

Show HN: Bitcast.io – A marketplace for web development tutorials - zhs
https://www.bitcast.io/

======
avolcano
Massive feature missing: last updated date.

I would NEVER buy a screencast, tutorial, or anything on web development
without knowing EXACTLY when it was last updated. For example, the paid Ember
screencasts claim to go over the Ember router - how do I know whether it was
the old beta router, the RC1 router, or the RC6 "Promise-ified" router?

~~~
rdouble
_I would NEVER buy a screencast, tutorial, or anything on web development
without knowing EXACTLY when it was last updated_

Sadly that's exactly why the last updated date usually isn't listed.

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sergiotapia
You guys really need a "Date Published" field on each screencast and a "Date
Updated" if it has been updated. I was about to buy the Backbone + Rails
bundle but I was apprehensive because what if it's really outdated? Lynda.com
displays a publish date, it's useful.

~~~
zhs
We overlooked that but completely agree, and we're adding that ASAP. FYI, the
Backbone + Rails videos were produced recently and are very up to date – I
went through all of them myself.

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earlz
Why are people willing to pay for screencasts(of any quality), but NEVER for a
well written article over the same thing.

I personally hate trying to learn things from videos. I can't search it. I
can't copy and paste code from it. I can't skim over it. Later review and
skimming ahead is lousy, at best, impossible at worst.

The only thing screencasts have going for them is that they are (in general)
easier to create than a well written article. The difference for
readers/viewers though is substantial.

~~~
wikwocket
We do pay for well-written articles. They're called books.

Also, video can be a powerful tool. The combination of seeing a thing or a
process, hearing a narration about it, and observing another human being
interact with it, provides more bandwidth across a wider spectrum of our
senses. For some people, it is easier and faster to learn this way, in the
same way that it is easier to learn from a tutor than from a textbook.

~~~
zhs
Amen.

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bluetidepro
Is this done by the people at Treehouse _[1]_? It looks like the design/layout
is very much inspired by them, at the least. If they are not associated to
Treehouse, they may need to think about making their design a bit more unique,
because some might try to call that out as a rip.

[1] [http://teamtreehouse.com/](http://teamtreehouse.com/)

~~~
ngoel36
Although we're all big fans of Treehouse, we're definitely not associated with
them. I'm sorry you feel that it could be called out as a rip, but our in-
house designer develops everything from scratch. I think it's safe to say that
both landing pages are pretty typical.

~~~
bluetidepro
I think it's just things like:

-The color scheme: [http://bluetide.pro/DWYp/5BcKpQnl](http://bluetide.pro/DWYp/5BcKpQnl)

-The hexagon cut for images/icons: [http://bluetide.pro/VZYM/3VbvSuxF](http://bluetide.pro/VZYM/3VbvSuxF) , but then using circles for avatars: [http://bluetide.pro/LOFC/4Np9xUmq](http://bluetide.pro/LOFC/4Np9xUmq)

-The wide button styles: [http://bluetide.pro/yzft/L49wdKTr](http://bluetide.pro/yzft/L49wdKTr)

And yes, these are common things in general, but I think they stick out more
to me because the products are in the same realm.

Just some food for thought! :)

EDIT: And don't get me wrong, I don't mean this in a bad way. It's just
something to be aware of that I noticed. I really like the idea of the
product, in general! Good luck with it! :)

~~~
ngoel36
Zach - Thanks for the feedback, we'll definitely take a closer look at things
like this in the future.

------
joshuahornby
This may get shot down, but why no PHP? I know its not cool and trendy but it
works dam well.

~~~
zhs
Hey Josh, Zach here (one of the co-founders). We personally don't use PHP very
much but we're more than open to hosting those screencasts. If you have any
recommendations or would like to post some yourself please let us know.

~~~
notok22
Also adding Go([http://golang.org](http://golang.org)) would be great.

~~~
zhs
We're definitely planning on adding Go. Do you have any screencasts that you
enjoy in particular that'd you'd like us to add?

------
ryanhandby
I am actively trying to watch some videos on Bitcast at the moment. I love it
by the way great concept and great way of setting it all out although I am
hitting a wall with a 404 when trying to view a video.

