3 ms·

Ah, gotcha. So the product that is being sold is simplicity. Are you the creator? If so, I would suggest: - more contrast between text and background - exp

by Travis 15y ago

Ah, gotcha. So the product that is being sold is simplicity. Are you the creator? If so, I would suggest: - more contrast between text and background - explain who the intended user is (web dev w/o strong LAMP background. I would find it easier to turn all that stuff on than to try to use a new product, and it's not worth even $1 to me to do that... so I'm clearly not your target customer) - explain what your value prop is (it's not "Now You Can Share!", it's, "Now You Can Share With One Click"). The way it's explained, it feels like a new capability... edit, formatting.

bobwaycott 15y ago
Well, to be fair, and this is personal opinion, Showoff has little to do with whether or not a developer has a strong LAMP background (or .NET, or Haskell, or insert-your-favorite-stack here). And yet it has everything to do with whether or not a developer has a strong LAMP/whatever background. Showoff is not intended to replace your stack--at all. In fact, this product came from a strong server-side background. If you find it easier to set up Apache & MySQL & DNS records and all that to show a client/person a development site/feature you are working on locally (that has not yet been moved to a server), that's fine. Slightly masochistic, but still fine. It's just that's more than most of us, as well as most of the devs we know, want to have to do to share local projects-still-in-development with our teams and clients. Example use cases: CASE ONE. You are working on a new site or feature for a Django/Ruby/.NET site on your local box. You've been banging away at it for the last couple hours, and are trying to explain it to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. You have it running locally just fine, are playing with it at http://localhost:1234/ http://localhost:1234/ and it looks pretty good. Everything's in good shape to show off your great new thing. If only they could both see it & interact with it, they'd be able to try it out and let you know what they think. How are you going to do this? -Option 1: Leverage your strong LAMP/whatever background & ssh to your development server, get all your proj files up-to-date, migrate/upgrade a db schema, restart your instance, test everything out to make sure there were no unforeseen impacts from the change before you let anyone else see it (you don't want them to hit the page & get a 500 (you do test before you let anyone try a new feature, right?)), then paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. -Option 2: switch to a shell & execute `show 8000`, then paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. CASE TWO. You are updating a site that's been around for a long time and is already live on the web. Some important changes and new features have been requested & you've been banging 'em out for a couple hours (or days). You need to get them before your client, coworkers, boss, or friend before they are live on the site. You currently have everything running locally at http://localhost:1234/ http://localhost:1234/ and it looks good to you. Maybe you have a few questions about whether you're on the right tracks. What'd be really nice is if you could put up what you have, let your client, coworkers, boss, or friend check it out, and maybe go thru a few page refreshes rapidly to see some other options (especially helpful with CSS changes/fixes). -Option 1: Leverage your strong LAMP/whatever background & ssh to your development server, get all your proj files up-to-date (including making sure the dev site is exactly identical to the live site and then apply your changes), migrate/upgrade a db, restart your instance, test everything out to make sure there were no unforeseen impacts from the change before you let anyone else see it (you don't want them to hit the page & get a 500 (you do test before you let anyone try a new feature, right?)), then paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. Time to try the next change? Repeat all over again. -Option 2: switch to a shell; execute `show 8000`; paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. Time to try the next change? Usually just a quick local Save action away & asking them to refresh. If anything, you might even argue that the people who have a strong LAMP/whatever background are exactly the target customer for Showoff -- they're the only ones who can read Option 1 and groan in disgust at doing all that just to try out a pending feature/fix. The value prop isn't merely "Now You Can Share With One Click" (and not just because there is no clicking involved) ;). It's that and much more.
- Travis 15y ago
  Sure, and I didn't mean to appear like I was stating the service was useless. It obviously has use -- it is a cheap shortcut that will reduce a very obvious pain point. An excellent business idea. All I was saying is two-part: 1) the marketing copy on the landing page needs some work. the design needs some work as well. The main message was unclear to me 2) this product isn't for everyone. E.g., I do all my dev work on virtual machines. One of my colleagues has a custom deployment script. Many people use continuous deployment. I guess all I'm suggesting is that the creator move to market themselves to a certain segment of the population. I'm not in that segment, but it was difficult for me to determine that. I suspect it's because the copywriter is loathe to exclude a possible customer. In my opinion, the "grab at everyone" approach hurts more than it helps. Go specific! And finally, not everyone has Ruby running. I've never installed a gem in my life. Which would I rather do: something that I have done a million times and have partially/fully automated (depl to internet), or try to setup a ruby system?
  - pixeloution 15y ago
    If you're on osX there's no "setup a ruby system" you type a one line command and then you can use "show". You might have to use the full path to `show` to get it to execute depending on how it installed. You don't need to know anything about ruby -- I've never touched ruby and I was up and running in less then 60 seconds.
    - Travis 15y ago
      Fair enough. Again, I was just trying to analyze their landing page copy from the point of view of a potential customer. I am not a potential customer. But for people without any Ruby experience, you don't know that fact ahead of time. All you see is the unknown ruby command. And my impression (as a non-user of ruby) is that it's hard to get going. So a potential customer may see these issues as a hurdle to jump.
- gbog 15y ago
  For me these tools are much more promising than simply showing your work to your boss. It could even become a solution to get around censorship. Imagine you plug a p2p share on it with all the wikileaks docs, and other do the same...

