

Show HN: Quabel, a distraction-free online writer with writing goals, fireworks - bflesch
https://quabel.com

======
bflesch
Quabel is a pet project of two friends of mine and myself, and we are proud to
finally present it to HN after a long time of working on it.

Basically, we want to make focussed writing more easy. Quabel is an online
editor which uses writing goals very prominently. This allows the writer to
stay on track and measure performance with all the benefits of using a web
service.

Full list of features:

\- Automatically save your texts so you don't lose anything

\- Create goals and measure your writing performance

\- Nightmode for when it gets dark outside

\- Markdown formatting

\- Drag and Drop your .docx files onto Quabel to import and edit them in
Markdown instantly

\- Export to PDF/ODT/Latex/Markdown

\- Easily publish your writings and share them with others

\- (optional) typewriter sound when you hit a key

\- (optional) fireworks when you reach your goal

Please tell us your feedback, we value your opinion very much! Thanks!

Our future roadmap includes offline editing, revisioning (hard topic!) and
collaboration between multiple writers.

~~~
unwind
I love the self-irony of being "distraction-free", but having fscking
_fireworks_!

(Note: I do "get it", gamification/rewards work, but it still strikes me as
funny.)

~~~
bflesch
Nice that you noticed. To be honest, it seemed a bit weird for me as well as I
was typing out the text above :-)

The funny thing is, my cofounders hated the fireworks idea, but then some blog
post said very positive things about it and so we kept it.

------
dsplittgerber
You have a smart marketing ploy with the "Privacy made in Germany" slogan.
Similar to "German engineering", instantly recognizable. Also, great looking
product.

I wonder though, I am a German lawyer myself and under the impression that
German data privacy laws (which I am not specialised in) are not that
different from US/UK/generic EU country laws. Do you have any research or
comparisons on that?

Because I see two ways how my data might get misappropriated anyway: either by
your hosting provider, over which you have no control whatsoever if you don't
own the physical servers, or by a police investigation, with which you have to
comply anyway. So what exactly does German privacy protection buy me here?

~~~
bflesch
Hi Daniel, thanks for your thoughtful considerations. Due to my experiences, I
think privacy laws in Germany differ in one main point frome those in the UK
or other EU countries, which is enforcement. As you probably know, we have had
some data scandals which created a sense for data privacy in large parts of
the population. On top of this, big internet corporations such as Google and
Facebook are often portrayed as "data hungry" molochs by German media outlets.

Coupled with our own "bad feeling" when replacing the local OpenOffice or Word
installation with Quabel.com for writing documents, we've decided to clearly
state data privacy as a feature on our homepage. We hope this emphasizes the
user-oriented aspect we have had in mind when creating this application.

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josteink
I tried this once and really liked it to the point where I considered
replacing Google Docs with it.

Only to find the freemium usage-terms way too limited. You want me to pay to
have more than 5 free-text documents stored each, probably occupying in total
less than 10kb?

Seriously?

Edit: Seemingly the limit is 15 documents now. That's still a no-go.

~~~
aplh
Thanks for your comment.

How to limit the free user was a though decision for us. You can increase your
document space without buying premium: for every user you invite both you and
your referral get 5 additional docs. Also, a free user can download and store
his docs locally and enjoy Quabel for free for an infinite time.

------
dsplittgerber
<https://quabel.com/subscribe/hobbyist/> doesn't work for me. "You cannot
access this page"

~~~
aplh
You're probably using Quabel as a dummy user. Please sign up for a regular
account first and then try again. We'll work on that error message ;-).

------
aplh
Hi, I'm Aaron and the designer of Quabel. If you have any feedback regarding
design I will very appreciate it. Cheers!

------
illicium
Looks very... inspired by iA Writer. Not that it's a bad thing.

~~~
draq
except for it's free and not Apple-only.

~~~
philip_roberts
...free for up to 5 documents.

