Introducing Gemfury - It's like Dropbox for Hackers | Hacker News Reader

Introducing Gemfury - It's like Dropbox for Hackers

gemfury.com

41 pointsrykov40 comments

I closed when the first thing was to me chose a "weapon" (seriously?) of choice instead of giving me whatever the site's offering. What if I like Ruby AND Perl AND Node.js?

Edit: I know that Perl is not an option there, it was just for showing how a more "open" approach would be better. Also, the name implies that is a tool for people who likes/uses Ruby (gem). So people would dismiss it based only on the name, not visiting and seeing that there's more options.

It's because the supplied url is not the baseurl. Poster is to blame ;)

Every language has a separate way of doing packages, explaining the individual benefit based on your preference is a more clear message to get across. The other benefit is it helps us choose where to focus.

And, funny story: the word "weapon" is A/B tested with the word "repository" because I had the same doubts. Guess which one converts better? Hint: It's not "repository"

> Guess which one converts better?

How do you define "convert"? Clicking one of the buttons? Signing up for the service? Paying money?

If converting is just clicking one of the buttons, I wonder if you get a lot of low quality converts -- i.e. ones that don't end up paying you money.

This is the most irritating design I've seen in a while. Please link to something descriptive, not a deliberately text-blurred/obfuscated page that requires you to select between various languages that I don't actually want to use.

As an aside, I'm not sure why I would use this instead of dropbox or a cloud-accessible version control system. However, given that I can't actually read the explanatory text, I will never find out.

So, my current projects involve none of your weapons of choice. This renders me confused about what to do next and unsure of the value of this service.

I suggest that you include a "More information" link on your initial pop-up div so that people like me won't click away from your site in only a few seconds.

Thank you for the "more info" suggestion. Which language and package repository are you interested in?

i want information about what this is before having to give my details.

Bingo. No "close this stupid obfuscating box" button means no sign up for you.

Sorry for the confusion - we figured it'd be easier to explain the service for each individual platform separately, rather than all at once. Hence the up-front selection.

So, what does Gemfury do with package repositories? I was unable to tell from the initial screen.

My current projects target Delphi. (Go ahead and make jokes, but my industry has a surprising number of thermodynamics libraries written in it.) Is there anything you can do for me?

The root URL is probable the better place to start: http://www.gemfury.com/

The service currently services RubyGems customers from the root domain. We figured Hacker News is a wider audience than just Ruby and would be of great help to decide which direction we should go next.

What the fuck is it? Following the link /l it is immediately asking for my details without telling WTF it is - is a grade A example of retarded marketing.

Choosing one "tool" gives you a description:

    Gemfury is a cloud server for your private [tool] packages. Once uploaded,
    your packages can be securely installed to any host. It's simple, reliable,
    and hassle-free.

This would be more helpful to see before you have to click anything.

As pointed out by another comment, this isn't the site's homepage. Perhaps an admin could update the link to point to http://gemfury.com?

I immediately cringe at every single instance I see "it's like X for Y!" At this point has this snow clone passed into the irony space? Is everyone using it ironically at this point?

In my opinion / experience, it's still a very useful tool if used accurately.

Used well it provides cut-through of your brand / product / message in a way that is harder to build organically. Once you have traction, you can build a more separate identity.

Used inaccurately, and you will likely annoy people who might be your target market. Used ironically, you can definitely have fun.

But what would I know - my business advice is like Pets.com for Trappist Monks.

But these days it's so misused that most people see it and dismiss as a "catchphrase" to lure people. Even if it's accurately used. So, it's better don't take the risk.

This may be more true in tech circles, especially because everyone wants to compare themselves to big hits (Dropbox, Facebook, Google). It's less common in other sectors.

And if you are going to try it, test it first. Use your little catchphrase and then ask your friend what they think that means you do - 'Dropbox for Hackers' doesn't necessarily mean "code sharing that just works" - it could be interpreted as "making your private code accessible by our internal team" or "yay - unexplained conflict errors all over the place".

I cringe too, but the reason it's used is because it works - great way to explain something new based on something you already know in a few words.

aka a "high concept" pitch (though "X for Y" is really just a subcategory of high concept).

Sorry, but how is that "like Dropbox for Hackers"?

Dropbox stores files in the cloud which are then easily accessible by authorized computers - Gemfury does that for code packages.

Who doesn't store files in "the cloud" nowadays? You could as well call this "Gmail for Hackers"... it would make as much sense as your "Dropbox" analogy.

Why don't you call it by name (i.e. "hosted RubyGems server") instead of confusing people and trying to piggyback on the "Dropbox" brand? Or do you think that your product isn't good enough?

Well it's kind of like dropbox for ruby gems.

I don't know why you would equate ruby gems with 'hackers' unless you really like people to be disoriented.

All I have to say after looking at your site is:

1) thanks for msbetatesting hackernews, 2) did you even test your site for BS errors, you noobs, 3) not a bad idea, but srsly, what's wrong with github (that everyone and their mother uses)?

This website is like the movie, 'Hackers'. I would appreciate an explanation.

I'd be interesting in integrating this with Seed (http://seed.readthedocs.org/) when Python support comes along.

My Gemfury username is 'adamcharnock'.

Great idea. Thanks for the suggestion

"Your RubyGems are protected during deployment by a secret token that's part of your Gemfury Source URL" Are URLs secrets now?

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/758002.html#...

If one needs to use Maven, what advantages does Gemfury offer over a self-hosted repository manager, such as Artifactory?

It offers all the advantages of a cloud service - on demand, pay as you go, no maintenance. Very similar to Artifactory Online (cloud version)

UI is very nice. Another great Built With Bootstrap site!

Thank you and Twitter - Bootstrap makes things so much easier.

Wow, nice to see a Bootstrap site which doesn't look like every single other Bootstrap site! Good work!

Though, what's the difference between this and rubygems.org? Is it just like a private version, so you can create proprietary gems and be able to pull them down from anywhere (production, other team members, etc.)?

That's because we started the site before Bootstrap was released, but as we iterated, we ported much of the site over.

And you're spot-on about Gemfury's purpose

No CPAN?

Maybe one day :)

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