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Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

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Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#31

Post by axod »

abstractbill wrote: post #25
axod wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half of the "documents" seem to be either plain text, or a plain image (porn). The most viewed "document" on scribd of all time: http://www.scribd.com/doc/26896/SUING-FOR-TOO-MUCH-SEX Do you think it's sane to "stream" that document? What the hell are these people thinking??? They're wrapping plain text inside flash. One can only imagine their warped mentality. Why not convert plain text to a video, upload it to yout…

This is the modern version of people emailing each other Microsoft Word documents with photos in them. I never understood that either.

Well, I'm glad it's scribd paying the bandwidth bill to "stream" a 200 byte text file via a 200k flash player, and not me :)

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#32

Post by marketer »

axod wrote: post #27
mattmaroon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with HTML is there's a decade lag between when the new font rendering is introduced and when you can rely on it to be accessible to all of your customers.

True, although I think things are speeding up. Chrome, firefox, safari, emergence of the iPhone as a browser... HTML5 is definitely heading in the right direction though. WebSocket will be awesome when it arrives, making comet a thing of the past. and tags will pretty much put flash out of business, etc etc

The more browsers that exist, the more stakeholders there will be in HTML 5, and the longer it will take for it to be implemented across the board. And if the process is anything like ECMAScript, it could literally take a decade.

Flash does everything you need for rich media, now. Sorry, but flash is never going away. There's Youtube and advertising networks that will guarantee its ubiquity.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#33

Post by schoudha »

justin wrote: post #30

Fuck the haters. Scribd is awesome because it's a great utility for easily sharing your shitty Word docs and PDFs, and there is obviously demand for it as Scribd and all the Scribd-like knockoff sites each have more users than your worthless websites. Complaining about Scribd putting text in Flash is like complaining about how ugly Myspace pages are: while you were out bitching, a few talented people were out giving…

Yes, Scribd has had great success and everyone in the HN community should be happy for them. However, there's a legitimate criticism to the direction Scribd is taking - it's arguably bad for the web.

What is the mission? All documents are created offline, uploaded to Scribd and displayed via iPaper? I think we already have a great framework for distributing text information - HTML (Although Scrib's traffic may indicate otherwise). It's flexible, it's fast, and it can be viewed on any device, it can be indexed easily, etc... Think about how much better nytimes.com is then the New York Times newspaper.

Instead of creating new standards, the industry should be trying to help people create HTML formats as first class objects. With that said, it would be really cool to bring all the books/magazines from the past to the internet (books.google.com).

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#34

Post by axod »

justin wrote: post #30

Fuck the haters. Scribd is awesome because it's a great utility for easily sharing your shitty Word docs and PDFs, and there is obviously demand for it as Scribd and all the Scribd-like knockoff sites each have more users than your worthless websites. Complaining about Scribd putting text in Flash is like complaining about how ugly Myspace pages are: while you were out bitching, a few talented people were out giving…

If they get bought, I'll gladly eat my hat. If they become profitable by sharing documents free, whilst expanding the documents size massively by wrapping it in flash, I'll eat another hat.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#35

Post by graemep »

abstractbill wrote: post #25
axod wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half of the "documents" seem to be either plain text, or a plain image (porn). The most viewed "document" on scribd of all time: http://www.scribd.com/doc/26896/SUING-FOR-TOO-MUCH-SEX Do you think it's sane to "stream" that document? What the hell are these people thinking??? They're wrapping plain text inside flash. One can only imagine their warped mentality. Why not convert plain text to a video, upload it to yout…

This is the modern version of people emailing each other Microsoft Word documents with photos in them. I never understood that either.

That is because some corporate email systems block attached image files.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#36

Post by startingup »

I will be charitable here (you can tell I am not a huge fan either!). I have seen a couple of people use the site, and they use it to publish short stories and such. They could always post it to a blog, but I think Scribd gives them nice search engine optimization. Even for this legitimate use case, the flash player is a bit of a turn-off for me.

But the reason I am not a huge fan is the sheer extent of copyright abuse going on there. Turning a blind eye to it - hiding behind DMCA really - is not kosher, and I frankly wouldn't want to do business that way, no matter what the profit.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#37

Post by unalone »

zain wrote: post #6

Man, you guys are harsh. Even if it isn't a service you yourself would use, why bash a service useful for others? The first goal of many Y Combinator startups is to make something people want, and Scribd clearly fits the bill if millions of people are using it.

Of course we're harsh. Start-ups are almost all extremely competitive, and the people who use start-ups are cutthroat capitalists. Everybody's looking for the absolute best things can get. I remember, two years before Tumblr launched, I would go between blogging platforms at the rate of one a week, pounce on every update, install and test every beta and every plugin, looking for a platform that would work well for me. I still do it with certain things. Any time a social network claims it's got something Facebook doesn't, I check it out. I'd like to think this isn't entirely unusual behavior here. People in this field are very often perfectionists.

With Scribd we're a mix of benevolent and indignant. Benevolent, because it's YCombinator. Indignant, because it renders text in Flash.In both cases, though, the response is the same. Benevolence isn't being kind and wishing good luck. Look at sites with that attitude, or real life institutions, and there you'll find the places where progress becomes stagnant. In order to encourage progress, it helps to have a bit of an edge. And it attracts the right people. I plan on launching a beta preview of my current project to members here, because I want to be ripped apart before anybody else sees this. I figure it'll do me and my partner a world of good.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#38

Post by unalone »

axod wrote: post #34
justin wrote: post #30

Fuck the haters. Scribd is awesome because it's a great utility for easily sharing your shitty Word docs and PDFs, and there is obviously demand for it as Scribd and all the Scribd-like knockoff sites each have more users than your worthless websites. Complaining about Scribd putting text in Flash is like complaining about how ugly Myspace pages are: while you were out bitching, a few talented people were out giving…

If they get bought, I'll gladly eat my hat. If they become profitable by sharing documents free, whilst expanding the documents size massively by wrapping it in flash, I'll eat another hat.

So, wait. If they become profitable WITHOUT being bought, you still eat two hats? Or are they entirely separate hat affairs?

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#39

Post by mattmaroon »

axod wrote: post #27
mattmaroon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with HTML is there's a decade lag between when the new font rendering is introduced and when you can rely on it to be accessible to all of your customers.

True, although I think things are speeding up. Chrome, firefox, safari, emergence of the iPhone as a browser... HTML5 is definitely heading in the right direction though. WebSocket will be awesome when it arrives, making comet a thing of the past. and tags will pretty much put flash out of business, etc etc

I agree things are speeding up, but think it's largely because Microsoft is now realizing that they need to keep IE up to date and standards compliant. They still have 70%market share, and it's not shrinking fast, so the onus is entirely on them. IE7 is kind of a sucky browser but a step in the right direction in terms of compliance, and IE 8 will be much better.

Re: Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document

#40

Post by mattmaroon »

axod wrote: post #29
mattmaroon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the 50k documents uploaded every day? Can you really question that Scribd is a product that a lot of people want to use?

From a quick look at the "most recent" page: 20 docs per page, 50 pages covers last 18 hours. =1,000 docs in last 18 hours =approx 1,333/day Maybe that page isn't showing every document, but I don't see why it wouldn't. And sure, it's new years, but even so... Also you can't deny its used by webmasters promoting their websites....Posting endless tips etc with their link at the bottom. Take a look at some of the recen…

I don't believe they'd claim 50k a day if it were 1.33k. Something is wrong there.
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