
Show HN: I made a site where students can create and share flashcards and notes - EricMeier
https://barbra.io/
======
bbx
Nice looking website, but may I ask: are these tweets legit? There's no
username or permalink, and a quick search didn't return anything… I'm always
concerned by products endorsed through fake testimonials. I'm all for asking
friends to help out, but disguising it as legitimate user feedback seems a bit
disingenuous.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
They are friends of mine, but their feedback is legit :) Maybe we should be
more explicit about it?

~~~
bbx
Yes, I think you should at least display them as what they are: testimonials
from friends, not tweets from happy users.

Whenever I see a collection of (legitimate) user tweets, it gives me
reassurance that a) the product is liked b) the product has been around for a
while c) the product is popular. A company will always praise its own product.
But if users start to do it publically on Twitter, it's an honest
recommendation that is worth a lot in my eyes. It's like a grassroots
movement. But if you fake it, it feels like astroturfing.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Totally agree. We are changing that now. Thanks a lot for the feedback. Will
rectify this.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Update: we removed it, and are replacing it with feedback people tweeted at us
(not friends), and feedback we got from here and Reddit :)

------
NilsIRL
Similarly to many here, I can't get the website to work, but I'll still ask a
question:

How is this different than Quizlet and Anki? (Obviously with Anki sharing
isn't as straightforward but is possible (there's even a website hosting Anki
flashcard sets))

~~~
gavribirnbaum
We are live again finally. Sorry for the hiccup.

In Barbra the main difference is that you can take notes and have your
flashcards in one place. I noticed I often had to transfer my class notes from
Evernote and copy them into Anki. That was a huge hassle.

Another point is that in Barbra sharing flashcards and notes is the default.
You invite people, set goals together, and then collaborate on everything. I
noticed we always sent photos of notes on Whatsapp to others before tests, and
that was a hassle as well. So we built thinking of these 2 things.

~~~
andai
This sounds great! That always bugged me about Anki. I knew it could be done
so much more conveniently.

I would suggest redoing the intro video, with better acoustics, less "umm" and
"so anyway...". The site and product look really polished so it kinda sticks
out.

~~~
goblin89
Anki supports creating cards from LaTeX notes via an add-on[0], and for
importing from a plaintext-based format there is a command-line tool[1]. After
that, one can use Anki’s accompanying shared decks feature to make a deck
available to others[2].

Admittedly, all of those options aren’t entirely hassle-free or discoverable.

[0] [https://tentativeconvert.github.io/LaTeX-Note-Importer-
for-A...](https://tentativeconvert.github.io/LaTeX-Note-Importer-for-
Anki/#orgheadline1)

[1]
[https://metacpan.org/pod/Anki::Import](https://metacpan.org/pod/Anki::Import)

[2] [https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/](https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/)

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Exactly. It takes 100 add-ons to get this to work. We just wanted to make it
so that I can highlight a text and say "create a flashcard" and then it is all
done.

We also offer more tests options as you can do Memrise-like multiple choice
test or an Anki-like card-flip test.

Is that something that you find useful? :) I know some passion are avid Anki-
ers so I would love to get your take on it.

~~~
goblin89
I value integration flexibility and want to control or at least know exactly
the spaced repetition algorithm I am using. Additionally, I believe a hosted
service without trustworthy end-to-end encryption is a no-go for personal
knowledge management. So far I’ll stick with org-drill and Anki, it works for
me (not using any add-ons).

------
EricMeier
Hi folks, When our classes went remote, I struggled to stay motivated; the
tools we used didn’t not play nice with one another. It was lonely. So I built
Barbra to give students all the tools needed to study together in one place. I
wanted to get the best parts of Anki, Notion, and Duolingo and just make them
work for all learners. The tool is free. And you can find it at
[https://barbra.io](https://barbra.io) At Barbra, students have their notes
and flashcards together. They can also set a daily studying goal, and hold
each other accountable to it by competing for streaks. The tool is pretty
bare-bone and doesn’t work so well on mobile, but I would love to hear your
feedback. What do you think?

~~~
danielskogly
Consider changing the grid texture and re-recording your videos. Depending on
the level of zoom, it creates an unpleasing effect:
[https://send.firefox.com/download/f3465be7ff20fc88/#Ebv76l6w...](https://send.firefox.com/download/f3465be7ff20fc88/#Ebv76l6w7c1WgjlGMzzfDw)

~~~
EricMeier
Ughh, that looks nauseating. We will definitely fix that and replace it with
auto-playing videos. We shouldn't have used gifs there, its a compression
artifact I think.

------
riquito
Consider a simpler page as index, 15Mb javascript only is a tad too much, both
for you and your visitors

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Agreed. We will optimize it. The website should be live now again by the way.

------
sdan
Reminds me a bit of Quizlet (search functionality on Quizlet was amazing) but
looks like a nice cohesive product.

Best of luck!

