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Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

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Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#371

Post by fprotthetarball »

Charlie_26 wrote: post #256
stevefan1999 wrote: post #252

In case if you want some Evernote alternatives, here's my shortlist: 1. Trilium Notes: https://github.com/zadam/trilium 2. AppFlowy: https://github.com/AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy 3. Affine: https://github.com/toeverything/AFFiNE 4. Joplin: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin 5. Dendron: https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron (requires VSCode) As a programmer I liked Dendron the most but if you want it to be packed with absol…

Do any permit a transfer-in from Evernote?

Joplin does, and it works rather well. I have been planning on migrating my notes since the acquisition, but wanted to see what their next move was.

Joplin seems like the best at handling my mix of text notes, PDF files, and images at the moment. If it doesn't work out, though, at least I have my data in a more open form.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#372

Post by ghaff »

gtirloni wrote: post #346
prepend wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s an example of trying to charge for things that are low value, and, more importantly, low cost. Storing text files in the cloud is super cheap. And having an app to easily edit those files is super cheap. It was free in the beginning because this is a “classic” software problem where it’s cheap to develop and close to $0 marginal dollars for a user. When Evernote started charging for dumb features and loc…

> Storing text files in the cloud is super cheap. And having an app to easily edit those files is super cheap. Are Evernote files just plain "text files"?

No. But I’ve pretty much always come back to storing text files, photos, and PDFs. It may not be as elegant a solution but it’s completely portable. Never got into OneNote when I used to use Windows for the same reason.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#373

Post by neop1x »

nilespotter wrote: post #127
xvilka wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not open source. If migrate from Evernote, at least it's better to migrate to FOSS. Sadly, most FOSS solutions lack mobile app support.

logseq is open source, but you gotta pay for (e2ee) sync. Joplin is open source and you can do e2ee with a joplin server or s3 backed. I didn't care for Obsidian. logseq for me.

I am using LogSeq happily on Android and desktop, syncing with Syncthing. It works well enough.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#374

Post by ghaff »

seanhunter wrote: post #361
bakuninsbart wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the key issue here. There are a lot of VC funded start ups that have a good product and a solid market fit, but they were never supposed to become 500+ employee companies. If you have a product that works and makes a good profit, and you can maintain it with 10 people and extend it with 5 more, sometimes that just is the company. In this context I think it is important to note that Ycombinator was fou…

This is super-important. Sometimes the grass is greener on this side of the fence. VCs want to get you to grow rapidly because the only way to move the needle on their returns is to blow the roof off. However as a founder, this is proof you can have a great business and a great quality of life by keeping costs relatively low, the team relatively small, just cranking out code and having fun.

As a founder you probably don’t get wealthy either and a lot aren’t really satisfied with a $150k/yr total comp/benefits for their successful lifestyle business.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#375

Post by proamdev123 »

weare138 wrote: post #120
belthesar wrote: post #79

I feel like Evernote is a prime example of the pains of trying to convert free users to paying users for the same features, something we see in many VC funded software from its era. Once you give something away, it's damn near impossible to take it back, even if you plead your case as honestly as Evernote did. Evernote was great. Honestly, it was worth paying for. But they gave away the farm too early, and folks feel…

But this also seems to be another case of tech companies trying to have it's cake and eat it too like the recent reddit debacle. The freemium model comes with trade-offs and businesses can't have it both ways. 'Free' users should be viewed as free marketing and advertising for generating paid users not as lost potential revenue. No business using the freemium model should expect to magically convert the free users to…

It works when the free tier is usable, but highly limited. Then it effectively becomes a free trial, albeit with no time restriction.

For example, if Evernote had limited the free tier to 99 notes and syncing with 2 devices. That’s usable enough for a user to get a feel for whether they like it or not, but without an expectation that the free tier could support all their needs for note generation and storage.

The problem comes when the free tier is so restraint-free that people begin to use it as a daily driver without ever expecting to upgrade to a paid tier. At that point, the company has boxed themselves into a situation with users who generate costs but no corresponding revenues. Trying to convert _those_ users into paying customers is difficult or impossible, in my opinion.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#376

Post by frou_dh »

Havoc wrote: post #349

I’ve concluded that markdown in git is the way to go. Trusting longterm Knowledge to stay put in some VC funded growth SaaS is insane

I find having to push, pull, and heaven-forbid even write a commit message for notes to be asinine. Sync should be automatic and instantaneous if one uses multiple devices.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#377

Post by coldpie »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #202
PhoenixReborn wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Obsidian is a small team (< 5 people IIRC?) and they don't have to monetize as aggressively to make back the money that VCs have funded them with.

I think this is the key issue here. There are a lot of VC funded start ups that have a good product and a solid market fit, but they were never supposed to become 500+ employee companies. If you have a product that works and makes a good profit, and you can maintain it with 10 people and extend it with 5 more, sometimes that just is the company. In this context I think it is important to note that Ycombinator was fou…

> If you have a product that works and makes a good profit, and you can maintain it with 10 people and extend it with 5 more, sometimes that just is the company.

C'mon now. With that attitude, how are you ever going to get imploded on top of the Titanic, or buy a social media company so you can smash it against the wall like a toddler with a toy truck? You want to live a comfortable, happy life, with happy employees and customers? No way! This is capitalism, baby! Fuck your customers and your employees, it's your right to throw them into a vat of acid so you can blow millions of their dollars to spend 30 minutes in the stratosphere wearing a cowboy hat! If you don't do it, someone else will!

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#378

Post by yomlica8 »

albert_e wrote: post #172
goldpizza44 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what virtual Credit Cards are for... Each site gets a separate number and I can expire them as needed. Unfortunately, if they get popular vendors will figure out a way to detect and refuse.

BofA had a online tool (Flash based I think) to generate and manage virtual CC numbers linked to your real card. When Flash was sunset -- they gave a BS reasoning and shutdown this tool as well whithout making an effort to rebuild / replace. I am surprised there was no big backlash from customers given the increasing online fraud and privacy/security consciousness of banking users. Which (US) banks currently offer th…

Capital One has this feature I believe, I've been to lazy to set it up.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#379

Post by yomlica8 »

izacus wrote: post #302
DeathArrow wrote: post #289

Boss1: let's create a great note taking app Employee1: creates a great note taking app Customers: :) :) :) Boss2: let's milk more money, does anyone have a good idea? Bean Counter: let's add some useless crap, our customer base will quadruple Employee1: ads useless crap Customers: ? ? ? Boss3: let's milk more money, does anyone have a good idea? Bean Counter: let's fire Employee1, hire Employee2 for half the wage and…

You missed "Let's add subscription and tell the stupid users it'll actually be used to improve their experience!"

Users hate increased prices, but what if we insinuate that they are stupid when we announce it to soften the blow?

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#380

Post by andai »

slg wrote: post #211
barsonme wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ex post facto laws should be prohibited in any civilized country.

Holding data is on ongoing behavior. It isn't an ex post facto law to change how a company handles it in the future. Coca-Cola can't sell you a soda with cocaine in it just because it was legal when they started their business. What would make it an ex post facto law is if companies were punished for how they handled data before the law was created. It is perfectly reasonable to punish them if they continue that same…

True. But for Coke, at least, I wish they'd "grandfathered" it in!
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