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Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

luminotes.com

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Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#31

Post by witten »

vaksel wrote: post #10
witten wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was sort of going by standard practice among other startups.. They all seem to be very up-front about their pricing and rate plans. Do you think that this is in general a bad idea, or do you think with my product in particular, it would be better to go with the "Sign up for your free account today" approach? If so, why? Also, by the way, my conversion rate to free accounts is around 26% according to Analytics. (Thi…

Well you will still be upfront about your fees, I'm only talking about changing the actual link text, so that the users will be more likely to click it, since everyone likes free stuff.

Link text has been changed now. And I sprinkled "sign up for free" in a few other places as well.

Thanks again.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#32

Post by rw »

witten wrote: post #25
ars wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If javscript is unavoidable I always put in noscript tags that simply say so, but don't otherwise do anything.

Oh okay. I have such a tag on some pages, but not all of them. For instance, see https://luminotes.com/sign_up with JavaScript turned off. I guess I should add similar tags to the other pages as well. UPDATE: Added to main wiki page.

Thanks.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#33

Post by tx »

witten wrote: post #2

I've been working on this product (with some unrelated consulting on the side) for nearly a year. Just to head off some obvious comments, here are a few things to keep in mind: Web browser support for the web-based product itself is fairly restricted. So no Safari, and no Opera. Yet. I realize the product is a little general-purpose, and that makes a unique selling proposition more difficult to craft. I also realize…

I've been looking for something like this for a while: currently I use Tomboy on Linux but the UI is too basic. I love your attention to detail: Ctrl+B makes my selection bold - fantastic.

Are you going to open the code? I'm sure you've used tons of other people's work: come on, contribute some back!

I'd love to run it on my laptop: since the software is truly personal, without any sharing/collaboration benefits, why would I want to keep it in the "cloud", which often is unavailable?

So... where is the code? I saw "download" feature, but it gives me HTML, not the software.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#34

Post by witten »

tx wrote: post #33
witten wrote: post #2

I've been working on this product (with some unrelated consulting on the side) for nearly a year. Just to head off some obvious comments, here are a few things to keep in mind: Web browser support for the web-based product itself is fairly restricted. So no Safari, and no Opera. Yet. I realize the product is a little general-purpose, and that makes a unique selling proposition more difficult to craft. I also realize…

I've been looking for something like this for a while: currently I use Tomboy on Linux but the UI is too basic. I love your attention to detail: Ctrl+B makes my selection bold - fantastic. Are you going to open the code? I'm sure you've used tons of other people's work: come on, contribute some back! I'd love to run it on my laptop: since the software is truly personal, without any sharing/collaboration benefits, why…

The download page has the whole codebase in its entirety, GPL licensed: http://luminotes.com/download

The link to this page is at the bottom of the front page. It used to be more prominent, but I found people got confused about whether they had to download the software in order to just make a wiki.

You can browse the Mercurial repository online as well.

And as for your question about keeping the software in the "cloud".. The software actually does have some sharing/collaboration features. (Whether they're useful for your specific needs is another matter.)

I'd like to make a desktop version of Luminotes at some point, but I have no concrete plans for it now.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#35

Post by jrockway »

witten wrote: post #21
rw wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To stoke the flamefire: you know Debian hasn't had the most stellar security reputation as of late, right? :)

Let me just say that if anyone hasn't regenerated their Debian/Ubuntu SSH keys by now, they don't deserve to remain in business. But this isn't really relevant to the discussion..

Dude, don't take the flamebait. The person your replying to is just trying to make you mad. Don't waste your time acknowledging his existence, it just makes him want to troll more.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#36

Post by tx »

witten wrote: post #34
tx wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been looking for something like this for a while: currently I use Tomboy on Linux but the UI is too basic. I love your attention to detail: Ctrl+B makes my selection bold - fantastic. Are you going to open the code? I'm sure you've used tons of other people's work: come on, contribute some back! I'd love to run it on my laptop: since the software is truly personal, without any sharing/collaboration benefits, why…

The download page has the whole codebase in its entirety, GPL licensed: http://luminotes.com/download The link to this page is at the bottom of the front page. It used to be more prominent, but I found people got confused about whether they had to download the software in order to just make a wiki. You can browse the Mercurial repository online as well. And as for your question about keeping the software in the "clou…

HUGE thanks! BTW, I've been experimenting with web-based software running on a desktop with XUL/WebKit-based clients that run their own in-process HTTP server (I've used CherryPy) and I like this approach: HTML-based UIs are way easier to create than typical UI widgets.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#37

