Ask HN to review: app to save files from web directly to your Dropbox | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN to review: app to save files from web directly to your Dropbox

boxmydownloads.com

22 pointsvanwilder7733 comments

In addition to agreeing with the other comments about it not being clear what it does, you need to get a native English speaker to fix the grammar, punctuation and tone. The Privacy Policy page is fine, but the About and home pages need copy editing.

For example, on the home page:

"Download any URL from web directly to your Dropbox!" should be...

"Download any URL from the web directly to your Dropbox!"

"We will create a new folder in your Dropbox `My Downloads`, and have only this folder access." should be...

"We will create a new folder in your Dropbox called 'My Downloads', and we only access this folder."

There are lots more examples.

Also, it seems to me a major use-case for this service is to get around download restrictions. Say I'm at work and I want to download a file, but can't because of the corporate firewall blocking me. As long as my company allows dropbox, I can use your service to download the file. Same with bypassing censorship, etc.

Thanks. I ve updated the corrections.

I guess it also comes because of my Indian accent!

"We promise, we won't screw up with your Dropbox folder."

Should be

"We promise, we won't screw up your Dropbox folder."

But it'd be even better if you just left that out in my opinion. It creates doubt because you're stating something that is kind of expected from a service like this.

Thanks onedev!

I think the same, but some people here, doubted that - `what if it screws up my Dropbox`.

And we dont because we respect your users Privacy. But just to make them feel secure, I had to add that line.

But thanks, I guess people have to trust us if they use our service. I ve removed that from the Homepage.

I think the better solution would to be very explicit and clear about what your app does. Stating that it creates a "My Downloads" folder and just puts files into that folder, and nothing more, should be enough to assuage fears.

Thanks chrischen! That makes sense.

I have updated the message. To -

"We will create a folder in your Dropbox `My Downloads`, and all your downloaded files will land in it."

You also have one in 'No limits on size, and its free.' Should be "it's" in this situation not "its".

Thanks androidb!

What exactly is the intended use case? On my home computer, it's faster for me to right click, save and my Dropbox opens up.

On other computers, I have to remember to go to your website (and thus remember your URL) and sign into Dropbox. I might as well download it to a Downloads folder and then upload it to dropbox.com.

Its actually meant for users to save their files, really huge files to their Dropbox.

Its meant to solve the pain of downloading the files to your Downloads folder and then uploading it.

Yeah sorry for the url thing, I m coming up with a Browser extension soon.

One use case I'm imagining - being on a poor 3G connection and wanting to save something to your Dropbox for later. I don't want to have spent hours downloading it over 3G when I can use this and have it ready on my otherwhere located desktop which will have it by the time I get there.

Wouldn't this work so much better as a Chrome/Firefox plugin?

Yeah, exactly.

Just right click on the link that would like to save. And it will be downloaded in your Dropbox folder.

Thanks, I m already in the process of building a Chrome extension.

Or even a bookmarklet.

I have no idea what you are selling. How does it work?

Agreed, it's not very clear. How does it support YouTube? If I give it a YouTube page does it resolve and download the video to my Dropbox? How do you get access to create the "My Downloads" folder? How can I trust you guys not to ruin my Dropbox? What's the difference to saving to my local Dropbox folder?

It'd be nice to have more of your story on the "About" page - what's your pain point that made you create this app to fix? What are the bio's of you guys?

Otherwise the site looks nice & clean. It's simple which pairs well with the Dropbox look & feel, but lacks a bit in a persuading sales proposition.

We create the `My downloads` folder when you authorize our app. And please we will only download the files to your Dropbox, which you asked for.

We are solving the problem of users downloading their files to their local machine and then uploading it to their Dropbox (huge files).

And yeah, if you give it a Youtube URL, it will upload the video as it is, to your Dropbox.

Downloads valid for a year.

Does this mean that you automatically remove the downloads after a year, or in other words, not only download files but remove them as well?

It was suppose to mean that, you can use up your downloads, anytime within a year.

Thanks, I ve updated the message.

edit: On second thought, I realize I misunderstood you. I thought you meant downloaded files with downloads, but now I see you mean the amount of files that you can download.

Original comment: That doesn't sound logical, why would you remove downloads from a user's Dropbox? It isn't costing you storage space because the downloads are saved in the user's Dropbox, and if they don't need the download any more, they should be clever enough to remove it themselves.

I personally wouldn't be happy if a service I paid for started to remove files without my knowledge or consent...

"We are solving the problem of users downloading their files to their local machine and then uploading it to their Dropbox (huge files)."

At first, it makes sense. But after a second thought; this (uploading directly to Dropbox) will happen when and if you want to download that file only for backup or to use/view it later.

Because if i use the app and save that "huge" file directly to Dropbox, i have to wait for it to be downloaded to my computer to use/view it.

Did i understood correctly? Or it saves the file locally as well?

If I understood the intention correctly, it's not about saving time downloading files when saving them from the internet to your computer or Dropbox, it's really about saving the time you spend uploading large files that you downloaded from the internet from your computer to your Dropbox. At least where I live the upload speeds on normal internet connections are way smaller than the download speeds, so what this app basically does (I think) is download the file to your Dropbox via their server, so you don't have to spend the time uploading the huge file to Dropbox because those guys did that part for you.

Exactly!!

We also provide additional support to save the videos to your Dropbox for popular sites (including Youtube, Vimeo)

You need to add this whole message from this point up the tree onto your site front & centre.

-"Slow, costly internet connection? Save your bandwidth and download quotas by..." (identify problem)

-"Our service saves files from the internet directly to your dropbox without using your connection" (how it works)

-"Spending $x per yGB? At $4.99 per year you can save $z" (value proposition

-features (esp security), how it works (diagram?) pricing/signup

Good luck & congrats on your launch

Thank redact207! I ve created a `How it works` page and have added all the required info there http://boxmydownloads.com/how-it-works

Its meant to solve the time you spend uploading huge files.

Coming from India, I m really used to slow connections. And where the Bandwidth is costly. And Unlimited connections are really not affordable here.

This app is meant to solve the problem of saving huge files to your Dropbox (since we upload it from our servers).

You just need to authorize us, and start giving the url's, we'll handle the rest of your url so it safely reaches your Dropbox.

Also updated the About Page, http://boxmydownloads.com/about/

There's the added benefit of downloading a copy of the file once when you sync with dropbox instead of a download and an upload.

Added our Goal to the About page:

http://boxmydownloads.com/about/

Our goal: "We intent to move your `My Downloads` from your local Desktop/ Laptop/ Mac, to your Dropbox."

I like the flow of the app, its really easy to know what you need to do.

It would be really useful, if I could add downloads from my phone (maybe a native app) which integrates with Save functionality.

Why can't users just change their browser settings to download files to the locally synced Dropbox folder? Wouldn't this accomplish the same thing?

My advice would be not to depend too heavily on users downloading YouTube videos.

actually, I m focused to make it easier for users to save files to their Dropbox.

I m trying to move that `My Downloads` directory from the users local machine to their Dropbox folder.

And I m starting that by moving their Videos, to Dropbox.

So I started that by doing this small thing (for videos).

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