

Happy Holidays HN: our new web app for easy sharing with your family - markbao
http://ramamia.com/?hackernews=hellyeah

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swombat
I really like the idea, but the interface looks way too busy for my family to
use.

You should try to work on adding a lot more white space, less text, and more
clearly emphasizing what the likely action of the next user will be. Most
families are full of non-techs that would need a fair bit of hand-holding
here, because it's not clear what they need to do next...

~~~
shawndrost
I think you could cut some clutter, but mostly you need to use design cues
(boxes, color, font size) to guide the user. Good candidates for removal: the
"share with others" link, the "ShareThis" widget.

PS. I accidentally put my family's name in lowercase, and it looks like that
can't be fixed.

~~~
markbao
> _I think you could cut some clutter, but mostly you need to use design cues
> (boxes, color, font size) to guide the user._

You're right. The design right now is pretty open. I will work on getting the
design on track in terms of compartmentalizing things, adding images and icons
to things, and the like.

> _Good candidates for removal: the "share with others" link, the "ShareThis"
> widget._

We're removing ShareThis (since it goes against the privacy idea) but Share
With Others public links can be emailed to people that aren't in the family,
where non-family members can view and comment on the items. The public links
are, however, secure, as they don't lead back to the main address of the
family. So I think it's good to keep them. (Let me know if you think
otherwise!)

> _PS. I accidentally put my family's name in lowercase, and it looks like
> that can't be fixed._

I will implement changing the family name soon.

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jasonlbaptiste
We're just sharing the app right now with close friends and family. Mark and I
spend a ton of time on HN, and consider you guys family, so we wanted to share
it here. We'll do the whole press, launch,etc. thing in mid january.

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shimon
The key problem in this sort of site is being evidently and memorably distinct
from the numerous other similar options, from email to facebook to flickr. I'd
have to register with you to figure out how you're different/better, which
isn't worth the effort because I'm not convinced there's some obvious problem
with the way I share photos & links right now that you guys have solved, just
because you "applied the family perspective" or whatever.

You have to attach to an emotional need people have regarding their families.
Here's one I think many of the folks on HN share: guilt about not staying in
touch with family members that live far away. One way you might tap into that
need could be to offer a "time-release" delivery option, where I can seed my
family account with a bunch of photots, and your service can send them out to
my family at a rate of say 2 per week. I'd get credit for being in touch with
my family on a regular basis, and each email can be a starting point for
discussions and stories that bring us together around a particular memory.
Plus, we're coming back to your site again and again over time, and I wouldn't
mind paying a few bucks per month if you could send printed photos to my
grandma who doesn't use email.

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
hey shimon, thanks for the feedback. in today's app world, you definitely have
to be quick with designating the advantage/differences over other apps. we
removed the whole registration issue, by being able to get started without an
email, password / "another account". Any suggestions on how we could
accomplish that would be more than awesome.

That's an interesting approach. The goal is to let people stay in touch, when
doing so is pretty much a bitch. Doing printed photos is a rev stream we're
looking into ie- via qoop or an equivalent.

Thanks!

~~~
shimon
Low barriers to entry are important, but they're not a reason to use a site.
When a site has a great and obvious value, people will jump through all sorts
of hideous crap to use it; and conversely, when I can't figure out why I
should care, whatever's behind my back button is going to seem more
interesting.

It's admirable to pursue great usability and I like your registration scheme,
but I still need to smell the bacon.

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kbrower
I like this. I am curious about privacy. robots.txt seems to allow everything
at the moment. When I tried to go to the page I created for my family I get:

"We're sorry, but something went wrong."

Tell me more.

~~~
markbao
Just fixed that. Thanks for letting us know.

WRT privacy, I'm working on getting the pages and content protected. It's
difficult to find a balance between allowing people to email page links, and
security.

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ryanwaggoner
A bunch of random thoughts:

\- good idea, seems like there would be a market for it

\- I think I get what you're trying to do with the login / obfuscation system,
but it's non-standard and that makes it somewhat confusing for me at first
glance. perhaps sell the benefits on the homepage?

\- sell me on why this beats email

\- I like how quickly you can jump in and check it out

\- why not auto-capitalize family name?

