Manuscript – Project management, issue tracking, and support | Hacker News Reader

Manuscript – Project management, issue tracking, and support

manuscript.com

38 pointsaeorgnoieang44 comments

I visited the link, I looked at a few things, I have no idea what it does. It's very buzz word ish, and seems like it just uses all these other services ( I'm not sure how it uses them ) and wants money?

If I was a little more cynical ( :D ) I'd say this is a parody site of "POW" front end with lots of empty words and weird diagonal banners trying to sell you some kind of woo

The 'how it works' page (https://www.manuscript.com/how-it-works) has specifics, as does the feature tour: https://www.manuscript.com/features/task-management. If there's anything you're confused by, let me know.

I went to that page, it doesn't really tell me what it is. I'm not watching the video, should be clear from the text. I scrolled and read the text, it just makes bold claims, it's not really telling me at all how it works, whatever it is.

Seems like it's some kind of communication tool for teams? I dunno, kind of ironic if it is a communication tool that it's really not clear what IT is.

Here's all the text from the front page.... can you point out what bit tells me what it is?

Manuscript - Project Management for Software Teams</title>

                Go beyond done 
                Craft great software.
                Learn how Manuscript works.
                The first 14 days are on us. No credit card required.              
                Building software<br />
                that matters&hellip;              
                is more than a race to close issues. We know every team can craft great software, you just need the <strong>best tools</strong> and the <strong>right information</strong>.
                  Best tools:
                  Manuscript provides all you need to make great software, including <strong>project management</strong>, <strong>issue tracking</strong>, and <strong>support</strong>, fused with just enough process to help you deliver.
                  Plus, there's robust integration with other best of breed tools like Slack, GitHub and Google Docs that's free and fully customizable, using the power of 
                  Glitch — our friendly collaborative coding community.
                  Right information:
                  Manuscript shows you the issue and project info you need, alongside updates from your integrated tools.
                <p>As well as providing expert advice and insights from two decades of studying how great software really gets built.
                Clear, upfront pricing.<br />
                We don’t nickel and dime.
                $10 per user, per month
                It starts with software that ships on a predictable schedule, but goes far beyond that, with software that’s trusted by your community, thoughtful about user experience, and responsible in the ways it treats people and data.
              <strong>&hellip;is crafted by teams</strong> because no-one works alone, and we only get better when we learn from each other.
                Why Choose Manuscript?
                Based on the engine of FogBugz, the platform that pioneered bug tracking, Manuscript is a purpose built project management tool for software teams.
              Crafted by Fog Creek Software, the creators of Glitch. We invented Trello, and co-founded Stack Overflow.<br />
                  Learn how Manuscript works:
                The first 14 days are on us. No credit card required.

'Manuscript - Project Management for Software Teams', 'project management, issue tracking, and support' and 'Manuscript is a purpose-built project management tool for software teams' all seem like what you're looking for.

you know that tells me nothing right? Excel is a project management tool, A google doc is, Jira is, Youtrack is, basecamp is, zen desk is, github is, bitbucket is...... lots of people claim that, it's a crowded space, what I want to know is what toys are you going to give me, what problem are you solving?

Sure, but it is a literal answer to what you asked, 'what it is'. For what it does (the toys), I recommend the Feature Tour (https://www.manuscript.com/features/task-management) and for the problem, beyond the video, the best source for now is the launch post: https://medium.com/make-better-software/introducing-manuscri.... I'll get more from that added to the homepage. Thanks for the feedback.

Let me try:

This could have be a description of Jira. Or another tool.

We are trying to help you here.

Let me add: do add screenshots.

I really really don’t like videos. Screenshots are faster and cheaper to add and tells me way more than a video I won't watch.

(Feel free to add a video in addition to the screenshots though.)

It'll keep your morality and ethics in check, too.

https://medium.com/make-better-software/introducing-manuscri...

https://medium.com/make-better-software/software-matters-in-...

> The 'how it works' page (https://www.manuscript.com/how-it-works) has specifics

No it fucking doesn't. Here's your how it works page, with all statements that tell me nothing commented out: https://gist.github.com/honnibal/a57e00faf74c7d43182c3568aa7...

