Show HN: Scribble - Simple Markdown Wikis

http://www.tryscribble.com/

by choxi • 14 years ago

57 29 14 years ago

p4bl0• 14 years ago

The name is unfortunate, Scribble is also the name of Racket's documentation tool[1] (which can be used for the same kind of purpose: writing prose and publishing it).

[1] http://docs.racket-lang.org/scribble/index.html

Tyr42• 14 years ago

Indeed, when I click here, I was expecting a nice presentation of it. scribble is actually quite a nice little markup language.

dfc• 14 years ago

The "simple markdown" part of the title did not ruin the surprise?

wavephorm• 14 years ago

I imagine both these teams were well aware that using a dictionary word like that for a product name would inevitably lead to name conflicts.

Rudism• 14 years ago

I initially read the page title as "Simple scribble. Markdown Wikis" and had to do a double take before I realized it's two separate columns.

wissler• 14 years ago

Please don't make me sign up in order to see how it works. Give me a link to a representative "simple markdown wiki."

tedmiston• 14 years ago

Agreed. This makes me essential bounce as soon as I land. Although the service itself is self-explanatory, the experience is not.

choxi3• 14 years ago

sorry about that, the reason I didn't is because it was simpler and not because I'm trying to trick anyone into signing up

mhd• 14 years ago

I think jottit's approach is quite interesting: Let anyone create a site/wiki, but require a password to lock it.

yashchandra• 14 years ago

Sorry but I agree with the parent poster. I bounced immediately when I was taken to sign-up page. Show us a demo or let us do the actual thing before you make anyone sign-up.

Dejital• 14 years ago

Also see Gollum[1], a wiki that runs locally from many markup formats including markdown.

[1] https://github.com/github/gollum/

handsomeransoms• 14 years ago

Please don't ask for a password without HTTPS.

SoftwareMaven• 14 years ago

When I invite somebody to collaborate, it would be really nice to be able to include my own message. I don't want to have to send somebody a message to let them know that another message will be coming.

evolve2k• 14 years ago

With your screenshots please show us the diff page and the history page, without these I'm feel like Im just previewing a blogging service.

cabalamat2• 14 years ago

I don't think it does history, which is a shame.

DrWhax• 14 years ago

Opensource it please!

lukifer• 14 years ago

Beautiful; this is exactly the type of minimalist wiki I've been wanting, but never got around to making for myself. A few points of feedback:

- The pricing model is unclear. Are the account upgrades a one-time purchase, or a monthly cost? The amount seems reasonable for the former, and too much for the latter.

- One of the great things about wikis is the ability to create new pages from within the content, just by typing [[new page]] or whatever. It would be great if clicking an empty link spawned a new page form rather than a 404.

- Once immersed in a wiki's content, the title bar should disappear, or become less prominent in some way. If I'm using this to share info with friends or collaborators (the best use for a wiki), we want to focus on our content, not the site itself.

Nice job.

choxi3• 14 years ago

thanks a lot for the tips! If you don't mind, I was going to shoot you an email to pick your brain some more.

cabalamat2• 14 years ago

In MediaWiki, to create a new page, I create a link to it, then click on that link abd edit the new page. In Scribble, this workflow doesn't work; maybe you should add that functionality.

Also, why do I have to repeat myself and say "[next page](next-page)"? I prefer the MediaWiki syntax where I can just say "[[next page]]"

nathancahill• 14 years ago

Very cool, but I need to be able to import/export. How do I know you will be around tomorrow?

mekarpeles• 14 years ago

Have you guys seen Aaron Swartz' jottit (http://www.jottit.com)?

Same idea - all it takes is a text area to produce a version controlled, markdown website.

lists• 14 years ago

I'm not sure if this is directed at tech-ish people or not, but maybe the word markdown should link to the daring fireball page or some such, something explaining what it is to people not in the know? Or maybe just saying you're a dead simple wiki and leave the markdown emphasis out, like Dropbox with its no-technical-verbiage thing.

skmurphy• 14 years ago

Consider sandbox pages where I can do some quick editing to try it out before signing up. I don't care if the page does not last more than an hour. Please be clear on your pricing, I could not find a pricing page.

ahoge• 14 years ago

It doesn't support fenced code blocks (from GFM). That's kinda inconvenient. Uhm... it actually does, but the preview does not.

E.g.:

    ```ruby
      def foo
    	puts 'bar'
      end
    ```

This results in a `pre>code.ruby` block as it should, but it does not apply any code highlighting nor does it work in the preview.

I really like the idea (I always wanted some private markdown wiki I can conveniently access from anywhere without having to set it up and maintain it myself), but without history/diff its usefulness is somewhat hindered.

Edit: Add "max-width: 100%" to "p img". Code inside paragraphs should be also 18px, not 12px.

evincarofautumn• 14 years ago

As one of the last six users of the original Infogami, this makes me happy. :)

edwinyzh• 14 years ago

I like the simplicity of it.

I suggest you to provide hints for markdown markups, that'll let people who don't know markdown get started quickly.

I blogged about it here: http://liveditor.com/blog/new-simple-markdown-based-wiki-sys...

pyre• 14 years ago

In the preview, there is no margin below the <pre> blocks, which I find annoying. I've tried adding different types of text blocks underneath it, but I'm unable to force more bottom margin.

Show HN: Scribble - Simple Markdown Wikis

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