Show HN: Overcast - Minimalist Personal Calendar with Tasks | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Overcast - Minimalist Personal Calendar with Tasks

overcast.life

1 pointwillpotato9 comments

There aren’t any screenshots or a description of what makes it different, only a few character illustrations and vague mentions of common features. It’s a tall order to ask users to sign up just to look at the service, particularly when the only option available is through Google OAuth.

The mention of “free forever” also raises the questions of “why” and “how is that sustainable”. The first assumption is that you might want to sell user data or run ads.

In sum, as of now the website doesn’t answer the question of why someone should or would want to use what you‘ve built, and that‘s the first thing we should see.

Thank you for the feedback!

I see that the website are missing a lot of information that should be there. I will improve it based on your feedback. Thank you so much :D

Hi! I love Google calendar and organising my tasks in a calendar. but, there are some features I wished it had. So I set out to build my own calendar + task management, Overcast. It is currently in Alpha with very minimal set of features. Any feedback and critics are very welcome and appreciated! Thank you in advance :D

Nice work to get something written and "out there" ... kudos. Please accept what follows as an attempt to be helpful.

Based on the website I can't tell what it does, how it works, where the data will be stored, whether it will sync across devices, whether the data will be encrypted, how to import data, how to export data, what features are actually there, what it will run on, or what is needed to run/use it.

I have a workflow, and you're asking me to change it. Creating a workflow is a significant investment, and you're asking me to change it with no indication of why the workflow you offer might be better, how I can convert to it, or what happens if I change my mind.

My immediate reaction was just to close the site and move on, but I thought I'd offer some details on just why I'm not going to sign up. In short, it's not clear what problem you're solving for me, especially given the investment of time and effort you're asking from me.

I've been in your situation, and I hope you can see a way through it.

Good luck!

Hi, Thank you so much for taking the time to write this down, it really means a lot to me! I see that the website does not communicate the product well. I will try to improve this following you feedback :D. Thank you!

Good response ...

Let me just emphasise that much of what I was talking about isn't just a case of me not immediately seeing what it does, but impacts what your product should, even must, do. These are real concerns that I've mentioned, so if your product doesn't do these things, then I'd need to know why they don't matter.

Things like imports, exports, encryption, etc. ... if you don't already have these capabilities, you'll need to make it clear why they don't matter, or aren't an issue.

And so on.

So good luck, make sure you write a clean, clear, brief explanation, and submit that so we can see if. Remember, every sentence you write should give me a reason to read the next one.

Cheers!

Your comments have given me very helpful insights and advices!

I will definitely update the website and product and post it again in the future. Hopefully much improved from the current state. I just want to say I am very thankful for you to take your time to write these responses! <(＿＿)>

At first I thought this was some weird new feature from overcast.fm, a popular iOS podcasting app (based on the title), but at a glance noticed it was overcast.life instead. Just wanted to note that.

Thank you for the information! I will improve the website to make it more distinguishable.

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