Post by witten »

tx wrote: post #36
witten wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The download page has the whole codebase in its entirety, GPL licensed: http://luminotes.com/download The link to this page is at the bottom of the front page. It used to be more prominent, but I found people got confused about whether they had to download the software in order to just make a wiki. You can browse the Mercurial repository online as well. And as for your question about keeping the software in the "clou…

HUGE thanks! BTW, I've been experimenting with web-based software running on a desktop with XUL/WebKit-based clients that run their own in-process HTTP server (I've used CherryPy) and I like this approach: HTML-based UIs are way easier to create than typical UI widgets.

I'm using CherryPy, and I'd be very interested in hearing more about this. Feel free to send me an email.

I think the biggest hurdle in a Luminotes desktop port such as this would be replacing PostgreSQL with something like sqlite.

Another option would be to throw out the existing server entirely for the desktop version and use something like Google Gears.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#38

Post by Maro »

I use tadalists all the time for making one-line notes and putting down ideas. Like, I have a tada list called "Ideas" for startup ideas and another one "Articles" for stuff to write about. 99% of the stuff I want to write down fits this idiom well.

Very rarely I want to take multi-line notes, in these cases I use Google Docs, since I use all the G apps anyways.

Where does your stuff fit in? The ability to link to other entries seems pretty useless, or at least rarely useful.

After trying out the demo, it's better than G Docs because the interface is simpler. G Docs opens docs in new tabs/windows which is pretty annoying for smaller docs. If you add some kind of check-off bullet point capability to your lists (e.g. gray them out), then I could ditch tadalist and G docs and unite my stuff here. That would make sense.

You call it a "personal wiki" which seems like marketing speak for nothing, since the idea of a wiki is that everybody can edit it, but if it's personal, then it's really just a specialized HTML editor (?). Maybe you should just call it a "Notebook that just works".

UI bug report: when I click an entry on the left side, you flash it (in yellow) and then you scroll to it. But if it takes long to scroll there then the flash in unseen by the user. Scrolling then flashing may work better.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#39

Post by witten »

Maro wrote: post #38

I use tadalists all the time for making one-line notes and putting down ideas. Like, I have a tada list called "Ideas" for startup ideas and another one "Articles" for stuff to write about. 99% of the stuff I want to write down fits this idiom well. Very rarely I want to take multi-line notes, in these cases I use Google Docs, since I use all the G apps anyways. Where does your stuff fit in? The ability to link to ot…

The ability to link to other notes may indeed be useless for your particular needs. But it's hugely useful for a large class of notebooks. For instance, if you're writing a novel and you need to keep track of your characters and their relationships, being able to link from one note to another is incredibly handy.

So I see that as where Luminotes fits in. It's really a notebook of interlinked notes, which you can't really do with Google Docs or Tadalist. You can do it with a full-fledged wiki like Mediawiki, but for many people that's overkill, and besides doesn't come with the nice UI.

As for bullet point check-off capability, you can quite easily use the strikethrough for that purpose. I know several people who use that for crossing things off lists as they're completed. It's perhaps not as convenient as a single checkbox, but it does work.

"Personal wiki" isn't marketing speak, as I'm going for the "interlinked collection of notes/pages" aspect of the word "wiki" rather than the collaboration sense of the word. But I think it's becoming increasingly clear that regardless of all that, "personal wiki" isn't a great way to describe the product.

Thanks for the UI bug report. I think I should be able to make the scroll and flash work serially rather than in parallel.

Re: Yet Another Review/Rate My Startup Request

#40

Post by witten »

witten wrote: post #39
Maro wrote: post #38

I use tadalists all the time for making one-line notes and putting down ideas. Like, I have a tada list called "Ideas" for startup ideas and another one "Articles" for stuff to write about. 99% of the stuff I want to write down fits this idiom well. Very rarely I want to take multi-line notes, in these cases I use Google Docs, since I use all the G apps anyways. Where does your stuff fit in? The ability to link to ot…

The ability to link to other notes may indeed be useless for your particular needs. But it's hugely useful for a large class of notebooks. For instance, if you're writing a novel and you need to keep track of your characters and their relationships, being able to link from one note to another is incredibly handy. So I see that as where Luminotes fits in. It's really a notebook of interlinked notes, which you can't re…

Okay, the scrolling and flashing is now serial instead of parallel. And I sped up the scrolling speed as well. Thanks again.
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