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Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

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Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#21

Post by rantfoil »

volida wrote: post #15
techcrunch wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it certainly is a very, very convenient way to create a new account.

convenient? if someone is not already logged in their email, they have to type an address and then login. Is that easier from having a simple username/password signup page?

Not everyone uses webmail. Also, it's a lot easier from a mobile device. Also, we hate using web forms because they're such a pain. I hate seeing a Browse button! Now I can drag and drop right into Thunderbird.

Also: if you can use email, you can use posterous. This opens it up to a lot more people who are afraid of "setting up" and remembering another password and confusing web interface.

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#22

Post by rantfoil »

jacobbijani wrote: post #12
dcurtis wrote: post #10

Posterous is a great tool. I don't think Arrington went into enough detail about how well it organizes content you send via email-- you can pretty much send any combination of things, and it automatically turns it into beautifully presented content. The photo viewer for multiple photos, the audio player, etc, are very well thought out. From the few awesome features they have now, it's obvious these guys "get it;" I c…

Post text, photos, MP3s, or videos (if you have Vimeo enabled) directly from your mobile phone. You can use the Subject line to attach a caption to photos. - http://www.tumblr.com/goodies Tumblr does need a solution for multiple photos though. Joining a whole new service is probably not the solution, for me at least. Also, when I used the audio player on the TechCrunch post the interface was pretty unintuitive. There…

The audio player is definitely something we're working on. Expect good things soon.

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#23

Post by rantfoil »

colinplamondon wrote: post #16

Really cool, love how it formatted everything- looks phenomenal. Email registration is really awkward, though- I get redirected to Gmail to send a post, then from there to the site to set a account name and password, which I would have done in the beginning with a normal registration process. Seems like it'd be way, way more straightforward to signup with username/password/domain, and then do the first post as email…

In our tests, what we've found is that instead people see "sign up now" and think "oh crap, another boring form I have to fill out. Yet another password to remember. BACK, BACK, BACK.

This takes the idea of no-signup try-it-out to the next step. It's the worst thing in the world to ask questions about a user before you show them what you've got going on.

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#25

Post by pauljonas »

/gratz on your release and good luck to Posterous

Feedback:

1. It's not simpler, engaging a series of emails (if you want to have a Posterous address other than something like xY4.zgBX) is not as easy as 1-click.

2. You can post by email to Tumblr — photos too.

3. Missing custom CSS, or even option to select a different theme and/or color scheme is a big deficit.

4. Engaging in comment threads through email seems more annoying than Jar Jar.

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#26

Post by volida »

rantfoil wrote: post #21
volida wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

convenient? if someone is not already logged in their email, they have to type an address and then login. Is that easier from having a simple username/password signup page?

Not everyone uses webmail. Also, it's a lot easier from a mobile device. Also, we hate using web forms because they're such a pain. I hate seeing a Browse button! Now I can drag and drop right into Thunderbird. Also: if you can use email, you can use posterous. This opens it up to a lot more people who are afraid of "setting up" and remembering another password and confusing web interface.

it's a nice feature but I assume your audience is also mainstream users.

So, those people who are not technical users, most probably use webmail. Even, if they do have another address (from their university) they would still probably login from the web or prefer not to use that address but that of their IM.

just my thoughts..

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#27

Post by colinplamondon »

rantfoil wrote: post #23
colinplamondon wrote: post #16

Really cool, love how it formatted everything- looks phenomenal. Email registration is really awkward, though- I get redirected to Gmail to send a post, then from there to the site to set a account name and password, which I would have done in the beginning with a normal registration process. Seems like it'd be way, way more straightforward to signup with username/password/domain, and then do the first post as email…

In our tests, what we've found is that instead people see "sign up now" and think "oh crap, another boring form I have to fill out. Yet another password to remember. BACK, BACK, BACK. This takes the idea of no-signup try-it-out to the next step. It's the worst thing in the world to ask questions about a user before you show them what you've got going on.

Scratch that then, the stats are the stats :)

Don't know if you're up to share the information, but what was the difference in conversion rates? Really interested in how big of a difference there was between the two. Also, what is the difference in time on site of new users between the two signup methods? Retention stay about the same?

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#28

Post by jacobbijani »

brett wrote: post #19
jacobbijani wrote: post #17

I don't agree with the comments here and on TechCrunch about it allowing people who don't understand how to blog to create an account. Those same people are pretty unlikely to even have an email account in the first place.

I know plenty of people who use email regularly but claim ignorance as to what a blog is. In fact, I'm related to a few. My guess is that I could get them up and running with Posterous pretty quickly.

Yeah, of course every person isn't like that. It's still true that the majority of people simply do not care about sharing what they do online, no matter what it's called or how they register for it.

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#29

Post by mtts »

rantfoil wrote: post #21
volida wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

convenient? if someone is not already logged in their email, they have to type an address and then login. Is that easier from having a simple username/password signup page?

Not everyone uses webmail. Also, it's a lot easier from a mobile device. Also, we hate using web forms because they're such a pain. I hate seeing a Browse button! Now I can drag and drop right into Thunderbird. Also: if you can use email, you can use posterous. This opens it up to a lot more people who are afraid of "setting up" and remembering another password and confusing web interface.

I think you're being too optimistic about the number of non technical people that will use this service. For them to do so would require them to understand what blogging is, why they would want to keep a blog and how simply mailing your posts is an improvement over typing something into a web form. Posterous is a fantastic idea (IMO anyway) but I doubt this will happen anytime soon.

I'm guessing your audience will be tech savvy users who understand why publishing some conversations online using a tool you're already using anyway (email) is a good idea.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

Re: Posterous (YC summer 08) Beats Tumblr In Simplicity

#30

Post by simonw »

rantfoil wrote: post #21
volida wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

convenient? if someone is not already logged in their email, they have to type an address and then login. Is that easier from having a simple username/password signup page?

Not everyone uses webmail. Also, it's a lot easier from a mobile device. Also, we hate using web forms because they're such a pain. I hate seeing a Browse button! Now I can drag and drop right into Thunderbird. Also: if you can use email, you can use posterous. This opens it up to a lot more people who are afraid of "setting up" and remembering another password and confusing web interface.

Any plans to support OpenID as well?
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