GET
[https://data.sublimevideo.net/js/kcvkz080-beta.js](https://data.sublimevideo.net/js/kcvkz080-beta.js)
404 (Not Found)

This makes it quite hard to watch the videos.

~~~
ryanhandby
This was the first video in the AngularJS bundle FYI.

------
stephanos2k
One thing I learned from watching MicroConf presentations online: Make it
about them (the users) not you. The title reads "We Love Screencasts".
According to the marketing gurus this should instead focus on your audience
(because we only care about ourselves, you know).

Oh and it seems the favicon has an odd white background :-?

Other than that, the site looks extremely sleek :)

~~~
ngoel36
Stephanos2k, thanks for the feedback! We definitely weren't trying to make it
about ourselves but instead demonstrate our passion for screencasts and the
screencasting community. That is, after all, why we created Bitcast.

We're always looking to optimize our front page though, so we'll absolutely
take your feedback into consideration.

------
cbhl
I don't understand why y'all chose the screencasts niche as opposed to, say,
music education.

What's your reasoning, and how you plan on differentiating yourself for
content creators from, say, a YouTube Partner network?

~~~
ngoel36
Hey, one of the co-founders here.

No particular reason - all four of us are web developers, and we quite simply,
we each badly wanted a platform for web development screencasts to exist.

We differentiate ourself from YT in a few big ways. The first is our focus on
developers. A YT Partner can post videos exclusively on development, but it's
obviously impossible to include code markdown or have meaningful software-
related tags. We also feature the ability to offer both free and paid videos;
it takes a lot of time to make quality screencasts, and many of the developers
we've spoken to have found YT insufficient for monetizing their content.

~~~
josephjrobison
I think this is an excellent idea and will do really well. If you have
developers who can walk us through real projects that can go live in the wild
it will do really well. This can be like the Themeforest for screencasts. This
will supplement nicely with Treehouse/Code School/Net Tuts videos because it
looks like you guys will show how to do some of the rarer or less widespread
tips and tricks that the big guys usually don't cover. Good luck!

~~~
zhs
Thanks Joseph, having developers release screencasts where they work on actual
projects is definitely a big goal of ours. People often underestimate how much
you can learn by watching someone who's an expert in something.

------
izztmzzt
Should be renamed "A marketplace for Ruby on Rails tutorials".

~~~
ngoel36
Izztmzzt, I'll admit, we do love Rails :). Naturally, a good percentage of our
initial content turned out to be Rails centered, but the large majority of our
content library is not.

We're looking to expand into all of the areas that our users are interested
in, which topics would you most like to see?

~~~
acmecorps
I'm a rails and ios developer myself. I'd love to hear screencasts on building
webapps using Go. If u have this, then take my money.

~~~
ngoel36
We're hard at work on it! Who are your favorite Go screencasters currently?

------
shire
I really like this, please make more videos more towards Python and
Javascript.

I would love some PHP but that's asking for to much.

------
epa
This makes me sick. Web development tutorials should be free and open for the
sake of learning and spreading information (as per the last 10 years).

~~~
bdcravens
Why? There's plenty of successful pro screencasters: RailsCasts, PeepCode,
Destroy all Software, etc. Some have free content, like RailsCasts and Ruby
Tapas.

Producing a decent 15 minute screencast takes hours of preparation. At decent
billable rates, that means hundreds of dollars per episode. Plus these are
videos with real value, that if they do their job, allowing the watcher to
earn tens of thousands of dollars more per year.

As for free tutorials, you're a Google search away an essentially limitless
library (many of which were written by some of the screencasters that make you
sick). I've learned from free material, but I also feel that that an on-point
screencast is worth a few dollars. That's why I'm more than happy to pay for
RailsCast, Tapas, CodeSchool, and more, every month.

As for "should be free", I really don't know where you get this. In a world
where information is a scarce resource, perhaps. That's not the world we live
in, and I hope all that can add value all the best in selling their expertise.

~~~
ngoel36
Thanks bdcraven, we completely agree. Even before the rise in screencast
popularity, writing a good book on programming took just as much effort, if
not more. Authors certainly didn't give those away for free either.

