Xobni - a waste of money • Hacker News Board

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#41

Post by mixmax » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:18 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #15

dunn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> How many people here on HN will dare to criticize a YC startup? You said it. Doing so is grounds for ruthless downmodding on here. PG said there are 30 editors now. People are getting accounts marked dead at the drop of a hat, if they don't drink the kool-aid.

People are getting accounts marked dead at the drop of a hat, if they don't drink the kool-aid. That's false, as anyone can see by looking at the dead comments and submissions. There have always been people on here criticizing YC and YC-funded startups. And there have always been about 30 editors, for that matter.

"There have always been people on here criticizing YC and YC-funded startups"

And so there should be. Disagreeing on merits, and doing so in a good tone makes interesting conversation and broadens everyones minds. There's a lot of great disagreeing on YC news.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#42

Post by yters » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:19 PM UTC

greatapps wrote: post #36

Dear All, as the originator of the blog post that has sparked this thread may I begin by apologising for my sloppy spelling errors on the post, which I've corrected and thanks for highlighting them. However, to correct some of the misunderstandings and prejudices of other contributors to this thread - I was testing the add-in using BUSINESS email and sadly have too many attachments on incoming emails from people who…

I regret that you've had this experience here. For some of us, the success of startups is quite understandably an emotional issue, though that doesn't excuse bad behavior like insulting your photo.

For the most part though, we primarily value respectful rational discussion and I apologize again for catching some of us on a bad day.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#43

Post by pg » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:21 PM UTC

greatapps wrote: post #38

sharpshoot wrote: post #4

This isn't actually a 'vc' in the UK who has any standing either

Sumon, thanks for your kind comment on my "standing". I look forward to seeing you again in London in person, perhaps at Open Coffee, and maybe we can compare our respective CVs. Meantime, perhaps you can elaborate on what relevance my employment has to my comments on my user experience of this Outlook add-in?

He said this because the original title of the post described it as the opinion of a "UK VC." Since most of the readers of News.YC are American, he knew they'd naturally be curious whether you were a well-known one or not.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#44

Post by edw519 » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:25 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #42

greatapps wrote: post #36

Dear All, as the originator of the blog post that has sparked this thread may I begin by apologising for my sloppy spelling errors on the post, which I've corrected and thanks for highlighting them. However, to correct some of the misunderstandings and prejudices of other contributors to this thread - I was testing the add-in using BUSINESS email and sadly have too many attachments on incoming emails from people who…

I regret that you've had this experience here. For some of us, the success of startups is quite understandably an emotional issue, though that doesn't excuse bad behavior like insulting your photo. For the most part though, we primarily value respectful rational discussion and I apologize again for catching some of us on a bad day.

Ditto.

One of the things I noticed at Startup School was that people were so busy talking about substance (hacking, business, etc.), that there was little time for fluff.

In any large group there are outliers. You found a few.

OTOH, I noticed you referred to us as "groupies" on your blog, but omitted that sentence in this reply. I'm guessing you knew it would be inflammatory here.

Nerds. Geeks. Weirdos. Bipolar obsessive compulsive basket cases. Fine.

But groupies? (Throws pocket protector at pg on stage.)

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#45

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:32 PM UTC

greatapps wrote: post #38

sharpshoot wrote: post #4

This isn't actually a 'vc' in the UK who has any standing either

Sumon, thanks for your kind comment on my "standing". I look forward to seeing you again in London in person, perhaps at Open Coffee, and maybe we can compare our respective CVs. Meantime, perhaps you can elaborate on what relevance my employment has to my comments on my user experience of this Outlook add-in?

[deleted]

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#46

Post by yters » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:37 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #44

yters wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regret that you've had this experience here. For some of us, the success of startups is quite understandably an emotional issue, though that doesn't excuse bad behavior like insulting your photo. For the most part though, we primarily value respectful rational discussion and I apologize again for catching some of us on a bad day.

Ditto. One of the things I noticed at Startup School was that people were so busy talking about substance (hacking, business, etc.), that there was little time for fluff. In any large group there are outliers. You found a few. OTOH, I noticed you referred to us as "groupies" on your blog, but omitted that sentence in this reply. I'm guessing you knew it would be inflammatory here. Nerds. Geeks. Weirdos. Bipolar obses…

Yeah, I'm not a groupie. pg has said time and again how he doesn't want us to be groupies and I don't want to disappoint pg!

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#47

Post by angstrom » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:40 PM UTC

tx wrote: post #3

I didn't care about social aspect at all, there were two absolutely crucial features in Xobni that I absolutely loved: 1. Ability to instantly see all attachments sent by a given person. 2. Outlook's own search is unusable, I never mastered it, Xobni was a godsend. Take any product: some people like it and some won't. I liked Xobni and this guy didn't. God knows why, perhaps he didn't have enough attachments or didn'…

I still use LookOut which solved the search issue 4+ years ago. Ironic that Microsoft should buy LookOut. Bury it. Then look at buying a company that solved the same problem again, even after not integrating the previous acquisition (which mind you was fast and never slowed down Outlook).

Unfortunately, I saw the attachment lookup as the only thing useful.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#48

Post by nreece » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:47 PM UTC

angstrom wrote: post #47

tx wrote: post #3

I didn't care about social aspect at all, there were two absolutely crucial features in Xobni that I absolutely loved: 1. Ability to instantly see all attachments sent by a given person. 2. Outlook's own search is unusable, I never mastered it, Xobni was a godsend. Take any product: some people like it and some won't. I liked Xobni and this guy didn't. God knows why, perhaps he didn't have enough attachments or didn'…

I still use LookOut which solved the search issue 4+ years ago. Ironic that Microsoft should buy LookOut. Bury it. Then look at buying a company that solved the same problem again, even after not integrating the previous acquisition (which mind you was fast and never slowed down Outlook). Unfortunately, I saw the attachment lookup as the only thing useful.

That was my first impression too. Xobni is LookOut, only more social. LookOut used Lucene to index the email's and allow flashing-fast searches. Too bad MS killed them.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#49

Post by nostrademons » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:49 PM UTC

dunn wrote: post #10

Tichy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dismissing comments because of spelling errors? Not sure where it would lie in PG's categories (ad hominen?), but anyway. I remember the other saying, that sometimes you can learn more from your enemies than from your friends, because they are more likely to tell you the truth. How many people here on HN will dare to criticize a YC startup? Personally I don't need or use Xobni, so I can't comment. And anyway, I proba…

>> How many people here on HN will dare to criticize a YC startup? You said it. Doing so is grounds for ruthless downmodding on here. PG said there are 30 editors now. People are getting accounts marked dead at the drop of a hat, if they don't drink the kool-aid.

I've criticized Xobni before here, and been upmodded for it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=51982

Incidentally, I think I was (probably) wrong then. I'm still waiting to see how it turns out, but their subsequent releases have been much, much more impressive than I expected them to be.

Re: Xobni - a waste of money

#50

Post by tocomment » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 11:49 PM UTC

What relationships does Xobni uncover? How does it do it?

I was thinking to make a web app where people could upload their cell phone records and it would find relationships, but I'm not sure what to look for exactly. Any ideas?