5 ms·

An new instant note-taking web app.

32 points by jake1 15y ago

tolitius 15y ago
would also be cool to have a code highlight.. (ala https://refheap.com/paste https://refheap.com/paste )
bobrenjc93 15y ago
Cool project. You might want to check out the etherpad github repository, if you want to add real-time syncing to your site. https://github.com/ether/pad https://github.com/ether/pad
citricsquid 15y ago
Feedback: 1. The inability to protect a note or do anything beyond create a note may fit the "simple" mantra it does not create good usability. There are so many essential features (no matter how simple the site is) that are missing. What if someone guesses my URL? What if I don't want anyone else to see my note(s)? I tried signing up and got "Thank You for signing up. We will notify you when user-specific features become available." 2. The ability to edit other peoples notes can create value with collaboration but it needs to be real time. If I open a note in another tab, edit it then switch back to the first tab and edit it I've just overwritten everything that the other edits contained. This is a big problem. 3. (Personal opinion with no real justification beyond personal preference) why have you put adverts on this? For me if you're building something that is "simple" and then putting adverts on it seems a contradiction, now instead of a basic notepad I have a basic notepad with a flash advert distracting me from the actual purpose of the site: typing. Yes, if you had large costs to cover it would be understandable, but you don't. This isn't a bad start, the design is nice but "simple" is not synonymous for "lack of features", it means something is easy to use but has enough depth to make it usable, this doesn't. A very basic revision history is necessary at the very least, although personally I'd use one of the already existing text tools (pastebin, pastie, hastebin) or for collaboration google docs. Personally I think if you were to expand this into having real time collaboration, customisation of permissions (using the "account" system?) and revision history it would become something worth having bookmarked :) Edit: seems this is just a resubmit from a couple of days ago, not sure why it seems to match the previous comments, have you made any changes? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3719057 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3719057
- bobrenjc93 15y ago
  Based on what you described, I think http://sync.in/ http://sync.in/ is the service that may suit your needs.
  - dybber 15y ago
    Or http://piratepad.net http://piratepad.net
gatlin 15y ago
Much better than my terrible attempt at something similar: http://flyerme.info http://flyerme.info.
- notJim 15y ago
  Oh hey, I wrote that app too! It's probably still kicking somewhere on some domain I've forgotten about. Mine was not better than yours :).
nu2ycombinator 15y ago
This is similar to http://notepad.cc http://notepad.cc but not better than it.
thechut 15y ago
This shit is awesome!! I have been wanting something exactly like this for a while now. I even tried building it myself but then never finished. My use case was communicating with my roommate and this works perfectly for that. In my opinion it doesn't matter that it doesn't update automatically. Its not for chat or real time collab, its for notes. I totally get it and I think the simplicity is beautiful. Really great work! edit: didn't notice the add till I looked at comments and turned off abp. Is it even worth the couple bucks?
rhplus 15y ago
The homepage gets stuck in an refresh loop in some browsers (i.e. IE9). You've missed the 'url=' directive in the attribute: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;http://scrib.in/abc123" /> Use this instead: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://scrib.in/abc123" /> Or, better yet, just set 'document.location' (adds history item) or use 'document.location.replace()' (no history item) in script. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/reback http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/reback https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/document.location https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/document.location
shinji97 15y ago
'tab' should insert a tab character, not kick me out of the text box =(
- chime 15y ago
  If you want indenting etc., check out Workflowy or my app: https://zetabee.com/text https://zetabee.com/text
redwood 15y ago
Love the simplicity. I've definitely seem something along these lines before, but this zero login, zero hassle approach should be used a lot more online. I think this is the tip of the iceberg for ease of use... eventually we'll see everything get this easy, and once payment is on this list we'll finally see online donations for stuff we like comparable to throwing change in a guitar box downtown. Looking forward to that!
mmackh 15y ago
I had developed a similar tool: http://wrrrite.com http://wrrrite.com, but didn't know that this is such a highly competitive space
notJim 15y ago
Apps like this are funny. Looking through the comments now, it's as if every one of us has implemented one of these (yes, I have too.) One simple explanation is that they're easy to write, and fill a need we all have. I suspect another reason is that as developers, we notice a problem: "I hate taking notes!" and then instinctively, we try to solve that problem with technology: "I will write a better note-taking app!" I have no strong feelings about this variant, except that I really think it should size itself to my browser (with a reasonable max-width.) That would make it pretty multi-device friendly (mobile/desktop/tablet), and be basically 0 work on your part.
eddington 15y ago
You might want to fix this in case you ever decide to add a way to log on: http://scrib.in/m27dy7 http://scrib.in/m27dy7 (I added the text </textarea><img src=g onerror="alert(1)"> and went to view it.)
- slav 15y ago
  cool! I can confirm that it works :)
feint 15y ago
looks like a clone of write.fm - which I built over a year ago
jsilence 15y ago
Just for reference I'd like to add http://substance.io http://substance.io . It offers some more options for structuring a document and has a lot of export options. Real time collaboration also missing, but seems to be planned.
- davorak 15y ago
  Thanks for the link, substance looks pretty cool I will consider it the next time I have to type up a tutorial.
samic 15y ago
and mine is: http://note.samic.org http://note.samic.org
slav 15y ago
as most comments mentioned before - there is plenty of those apps around - I don't really see anything new in this one...

