

Show HN: Pintask, the hackable task tracker - DenGorbachev
https://pintask.me/

======
PeterWhittaker
It looks interesting, but not enough for me to login, yet.

You need to add a few screen shots, demos, etc., to show me why I should
consider this instead of Huboard or Trello (you don't need to compare yourself
to these, just have some simple workflows with the free tool to make it clear
why pintask is better).

Also, while it is "free for life" you should "respect" current conventions for
sites like this: You need a pricing link, a page on which you reinforce that
basic functionality is free, and that extensions are what people buy. People
are used to those conventions, it makes it easier for them to absorb your
message without forcing them to think too much, without violating their
expectations in a current website.

Speaking of this, I should be able to browse the extension store without
logging in. Also, pricing needs to tell me if the extension price is per user
per month, per project per month, per enterprise per month, etc. If those
prices are per enterprise, they seem like good deals, but if they are per
user, they start adding up so fast that free seems more like a playground
gateway drug than anything else.

Finally, enterprise customers WANT to pay for your basic service: They want to
give you their money to guarantee uptime, have a number to call, etc.

(Personal irritant: You may require cookies to get something done, but not to
browse - the page loads blank when cookies are disabled (I used a cookie
manager; I'm in the minority there, but I'm the kind of user you want early on
:->). Require cookies only when they are actually required - and be sure to
indicate that your site uses them, so that you remain on the good side of the
law in various jurisdictions).

tl;dr: Looks good, too little there to incite me to actually take the action.
Don't go overboard, though, you're almost there.

~~~
DenGorbachev
Actually, there are demo videos, just scroll down the page.

Thanks for the tip, I'll make a separate page for pricing.

As for browsing extensions store: I've already made landing pages for the best
extensions, yet they don't comprise a full store-like experience. I guess
you're right, there should be a full storefront for those who want to check it
out without logging in.

~~~
subpixel
I had no idea those were videos, b/c they don't have affordances that tell me
they are videos until I hover over them (which I did not).

~~~
DenGorbachev
Of course! You're right, I'll add the "play" buttons for better visibility.

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jeremyw
Interesting price hack: $1/mo (1 left), $3/mo (5 left). Are these escalating,
à la Pinboard? Useful for price discovery, though up-from-the-bottom nudges
artificial asymptotes (see pricing discontinuities).

~~~
DenGorbachev
Yes, they escalate up to a predefined list price (also shown on extension
card). I just wanted to thank early adopters by giving them a discount. Do you
think it's OK or not?

~~~
jeremyw
I think it's great. As I say, I'd use the opportunity to learn about uptake
and natural price boundaries, while awarding early customers.

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anigbrowl
The mode could be a bit more obvious, ie whether you're using the Move or
Embed tools is signified only by a subtle border line, so it took me a while
to figure out how to embed cards and I can't really tell what mode I'm n from
a casual glance. This will become more important as more tools are added, I'd
imagine.

Color coding seems pretty arbitrary as the labels aren't descriptive, and
there's no filtering. But I guess these can be hacked into being :)

Code editor look spretty bare, although I appreciate the Wiki link and again
it's early days. Maybe have a little 'Hello World' code by default, or even a
few lines of advice as a comment so the window doesn't look so empty? Casual
hackers such as myself have a phobia of blank pages because it's not obvious
where to begin.

One small annoyance: Initials. I have a double-barreled name (Firstname
Surname-Surname) but it rendered my initials as FS, which was quite confusing
because I'm not used to seeing that letter combination at all, and it wasn't
until I added an avatar that I realized it was my initials.

That little nitpick aside, I like it a lot!

~~~
DenGorbachev
Thanks for thorough feedback! We'll surely work out these details. And yes,
it's possible to hack label names :)

By the way, how should we render initials like yours?

~~~
anigbrowl
I'd do it as FSS, ie filtering on capital letters rather than the first letter
in a string. But I'm sure someone else would want it as FS-S or something.

~~~
DenGorbachev
That was my first thought, but there's a catch: user avatars or initials
should be same width. Is there a way to both fit your and designer
requirements?

~~~
anigbrowl
My answer to such questions is always 'fire the designer,' but I suspect that
is not helpful to you :)

TBH I could live without the initials altogether and just have a blank avatar
- not least because your upload process is already super-transparent, I
appreciated being able to connect with so many services 'right out of the
box'.

------
donut2d
Is there any way to share a board via URL, without requiring users to sign in?
I don't want to make it public or have it show up in search results, I just
want to be able to share it with people who just need to view it but wont want
to mess with creating an account.

If that's available (and I just can't find it), then this would be a great
solution for me!