~~~
EricMeier
Thank you. Quizlet is definitely an inspiration. Our benefit is that you can
write notes and flashcards in one place and share them easily in study groups.
And the study groups motivate each other through visible daily goals. Quizlet
only offers flashcards.

~~~
omniscient_oce
If I recall, you can pretty easily share decks on Quizlet, at least years back
when I used it. Is the difference with this that theoretically if I were in a
study group we could work on editing them together, and then sort of 'compete'
with each other to achieve daily goals (sort of like Memrise)?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Exactly right. It is not only about sharing a final product, but rather about
creating it together. And then competing to see who shares and learns the
most.

------
Lyn_layerci
Props to the designer for creating a really clean interface :) I can really
see this becoming like slack for schools vs. a Quizlet. I was a harcore
Quizlet user, but for me it always lacked the opportunity to group study. I
think you guys are onto something

------
laszlokorte
Hitting "enter" instead of clicking the button in registration form does not
work. Unsubscribe link in registration confirmation E-Mail does not work.
Login does not work (gives 404). But landing page looks nice.

~~~
kkarpkkarp
This is just a beginning of your jurney of not working features,
unfortunately. I've played with this for few minutes, and basically this is
not even beta :(

I am rooting for this, but this is just too early.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
What wasn't working? Sorry your experience was negative. We want to fix
everything soon.

We truly just started, but brutal feedback helps, so thank you :)

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sendbitcoins
You should have a "TRY DEMO NOW" button where I get to play with a demo
sandbox. I just want to click around for a bit and I'm too disinterested to
make an account.

~~~
allenu
Agreed. As soon as I see a page asking me to create an account, I nope out of
there immediately.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
You can try it with a dummy account for now. It is ok.

------
kiba
Blank page and flashing logo. What's wrong with plain HTML?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Sorry, it is soon back up. We didn't expect this much traffic.

------
jzer0cool
This is neat and like the intro. If you don't mind sharing what is your front-
end ui stack (for example, for building the user interface, navigation, panes,
etc).

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Thank you :) no worries.

We are using React.JS, Apollo and GraphQL.

For the text editor we are using Slate which is pretty good. And other than
that we use emotion for styling :)

Our backend is Go, Postgres and Couchbase.

~~~
Dowwie
What did Couchbase offer that you found Postgres not a good fit for?

~~~
EricMeier
We started with Couchbase and then switched to Postgres. So it's actually the
other way around. We needed ACID transactions.

~~~
e12e
Do you see yourself phasing out couch base, or do you see a reason to keep
both?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
We are thinking of leaving Couchbase. Most of the new code is PostGres. What
was your experience with NoSQL like so far?

------
zebnyc
Promo video looks very promising. As others have noted getting blank pages
more often than not. Google oauth registration doesn't seem to complete

~~~
gavribirnbaum
:) thank you. The website should be up now. We were down for a half hour
sadly. We managed to scale up our resources now.

------
mlatu
If you want me to agree to your TOS or PP on the sign up page, at least
provide a link to them THERE.

Also, when returning from "Sign up" or "Sign in" via the back button, the logo
and both "Sign up" and "Sign in" buttons and the footer with the links to TOS
and PP are missing, need to refresh.

~~~
EricMeier
Thanks a lot for the feedback. We will fix that asap.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Update: fixed

------
mattbgates
I shared this link on social media: [https://barbra.io/](https://barbra.io/)

Shows nothing on social media. Consider adding some meta data and og and
twitter data so it'll show more data and an image when shared.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Will do today! Thanks for sharing.

------
lui8906
I signed up and then got a bit confused when I had to create a hub. Might be a
good idea to have an example image or video on the right side of the form to
illustrate what it is and how it's going to look after I create it.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Agreed, we want to remove the Hub thing altogether for normal users. We
recycled the permissions system from something we were working on last year,
and that is why we have it.

Hubs work well for schools (e.g. harvard.barbra.io), but doesn't feel very
useful for individuals.

------
jsilence
What is the benefit of using this site over the cost free, open source,
repetition spaced, multi platform Anki ecosystem?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Our tool does everything Anki does, plus it let's you organize your notes and
decks in one place and create them collaboratively with others in a group.