I was pretty generous with the definition of "tells me nothing".

Do you have a question that you'd want an answer to?

We're roughly in the market for a user-facing issue tracking solution for a commercial developer tools product. We've ended up with a discourse server, which is surprisingly good, but obviously there's room for improvement. So, sure, I had the most basic question: okay this thing is roughly in a product category I'm interested in. Is it worth trying? What does it have, what makes it different, and could it work for me?

The features page looks like it has most of the information I was looking for from the How It Works page. However your features page is laid out in a way that makes it very hard to use: I have to click a category, scroll down a whole screen, and then look at four paragraphs of text that together have about one paragraph of information. Then I have to scroll back up, click on another category, and scroll back down.

I noticed the domain when logging in to Kiln, Fog Creek Software's hosted version control app/service, and decided to checkout the website. Based on the screenshot fragments, it appears to be a newer version of FogBugz. The marketing text even includes "Based on the engine of FogBugz".

My company's FogBugz sub-domain also seems to be already registered. Maybe they're going to migrate everyone from FogBugz automatically.

Anyone have an info about this? I haven't noticed anything in any emails from Fog Creek. Nor do I remember seeing anything else about this anywhere.

You're fast! :) We'll have an update with full details soon.

I figured I jumped the gun somehow. Please tell me you're going to be adding Markdown support tho!

It's on the list! Two of my personal top requests to the team are Markdown & emoji reaction support. :)

Please do not add a :partyparrot: and give one the option to disable emojis or show text emoji only option.

I thought the party parrot was pretty funny at first but it and it's 10,000 variants we have on HipChat have gotten old pretty quick.

I just tried my company's FogBugz sub-domain but for manuscript.com and I was already logged-in. That explains seeing the domain while logging in to Kiln.

But, very sadly, Manuscript seems to be FogBugz, not just 'based on the engine'. Still no Markdown for one.

Thanks for adding us.

Here's a little background on why we built Manuscript:

We launched FogBugz back in 2000 as one of the first bug-tracking systems around. Since it launched, the platform has been used to fix over 50 million bugs, by tens of thousands of teams around the world. But recently, we’ve been thinking about “Big Bugs” [0], trying to imagine how we can address both the necessary parts of shipping software and the larger risks that too often get overlooked.

So today, we’re using that same engine to create something new: Manuscript. See our launch post for further info: https://medium.com/make-better-software/introducing-manuscri...

[0] https://medium.com/make-better-software/software-matters-in-...

This is a really aggravating comment. It's content-less marketing drivel. You didn't 'build Manuscript'. You just changed the name of an existing hosted issue/ticket management service.

And you've made some cosmetic changes to the client-side code that uses the 'FogBugz engine' (back-end code).

And now you're spouting really insipid bullshit about "Big Bugs". Please excuse my intense skepticism about that being anything other than nothing.

There's a few things I still like about FogBugz versus its 'competitors' – creating a 'case' (issue/ticket) from an email, being able to create hierarchical trees of cases, and being able to search cases. But everything else has been stale for a long time.

You don't even have real integrated version control! Kiln is about as basic of a web wrapper around Git as possible. Or maybe the code reviews are okay? I don't know. I've never used them nor ever heard or read of anyone else doing so either. Why's Kiln off on its own? Hosting a Git repo isn't exactly trivial if you're offering it for free, but you killed the free plan a while ago and I don't think anywhere near as many people as are using GitHub have ever even known of Kiln.

The propose UX improvements are also very very un-inspiring. To whom is FogBugz – I mean Manuscript – going to be marketed? Because it certainly doesn't seem to be programmers.

Sorry to hear I've aggravated you! There's more to it than cosmetic changes. Relevant to your comment is the new integration experience, which leverages Glitch. This enables you to connect up your other tools easily, so you can use the best tool for the job, like GitHub for integrated version control. As well as other tools like Slack, Trello and Google Docs.

I'm sorry I'm being so aggravating too. We're hurt most by those to which we're closest! I've been using FogBugz for almost a decade now, and it's been overall really positive. But I'm sad that it hasn't really kept up.

