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Introducing Gemfury - It's like Dropbox for Hackers
- videoappeal 15y agoWhat the fuck is it? Following the link /l it is immediately asking for my details without telling WTF it is - is a grade A example of retarded marketing.
- icebraining 15y agoChoosing one "tool" gives you a description: Gemfury is a cloud server for your private [tool] packages. Once uploaded, your packages can be securely installed to any host. It's simple, reliable, and hassle-free.
- haraball 15y agoThis would be more helpful to see before you have to click anything.
- bmj 15y agoAs pointed out by another comment, this isn't the site's homepage. Perhaps an admin could update the link to point to http://gemfury.com http://gemfury.com?
- adamcharnock 15y agoI'd be interesting in integrating this with Seed (http://seed.readthedocs.org/ http://seed.readthedocs.org/) when Python support comes along. My Gemfury username is 'adamcharnock'.
- rykov 15y agoGreat idea. Thanks for the suggestion
- lupatus 15y agoSo, my current projects involve none of your weapons of choice. This renders me confused about what to do next and unsure of the value of this service. I suggest that you include a "More information" link on your initial pop-up div so that people like me won't click away from your site in only a few seconds.
- rykov 15y agoThank you for the "more info" suggestion. Which language and package repository are you interested in?
- beberlei 15y agoi want information about what this is before having to give my details.
- lupatus 15y agoSo, what does Gemfury do with package repositories? I was unable to tell from the initial screen. My current projects target Delphi. (Go ahead and make jokes, but my industry has a surprising number of thermodynamics libraries written in it.) Is there anything you can do for me?
- hox 15y agoNo CPAN?
- rykov 15y agoMaybe one day :)
- mattdeboard 15y agoI immediately cringe at every single instance I see "it's like X for Y!" At this point has this snow clone passed into the irony space? Is everyone using it ironically at this point?
- JacobAldridge 15y agoIn my opinion / experience, it's still a very useful tool if used accurately. Used well it provides cut-through of your brand / product / message in a way that is harder to build organically. Once you have traction, you can build a more separate identity. Used inaccurately, and you will likely annoy people who might be your target market. Used ironically, you can definitely have fun. But what would I know - my business advice is like Pets.com for Trappist Monks.
- brcrth 15y agoBut these days it's so misused that most people see it and dismiss as a "catchphrase" to lure people. Even if it's accurately used. So, it's better don't take the risk.
- JacobAldridge 15y agoThis may be more true in tech circles, especially because everyone wants to compare themselves to big hits (Dropbox, Facebook, Google). It's less common in other sectors. And if you are going to try it, test it first. Use your little catchphrase and then ask your friend what they think that means you do - 'Dropbox for Hackers' doesn't necessarily mean "code sharing that just works" - it could be interpreted as "making your private code accessible by our internal team" or "yay - unexplained conflict errors all over the place".
- rykov 15y agoI cringe too, but the reason it's used is because it works - great way to explain something new based on something you already know in a few words.
- jaylevitt 15y ago
- piotrSikora 15y agoSorry, but how is that "like Dropbox for Hackers"?
- rykov 15y agoDropbox stores files in the cloud which are then easily accessible by authorized computers - Gemfury does that for code packages.
- piotrSikora 15y agoWho doesn't store files in "the cloud" nowadays? You could as well call this "Gmail for Hackers"... it would make as much sense as your "Dropbox" analogy. Why don't you call it by name (i.e. "hosted RubyGems server") instead of confusing people and trying to piggyback on the "Dropbox" brand? Or do you think that your product isn't good enough?
- Dylan16807 15y agoWell it's kind of like dropbox for ruby gems. I don't know why you would equate ruby gems with 'hackers' unless you really like people to be disoriented.
- brcrth 15y agoI closed when the first thing was to me chose a "weapon" (seriously?) of choice instead of giving me whatever the site's offering. What if I like Ruby AND Perl AND Node.js? Edit: I know that Perl is not an option there, it was just for showing how a more "open" approach would be better. Also, the name implies that is a tool for people who likes/uses Ruby (gem). So people would dismiss it based only on the name, not visiting and seeing that there's more options.
- fsniper 15y agoIt's because the supplied url is not the baseurl. Poster is to blame ;)
- rykov 15y agoEvery language has a separate way of doing packages, explaining the individual benefit based on your preference is a more clear message to get across. The other benefit is it helps us choose where to focus. And, funny story: the word "weapon" is A/B tested with the word "repository" because I had the same doubts. Guess which one converts better? Hint: It's not "repository"
- crcastle 15y ago> Guess which one converts better? How do you define "convert"? Clicking one of the buttons? Signing up for the service? Paying money? If converting is just clicking one of the buttons, I wonder if you get a lot of low quality converts -- i.e. ones that don't end up paying you money.
- 8ig8 15y agoThe root URL is probable the better place to start: http://www.gemfury.com/ http://www.gemfury.com/
- rykov 15y agoThe service currently services RubyGems customers from the root domain. We figured Hacker News is a wider audience than just Ruby and would be of great help to decide which direction we should go next.
- sharjeel 15y agoUI is very nice. Another great Built With Bootstrap site!
- rykov 15y agoThank you and Twitter - Bootstrap makes things so much easier.
- ashleyw 15y agoWow, nice to see a Bootstrap site which doesn't look like every single other Bootstrap site! Good work! Though, what's the difference between this and rubygems.org? Is it just like a private version, so you can create proprietary gems and be able to pull them down from anywhere (production, other team members, etc.)?
- rykov 15y agoThat's because we started the site before Bootstrap was released, but as we iterated, we ported much of the site over. And you're spot-on about Gemfury's purpose
- xntrk 15y ago"Your RubyGems are protected during deployment by a secret token that's part of your Gemfury Source URL" Are URLs secrets now?
- rykov 15y agohttp://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/758002.html#answer http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/758002.html#...
- quicksilver03 15y agoIf one needs to use Maven, what advantages does Gemfury offer over a self-hosted repository manager, such as Artifactory?
- rykov 15y agoIt offers all the advantages of a cloud service - on demand, pay as you go, no maintenance. Very similar to Artifactory Online (cloud version)
- neworbit 15y agoThis is the most irritating design I've seen in a while. Please link to something descriptive, not a deliberately text-blurred/obfuscated page that requires you to select between various languages that I don't actually want to use. As an aside, I'm not sure why I would use this instead of dropbox or a cloud-accessible version control system. However, given that I can't actually read the explanatory text, I will never find out.
- DharmaSoldat 15y agoAll I have to say after looking at your site is: 1) thanks for msbetatesting hackernews, 2) did you even test your site for BS errors, you noobs, 3) not a bad idea, but srsly, what's wrong with github (that everyone and their mother uses)? This website is like the movie, 'Hackers'. I would appreciate an explanation.