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Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

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Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#31

Post by SvenAl »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #28
SvenAl wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting ... when I first wrote the "Our Philosophy" section I was guided by showing the reader the things that are guiding us in how we are building Webiny. Never thought of it as being a benefit, but I see what you mean. Thank you for your feedback, I'll give it more thought and see if we can push it out to the homepage somehow.

It's more of a benefit than features. Features too often don't answer the question: Why should _I_ care? The philosophy at least spoke to me as opposed to features being about you.

I see what you are saying, looking at our homepage, it's true, we talk feature-talk. We'll be addressing this.

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#32

Post by jskrablin »

SvenAl wrote: post #22
vz8 wrote: post #21

Per the website FAQ [0]: Q: "Can I see a demo of Webiny in action?" A: "We don't host a public demo at this time. You're welcome to install it yourself, or book a call with us and we'll prepare a demo for you." Investing the time to install it ourselves or book a demo just to see the framework in action adds a lot of friction. You might want to considering moving the 7 minute Webiny overview to a more prominent place…

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

If you can't be bothered to provide a demo of your product why should I bother setting it up myself?

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#33

Post by SvenAl »

jskrablin wrote: post #32
SvenAl wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

If you can't be bothered to provide a demo of your product why should I bother setting it up myself?

We found developers, who are our target audience, want to test the setup, as that's part of the product experience and they get to learn the stack and the requirements. We are an open-source product, we don't have a SaaS offering, so we don't have a way yet to spin up demos or trial accounts for every user. You can view the product in our overview video without installing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOGJKHXntiU

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#34

Post by nmridul »

SvenAl wrote: post #22
vz8 wrote: post #21

Per the website FAQ [0]: Q: "Can I see a demo of Webiny in action?" A: "We don't host a public demo at this time. You're welcome to install it yourself, or book a call with us and we'll prepare a demo for you." Investing the time to install it ourselves or book a demo just to see the framework in action adds a lot of friction. You might want to considering moving the 7 minute Webiny overview to a more prominent place…

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

You could do a periodic reset / relaunch of the app so the demo starts from a clean slate after few hours / days.

I understand you sell support / hosted package. If you say you can't support a demo install, that would send a wrong message.

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#35

Post by SvenAl »

nmridul wrote: post #34
SvenAl wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

You could do a periodic reset / relaunch of the app so the demo starts from a clean slate after few hours / days. I understand you sell support / hosted package. If you say you can't support a demo install, that would send a wrong message.

It’s something we’ll definitely look at we just haven’t gotten to it yet. We thought of doing periodic resets, but that tends not to provide the best experience. We’re thinking of having per-user instances, forcing users to create an account, but then delete the accounts on a periodic basis. This way, rather than having a single shared account we believe would work better. It’s just there’s a lot of things on our roadmap and we didn’t think this one being so important. Clearly we were wrong.

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#36

Post by SkyMarshal »

SvenAl wrote: post #22
vz8 wrote: post #21

Per the website FAQ [0]: Q: "Can I see a demo of Webiny in action?" A: "We don't host a public demo at this time. You're welcome to install it yourself, or book a call with us and we'll prepare a demo for you." Investing the time to install it ourselves or book a demo just to see the framework in action adds a lot of friction. You might want to considering moving the 7 minute Webiny overview to a more prominent place…

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

For an alternate take, as a developer I really don't have a problem with downloading and running it myself. If I were seriously evaluating it, I would 1) have to do that anyway, and 2) a hosted demo wouldn't be sufficient.

Not offering the demo may be a problem for tourists who aren't seriously considering this, but probably not for parties that are in the process of looking for something like this for a real use case.

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#37

Post by SvenAl »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #36
SvenAl wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

For an alternate take, as a developer I really don't have a problem with downloading and running it myself. If I were seriously evaluating it, I would 1) have to do that anyway, and 2) a hosted demo wouldn't be sufficient. Not offering the demo may be a problem for tourists who aren't seriously considering this, but probably not for parties that are in the process of looking for something like this for a real use cas…

That was my starting point when I was thinking about this. However it seems there’s a lot of users who just don’t want to do that initial investment, so having a demo would potentially help in converting them.

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#38

Post by chiefalchemist »

SvenAl wrote: post #31
chiefalchemist wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more of a benefit than features. Features too often don't answer the question: Why should _I_ care? The philosophy at least spoke to me as opposed to features being about you.

I see what you are saying, looking at our homepage, it's true, we talk feature-talk. We'll be addressing this.

Not to worry, you're not alone :)

You are, as you should be, in love with your product (read: a collection of features). You know the nooks & crannies.

Moi? I don't care. I'm selfish. We all are. I need to know what you are going to do for _me_. What pains of mine are you going to fix? Benefits is short for: Use our product and we'll make these pain - X, Y, and Z - disappear.

Make me believe in your magic :)

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#39

Post by SvenAl »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #38
SvenAl wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see what you are saying, looking at our homepage, it's true, we talk feature-talk. We'll be addressing this.

Not to worry, you're not alone :) You are, as you should be, in love with your product (read: a collection of features). You know the nooks & crannies. Moi? I don't care. I'm selfish. We all are. I need to know what you are going to do for _me_. What pains of mine are you going to fix? Benefits is short for: Use our product and we'll make these pain - X, Y, and Z - disappear. Make me believe in your magic :)

Amazing, thanks for this!

Re: Launch HN: Webiny (YC W21) – Open-source serverless framework with a drop-in CMS

#40

Post by Marciplan »

SvenAl wrote: post #22
vz8 wrote: post #21

Per the website FAQ [0]: Q: "Can I see a demo of Webiny in action?" A: "We don't host a public demo at this time. You're welcome to install it yourself, or book a call with us and we'll prepare a demo for you." Investing the time to install it ourselves or book a demo just to see the framework in action adds a lot of friction. You might want to considering moving the 7 minute Webiny overview to a more prominent place…

Thanks for the feedback. I agree a demo would be more useful. We might provide a more comprehensive platform overview in a video format. Operating a hosted demo requires us to maintain it and manage it. People tend to post all sorts of things in those types of environments, and if it’s a shared install base, other users might see content that is not appropriate. We need to find a good balance here, it just something…

What about resetting it every day and put a warning that others can also use the demo/mess up the CMS?

Thats kinda what I’m used to seeing anyway :)

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