

Crate is to sharing files, what Dropbox is to storing them. - g0atbutt
http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/02/10/crate-is-to-sharing-files-what-dropbox-is-to-storing-them/

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pbhjpbhj
Something slightly screwy in the workflow for me.

I drag and drop and upload (in Kubuntu, from Dolphin to FF4.0b12pre) without a
problem but then I'm presented with this page, <http://lts.cr/i/7a78c5>.

The page shows me an address and a sign up form ... but aren't I trying to
share the file, isn't that the _raison d'etre_? I was expecting the main
action then to be emailing, tweeting, facebooking or otherwise sending the
link on to whomever I'm sharing the file with. It even says underneath
1-visit, 2-upload, 3-share ... not 3-login. Just seems odd and disruptive to
the flow.

Apart from that I'm mighty impressed, despite initially thinking (as others
have) it has nothing over Dropbox I think that it is something that I'll use.
Not sure if I'd pay for it though ...

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veidr
I work with some nontechnical users who occasionally need help getting too-
big-for-email files to somebody. Thinking of them, I tried this out.

Dragged a 280MB file onto the big orange box, and got a Mac-style
indeterminate progress indicator. OK. Make coffee, check the weather, type
this post up to here, and still all I see is the same spinning indeterminate
progress indicator. No actual indication of progress, what is happening, or
when/if it will be done.

I'm pretty sure those users I mentioned would by now have, a.) created another
browser window and tried again, b.) clicked on the spinning wheel a few times
to try to elicit some kind of feedback from the app, and then c.) closed the
windows and given up.

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bdclimber14
I really don't understand any advantages of Crate over Dropbox, which also has
file sharing through URLs and folder sharing.

I asked this question the last time Crate was on HN and got a vague response.

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bdclimber14
I actually can see the use-case of _asking_ someone for a large file. Having
them download Dropbox is a pain, but something that is one-time use would be
ideal.

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sahillavingia
Yeah, that's definitely one of the things we're going to be adding to the
service.

Person 1: "Hey, send me that file, use this: _url_ " Person 2: "Oh!" _drag and
drop_

All updated in real time (so you could potentially link a whole group of
friends something and see them all drop in files for an event or some-such).
Perhaps a school trip or something to that extent.

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forwardslash
Can't you also share files with a url through Dropbox? And get 50GB for
$9.99/month?

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Florin_Andrei
Dropbox temporarily stops the downloads if a link becomes too "popular".

I assume Crate would not do that.

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TillE
I kinda doubt that, for $9/month, Crate wants to act as a CDN for your hugely
popular feature-length HD film.

I don't see anything about limits in their TOS, but the strong implication is
that the service is for sharing with friends, and I don't see any guarantees
either. Dropbox is pretty lenient about bandwidth, and I imagine Crate is too.

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tjarratt
It's fascinating to me that they're profitable already. I can't imagine it
being easy to get users to pay for file sharing.

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eli
I suspect there are more people with largish files they need to send someone,
and there's never really been a free/easy way to do that.

~~~
theli0nheart
Yep, you nailed it. A lot of our paid users use Crate as a replacement for FTP
to send large files around the office or their friends.

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weaksauce
This is a great little site. I know that you are saying that the files will
last forever but is there a imgur like deletion that the owner of the file can
delete the file after they no longer want it up?

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sahillavingia
Yup, there is.

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trustfundbaby
I went to their site at <http://letscrate.com> ... I don't like that I have to
drag a file from my folder to the browser to upload it ... doesn't seem like
normal workflow .. but it could catch on I guess.

Would be really cool if I just clicked and my OS file selector opened up for
me to select a file ...

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tfe
How does this differ from <http://getcloudapp.com/>? Genuinely curious.

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zzzmarcus
This is my first time seeing either, but I can tell that if I sent someone a
link to Crate and and a link to CloudApp and told them to share a file with
me, I'd have to spend a few minutes explaining how Cloud works, how to install
it etc. With Crate pretty much anyone should be able to figure it out without
hand holding.

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jonpaul
Cool. Did you do any kind customer development? Analyze any problems, etc?

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trustfundbaby
Do you get a custom url with a paid account?

