Looks like just another web annotation app. There is already getpocket.com and diigo.com, both cheap and already have free versions. Although I agree sharing is unsolved and there is so much more that can be done. So I like the new player in this space, especially with more ambitious plans but I think there was really no need to pull “I am the inventor of RSS...” perhaps. Also claims of rebooting internet seems to be overly grand for apps in this space. This shouldn’t need a lot of capital and could be bootstrapped easily with may be little ShowHN post.
I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
151–160 of 163 posts
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#152We've entered a future where not only does it give me an obnoxious cookie disclaimer (how about you just don't set a ton of cookies which make every request huge?) when I launch the web version, but if I try the desktop version it also shows me an obnoxious cookie disclaimer. Please don't launch multiple popups (there's also a welcome one) as soon as your app launches; it scares me away before I can actually try the…
Thanks.. my plan is to put the cookie disclaimer into a ToS thing which is part of the tour... think it has to be there though for GDPR reasons.
You don't need a cookiebar if you don't set the cookies in the first place. In your own ideal scenario you would be receiving a ton of your users' information, but you don't even understand a pretty fundamental part of legislation which pertains to privacy. This doesn't inspire confidence.
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#153Here's a better pitch based on your feedback and maybe more tailored to the Hacker News crowd. The Internet is broken as content primary pools behind walled gardens like Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are not open in the sense that the metadata is locked up inside them. Additionally, they're not very respective of the rights and privacy of their user base. Polar tries to reboot this by building out a generic d…
I edited your pitch briefly to shorten it, to change from abstract to concrete, and emphasize slightly different things. This version is still not concrete enough imo, and the benefit not crystal-clear enough, but this was just a quick edit The Internet is the greatest content-sharing system ever devised, but it is broken. The content that people create is being pooled within walled gardens like Facebook and Twitter…
Man... love this!!! Thanks... very very constructive criticism and I appreciate it!
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#154But RSS runs on Windows XP!
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#155For what it's worth, I think Polar sounds awesome and excitedly downloaded it one of the last times it appeared here, but the tracking policy is a total deal breaker for me. https://getpolarized.io/docs/tracking-policy.html > Polar uses Google Analytics and other 3rd party services to track your usage of Polar for quality assurance, UI/UX and usability issues, fault detection, and adoption and usage of new features.…
Definitely this is not going away. I might make this a premium feature though.
I'm NOT tracking anything private. I'm tracking things like whether you're clicking a button or not.
This is how you're paying for the app.
I literally CAN NOT build Polar without this data.
> I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data
The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it.
I'm using your usage to improve the product.
If it has an exception or is slow on your platform I want to know about it.
If you're literally providing nothing of value in return I'm not interested in those types of users.
I'm going to write a blog post about this but this perspective is completely wrong headed.
You should be BEGGING developers to track your usage of the app as it greatly improves app design and reduces the cost of developing the app.
Cohort analysis ALONE has been a gods send in developing Polar.
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#156From a marketing perspective, it’s really advisable to tell people what your thing is before asking for money. Not being snarky - from taking a quick glance I genuinely couldn’t tell what the thing is and I’m unlikely to sit through a video without at least some high level intro of what I’m going to get.
Also this is a open source https://github.com/burtonator/polar-bookshelf . By the way its really awesome project. I am very glad i found it.
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#157For what it's worth, I think Polar sounds awesome and excitedly downloaded it one of the last times it appeared here, but the tracking policy is a total deal breaker for me. https://getpolarized.io/docs/tracking-policy.html > Polar uses Google Analytics and other 3rd party services to track your usage of Polar for quality assurance, UI/UX and usability issues, fault detection, and adoption and usage of new features.…
Definitely this is not going away. I might make this a premium feature though. I'm NOT tracking anything private. I'm tracking things like whether you're clicking a button or not. This is how you're paying for the app. I literally CAN NOT build Polar without this data. > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app f…
> I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it.
Of course, I'm saying I would have loved to pay for it with money instead.
> If it has an exception or is slow on your platform I want to know about it.
You don't have to collect data behind my back to get that information. You could for example offer a way to review the information that is going to be sent, and let me decide for myself if it is too private to share. I would even prefer that to a blanket "opt out" for all the reasons you are saying.
> You should be BEGGING developers to track your usage of the app as it greatly improves app design and reduces the cost of developing the app.
I have never had the experience of seeing an application dramatically improved by forcing tracking on me. Usually it's been a sign that everything is about to become worse.
I'm perfectly happy to participate in opt-in tracking and submit crash reports, especially when I can see for myself there is nothing sensitive included. I'm also technical enough to help with investigating more complex bugs and an avid contributor to open source. Please don't think that everyone who is privacy-conscious has nothing of value to offer you as a user.
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#158For what it's worth, I think Polar sounds awesome and excitedly downloaded it one of the last times it appeared here, but the tracking policy is a total deal breaker for me. https://getpolarized.io/docs/tracking-policy.html > Polar uses Google Analytics and other 3rd party services to track your usage of Polar for quality assurance, UI/UX and usability issues, fault detection, and adoption and usage of new features.…
Definitely this is not going away. I might make this a premium feature though. I'm NOT tracking anything private. I'm tracking things like whether you're clicking a button or not. This is how you're paying for the app. I literally CAN NOT build Polar without this data. > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app f…
> > I appreciate that you are up front about it, but the attitude that you are entitled to my usage data
> The reverse is true as well. I wrote this app for free. You're not entitled to use it unless you run the analytics because that's how you're paying for it.
Then you really should add a License file specific for polar (you only seem to have imported license files for electron, chromium, and two resource modules) clearly stating this limitation. Note the below comments are based on what was found in the tar.gz on github.
Right now, with no license file directed at Polar, it is ambiguous as to what limitations surrounding use/sharing exist.
And, three of your license files (electron and the two modules that leaked in) are the MIT licence, where one is granted rights to:
(quote) ... deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, ... subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. (end quote)
So if one interprets the ambiguity of Polar's license status such that the three imported MIT files likely apply to Polar, then you have no stated restriction which matches your restriction of "no use, unless you give me google analytics".
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#159Here's a better pitch based on your feedback and maybe more tailored to the Hacker News crowd. The Internet is broken as content primary pools behind walled gardens like Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are not open in the sense that the metadata is locked up inside them. Additionally, they're not very respective of the rights and privacy of their user base. Polar tries to reboot this by building out a generic d…
I edited your pitch briefly to shorten it, to change from abstract to concrete, and emphasize slightly different things. This version is still not concrete enough imo, and the benefit not crystal-clear enough, but this was just a quick edit The Internet is the greatest content-sharing system ever devised, but it is broken. The content that people create is being pooled within walled gardens like Facebook and Twitter…
That is definitely a lot clearer. I'm dubious that it's a viable product, but it's at least coherent.
Re: I'm one of the inventors of RSS and I need your help to reboot the Internet
#160I know it's besides the point and this is probably a cool project but can we stop equating $5 with coffee? That's like saying popcorn costs $8.
Most of the time, my coffee is either free or costs like 30 cents maybe? (wild guess, probably less depending on beans) relatively rarely I will I pay $5 for it, but I associate it with the price of not otherwise having access to coffee (because I'm in a hurry, didn't bring a thermos, etc)