\- do you really need time zone? if so, perhaps you could default via geo ip?

\- the "keep my page" button is cut off in ffx 3

\- the "sharethis" option doesn't really make sense if you're trying to
obfuscate these URLs...

\- having the "post something" options as radio buttons seems kind of odd

~~~
markbao
> _\- I think I get what you're trying to do with the login / obfuscation
> system, but it's non-standard and that makes it somewhat confusing for me at
> first glance. perhaps sell the benefits on the homepage?_

That's a great idea. I think it might be confusing for people at first, but
somehow explaining how it's better will be very useful.

> _\- sell me on why this beats email_

Centralised site. Communicate without email clutter. Easier to follow a site
and receive regular email updates. It's similar reason that it's better to use
Facebook than emailing your friends. Thanks for reminding us why we need to
make this clear.

> _\- I like how quickly you can jump in and check it out_

Great to hear. That's the kind of simplicity we're looking for.

> _\- why not auto-capitalize family name?_

I'll add that.

> _\- do you really need time zone? if so, perhaps you could default via geo
> ip?_

I was thinking the same, to try to assume via Geo IP. I'll look into it, but
last time I checked, it was an insane amount of money to license.

> _\- the "keep my page" button is cut off in ffx 3_

Ah, okay. I'll resolve that.

> _\- the "sharethis" option doesn't really make sense if you're trying to
> obfuscate these URLs..._

Good point - we'll be removing those.

> _\- having the "post something" options as radio buttons seems kind of odd_

We thought this would be a familiar user interface element for people to
understand. Perhaps it's not – I'll think about what could potentially replace
it.

Thank you very much for your valuable feedback! Cheers and happy holidays.

~~~
mmelin
For timezone identification, the MaxMind GeoLite Country DB has plenty of
accuracy and is free to use. <http://www.maxmind.com/app/geoip_country>

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staunch
Either you can't delete or it's not obvious how to delete posted stuff. That's
an incredibly huge oversight IMHO.

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
completely agree. It'll be there soon by the time we do a more widespread
launch. We'll make it so you can only delete your own stuff obviously.

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ralph
Overall, I like it. Would be nice not to use Flash for multiple file upload
though. Some folks just don't have it. Allow an alternative for one file at a
time. Or unpack an uploaded .zip?

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fuzzmeister
Very cool, I'll have to get my family using this.

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
many thanks! If there's anything you ever need email us founders@ramamia.com

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daveambrose
How long did it take you guys to get this up and running?

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jasonlbaptiste
(We're going to do a separate post on this in a few days probably, but here's
a long story short)

Late October is when we started. Put together a spec doc. At first it was like
two pages, we basically said: in order for this to be simple enough, we have
to get it down to one page. The goal was simple sharing with your family, no
bullshit involved.

Mark got a proof of concept up within 24 hours (layout, basic functionality,
database,etc.) From there, we spent the rest of the time tweaking things,
testing, user vids,etc.

~~~
daveambrose
Very impressive. Hopefully you guys can shed light on how you worked long-
distance, managing time, doing this as a "side project", etc.

It's certainly a great gift to share with friends and family this holiday
season!

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crxnamja
this is cool. nice work.

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TapInko1234
It looks great.

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calebelston
Pretty cool!

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chaostheory
reminds me of <http://famster.com>

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qqq
what do i share with them?

it wasn't obvious what the app does, so i left.

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
hey, so how can we make it clearer. We stated it in a few places, but this is
a first version. either let us know here or email personally j@ramamia.com

~~~
qqq
umm i looked again. the top right and huge banner don't say what you share.
but i found this in a list with some other stuff:

\- Easily share photos, events, messages, and interesting links

ok, but i can do that with email. it's not clear to me what's the point?

~~~
Network_Punk
I had a look at the "See what you can do" video, it looks like a faster,
simpler alternative to using social-networking sites and family newsletters
etc.

@Jason Really like the look of this! I just hope releasing so late in the
holidays (pre-thanksgiving I could see this service really taking off) won't
affect it's adoption too greatly. Anyway, Thank you and Merry Xmas!

~~~
qqq
It needs to get the point across without watching a video.