32 points by jake1 15y ago

would also be cool to have a code highlight.. (ala https://refheap.com/paste https://refheap.com/paste )

Cool project. You might want to check out the etherpad github repository, if you want to add real-time syncing to your site. https://github.com/ether/pad https://github.com/ether/pad

citricsquid 15y ago

Feedback: 1. The inability to protect a note or do anything beyond create a note may fit the "simple" mantra it does not create good usability. There are so many essential features (no matter how simple the site is) that are missing. What if someone guesses my URL? What if I don't want anyone else to see my note(s)? I tried signing up and got "Thank You for signing up. We will notify you when user-specific features become available." 2. The ability to edit other peoples notes can create value with collaboration but it needs to be real time. If I open a note in another tab, edit it then switch back to the first tab and edit it I've just overwritten everything that the other edits contained. This is a big problem. 3. (Personal opinion with no real justification beyond personal preference) why have you put adverts on this? For me if you're building something that is "simple" and then putting adverts on it seems a contradiction, now instead of a basic notepad I have a basic notepad with a flash advert distracting me from the actual purpose of the site: typing. Yes, if you had large costs to cover it would be understandable, but you don't. This isn't a bad start, the design is nice but "simple" is not synonymous for "lack of features", it means something is easy to use but has enough depth to make it usable, this doesn't. A very basic revision history is necessary at the very least, although personally I'd use one of the already existing text tools (pastebin, pastie, hastebin) or for collaboration google docs. Personally I think if you were to expand this into having real time collaboration, customisation of permissions (using the "account" system?) and revision history it would become something worth having bookmarked :) Edit: seems this is just a resubmit from a couple of days ago, not sure why it seems to match the previous comments, have you made any changes? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3719057 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3719057

bobrenjc93 15y ago
Based on what you described, I think http://sync.in/ http://sync.in/ is the service that may suit your needs.
- dybber 15y ago
  Or http://piratepad.net http://piratepad.net

gatlin 15y ago

Much better than my terrible attempt at something similar: http://flyerme.info http://flyerme.info.

notJim 15y ago
Oh hey, I wrote that app too! It's probably still kicking somewhere on some domain I've forgotten about. Mine was not better than yours :).

nu2ycombinator 15y ago

This is similar to http://notepad.cc http://notepad.cc but not better than it.

thechut 15y ago

This shit is awesome!! I have been wanting something exactly like this for a while now. I even tried building it myself but then never finished. My use case was communicating with my roommate and this works perfectly for that. In my opinion it doesn't matter that it doesn't update automatically. Its not for chat or real time collab, its for notes. I totally get it and I think the simplicity is beautiful. Really great work! edit: didn't notice the add till I looked at comments and turned off abp. Is it even worth the couple bucks?

rhplus 15y ago

The homepage gets stuck in an refresh loop in some browsers (i.e. IE9). You've missed the 'url=' directive in the attribute: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;http://scrib.in/abc123" /> Use this instead: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://scrib.in/abc123" /> Or, better yet, just set 'document.location' (adds history item) or use 'document.location.replace()' (no history item) in script. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/reback http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/reback https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/document.location https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/document.location

shinji97 15y ago

'tab' should insert a tab character, not kick me out of the text box =(

chime 15y ago
If you want indenting etc., check out Workflowy or my app: https://zetabee.com/text https://zetabee.com/text

redwood 15y ago

Love the simplicity. I've definitely seem something along these lines before, but this zero login, zero hassle approach should be used a lot more online. I think this is the tip of the iceberg for ease of use... eventually we'll see everything get this easy, and once payment is on this list we'll finally see online donations for stuff we like comparable to throwing change in a guitar box downtown. Looking forward to that!

mmackh 15y ago

I had developed a similar tool: http://wrrrite.com http://wrrrite.com, but didn't know that this is such a highly competitive space

notJim 15y ago

Apps like this are funny. Looking through the comments now, it's as if every one of us has implemented one of these (yes, I have too.) One simple explanation is that they're easy to write, and fill a need we all have. I suspect another reason is that as developers, we notice a problem: "I hate taking notes!" and then instinctively, we try to solve that problem with technology: "I will write a better note-taking app!" I have no strong feelings about this variant, except that I really think it should size itself to my browser (with a reasonable max-width.) That would make it pretty multi-device friendly (mobile/desktop/tablet), and be basically 0 work on your part.

eddington 15y ago

You might want to fix this in case you ever decide to add a way to log on: http://scrib.in/m27dy7 http://scrib.in/m27dy7 (I added the text </textarea><img src=g onerror="alert(1)"> and went to view it.)

slav 15y ago
cool! I can confirm that it works :)

feint 15y ago

looks like a clone of write.fm - which I built over a year ago

jsilence 15y ago

Just for reference I'd like to add http://substance.io http://substance.io . It offers some more options for structuring a document and has a lot of export options. Real time collaboration also missing, but seems to be planned.

davorak 15y ago
Thanks for the link, substance looks pretty cool I will consider it the next time I have to type up a tutorial.

samic 15y ago

and mine is: http://note.samic.org http://note.samic.org

slav 15y ago

as most comments mentioned before - there is plenty of those apps around - I don't really see anything new in this one...