You mentioned using other tools – "like GitHub for integrated version control". I can't understand why anyone would use GitHub and FogBugz/Manuscript. GitHub already does pretty much everything FogBugz does, plus it's like 'embedded version control' instead of just 'integrated'.

Maybe Anil will push thru some fucking Markdown support tho before I'm finished migrating to GitLab. You guys (the extended Fog Creek family anyways) are probably half the reason why Markdown has been so widespread [i.e. Stack Overflow]. FogBugz has been marketed forever as being just for making software! How can you have relegated all of your users to using 'rich text' for so many years? Why?!

(Also, would you please add a 'description' to the cases so everyone can see, at the top of the case, a checklist [written in Markdown!] with everything that needs to be completed before the case can be closed? And how 'bout some case description templates too why'll you're at it?)

Thanks for the feedback, I'll pass those suggestions on.

One big reason why people use us with a GitHub integration is that GitHub is almost entirely used by developers only, and yet creating software requires input from people across roles and departments. Manuscript with GitHub integration means you can collaborate across your whole organization, and involve Design, Support, Marketing and other teams, while developers still get to use the version control system they want.

I'd like Markdown support, too. We'll put it on the list. :)

I can tell you've got real passion and enthusiasm for what we're doing, otherwise the critiques wouldn't be as detailed and pointed. We want to get this right, so if you're game, drop me a line at anil@fogcreek.com and we'll find some time to talk through what you expect and what'll keep you excited about where we're headed with Manuscript.

$10 per user, per month. Clear, upfront pricing. We don't nickel and dime. Introductory pricing.

Not to nitpick, but having "introduction" pricing doesn't seem to be very upfront.

You're not nitpicking. Introductory pricing is not clear or upfront.

Sorry if it's not clear. If you signup for $10 per month, that's the price you'll always pay.

Will you always pay $10 per month per user, or will users added later cost more per month?

Would just like to say that the website looks great and that I like that you reuse and repackage existing good solutions rather than reinventing the wheel.

Seems like a good option for an org that want more than Trello but less than JIRA.

Someone educate me :)

How is Fog Creek allowed to do this after the sale of Trello to Atlassian? I would have expected some provision related to not releasing product/project management software for some period of time?

We don't see Trello as a competitor at all, that's why we integrate with it, just like we do with GitHub or Slack. And we use them both together every day at Fog Creek.

That's not really what I meant. What I really meant was that Manuscript very clearly does project management (it's even in the title of the site), which Trello did. I imagine that would be a 'no-no' in the Trello sale to Atlassian.

Or is that not the case, contractually?

Manuscript is basically FogBugz, which is a Fog Creek product that predates Trello, so there must have been some kind of allowance for Fog Creek to continue to sell it. It's possible I'm wrong, but I'd be extremely surprised if that was the case.

Trello was spun off as an independent company in 2014. Fog Creek, Inc. was not a party to the Trello acquisition.

The same company that gave us Trello? Wonder what Atlassian thinks.

Manuscript integrates well with Trello: https://manuscript.com/integrations

Why would you call a project management thing (or whatever this is) "manuscript"? Whatever it prints, definitely wasn't written by hand.

They're not great with naming. [It is one of the two or three hard things to do in computering!]

Their previous project is named [Glitch](https://glitch.com/) for example.

And Manuscript is just FogBugz anyways, tho I've at least grown used to the original name.

And said previous project is still in Beta and on it's third name already :)

HyperDev -> Gomix -> Glitch

(HyperDev I guess is a play on HyperCard, Gomix is "go mix!" since they allow you to remix other people's apps, Glitch is ???)

That said, Glitch is pretty neat for small apps or demos, I just wish it would support more languages.

I love the name Glitch ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Me too!

It's cute for sure. But it also carries 'connotations' of (software) bugs, malfunctions, errors – and by 'carry' I mean that's the standard meaning of the term!

We were hoping to capture the feeling of crafting something, rather than racing to tick-off to-do lists items. We wrote a little about why we think that's important: https://medium.com/make-better-software/software-matters-in-...

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