

An new instant note-taking web app. - jake1
http://scrib.in/

======
notJim
Apps like this are funny. Looking through the comments now, it's as if every
one of us has implemented one of these (yes, I have too.)

One simple explanation is that they're easy to write, and fill a need we all
have. I suspect another reason is that as developers, we notice a problem: "I
hate taking notes!" and then instinctively, we try to solve that problem with
technology: "I will write a better note-taking app!"

I have no strong feelings about this variant, except that I really think it
should size itself to my browser (with a reasonable max-width.) That would
make it pretty multi-device friendly (mobile/desktop/tablet), and be basically
0 work on your part.

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citricsquid
Feedback:

1\. The inability to protect a note or do anything beyond create a note may
fit the "simple" mantra it does not create good usability. There are so many
essential features (no matter how simple the site is) that are missing. What
if someone guesses my URL? What if I don't want anyone else to see my note(s)?
I tried signing up and got "Thank You for signing up. We will notify you when
user-specific features become available."

2\. The ability to edit other peoples notes can create value with
collaboration but it needs to be real time. If I open a note in another tab,
edit it then switch back to the first tab and edit it I've just overwritten
everything that the other edits contained. This is a big problem.

3\. (Personal opinion with no real justification beyond personal preference)
why have you put adverts on this? For me if you're building something that is
"simple" and then putting adverts on it seems a contradiction, now instead of
a basic notepad I have a basic notepad with a flash advert distracting me from
the actual purpose of the site: typing. Yes, if you had large costs to cover
it would be understandable, but you don't.

This isn't a bad start, the design is nice but "simple" is not synonymous for
"lack of features", it means something is easy to use but has enough depth to
make it usable, this doesn't. A very basic revision history is necessary at
the very least, although personally I'd use one of the already existing text
tools (pastebin, pastie, hastebin) or for collaboration google docs.

Personally I think if you were to expand this into having real time
collaboration, customisation of permissions (using the "account" system?) and
revision history it would become something worth having bookmarked :)

Edit: seems this is just a resubmit from a couple of days ago, not sure why it
seems to match the previous comments, have you made any changes?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3719057>

~~~
bobrenjc93
Based on what you described, I think <http://sync.in/> is the service that may
suit your needs.

~~~
dybber
Or <http://piratepad.net>

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nu2ycombinator
This is similar to <http://notepad.cc> but not better than it.

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rhplus
The homepage gets stuck in an refresh loop in some browsers (i.e. IE9). You've
missed the 'url=' directive in the attribute:

    
    
        <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;http://scrib.in/abc123" />
    

Use this instead:

    
    
        <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://scrib.in/abc123" />
    

Or, better yet, just set 'document.location' (adds history item) or use
'document.location.replace()' (no history item) in script.

See:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_refresh>

<http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/reback>

<https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/document.location>

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jsilence
Just for reference I'd like to add <http://substance.io> . It offers some more
options for structuring a document and has a lot of export options. Real time
collaboration also missing, but seems to be planned.

~~~
davorak
Thanks for the link, substance looks pretty cool I will consider it the next
time I have to type up a tutorial.

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bobrenjc93
Cool project. You might want to check out the etherpad github repository, if
you want to add real-time syncing to your site. <https://github.com/ether/pad>

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thechut
This shit is awesome!! I have been wanting something exactly like this for a
while now. I even tried building it myself but then never finished. My use
case was communicating with my roommate and this works perfectly for that.

In my opinion it doesn't matter that it doesn't update automatically. Its not
for chat or real time collab, its for notes. I totally get it and I think the
simplicity is beautiful. Really great work!

edit: didn't notice the add till I looked at comments and turned off abp. Is
it even worth the couple bucks?

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redwood
Love the simplicity. I've definitely seem something along these lines before,
but this zero login, zero hassle approach should be used a lot more online.

I think this is the tip of the iceberg for ease of use... eventually we'll see
everything get this easy, and once _payment_ is on this list we'll finally see
online donations for stuff we like comparable to throwing change in a guitar
box downtown. Looking forward to that!

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eddington
You might want to fix this in case you ever decide to add a way to log on:

<http://scrib.in/m27dy7>

(I added the text </textarea><img src=g onerror="alert(1)"> and went to view
it.)

~~~
slav
cool! I can confirm that it works :)

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mmackh
I had developed a similar tool: <http://wrrrite.com>, but didn't know that
this is such a highly competitive space

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gatlin
Much better than my terrible attempt at something similar:
<http://flyerme.info>.

~~~
notJim
Oh hey, I wrote that app too! It's probably still kicking somewhere on some
domain I've forgotten about. Mine was not better than yours :).

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shinji97
'tab' should insert a tab character, not kick me out of the text box =(

~~~
chime
If you want indenting etc., check out Workflowy or my app:
<https://zetabee.com/text>

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tolitius
would also be cool to have a code highlight.. (ala <https://refheap.com/paste>
)

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slav
as most comments mentioned before - there is plenty of those apps around - I
don't really see anything new in this one...

------
feint
looks like a clone of write.fm - which I built over a year ago

