Introducing Gemfury - It's like Dropbox for Hackers

http://www.gemfury.com/l

by rykov • 14 years ago

41 40 14 years ago

What 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• 14 years ago

Choosing 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• 14 years ago

This would be more helpful to see before you have to click anything.

bmj• 14 years ago

As 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?

adamcharnock• 14 years ago

I'd be interesting in integrating this with Seed (http://seed.readthedocs.org/) when Python support comes along.

My Gemfury username is 'adamcharnock'.

rykov12• 14 years ago

Great idea. Thanks for the suggestion

lupatus2• 14 years ago

So, 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.

rykov12• 14 years ago

Thank you for the "more info" suggestion. Which language and package repository are you interested in?

beberlei• 14 years ago

i want information about what this is before having to give my details.

lupatus2• 14 years ago

So, 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• 14 years ago

No CPAN?

rykov12• 14 years ago

Maybe one day :)

mattdeboard• 14 years ago

I 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?

JacobAldridge2• 14 years ago

In 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.

brcrth2• 14 years ago

But 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.

rykov12• 14 years ago

I 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• 14 years ago

aka a "high concept" pitch (though "X for Y" is really just a subcategory of high concept).

piotrSikora2• 14 years ago

Sorry, but how is that "like Dropbox for Hackers"?

rykov12• 14 years ago

Dropbox stores files in the cloud which are then easily accessible by authorized computers - Gemfury does that for code packages.

piotrSikora2• 14 years ago

Who 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• 14 years ago

Well 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.

brcrth2• 14 years ago

I 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• 14 years ago

It's because the supplied url is not the baseurl. Poster is to blame ;)

rykov12• 14 years ago

Every 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• 14 years 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• 14 years ago

The root URL is probable the better place to start: http://www.gemfury.com/

rykov12• 14 years ago

The 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• 14 years ago

UI is very nice. Another great Built With Bootstrap site!

rykov12• 14 years ago

Thank you and Twitter - Bootstrap makes things so much easier.

ashleyw• 14 years ago

Wow, 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.)?

xntrk• 14 years ago

"Your RubyGems are protected during deployment by a secret token that's part of your Gemfury Source URL" Are URLs secrets now?

rykov12• 14 years ago

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/758002.html#...

quicksilver03• 14 years ago

If one needs to use Maven, what advantages does Gemfury offer over a self-hosted repository manager, such as Artifactory?

rykov12• 14 years ago

It offers all the advantages of a cloud service - on demand, pay as you go, no maintenance. Very similar to Artifactory Online (cloud version)

neworbit• 14 years ago

This 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• 14 years ago

All 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.

Introducing Gemfury - It's like Dropbox for Hackers

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