Show HN: Pintask, the hackable task tracker

by DenGorbachev • 12 years ago

50 41 12 years ago

It looks interesting, but not enough for me to login, yet.

You need to add a few screen shots, demos, etc., to show me why I should consider this instead of Huboard or Trello (you don't need to compare yourself to these, just have some simple workflows with the free tool to make it clear why pintask is better).

Also, while it is "free for life" you should "respect" current conventions for sites like this: You need a pricing link, a page on which you reinforce that basic functionality is free, and that extensions are what people buy. People are used to those conventions, it makes it easier for them to absorb your message without forcing them to think too much, without violating their expectations in a current website.

Speaking of this, I should be able to browse the extension store without logging in. Also, pricing needs to tell me if the extension price is per user per month, per project per month, per enterprise per month, etc. If those prices are per enterprise, they seem like good deals, but if they are per user, they start adding up so fast that free seems more like a playground gateway drug than anything else.

Finally, enterprise customers WANT to pay for your basic service: They want to give you their money to guarantee uptime, have a number to call, etc.

(Personal irritant: You may require cookies to get something done, but not to browse - the page loads blank when cookies are disabled (I used a cookie manager; I'm in the minority there, but I'm the kind of user you want early on :->). Require cookies only when they are actually required - and be sure to indicate that your site uses them, so that you remain on the good side of the law in various jurisdictions).

tl;dr: Looks good, too little there to incite me to actually take the action. Don't go overboard, though, you're almost there.

karmajunkie• 12 years ago

All of that. I shouldn't have to give you my information to see what's for sale—you haven't come close to convincing me you're selling anything I want to buy yet.

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Actually, there are demo videos, just scroll down the page.

Thanks for the tip, I'll make a separate page for pricing.

As for browsing extensions store: I've already made landing pages for the best extensions, yet they don't comprise a full store-like experience. I guess you're right, there should be a full storefront for those who want to check it out without logging in.

lbotos• 12 years ago

A quick fix is to grab the video and throw it right on the top of that page. I have 27" Mac Display and I still had to scroll below the page to see your sell.

I was also confused by the 2 offers. What was the difference?

(Please take this constructively. I think you have something that looks smooth once I saw it.)

subpixel• 12 years ago

I had no idea those were videos, b/c they don't have affordances that tell me they are videos until I hover over them (which I did not).

Guvante• 12 years ago

Demo videos are for extensions, I have no way without logging in to see what the tool does.

ohfunkyeah2• 12 years ago

Great interface, and I can definitely see the advantage of being able to add extensions so that it is customized to the specific workflow I am looking for without the junk I don't want.

I think this is one of the first commercial quality meteor applications I have seen, which says a lot of the dev team but also shows meteor is a platform capable of at least getting the job done if not doing it well.

Question: Do you anticipate allowing people to write their own extensions / having some sort of API?

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Thanks! Meteor really proved itself as a capable platform. We hit a few issues, but those were resolved rather quickly.

Yes, we already allow people to write their own extensions. For quick stuff, there's a built-in code editor: http://joxi.ru/SFJNUxjKTJBvQrogwYE. And for large extensions, there's an "Add your extension" button in the Extensions store.

In fact, we'll allow people to monetize their extensions, in a micro-App-store fashion.

ohfunkyeah2• 12 years ago

Ok, that's fricken cool.

pdq• 12 years ago

How is this different than Trello? It looks almost identical at first glance.

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

1. You can write your own extensions using JS + Meteor API. MongoDB access in browser included.

2. Mirroring extension solves the hottest issues on Trello dev board. Here's how you use it: http://joxi.ru/lFFNUxjKTJCFQk-Gd9Q

pfraze• 12 years ago

How are the extensions secured? Are they sandboxed in the live environment, or is there an auditing process to get into your store?

(Cool project Den - best of luck!)

jeremyw2• 12 years ago

Interesting price hack: $1/mo (1 left), $3/mo (5 left). Are these escalating, à la Pinboard? Useful for price discovery, though up-from-the-bottom nudges artificial asymptotes (see pricing discontinuities).