It also lets you set a daily learning goal to hold you accountable to
learning.

~~~
jsilence
So it does spaced repetition?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Yes. SM-2 algorithm just like Anki.

------
jzer0cool
Bug: I have loaded once before, but at times it get stuck (with show blue logo
showing at top/middle of screen).

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Thanks for letting us know. Weird. Just tested and it worked here. We just
scaled up more resources, so maybe it should be better now if you hot reload.
Are you logged in? :)

~~~
jzer0cool
Was using chrome. When I last checked again, it is working again. Keep up good
work!

------
gavribirnbaum
We should be online again now. I am sorry for the inconvenience. We hope we
can still get your feedback.

------
epaga
Looks great, unfortunately stuck on pulsing loading logo after initial Google
log-in (OS X Safari)...

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Can you please hot reload? Our server almost crashed. We just scaled it up.
Should be back any moment now

~~~
obilgic
still down.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Should be up now.

------
gavribirnbaum
Hi guys, Barbra co-founder here too. Would love to hear your thoughts on the
tool as well.

~~~
MattyMc
Tool looks great! Out of curiosity, are you planning to monetize? If so, do
you mind me asking how?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Thanks for asking. Yes we are, but we want to always have a super generous
free-tier. We were looking into charging educators for using Barbra in the
classroom with more features (like tracking, permissions, etc), and also
charging power-users (people with a lot of flashcards and notes) a small
subscription fee of around 5-8$ a month.

What do you think? :) is it fair?

~~~
barry-cotter
> charging power-users (people with a lot of flashcards and notes) a small
> subscription fee of around 5-8$ a month

Don’t charge that little monthly. Maybe $30 a quarter for more than 5,000 text
flash cards or $50 for that plus photos and videos. No one has yet made a
success of flash cards with a real big company. Anki is one guy. Remembr.it
focuses on Chinese vocabulary. Memrise needs to figure out a way to make real
money because they took VC.

Good luck. Counting to $40,000 a year in $8 increments is really hard. Don’t
handicap yourself by charging so little.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
That is true. Thank you. We want to empower ourselves enough to invest back
into product and make it awesome.

Specially during Covid we need to figure out how to stay alive without
necessarily fundraising.

~~~
e12e
Personally I strongly favour building a sustainable business - but surely you
can raise funds despite (because of! Given your market) the crisis?

------
lucasverra
tryed, saw hotjar & lots of blocked resources by blockers and a near empty
screen

~~~
gavribirnbaum
We should be live again now. Let me know if it works. I would love to get your
feedback!

~~~
danielskogly
You still have GTM, Hotjar and Fullstory included by default, without opt-in
and no way to opt out. This significantly reduces your trustworthiness for me,
as well as my willingness to try out or recommend to others what looks like a
pretty useful tool.

Consider if you really need all that analytics, and whether it's worth the
invasiveness (edit: and GDPR breach, you being located in Germany). Page hits,
sign ups, created flash cards and other usage is something you have available
without any of those tools.

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Thanks for letting us know. We are removing Hotjar. And we don't use GTM (we
forgot we had it) so that is also gone. We use Fullstory just to track bugs
and it helps us a lot – I hope that is ok.

~~~
danielskogly
That's great to hear! I'm not too familiar with Fullstory, so I recommend
reading up on their GDPR docs[1] and judge for yourself :)

[1] [https://www.fullstory.com/resources/gdpr-and-
fullstory/#how-...](https://www.fullstory.com/resources/gdpr-and-
fullstory/#how-think-about-gdpr-and-fullstory)

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Update: removed Hotjar

------
sdan
Where did the name come from?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
It was the name of a great primary school teacher I had. Well. Her name was
Barbara, but then we changed it to Barbra to make it sound more like a company
name... The good thing is we can rock to the tune of that Barbra Streisand
song.

~~~
toxicFork
Edit: the original =
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4HHaNhcgU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4HHaNhcgU)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhtcU4-xAM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhtcU4-xAM)
this one? :)

It's the first thing that came to my mind as I read the title

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Exactly. How great is it to rock to that tune?

------
scrump3y
Can't create an account, a graphql request is pending

~~~
gavribirnbaum
Hi I'm so sorry. We are fixing it right now. Our DB was down.

------
sauwan
Any plans for spaced repetition functionality?

~~~
gavribirnbaum
All flashcard you create are tested with SM-2 Spaced repetition, so we already
have that :)

