.
thingie 17y ago

thesethings 17y ago

Yaaaay! I was using Gmail as a Posterous blog post editor (because attaching images and mp3's and then sending them to Posterous resulted in beautiful posts, something confusingly less possible with the web editor.). Anyway, I had no doubt they were cooking up something for the web editor... not because i had inside information, but just because they seem extremely thoughtful and in touch with how people actually work. (They prioritized email/mobile editing... fair enough. And probably smart, though less applicable to me.) Keep up the great work, Posterous folks!

siculars 17y ago

Good work, a4agarwal & Co. I just used the new editor to post http://siculars.posterous.com/my-i-also-think-apple-is-sauced-post http://siculars.posterous.com/my-i-also-think-apple-is-sauce.... One suggestion I would make would be to update the "Post" button to read "Update Post" or something like that when you are updating a post.

jazzychad 17y ago

There is something about the rich text editor in the web interface that makes it uneditable on iphones/ipads. This is a shame because I wanted to write a long post on the train and format it the way I like. Yes, the straight HTML editor works, but coding on an iP* is tedious and horrible. You may also get a lot more mobile and "couch bloggers" if you can do rich text editing this way as well. My $0.02.