
Show HN: Free monitoring and notification service. (Alpha) - markdleblanc
http://monitorthis.site
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NetStrikeForce
Hi,

I'm asked to sign up, but there are no details about the service. I don't even
know how it can monitor my site. I have zero interest to give my email address
at this stage, but that's the only thing I can do. You need to entice me to
sign up, maybe by explaining the features and how come is this free.

I understand the ad strategy, but the above concern plus the fact that the
landing page is full of ads doesn't give me confidence to sign up.

In my opinion, page views and especially on your landing page will not give
you the desired value and it'll stop some people from signing up. Maybe you
can do text ads (affiliate links?) in the footer of the emails sent by the
system.

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markdleblanc
First off, I would like to thank you for your feedback. I do agree that both
the landing page and ad-placement needs a lot of love. I'll bump that up on my
list of things to do.

(Keep in mind, this site is something I've just begun throwing together after
finding that alternatives either limit the # of sites, have horrible ping
intervals, or simply no free option at all)

Edit: Added some basic information on the landing page. Also restricted Ads to
the actual functionality pages. (Sites management / Site graphs)

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brudgers
If the goal is feedback, it might be better to have a link to a page that does
not require login/signup because there is no technical documentation,
demonstration video, or other supporting collateral.

I came to the site to learn about your product. Make it easy. Don't put
barriers in my way. Don't optimize for your needs over your users'.

Good luck.

~~~
markdleblanc
Working on getting a demo video done up soon. I will also be adding some more
technical information to the landing page. Thanks for the advice!

Unfortunately the login is pretty much a requirement. I've thought about
having an ephemeral page or something, but it really just doesn't work.

~~~
brudgers
In what way is a login a requirement?

I did not feel it was necessary when I tried the demo.

~~~
markdleblanc
Edit: my mistake. You will be able to see introduction and guides as they
become available. You will only need to register to gain access to the
functionality.

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NetStrikeForce
Now it has more information, but as far as I can tell you only send pings,
right?

Nowadays, just icmp doesn't cut it. People want to know if their service is
running, not so much if the server is running. Also, some big hosting
providers (e.g. Azure) don't even reply to ping.

My suggestion is to add http/https queries. I'm not sure what do you use in
the backend, but almost every language has an http library to make this easy
for you.

If you'd like to have a look, one of my side projects is a monitoring site:
[https://datasnitch.co.uk](https://datasnitch.co.uk)

~~~
markdleblanc
You are correct and your suggestion was already at the top of my list. It now
supports HTTP/HTTPS and will notify you once your Certificate is about to
expire.

I wanted to add a note to my site that if folks are looking for other options
to check out some alternatives. Can I list yours?

~~~
NetStrikeForce
Sure, thanks!

