Show HN: Welcome to dropsauce.com | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Welcome to dropsauce.com

6 pointsgautaml15 comments

Hey all,

Well after months of hard work (and even more months of dreaming about doing this), I've finally got around to finishing something I've started. :D

http://dropsauce.com

It's a file upload service where you upload your files into named drops. Sure, this is pretty much similar to some sites you may have seen before and although the internet is saturated with upload services, I still made this more as a learning experience for myself.

Hopefully you find some unique value to it and easy to use. If not, check the http://dropsauce.com/faq

If it becomes successful, great, I'll continue improving on it. If not, ah well, it was a great learning experience and I'll keep it around for a while.

I'm no star web programmer but I think I've done a pretty decent job with this (so far).

All comments and feedback welcome. Hopefully the site doesn't get taken down in the next few days. :)

Enjoy.

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The site looks nice, but it would probably be a good idea to add a privacy policy. There is no way that I would upload personal files (much less sign up for an account) to a site that did not have one.

Since your site is based around uploaded content (and seems to be hosted in the United States, based on my amateur sleuthing), it would probably be a good idea to talk about the DMCA in your Terms of Service, and maybe even register a notification agent at the Copyright Office: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/dmca-righthaven-loo...

Thanks martey, I'll definitely look into that.

I did add a terms page (although it's not readily noticeable - it's a bar along the bottom with copyright).

I saw the Terms page, but it is not very clear (note that I am not a lawyer):

- the first sentence suggests that all copyrighted material cannot be uploaded to the service. In the United States, since all works are copyrighted by default, this would suggest that nothing Americans create can be uploaded.

- it would be a good idea to state that you / dropsauce are the final arbiter of whether uploaded content is acceptable. Unless you are limiting accounts by geographic area, it is conceivable that an uploader might upload content is acceptable in their jurisdiction, but not acceptable in yours or the area where you are hosting the site.

- the last sentence seems to confer a right of ownership upon the uploader that they might not be entitled to.

It might be a good idea to base your Terms of Service upon that of a similar service. Wordpress.com has user-uploaded content on their service, and they have a Terms of Service with a Creative Commons license that you could use as a template: http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

Fantastic martey, I'll draft something up using that as a guide. Again appreciate the input.

I did something like this 5 or so years back just for fun - it was so I could move music files around (plugins etc..) I only told a few friend about. Had to take it down as I found some hideous stuff on it. Good Luck!

Yours is much easier to use & prettier than mine was.

I actually created something a lot more simpler for forums to use on and once others found out about it, 99% of the content uploaded on it was porn. The domain expired late last year and that;s when I decided to start dropsauce.com

It was something like imgur but a lot more simpler (it was a single index.php file that handled everything)

At least now this time, the content is not browsable by anyone else unless you keep it public and someone knows the random name (or the name you typed).

Say what it does on the page and don't use red text on a red background (it's invisible).

I'm not sure i follow. What's red text on red background?

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/2433/selection003.png

I think this is a usability thing.

The red/red is to indciate it's disaled. You'll notice the contrast to add files button.

Once you add files and your details are valid (name, password, etc.) then the button lights up.

Once it's lit up you can press it.

When drops are in progress everything disables.

Perhaps I should make it a little more obvious that it's disabled.

It's very confusing. Are you using Flash?

See this for a great example of good usability and design - http://www.letscrate.com/

I'm well aware of letscrate however it's not as customizable as what I did where you can name your own drops. Plus once I get drag-n-drop in place it will be a lot more obvious/easier to use.

The reason I did not put DnD in yet is because I wanted to get something out the door without always adding new features or thinking up new features.

But I appreciate your input :)

And yes it's Flash (for now)

Updated the website with an updated Terms page and the inclusion of a Privacy Policy page (both based on WordPress ToS and Automattic's Privacy).

Next on the change list is to make the add files and upload icons on the main homepage a little more obvious.

Let me know what you think.

Also updated the buttons on the main page.

Click here to see the before and after: http://dropsauce.com/changelog

Thanks for all the feedback!

Clickable link: http://dropsauce.com

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