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Show HN: Servus for Mac and Dropbox

servus.io

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Re: Show HN: Servus for Mac and Dropbox

#2

Post by czottmann »

I've built a thing! A few months back someone (not me) posted my Mac app Droplings to HN (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4277856). It was incredibly rough around the edges back then, and in alpha.

By now Droplings has become Servus. It still is a Dropbox-powered sharing app for Mac. It's a menubar icon. If you drop a file on it, it'll build a nice preview page around it, upload both to your Dropbox, then copy the public preview link to your clipboard. The preview page can be entirely customizable via themes.

It's been released a few days ago, and it sparkles like Nibiru. Please take a look! :)

Re: Show HN: Servus for Mac and Dropbox

#3

Post by aravan »

You may show an example. Is that dropbox sharelink that difficult? I understand the brand name. You could make some sales while using nice and good looking screen shots. It creates a feel and then a sale. The example you have shown is boring honestly.

Re: Show HN: Servus for Mac and Dropbox

#5

Post by czottmann »

aravan wrote: post #3

You may show an example. Is that dropbox sharelink that difficult? I understand the brand name. You could make some sales while using nice and good looking screen shots. It creates a feel and then a sale. The example you have shown is boring honestly.

Of course. So here's an example shared via Dropbox' own Share Link feature:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wckaf7i7anhtq4v/this-screenshot-se...

Here's the same picture shared via Servus.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/l2zxws95dpwrfsq/index.html

The difference is that Dropbox' own page is not customizable at all, whereas Servus allows you to use your own theme for the preview pages. My example uses the built-in default theme.

Also, it's about convenience. When you drop a file on Servus' menubar icon, it'll automatically copy the public preview link to your clipboard after upload — or the direct link to the file, your choice.

With the native Dropbox client, to share a file you have to get to it in Finder, copy it to your Dropbox folder, right-click it and select "Share Link" — which will then take you to the Dropbox website where you are presented with the link. Let's just say it takes a while. ;)

Re: Show HN: Servus for Mac and Dropbox

#6

Post by digitalengineer »

hmans wrote: post #4

Love it. Time to convert those design agencies that are still struggling with FTP or sending huge PSDs through email.

I like the dropbox tool! Most design agency's rely on http://www.wetransfer.com It's free and found a way to show cool ads full screen. We're using our own wetransfer-channel.

Re: Show HN: Servus for Mac and Dropbox

#8

Post by rudasn »

This seems like a nice, useful little app. Congrats on shipping!

One question though. Have you considered a free for ever version?

I know a few people that would find this a bit useful but would never pay for it, at least not now. If you had a free version minus the templates (or any other extra features you add later) then they would use it for sure.

And you keep your not free version for all the fancy stuff like templates, contacts/address book integration for auto-email/share, custom branding, etc.

Bonus question: Why not share the folder directly with your client so that they get updated versions automatically?

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