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Yes, they escalate up to a predefined list price (also shown on extension card). I just wanted to thank early adopters by giving them a discount. Do you think it's OK or not?

jeremyw2• 12 years ago

I think it's great. As I say, I'd use the opportunity to learn about uptake and natural price boundaries, while awarding early customers.

donut2d• 12 years ago

Is there any way to share a board via URL, without requiring users to sign in? I don't want to make it public or have it show up in search results, I just want to be able to share it with people who just need to view it but wont want to mess with creating an account.

If that's available (and I just can't find it), then this would be a great solution for me!

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Thanks for the idea! It's not available right now (you can either invite or make it public), but seems to be a good addition, so it's possible to see that in future.

owenversteeg• 12 years ago

Looks interesting, but many Trello users have tons of loyalty to Trello. Getting them to switch is going to be difficult. There are plenty of Trello clones, and you don't offer any screenshots or examples.

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Thanks for advice! I'll surely add more videos to main page, some featuring the product itself, some featuring extensions.

mc_hammer• 12 years ago

wow the ui is really nice - i built my own tool exactly like this but the ui didnt end up as beautiful. i know other tools have some accessibility problems and built my ui similar to yours to solve them. this looks really cool.

i couldnt figure out how to monetize my app - i have to say the plugin store is a good idea. gj!

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Glad you like it! I'm sure you had some ideas for your own app — would you like to wrap them as a plugin?

phryk• 12 years ago

How exactly is this hackable? Where do I find the documentation to look into whether I can do interesting stuff with it?

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

There is built-in code editor: http://joxi.ru/v3lNUxjKTJA4Eous4Gs Right now, it lags sometimes, but we'll migrate to Meteor 0.8 and this issue will be resolved. Also, at the bottom of editor, there is a link to http://wiki.pintask.me/wiki/How_to_write_an_extension with some info to get started. If you have specific questions, please reach me: Denis.D.Gorbachev at gmail

codez4• 12 years ago

Have a go with tyto if you want something completely hackable.

Http://jh3y.github.io/tyto

ericHosick• 12 years ago

Out of curiosity, why do you have this as one of the first things people read on your site:

"Pintask promise: we will always keep the service running. And if anybody tries to shut it down, we will open-source it."

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

We're small guys, so we wanted to assure people it's OK to put data into Pintask: it will always be supported.

mrmondo• 12 years ago

What's stopping you from open sourcing it now?

anigbrowl3• 12 years ago

The mode could be a bit more obvious, ie whether you're using the Move or Embed tools is signified only by a subtle border line, so it took me a while to figure out how to embed cards and I can't really tell what mode I'm n from a casual glance. This will become more important as more tools are added, I'd imagine.

Color coding seems pretty arbitrary as the labels aren't descriptive, and there's no filtering. But I guess these can be hacked into being :)

Code editor look spretty bare, although I appreciate the Wiki link and again it's early days. Maybe have a little 'Hello World' code by default, or even a few lines of advice as a comment so the window doesn't look so empty? Casual hackers such as myself have a phobia of blank pages because it's not obvious where to begin.

One small annoyance: Initials. I have a double-barreled name (Firstname Surname-Surname) but it rendered my initials as FS, which was quite confusing because I'm not used to seeing that letter combination at all, and it wasn't until I added an avatar that I realized it was my initials.

That little nitpick aside, I like it a lot!

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Thanks for thorough feedback! We'll surely work out these details. And yes, it's possible to hack label names :)

By the way, how should we render initials like yours?

anigbrowl3• 12 years ago

I'd do it as FSS, ie filtering on capital letters rather than the first letter in a string. But I'm sure someone else would want it as FS-S or something.

codez4• 12 years ago

I instantly got a headache, viewing this on a mobile device

DenGorbachev15• 12 years ago

Sorry for that! We'll make separate apps for mobile devices.

codez4• 12 years ago

I'd say extendable not hackable.

codez4• 12 years ago

Hackable would be if it was OS IMO like the other Trello clones which are completely OS like tyto being able to host your own and tweak everything to your needs.

kevohagan• 12 years ago

great example of a production meteor app!! Beautiful work!

thisispraveen• 12 years ago

Seems I am wrong somewhere. Reached this discussion as part of google search and found accidently I have used the same name and similar concept :(. Anyway this is just my hobby program and no plans to commercialize it. Let me check the name if I start getting users - http://www.secfor.net/

Again, it is also may be hackable as I was not so serious about coding and was concentrating just about making it a reality.

Show HN: Pintask, the hackable task tracker

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