

Hackpad - kunle
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/11/hackpad.html

======
mmahemoff
"I love Hackpad. And it's strange because most of what Hackpad does, Google
Docs does. And I really like Google Docs."

Google Docs has never felt webby to me. It feels like a big Flash or ActiveX
component, as it's mostly aiming to emulate 1990s desktop software, with menu-
bar and all. So it carries considerable UI baggage and is not a clean web app
with a DOM that could be effectively inspected or manipulated.

For real-time collaboration, I much prefer Etherpad-type tools as they're
lightweight. For private one-off docs, I find secret Gists much simpler to
deal with.

~~~
aray
What other Etherpad-type tools would you recommend?

For dealing with less-tech-literate people, Google Docs is nice because they
instantly recognize and understand it (and they can see me collaborating at
the same time and I don't need to explain anything).

~~~
akanet
If you are looking for Etherpad-like tools specifically for collaborating on
code, check out [https://coderpad.io](https://coderpad.io)

It's a tool I make that's geared around collaboratively editing and running
code in the browser.

------
natch
Looks cool but as soon as I loaded the hackpad document (not the blog post) my
computer's fan started going crazy, not a great sign.

~~~
macNchz
I was unable to scroll the hackpad document as it was busy thrashing my cpu,
then it popped an 'Unresponsive script' error in my browser. Not impressive.

------
king_magic
Hackpad looks great, but I tried the link ("Yesterday, we created this
document on Hackpad.") and it immediately froze Safari - each and every time I
tried it.

Needs to work reliably before I'll consider even a free trial. I could see
myself paying money for something like this - so I suggest they fix these
issues :-)

~~~
jaffa
Killed my Firefox 25.

~~~
Hackpad_Julia
Julia here from Hackpad. Sorry to hear you're having performance issues in
Safari and Firefox. We just launched a new feature that shows the live
position of your active collaborators' cursors, and we're in the process of
polishing it to ensure optimal performance across browsers. Thanks for your
patience and stay tuned!

~~~
king_magic
Thanks for writing back to us on here - good luck, looking forward to the
improvements :)

------
kunle
The Hackpad team are serious hustlers. I use it all the time as well and love
what they've built.

~~~
waterlion
What do you mean by 'hustlers'? The only meaning I know for that word is
'people who commit fraud'.

~~~
kunle
I meant it in the most positive way possible:

"an aggressively enterprising person; a go-getter."

Hope this helps.

~~~
johnrob
Why hustler instead of hacker, especially in the context of raving about the
product?

~~~
kunle
No particular reason - hustler is just and has always been my preferred
compliment for folks doing awesome stuff, whether in code, offline or anywhere
else.

------
debergalis
The Meteor core team uses Hackpad for almost all our internal text --
technical design documents, checklists and procedures, note taking, drafting
emails and website content, and documenting much of what we do and how we do
it. I find the spare UX just about perfect for getting ideas down.

We've also experimented with using public hackpads for some core framework
design discussions once or twice. It feels like a promising option. I hope we
can try more of this.

One of the most valuable tools in our kit.

~~~
panabee
Out of curiosity, why don't you use Google Docs?

------
JamesBaxter
I wonder if this is what Google Wave would have ended up like

~~~
quaunaut
It's what I wanted to use it for. That, and basic communication.

I just think Google bungled the beta process, trying to treat it like GMail
when the same beta model isn't gonna work for anything but e-mail or XMPP.

However, I'm definitely going to recommend this product to my team, as right
now we're using Github wikis, which is fine for us developers, but for real
business use(as in, the rest of the team), this could be just _so_ much
better.

~~~
Hackpad_Julia
We're excited to hear you're going to recommend Hackpad for your team! I'd be
happy to set you up with your own private Pro Site, three months of free
service, as well as a private orientation and platform training. Email me at
julia@hackpad.com to set up some time.

------
skizm
I think Hackpad is being hugged to death by HN. Anyone else getting 500
errors?

~~~
leokun
According to their Twitter it should be back now. Works for me, but I did see
500's earlier.

------
nonchalance
How much has FW and co invested in Hackpad?

~~~
fredwilson
neither me, my wife, or USV has an investment in Hackpad. i always try to
disclose such things and mostly do that. when i fail to, my comment community
lets me know so i can fix it

~~~
nonchalance
(somewhat controversial opinion) I would have rather heard you say that you do
have an investment in Hackpad. Why don't you consider making an investment,
especially if it brings value to you and USV?

As for conflicts of interest, I prefer to assume everyone has a conflict :) I
follow ZH here:
[http://www.zerohedge.com/node/13972](http://www.zerohedge.com/node/13972)

> The reality is, critical readers should read analytic posts and the rest of
> [the internet] with the blanket assumption that the author is totally
> "conflicted." ... This turns the conversation to the content, and away from
> the author, the author's biography and the contents of their IRA account /
> blind trust. This (the content) is, of course, where the focus should be.

------
jedahan
The school for poetic computation ([http://sfpc.io](http://sfpc.io)) is using
hackpad to document our work. Its lightweight enough that people actually use
it and the search is good. I also really like the fact that recently edited
pads go up top, with a highlight of what was edited - makes it easy to see who
is doing what.

[http://sfpc.hackpad.com](http://sfpc.hackpad.com)

------
jey
I tried to login to Hackpad with Google, and it's asking for permission to
"manage my contacts"? No thanks.

~~~
Hackpad_Julia
My name is Julia and I'm Hackpad's Community and User Research Manager.
Hackpad uses your Google contacts in one way only: to expedite the process of
inviting collaborators to a Pad. As soon as you begin typing your contact's
name, we suggest their email address. We take user privacy very seriously.

~~~
cmpitg
Perhaps it should be opt-out?

------
qznc
Using its Etherpad sister for online meetings. Should try Hackpad next time.

[http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/meeting.html](http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/meeting.html)

------
mbubb
This is really cool - I signed up and enjoy it.

However - I end up using the google doc spreadsheet more than the doc to
informally sketch up projects and share information.

It would be great to have that option.

------
guynamedloren
This looks neat. The comparison has been made to Google Docs, and obviously
it's similar, but I can't help but feel it's almost _identical_. What are the
differences?

~~~
kofman
There are a number of differences (attribution, the way the stream shows you
edit diffs from your team members, the way content such as code and media is
handled, the way email integration works, etc).

But fundamentally it is a difference of design intent. Hackpad is not a
replacement for a word processor. It is not designed for cosmetically
designing papers or reports. Hackpad has been designed from the ground up for
collaboration on ideas and for living documents (which evolve over time). It's
in use in a number of leading tech companies (airbnb, stripe, upworthy) as
well as on the open web.

------
deepGem
I think HN traffic has killed the servers. Getting a 500.

------
ashrust
We use Hackpad as our wiki at SendHub and it's awesome. Great job guys and
congrats on the well deserved coverage.

------
Numberwang
I prefer Simplenote. Hackpad is nice, but feels a bit slow.

------
unclesaamm
Made me giggle trying to say MOORDC

