
SourceVoid Cloud: Cloud Hosting Platform for Dart, Nodejs and Static Apps - daw___
https://www.sourcevoid.com/cloud/beta
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Scorpiion
Hi and thanks for the post, I'm the founder of Sourcevoid.

Long time reader but have not posting anything here before. Happy to answer
any question if someone would like to discuss or ask something!

Regards, Robert

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brudgers
There is a lot of written material on the web site. Yet, I still don't
understand the value proposition or how or when I might use the service.
Usually, I try looking at the documentation but I could not find any.

Curious if there is a short description or a "Hello World" tutorial available.

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Scorpiion
Hi Ben,

The value proposition simply put comes down to getting more done in less time.
Easy deployments and managing of apps, more focus on coding and less on server
admin stuff. Before I try too much here and create a wall of text, do you
understand the value proposition of competing services like Heroku, Bluemix or
App Engine?

On documentation, I get where you are coming from, we do have a getting
started page just after you have signed up and logged in talking more about
getting started. We have plans for a more dedicated docs/developer site, I
think that is the type of site you were looking for.

On our Github org we have a repo with Hello World samples for shelf, redstone,
express, hapi, angular-dart and angular-js (the first two are Dart server
frameworks). There is a step by step list of how to create and deploy an app.
There is no screenshots at this point but maybe I should add that?

We like the whole onboarding experience to be a good as possible, so I really
appreciate that you are taking the time to share your feedback!

Regards, Robert

~~~
brudgers
For what it's worth, I think it might be worth A/B testing a

    
    
      +--------------------+
      |      Hero          |
      +--------------------+
      | Step | Step | Step |
      |  1   |   2  |  3   |
      +--------------------+
    

layout against the "wall of text." Even if for no other reason than it would
be an exercise at the other extreme of explanation. My gut is that the optimum
is in the middle. But I think that a sales pitch that gets to a clear value
proposition relevant to the lead's current knowledge has value.

~~~
Scorpiion
Interesting thoughts, it is a bit of challenge I must admit to explain
something big and complex in a good simple way, maybe especially when you know
all the engineering behind it, easy to get lost in all details.

I have been thinking that maybe a video can do a lot, a screen recording with
some voice over (I have an okay English accent even if it's not my native
tongue) explaining the concepts and UI. The casual visitors might be able to
get through a video like that whereas few really takes the time to read a long
text.

Thanks again for your feedback!

~~~
brudgers
To a first approximation, good videos require good scripts. So writing a
script for a 90 second 1,2,3 video might very well also be the design for a
1,2,3 call to action on the landing page.

It may be a case where paying for a good professional designer/technical
writer/explainer offers a high return on investment. Personally, I've always
found writing copy about myself uncomfortable and I often tend toward long a
more winded completist approach when I write. So that's where I'm coming from.

~~~
Scorpiion
That is a good thought, we have discussed to maybe hire someone to do short
video like that. I might be similar in that sense when it comes to writing,
I'll see what we can do, but it would take some time.

Shorter term I should probably try at least to provide some screenshots and
maybe a basic video of the UI where I create an app and deploy it, depends on
how good of a video I can make.

~~~
brudgers
I came across this article.

[https://medium.com/@scottbelsky/crafting-the-first-mile-
of-p...](https://medium.com/@scottbelsky/crafting-the-first-mile-of-
product-7ed25e8f1027#.46qgjer3l)

My impression of your product is that it requires much less explanation than
is given. It seems that one of the biggest differentiators of the product is
an emphasis on Dart.

~~~
Scorpiion
Hi, sorry for the late reply, I had a busy day yesterday.

Thanks for the article, it was an interesting read. I think Sourcevoid is not
quite as complicated to explain as photoshop but at the same time a bit more
complicated by nature than something like a social consumer app.

I do believe the "in app" onboarding experience is important, we have tried to
do that in a similar way as it is suggested in the article. I want to make it
even better and I think we can and should continue to improve the onboarding
experience over time.

You do have a good point, it might become a little bit too verbose maybe. On
Dart emphasis, the beta page might give that impression, and we do have a lot
of Dart experience, but at the same time the service does support Nodejs just
as much.

~~~
brudgers
What I was trying to express is that there are few sites catering to the Dart
community relative to the number of sites catering to Nodejs users. My
impression is that the Dart community is more closely knit than that of
Nodejs.

Perhaps supporting Dart is something that can differentiate Sourcevoid among
many somewhat similar sites?

~~~
Scorpiion
I understand, that is a good observation. The Dart community is more closely
knit, however the Nodejs community is a lot bigger and in a way is built up of
multiple subcommunities around various frameworks and tools.

I like to think that it does yes, but I also like to think that we
differentiate ourselves in more ways than that. Making that clear to the
customer is of course a challenge but we are working on it and feedback like
yours are valuable in that process.