~~~
DenGorbachev
Thanks for the idea! It's not available right now (you can either invite or
make it public), but seems to be a good addition, so it's possible to see that
in future.

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owenversteeg
Looks interesting, but many Trello users have tons of loyalty to Trello.
Getting them to switch is going to be difficult. There are plenty of Trello
clones, and you don't offer any screenshots or examples.

~~~
DenGorbachev
Thanks for advice! I'll surely add more videos to main page, some featuring
the product itself, some featuring extensions.

------
pdq
How is this different than Trello? It looks almost identical at first glance.

~~~
DenGorbachev
1\. You can write your own extensions using JS + Meteor API. MongoDB access in
browser included.

2\. Mirroring extension solves the hottest issues on Trello dev board. Here's
how you use it: [http://joxi.ru/lFFNUxjKTJCFQk-
Gd9Q](http://joxi.ru/lFFNUxjKTJCFQk-Gd9Q)

~~~
pfraze
How are the extensions secured? Are they sandboxed in the live environment, or
is there an auditing process to get into your store?

(Cool project Den - best of luck!)

~~~
DenGorbachev
Right now extensions are just loaded as external JS files. In near future,
they will be loaded inside iframes with "sandbox" attribute + specific APIs
injected into iframes.

There will also be an auditing process if you want your extension to be
featured in the store. But you'll always be able to just add an extension and
send a link to friend.

(Thanks for kind words!)

------
ohfunkyeah
Great interface, and I can definitely see the advantage of being able to add
extensions so that it is customized to the specific workflow I am looking for
without the junk I don't want.

I think this is one of the first commercial quality meteor applications I have
seen, which says a lot of the dev team but also shows meteor is a platform
capable of at least getting the job done if not doing it well.

Question: Do you anticipate allowing people to write their own extensions /
having some sort of API?

~~~
DenGorbachev
Thanks! Meteor really proved itself as a capable platform. We hit a few
issues, but those were resolved rather quickly.

Yes, we already allow people to write their own extensions. For quick stuff,
there's a built-in code editor:
[http://joxi.ru/SFJNUxjKTJBvQrogwYE](http://joxi.ru/SFJNUxjKTJBvQrogwYE). And
for large extensions, there's an "Add your extension" button in the Extensions
store.

In fact, we'll allow people to monetize their extensions, in a micro-App-store
fashion.

~~~
ohfunkyeah
Ok, that's fricken cool.

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thisispraveen
Seems I am wrong somewhere. Reached this discussion as part of google search
and found accidently I have used the same name and similar concept :(. Anyway
this is just my hobby program and no plans to commercialize it. Let me check
the name if I start getting users -
[http://www.secfor.net/](http://www.secfor.net/)

Again, it is also may be hackable as I was not so serious about coding and was
concentrating just about making it a reality.

------
ericHosick
Out of curiosity, why do you have this as one of the first things people read
on your site:

"Pintask promise: we will always keep the service running. And if anybody
tries to shut it down, we will open-source it."

~~~
DenGorbachev
We're small guys, so we wanted to assure people it's OK to put data into
Pintask: it will always be supported.

~~~
mrmondo
What's stopping you from open sourcing it now?

------
mc_hammer
wow the ui is really nice - i built my own tool exactly like this but the ui
didnt end up as beautiful. i know other tools have some accessibility problems
and built my ui similar to yours to solve them. this looks really cool.

i couldnt figure out how to monetize my app - i have to say the plugin store
is a good idea. gj!

~~~
DenGorbachev
Glad you like it! I'm sure you had some ideas for your own app — would you
like to wrap them as a plugin?

------
phryk
How exactly is this hackable? Where do I find the documentation to look into
whether I can do interesting stuff with it?

~~~
DenGorbachev
There is built-in code editor:
[http://joxi.ru/v3lNUxjKTJA4Eous4Gs](http://joxi.ru/v3lNUxjKTJA4Eous4Gs) Right
now, it lags sometimes, but we'll migrate to Meteor 0.8 and this issue will be
resolved. Also, at the bottom of editor, there is a link to
[http://wiki.pintask.me/wiki/How_to_write_an_extension](http://wiki.pintask.me/wiki/How_to_write_an_extension)
with some info to get started. If you have specific questions, please reach
me: Denis.D.Gorbachev at gmail

------
codez
I'd say extendable not hackable.

~~~
codez
Hackable would be if it was OS IMO like the other Trello clones which are
completely OS like tyto being able to host your own and tweak everything to
your needs.

------
codez
I instantly got a headache, viewing this on a mobile device

~~~
DenGorbachev
Sorry for that! We'll make separate apps for mobile devices.

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kevohagan
great example of a production meteor app!! Beautiful work!

