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Comment by colinramsay | Hacker News Reader

This looks great, particularly the way the website breaks down the main functionality with plain explanations and code samples. I know that there's a bit of a bugbear with some people when it comes to reimplementing CSV parsing but having it in-browser could be very handy.

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Thanks for your feedback. If it helps to know, the Q&A format on the homepage is the result of scratching my head for a while, thinking "How would I explain this to somebody? There's a lot to it, and it's all immediately relevant."

I eventually convinced myself that the last part isn't true. It could be disclosed in parts. So I decided to run the scenario in my mind instead: "I'll give somebody this library and imagine that they'll reveal their use cases one piece at a time and I'll help them through it." Then the conversation flowed naturally and came out while typing.

Loved the format!

love the conversational style of the documentation!

What really got me was the desperation in the "voice" of the questions, slowly being won over by a calm father figure. I've never had to parse CSV in the browser, but now I feel like I should. Powerful stuff!

I'm also a big fan of libraries where the library name is also the API (ie Papa Parse -> Papa.parse()). It just fills me with glee.

Will the website itself be released under an open license? I could see this website format being useful for a ton of open source projects.

I'd be okay with that, I just hadn't considered it. By format do you mean design or content (or both)? And are you thinking a Creative Commons license?

I meant the design, since the page created such a clear template that would be fantastic for future open source projects to modify. But if you want to release the content in the open too, all the better. I just think that a lot of open source projects which struggle with onboarding would be greatly benefited by using the page as a base.

I thought this as well, really good way to explain the benefits and features - through common questions.

Yeah, it explains it so well. Being able to relate to each point and feature is such a key part of explaining your service.

This site might be for a CSV parsing library and not a startup, but it does a better job of telling a story than most startups do. And, to me, that's how you sell and engage users.

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