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SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

crawler.siteone.io

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Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#11

Post by netsharc »

andrei-akopian wrote: post #2

For some odd reason, the tool didn't get any replies on Reddit, HN, AlternativeTo.net or GitHub, despite looking fairly sophisticated. The dev is also non-professional. Maybe I am bad at digging, but I couldn't find anything about siteone.io. The entire situation is strange. Older discussion with one reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41292651

My cynical 2 cents: First impression is that the above-the-fold webpage looks like a page out of a kindergartner's book. 2 sentences with different bright colors. The red heart (the cynic in me cringes when it sees all those "Made with (heart)" lines). The cartoon character logo...

I scrolled down, and the video with the cartoon font? Oh god, that reminds me of an exchange student at uni who used a Teddy Bear PowerPoint template for a presentation.

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#12

Post by janreges »

netsharc wrote: post #11
andrei-akopian wrote: post #2

For some odd reason, the tool didn't get any replies on Reddit, HN, AlternativeTo.net or GitHub, despite looking fairly sophisticated. The dev is also non-professional. Maybe I am bad at digging, but I couldn't find anything about siteone.io. The entire situation is strange. Older discussion with one reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41292651

My cynical 2 cents: First impression is that the above-the-fold webpage looks like a page out of a kindergartner's book. 2 sentences with different bright colors. The red heart (the cynic in me cringes when it sees all those "Made with (heart)" lines). The cartoon character logo... I scrolled down, and the video with the cartoon font? Oh god, that reminds me of an exchange student at uni who used a Teddy Bear PowerPo…

Thanks for the feedback! That's my job :-| I'll ask my fellow designers to improve it in the near future - as a backend developer I obviously fail a lot in graphical sensibility, or I'm just a kid with a need for child fonts ;)

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#13

Post by dmje »

This looks really great and I'll definitely be giving it a go. Like others I really don't understand why it hasn't got more traction (if, when I try it, it does what it says on the tin!). I suspect the comments about the homepage aesthetic probably couple with the fact the dev is a dev and not a marketing person!

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#14

Post by dmje »

dmje wrote: post #13

This looks really great and I'll definitely be giving it a go. Like others I really don't understand why it hasn't got more traction (if, when I try it, it does what it says on the tin!). I suspect the comments about the homepage aesthetic probably couple with the fact the dev is a dev and not a marketing person!

Just to add, having tried to install...

I'm a partial nerd and probably exactly your audience - I run a small tech agency, familiar enough with PHP to break things but not a proper dev, work on all range of stuff like SEO / content / accessibility / etc... ie - this is exactly the kind of tool I'm looking for to do site audits, content stuff, etc. Normally I find myself reaching for yet another license of Screaming Frog's SEO Spider [0] and find myself groaning at having to pay another £240 p/a - but do it anyway...

Anyway - at first attempt with this I get a "won't install" warning on my Mac. And it's sufficiently scary for someone like me (techy enough to be aware of all the potential things that can go wrong with just installing any old software from the web but not skilled enough to look at the source code and figure out if you're legit or doing something awful to me...) - that I just can't really justify installing it.

Your message about it being notarized and potentially ok to find on the Mac App Store is reassuring at first, but dated 2023.

(I know I have a slight double standard here in that I install Screaming Frog but I've used it for years and know it, whereas you feel fairly unknown...)

So - just some feedback there, I think I'm exactly your audience, and I'd pay for this, given some further signals that it's legit.

[0] https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#15

Post by janreges »

dmje wrote: post #14
dmje wrote: post #13

This looks really great and I'll definitely be giving it a go. Like others I really don't understand why it hasn't got more traction (if, when I try it, it does what it says on the tin!). I suspect the comments about the homepage aesthetic probably couple with the fact the dev is a dev and not a marketing person!

Just to add, having tried to install... I'm a partial nerd and probably exactly your audience - I run a small tech agency, familiar enough with PHP to break things but not a proper dev, work on all range of stuff like SEO / content / accessibility / etc... ie - this is exactly the kind of tool I'm looking for to do site audits, content stuff, etc. Normally I find myself reaching for yet another license of Screaming F…

I really appreciate your feedback, thank you!

So even if you try to install the latest version 1.0.8 on macOS, it tells you that it won't install it? I'm not a macOS user, but for this project I bought a MacBook M1 and built the app and tested it on it. Thanks to the notarization, the application was installed without any problems. But maybe I missed something. But there will probably be a problem if you report it. By the way, did you download the correct version for your Mac? For M1/M2/M3 processors you need to download the arm64 version, for Macs with an Intel processor you need to download the x64 version.

PS: publishing the application to the AppStore didn't seem easy and unfortunately I didn't have time to go through the whole process. I will try to get it done by the end of the year.

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#16

Post by dmje »

janreges wrote: post #15
dmje wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add, having tried to install... I'm a partial nerd and probably exactly your audience - I run a small tech agency, familiar enough with PHP to break things but not a proper dev, work on all range of stuff like SEO / content / accessibility / etc... ie - this is exactly the kind of tool I'm looking for to do site audits, content stuff, etc. Normally I find myself reaching for yet another license of Screaming F…

I really appreciate your feedback, thank you! So even if you try to install the latest version 1.0.8 on macOS, it tells you that it won't install it? I'm not a macOS user, but for this project I bought a MacBook M1 and built the app and tested it on it. Thanks to the notarization, the application was installed without any problems. But maybe I missed something. But there will probably be a problem if you report it. B…

Hey - yeh, I get this [https://share.cleanshot.com/NFRk0XDS] - Mac Mini M2 Pro

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#17

Post by andrei-akopian »

andrei-akopian wrote: post #2

For some odd reason, the tool didn't get any replies on Reddit, HN, AlternativeTo.net or GitHub, despite looking fairly sophisticated. The dev is also non-professional. Maybe I am bad at digging, but I couldn't find anything about siteone.io. The entire situation is strange. Older discussion with one reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41292651

Post mortem:

janreges is according to the website (siteone.cz) one of the top 3 people at his company, and the tool and website look well made. By "non-professional" I meant that there is some kind of mismatch between my expectations and the style he replies to people here.

I was trying to establish the oddity of the situation to encourage more digging, and didn't express my point clearly enough.

My apologies to janreges. I know my own expertise and social sense are bad, so please don't take any of this to heart.

Re: SiteOne Crawler – big tool with no users

#18

Post by janreges »

andrei-akopian wrote: post #17
andrei-akopian wrote: post #2

For some odd reason, the tool didn't get any replies on Reddit, HN, AlternativeTo.net or GitHub, despite looking fairly sophisticated. The dev is also non-professional. Maybe I am bad at digging, but I couldn't find anything about siteone.io. The entire situation is strange. Older discussion with one reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41292651

Post mortem: janreges is according to the website (siteone.cz) one of the top 3 people at his company, and the tool and website look well made. By "non-professional" I meant that there is some kind of mismatch between my expectations and the style he replies to people here. I was trying to establish the oddity of the situation to encourage more digging, and didn't express my point clearly enough. My apologies to janr…

There's no reason to apologize, man! :) On the contrary, I am very grateful for this post and your proactivity :-*
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