

Show HN: Welcome to dropsauce.com - gautaml

Hey all,<p>Well after months of hard work (and even more months of dreaming about doing this), I've finally got around to finishing something I've started. :D<p>http://dropsauce.com<p>It's a file upload service where you upload your files into named drops.  Sure, this is pretty much similar to some sites you may have seen before and although the internet is saturated with upload services, I still made this more as a learning experience for myself.<p>Hopefully you find some unique value to it and easy to use.  If not, check the http://dropsauce.com/faq<p>If it becomes successful, great, I'll continue improving on it.  If not, ah well, it was a great learning experience and I'll keep it around for a while.<p>I'm no star web programmer but I think I've done a pretty decent job with this (so far).<p>All comments and feedback welcome.  Hopefully the site doesn't get taken down in the next few days. :)<p>Enjoy.
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martey
The site looks nice, but it would probably be a good idea to add a privacy
policy. There is no way that I would upload personal files (much less sign up
for an account) to a site that did not have one.

Since your site is based around uploaded content (and seems to be hosted in
the United States, based on my amateur sleuthing), it would probably be a good
idea to talk about the DMCA in your Terms of Service, and maybe even register
a notification agent at the Copyright Office:
[http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/dmca-righthaven-
loo...](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/dmca-righthaven-loophole/)

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gautaml
Thanks martey, I'll definitely look into that.

I did add a terms page (although it's not readily noticeable - it's a bar
along the bottom with copyright).

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martey
I saw the Terms page, but it is not very clear (note that I am not a lawyer):

\- the first sentence suggests that _all_ copyrighted material cannot be
uploaded to the service. In the United States, since all works are copyrighted
by default, this would suggest that nothing Americans create can be uploaded.

\- it would be a good idea to state that you / dropsauce are the final arbiter
of whether uploaded content is acceptable. Unless you are limiting accounts by
geographic area, it is conceivable that an uploader might upload content is
acceptable in their jurisdiction, but not acceptable in yours or the area
where you are hosting the site.

\- the last sentence seems to confer a right of ownership upon the uploader
that they might not be entitled to.

It might be a good idea to base your Terms of Service upon that of a similar
service. Wordpress.com has user-uploaded content on their service, and they
have a Terms of Service with a Creative Commons license that you could use as
a template: <http://en.wordpress.com/tos/>

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gautaml
Fantastic martey, I'll draft something up using that as a guide. Again
appreciate the input.

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MatthieuStone
I did something like this 5 or so years back just for fun - it was so I could
move music files around (plugins etc..) I only told a few friend about. Had to
take it down as I found some hideous stuff on it. Good Luck!

Yours is much easier to use & prettier than mine was.

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gautaml
I actually created something a lot more simpler for forums to use on and once
others found out about it, 99% of the content uploaded on it was porn. The
domain expired late last year and that;s when I decided to start dropsauce.com

It was something like imgur but a lot more simpler (it was a single index.php
file that handled everything)

At least now this time, the content is not browsable by anyone else unless you
keep it public and someone knows the random name (or the name you typed).

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revorad
Say what it does on the page and don't use red text on a red background (it's
invisible).

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gautaml
I'm not sure i follow. What's red text on red background?

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revorad
<http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/2433/selection003.png>

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gautaml
I think this is a usability thing.

The red/red is to indciate it's disaled. You'll notice the contrast to add
files button.

Once you add files and your details are valid (name, password, etc.) then the
button lights up.

Once it's lit up you can press it.

When drops are in progress everything disables.

Perhaps I should make it a little more obvious that it's disabled.

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revorad
It's very confusing. Are you using Flash?

See this for a great example of good usability and design -
<http://www.letscrate.com/>

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gautaml
I'm well aware of letscrate however it's not as customizable as what I did
where you can name your own drops. Plus once I get drag-n-drop in place it
will be a lot more obvious/easier to use.

The reason I did not put DnD in yet is because I wanted to get something out
the door without always adding new features or thinking up new features.

But I appreciate your input :)

And yes it's Flash (for now)

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gautaml
Updated the website with an updated Terms page and the inclusion of a Privacy
Policy page (both based on WordPress ToS and Automattic's Privacy).

Next on the change list is to make the add files and upload icons on the main
homepage a little more obvious.

Let me know what you think.

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gautaml
Also updated the buttons on the main page.

Click here to see the before and after: <http://dropsauce.com/changelog>

Thanks for all the feedback!

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gautaml
Clickable link: <http://dropsauce.com>

