

Padlet (YC W13) brings Collaborative Website Building - aashaykumar92
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/21/yc-backed-padlet-brings-drag-and-drop-to-collaborative-web-site-creation/

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nicksergeant
I really don't want to be "that guy on HN" because I really hate that guy, but
I really have no idea what this app does / is supposed to do.

I see a bunch of boxes. So I click one, and I see a bunch of boxes with text /
images, kind of like a bunch of post-it notes on a cork board. And then I
click one, and I get an iframe of some other website.

So it's kind of like a blog but with less structure?

I'm not sure. Maybe I'm not the right audience. But you definitely need to
refine your message a bit.

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vyrotek
I'm a bit confused as well. I feel like this is a digital fridge where I can
stick stuff (and possibly my friends too?). Maybe it's more like a Pinterest
without the masonry?

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nicksergeant
If that's the case, "Digital Fridge" would've been an awesome name for this.

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vyrotek
Ha! In case anyone was wondering... <http://digitalfridge.com> redirects to
<http://kensington.com> ?

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rosenjon
I appreciate the effort. I think there have been many attempts to do this
(wordpress, wetpaint, wikia, etc). I have yet to see one that really impressed
me.

I think it's hard to balance the ability to create what you want, with the
ability to have enough structure so the site isn't just a random collection of
stuff. It's also hard to build a gui that allows non-coders to have fine
grained control over the display.

Right now, I feel like this leans too far to the unstructured side, where it's
hard to figure out what to use it for. I also find the controls to be kind of
cryptic and difficult to use.

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coffeebite
You are right. The thing is, you have to start somewhere. There are many
decent products for structure. So we are starting with the other extreme. Give
us some time.

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rosenjon
True, and I commend you for putting it out there and iterating.

If there was one suggestion I might have on where to go next, it would be
improving fine grained control of item placement (as alluded to in my original
comment). No one has done this well, and it is one of the things that makes
coders say "screw it, I'll just do it with CSS", and non coders say "screw it,
I'll hire a designer/programmer.

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salman89
I'd like to see someone tackle actual website building via a tool like this
before tackling the collaborative portion. At the end of it though the money
is in enabling internet marketers/salesmen to focus on their craft while
eliminating technological hurdles.

“We actually believe we can play a part in payments down the line, by letting
you build a page full of stuff that’s for sale and adding a payment widget,”
said Plyush. “Right now it’s very basic, but more sophisticated interactions
are on our timeline.”

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aashaykumar92
It's like googledocs, but for websites...this is brilliant. The potential
reach exceeds that of WordPress and Tumblr as even advanced programmers will
be able to benefit from easy, collaborative website building.

After reading the article and skimming their site, it's obvious they have more
in their plans down the road, but the idea at its base is already quite
promising. Simple, but appeals to the masses!

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pranavpiyush
thanks Aashay! Try it out and tell us what you think...

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josephpmay
So Padlet's sort of the Weebly approach to collaboration? I like the idea,
though I think it could use more structural elements (only having free-form
text squares seems somewhat limiting). IMO, the Techcrunch description didn't
really do the site justice, and I don't think it should really be marketed as
a "Website Builder."

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coffeebite
The Techcrunch article was beautifully written, IMO. I think it is hard to say
what we really are. If you talk about parallels to existing products, some
people see a blog, some a wiki, and some a website builder.

And I agree we can use more structural elements. Freedom is often limiting.

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ccarnino
You guys are doing with post-its, what Twitter did with news and Foursquare
with location. Kudos

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coffeebite
Thanks

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osiddiqui
Thanks for creating this guys.

