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Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

cap.so

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Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#61

Post by cco »

The key innovation of Loom, and of course I'm using that term loosely, was the inclusion of a human face in a circle at the bottom left of your video. We're monkeys, and monkeys like to see another monkey's face while they're hearing someone talk. It helps with communication all around, nuance, recall etc

This is the same "killer feature" of Twitch (or more generally video game streaming).

So that's all to say, I really recommend you include that in your landing page somehow. Screen sharing is frankly meh, a slide deck is fine, you can use Quicktime or similar to share. But the key is automatically overlaying a circle of your webcam on top of whatever you're recording to share.

I suppose the other feature of importance is a simple URL to share it. I don't see if that's possible via Cap. How do I share these videos to my colleagues?

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#62

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

codetrotter wrote: post #15
twobitshifter wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like the classic Dropbox comment. It’s about ease of use and the fewest steps.

Yeah, but not quite. I’m not dismissing their product. Just wondering if it would be worth running a Cap server when I already have tools to make screen recordings, and I already have a PeerTube instance where I can host videos. And actually now I am also wondering if Cap could be integrated with PeerTube so you could have which ever things Cap brings to the table aside from video hosting and have it either upload to…

Yeah. It can be as simple as "video saved. Do you want to submit to peertube?" And done. Here is a link.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#64

Post by ARandomerDude »

ezconnect wrote: post #59
pooriar wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's really useful to describe your product as an alternative to a well known product. Most people will instantly get it, much more so than a long re-definition of the original product.

I have no idea what Loom is, I also have the same issue I didn't tell me what the product is and just got confuse and didn't explore further.

Same. I’ve never heard of Loom and (therefore?) I’m honestly not sure how this would be different on a Mac than a QuickTime screen recording. And since the promo images are from a Mac, my first thought is Quicktime is probably safer.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#65

Post by stephenr »

pooriar wrote: post #57
xahrepap wrote: post #53

Some honest feedback: describe your product/tool without using a competitor’s name. I’m on mobile and the landing page only tells me “recording software” and “Loom” before it drops into Twitter like 3rd party comments. I honestly have never used Loom. I don’t know what it is. Do you really want me to have to go look up “the competition” just to know who you are?

I think it's really useful to describe your product as an alternative to a well known product. Most people will instantly get it, much more so than a long re-definition of the original product.

Apparently not that well known - I've never heard of it either.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#66

Post by stephenr »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #28
nozzlegear wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS does have overlay functionality, it’s called presenter mode or something like that. Look for it in the green camera icon that shows up in the menu bar when you’re sharing your screen. It puts your face in a bubble overlayed on top of whatever you’re sharing, as you said. You’re right it doesn’t have upload though.

> You’re right it doesn’t have upload though. That's surprising considering how Apple pushes iCloud integration...

Apple also pushes privacy and on-device processing;

But as for the feature itself: why on earth would you want a video uploaded somewhere else before you've even had a chance to watch it back at least once?

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#67

Post by memset »

xahrepap wrote: post #53

Some honest feedback: describe your product/tool without using a competitor’s name. I’m on mobile and the landing page only tells me “recording software” and “Loom” before it drops into Twitter like 3rd party comments. I honestly have never used Loom. I don’t know what it is. Do you really want me to have to go look up “the competition” just to know who you are?

I disagree - the fact you don’t know what Loom is probably means you’re not in the market for this kind of software. Better, at this stage, to focus on users who will immediately get it rather than explain to folks who don’t currently have a need.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#68

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

Sytten wrote: post #47
xyst wrote: post #35

If there’s one way to turn off a good portion of people from using your project, it’s by locking down the community into a discord.

On the contrary everybody is on discord and not being on it will turn off the vast majority of people cause I wont open matrix just for your software.

And people will not use discord for the same gatekeeping reason.

Like I have tried discord a few times but I just cant "feel at home" with it. Its like too much content at once.

You can have bridge to discord from matrix so that solves one problem for now but again, discord and matrix feel like eons apart.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative

#70

Post by mcilroy »

xahrepap wrote: post #53

Some honest feedback: describe your product/tool without using a competitor’s name. I’m on mobile and the landing page only tells me “recording software” and “Loom” before it drops into Twitter like 3rd party comments. I honestly have never used Loom. I don’t know what it is. Do you really want me to have to go look up “the competition” just to know who you are?

Definitely agree with what you're saying.

It's easier for us at the start to get some attention from Loom specific users by mentioning Loom directly, but it's not a sustainable strategy going forward.

Will update the marketing copy etc over the coming weeks/months to be more about the problem we're solving specifically.

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