Dimdim - Excellent free alternative to WebEx et al | Hacker News Reader

Dimdim - Excellent free alternative to WebEx et al

dimdim.com

16 pointsamarcus12 comments

They're completely missing the mark in selling their product, like really really really far off. The only takeaway I got from their homepage is "save $500 over web ex over a year". Ok, that's a +1. What else? Hello? Anything?

So they should understand that there are people that currently use tools like this, and there are people that don't. The people that don't, well, that's hard, because you have to explain how the service can benefit them. The people that do use these kind of tools, well they all have their gripes. So that's an easy sell. Assuming you are focusing on those gripes. Or giving a service of equal quality, but less money.

So, looking at the people that already use these tools (myself included), I need a comparison chart. Tell me how you are better. Saving money alone ain't gonna cut it. Lay out all the reasons for me in as simple a way as possible. If saving money is the only thing you're selling me, well, my only assumption can be that I save money for a lesser quality product.

That homepage is hella cluttered, but isn't doing any convincing.

To put it more simply, you're talking to both audiences at once (people that use these tools and people that don't). Thus, the message is cluttered. You need to focus on one, and I would recommend you focus on people that already use these kinds of tools. Cause they're the ones already buying into the idea.

Anyone have experience using this? Certainly the pricing is attractive, but I'm also concerned about quality and stability.

I've used Adobe ConnectNow for several meetings, but found it to be very flaky. At this point, I would not trust ConnectNow for an important meeting.

We tried the free version and decided that it didn't provide the QoS that WebEx did -- the video was VERY choppy. Because our product relies heavily on doing client presentations (we have a small number of large clients instead of a large number of small clients) we decided that it made us look less professional and made it more difficult to really show off all our bells and whistles to prospective clients than WebEx.

As I recall, we were promised better QoS if we purchased the paid version, but because we didn't have a way to see how that stacked up against WebEx without paying for it, we never tried it.

My company (startup, ~25 employees) also used the free version for several months (late '08 and early '09) but were disappointed with the sound quality (we, too, never tried the paid version).

We used GoToMeeting for several months as well, but got fed up with frequent issues (dropped calls, failures to connect to join meetings, etc. almost daily).

We now use WebEx. We've had very few issues and the quality is good, but the interface is a real pain in the ass to use.

I'd be interested in hearing anyone's experience going from the free version to the paid one.

I currently use TelspanRayo but considered DimDim because of the substantially lower pricing. One major flaw I found was the inability to share a custom portion of your screen (as opposed to the whole desktop), so this was a no-go for my dual monitor setup. Additionally, the performance didn't seem up to par in terms of fluidity, mouse tracking, and overall speed.

That being said, Telspan still has issues from time to time so I'm still looking for a viable alternative...

We tried the free version for a week. During one of our presentations, we were given a call-in number that was already in use. We stayed on the line for a minute to figure out what was going on before realizing this other company was discussing very private financial information. Apparently, they did not even realized we had joined in on their call. Needless to say, we lost that sale. And DimDim lost a customer for life. (We emailed DimDim and never even got an apology or explanation.)

@1yellowbrick: let me know what passcode you were assigned, there shouldn't be overlap. @nethergoat: you can now try our paid options (Pro or Webinar) free (30 day trial) @deltaqueue: we're working on sharing only portions of the screen. @khuo: thanks for the feedback on the messaging, I'll share it with the team.

-k Kevin Micalizzi, Community Manager Dimdim Web Conferencing e: kevin@dimdim.com

We have nested comments here. You don't need @s.

Sent you an email.

How is it better than http://www.logmein.com that is also free ?

At minimum, the fact that the core functionality is available as open source gives me some additional confidence in the platform's long-term viability:

http://www.dimdim.com/opensource/dimdim_open_source_communit...

Even if the company goes away, others can use the Community Edition source to host their own instances of the service. Also, security reviews and enhancements can be generated from the bottom up by the community, instead of being 100% dependent on Dimdim.

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