Padlet (YC W13) brings Collaborative Website Building | Hacker News Reader

Padlet (YC W13) brings Collaborative Website Building

techcrunch.com

29 pointsaashaykumar9227 comments

I really don't want to be "that guy on HN" because I really hate that guy, but I really have no idea what this app does / is supposed to do.

I see a bunch of boxes. So I click one, and I see a bunch of boxes with text / images, kind of like a bunch of post-it notes on a cork board. And then I click one, and I get an iframe of some other website.

So it's kind of like a blog but with less structure?

I'm not sure. Maybe I'm not the right audience. But you definitely need to refine your message a bit.

Btw, I got a bunch of "Looks like this page does not load inside a frame. You can view the original page here." errors, because most popular sites are frame-busting.

Yeah .. need to refine that user experience. Noted.

I'm a bit confused as well. I feel like this is a digital fridge where I can stick stuff (and possibly my friends too?). Maybe it's more like a Pinterest without the masonry?

If that's the case, "Digital Fridge" would've been an awesome name for this.

Ha! In case anyone was wondering... http://digitalfridge.com redirects to http://kensington.com ?

That is one popular usecase, yes - post stuff together with friends.

http://padlet.com/wall/rwegbc0lj0

http://padlet.com/wall/rwegbc0lj0/wish/7419109

You are right Nick. We need to refine our message.

A blog with less structure, or cork-board can both be used to describe a subset of utility that we offer.

Since you are front end developer, you can potentially use it to share code snippets, for one (we do syntax highlighting). If you do design as well, you can put psd and ai files and get feedback from people on the page itself (you won't even need to download the files to view them).

Some people use Padlet for agile project management too.

Yeah I guess because I read the TC article first, I had a better idea of what Padlet was before getting to the site.

After seeing the above comments, I went back to the site with a 'blank slate'. I actually don't think too much needs to change as a bit of vagueness can allow people to freely decide what the service is and can help you guys out as well.

However, I believe there needs to be some sort of central mission statement--something as simple as a googledocs for websites--so that first-time visitors know the main goal. From there, they can surf around and make the site what they want but at least you guys have stated your message clearly. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!

Thanks Aashay. Yes, we'll work on the homepage to make it clearer what we are doing.

Gotcha, well, coincidentally I run a code sharing site, and I'm not sure I would be able to organize code snippets on Padlet in a way that makes sense.

But I think I'm just not your audience. I think you have something here, I'm just not sure what it is (and your messaging indicates that you're still fishing around a bit yourselves... and that's OK).

If you think you are not our audience, it means we are not talking well enough. That's it. I'm sure that with a better messaging on the home page and better examples, we can be friends :)

Hell yeah! Good luck - looking forward to seeing what you come up with :)

Just from playing around with it and reading the TC article, I think the title of the home page (as in, the title that is put in your web browser's title) is a good description: "Paper for the Web."

Here's a memorial for a polar bear: http://padlet.com/wall/nqgbzhfs77

A thank you board for NYC shelter and sanitation staff during the hurricane: http://sandyheroes.com/

(Both those are from the article, by the way.)

I appreciate the effort. I think there have been many attempts to do this (wordpress, wetpaint, wikia, etc). I have yet to see one that really impressed me.

I think it's hard to balance the ability to create what you want, with the ability to have enough structure so the site isn't just a random collection of stuff. It's also hard to build a gui that allows non-coders to have fine grained control over the display.

Right now, I feel like this leans too far to the unstructured side, where it's hard to figure out what to use it for. I also find the controls to be kind of cryptic and difficult to use.

You are right. The thing is, you have to start somewhere. There are many decent products for structure. So we are starting with the other extreme. Give us some time.

True, and I commend you for putting it out there and iterating.

If there was one suggestion I might have on where to go next, it would be improving fine grained control of item placement (as alluded to in my original comment). No one has done this well, and it is one of the things that makes coders say "screw it, I'll just do it with CSS", and non coders say "screw it, I'll hire a designer/programmer.

I'd like to see someone tackle actual website building via a tool like this before tackling the collaborative portion. At the end of it though the money is in enabling internet marketers/salesmen to focus on their craft while eliminating technological hurdles.

“We actually believe we can play a part in payments down the line, by letting you build a page full of stuff that’s for sale and adding a payment widget,” said Plyush. “Right now it’s very basic, but more sophisticated interactions are on our timeline.”

It's like googledocs, but for websites...this is brilliant. The potential reach exceeds that of WordPress and Tumblr as even advanced programmers will be able to benefit from easy, collaborative website building.

After reading the article and skimming their site, it's obvious they have more in their plans down the road, but the idea at its base is already quite promising. Simple, but appeals to the masses!

thanks Aashay! Try it out and tell us what you think...

So Padlet's sort of the Weebly approach to collaboration? I like the idea, though I think it could use more structural elements (only having free-form text squares seems somewhat limiting). IMO, the Techcrunch description didn't really do the site justice, and I don't think it should really be marketed as a "Website Builder."

The Techcrunch article was beautifully written, IMO. I think it is hard to say what we really are. If you talk about parallels to existing products, some people see a blog, some a wiki, and some a website builder.

And I agree we can use more structural elements. Freedom is often limiting.

You guys are doing with post-its, what Twitter did with news and Foursquare with location. Kudos

Thanks

Thanks for creating this guys.

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