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Comment by mikeash | Hacker News Reader

I don't watch videos unless I'm first convinced by the text that they're worth watching. I doubt I'm alone in this. Why is it so hard to put one or two sentences that just tell me what you're talking about?

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It's a safe bet that this product is not for you. Constructive comments are one thing, but anger over the fact that the value prop of a kid's game doesn't resonate with you is...awkward.

I"m not angry, although I am confused and mildly irritated that stuff keeps making it to the front page of HN where the page just doesn't tell you what it is.

As for the product not being for me, kids don't buy this stuff themselves. Their parents buy it. As the electronics-happy parent of a small child, I'm pretty sure I'd be right smack in the middle of the target demographic for this product if I had some clue of what it actually did.

That "confusion and mild irritation" is what I'm talking about. If you don't think their marketing page is up to your standards maybe constructive commentary based on your apparent demographic suitability would be a bit more helpful?

Reminding people that they need to remember to put in a couple of sentences describing the basic function of their product is constructive.

I didn't state it in a very friendly way, but that's a different issue.

That puts you in the vast minority of web users (I'm with you, fwiw). Given that, I wouldn't have any expectations that sites are going to tailor their experience to people like us. Video is used for these things because video works, and repeating in text what you showed in the video is repetitive for people who do watch the video.

mikeash, you are not alone. If text alone doesn't quickly and adequately convey what the product is or at least seriously pique my interest then I'm not going to spend time watching any videos.

Are you guys serious? The giant picture of the child's hand on the puzzle and a picture of that same puzzle on the ipad didn't give you a clue??? I'm sure other people have trouble drawing meaning from images but I believe it is a small percentage.

It tells me that it has something to do with puzzles and augmented reality. But that's a pretty broad category, and the page doesn't narrow it down for me at all. It certainly doesn't tell me how it manages to make it so that "fun knows no limits."

If it's so clear to you, perhaps you could explain it instead of just making implicit insults?

There's probably also many people that won't bother reading much about the product, and are reached much easier through a video. In truth, their blurb There's digital gaming. There's real world fun. And then there's Osmo, a magical experience that merges the real and virtual worlds to defy the boundaries of play. is the few sentences you were looking for. It just appears to be useless marketing speech because their product isn't really a single thing, but a way to augment traditionally purely physical children's games with instant digital feedback. Than can be hard to explain in a useful way with just text.

Edit: s/new interaction mode for children/better description/

I'm skeptical that any product can be hard to explain in a useful way with just text. What exactly do you do with it? What's an example use case? What's the mirror for? All of these things can be answered in text.

However, given that I don't understand what it does, perhaps I'm not qualified to say that here.

You didn't ask for just text, you asked for one or two sentences. I don't think this product can't be explained through text, just that it's a case where a very small amount of text will not do it justice, and may do more to confuse people than help.

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