by Travis 15y ago

bobwaycott 15y ago

Well, to be fair, and this is personal opinion, Showoff has little to do with whether or not a developer has a strong LAMP background (or .NET, or Haskell, or insert-your-favorite-stack here). And yet it has everything to do with whether or not a developer has a strong LAMP/whatever background. Showoff is not intended to replace your stack--at all. In fact, this product came from a strong server-side background. If you find it easier to set up Apache & MySQL & DNS records and all that to show a client/person a development site/feature you are working on locally (that has not yet been moved to a server), that's fine. Slightly masochistic, but still fine. It's just that's more than most of us, as well as most of the devs we know, want to have to do to share local projects-still-in-development with our teams and clients. Example use cases: CASE ONE. You are working on a new site or feature for a Django/Ruby/.NET site on your local box. You've been banging away at it for the last couple hours, and are trying to explain it to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. You have it running locally just fine, are playing with it at http://localhost:1234/ http://localhost:1234/ and it looks pretty good. Everything's in good shape to show off your great new thing. If only they could both see it & interact with it, they'd be able to try it out and let you know what they think. How are you going to do this? -Option 1: Leverage your strong LAMP/whatever background & ssh to your development server, get all your proj files up-to-date, migrate/upgrade a db schema, restart your instance, test everything out to make sure there were no unforeseen impacts from the change before you let anyone else see it (you don't want them to hit the page & get a 500 (you do test before you let anyone try a new feature, right?)), then paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. -Option 2: switch to a shell & execute `show 8000`, then paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. CASE TWO. You are updating a site that's been around for a long time and is already live on the web. Some important changes and new features have been requested & you've been banging 'em out for a couple hours (or days). You need to get them before your client, coworkers, boss, or friend before they are live on the site. You currently have everything running locally at http://localhost:1234/ http://localhost:1234/ and it looks good to you. Maybe you have a few questions about whether you're on the right tracks. What'd be really nice is if you could put up what you have, let your client, coworkers, boss, or friend check it out, and maybe go thru a few page refreshes rapidly to see some other options (especially helpful with CSS changes/fixes). -Option 1: Leverage your strong LAMP/whatever background & ssh to your development server, get all your proj files up-to-date (including making sure the dev site is exactly identical to the live site and then apply your changes), migrate/upgrade a db, restart your instance, test everything out to make sure there were no unforeseen impacts from the change before you let anyone else see it (you don't want them to hit the page & get a 500 (you do test before you let anyone try a new feature, right?)), then paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. Time to try the next change? Repeat all over again. -Option 2: switch to a shell; execute `show 8000`; paste the URL to your client, coworker, boss, or friend. Time to try the next change? Usually just a quick local Save action away & asking them to refresh. If anything, you might even argue that the people who have a strong LAMP/whatever background are exactly the target customer for Showoff -- they're the only ones who can read Option 1 and groan in disgust at doing all that just to try out a pending feature/fix. The value prop isn't merely "Now You Can Share With One Click" (and not just because there is no clicking involved) ;). It's that and much more.

Travis 15y ago
Sure, and I didn't mean to appear like I was stating the service was useless. It obviously has use -- it is a cheap shortcut that will reduce a very obvious pain point. An excellent business idea. All I was saying is two-part: 1) the marketing copy on the landing page needs some work. the design needs some work as well. The main message was unclear to me 2) this product isn't for everyone. E.g., I do all my dev work on virtual machines. One of my colleagues has a custom deployment script. Many people use continuous deployment. I guess all I'm suggesting is that the creator move to market themselves to a certain segment of the population. I'm not in that segment, but it was difficult for me to determine that. I suspect it's because the copywriter is loathe to exclude a possible customer. In my opinion, the "grab at everyone" approach hurts more than it helps. Go specific! And finally, not everyone has Ruby running. I've never installed a gem in my life. Which would I rather do: something that I have done a million times and have partially/fully automated (depl to internet), or try to setup a ruby system?
- pixeloution 15y ago
  If you're on osX there's no "setup a ruby system" you type a one line command and then you can use "show". You might have to use the full path to `show` to get it to execute depending on how it installed. You don't need to know anything about ruby -- I've never touched ruby and I was up and running in less then 60 seconds.
  - Travis 15y ago
    Fair enough. Again, I was just trying to analyze their landing page copy from the point of view of a potential customer. I am not a potential customer. But for people without any Ruby experience, you don't know that fact ahead of time. All you see is the unknown ruby command. And my impression (as a non-user of ruby) is that it's hard to get going. So a potential customer may see these issues as a hurdle to jump.
gbog 15y ago
For me these tools are much more promising than simply showing your work to your boss. It could even become a solution to get around censorship. Imagine you plug a p2p share on it with all the wikileaks docs, and other do the same...