That's strange; all of the brogrammers that I know are pretty reasonable people. Sure, they dress strangely, tend to keep their hair in novel styles, have odd preferences for beverages, have quirky catchphrases that don't really make sense, are overwhelmingly men, and generally have problems fitting in at offices full of suits...
It's a nice timer, but this recent casualization of the word 'fuck' is irritating, and I don't care to support it. It was in a ton of the blog headlines posted on this very site last year, and all it does is detract from the power of the word, while doing nothing to add an edge to your project. Sorry.
Nice timer, though. Find a real way to motivate the user without abuse and it'd be even cooler.
Assuming that the other parties are offended by the cursing is the common response to these criticisms. I don't think anyone is saying that they're actually bothered by it, but rather that pointless cursing like this is formulaic, worn-out, and generally lame.
Agreed. If the cursing is the only funny part of the joke, it gets old pretty quickly. In fact, it seems at this point it's the opposite of offensive. I'm mostly just bored.
Why would it be a good thing? It's not like it is such a bad thing that we must make it good at all costs. Some words are there to be used when they are needed.
It's non-intuitive that you have to press enter to activate the timer. I couldn't work out why making the text box lose focus didn't start it. I ended up having to read the source to figure it out!
Also, it'd be good if there would be a way to start a new task after clicking "I give up"!
This is very true, but only if it's obvious that some data is supposed to be sent to the server, e.g. a search box. In my mind this pattern didn't apply because it was clear something was supposed to happen on the client, not the server, i.e. activate the timer. I presumed that causing the text box to lose focus would activate it.
I know I'm wrong, I just described my dozy error caused by what I perceived to be an anti-pattern.
Point noted. During our brainstorming, we were trying to strike a balance between snarky and nice and thought to just post it up to see what people thought and iterate ;)
I'm just giving honest feedback on the product: I think you're limiting the scope of the product by using words that offend some people. Given the upvotes, I don't think I'm alone.
Not sure how you wound up there. I'm pointing out that swearing to emphasize words is different from swearing at the user. I don't think the problem here is that the software has "Fuck You" and not "Screw You" floating over the middle finger pointing at the user, but that's exactly what David is implying with his disingenuous remark about installing a profanity blocker.
Given the nature of the website I think it suits perfectly. All too often I just need to "get shit done" and this mirrors these feelings perfectly. A similar website without this "feeling" would make little to no impact. I think the swearing is the message here. The site itself is very simple and anyone here can replicate it's functionality in minutes with a few lines of code.
Is there a way for me to get a link to a pre-configured JFDIN command? This would allow me to make a work item for entrenched coworkers and send it to them. ;-)
If enough people use this, we have plans to include additional logic to it (database, etc.) to make it more collaborative - definitely stay tuned if you like it and give us more feedback on what you would like to see!
You could achieve this entirely statelessly (i.e. without a database) by encoding the task name in the URL. This is the sort of feature that could fuel growth by encouraging sharing :)
Don't know if you're seen http://writeordie.com/, it's mostly for papers. Just remembered it because if you don't write fast enough it starts eating your text.
It seems that some people want less profanity and some want more. It might be useful to let all the text on the page be user-editable. That way they can choose the exact phrase that would have the desired emotional impact on them (and anyway, why tight-couple the tech and the copy?)
For instance, my first language is Hindi, and English four-letter words just sort of slide over me without making much of a dent. I had to 'inspect element' on the h1.tagline containing 'Just F* Do It Now' and change that to something in Hindi before it really made sense. Good job, by the way.
My first thought was "good joke". But I think you're actually serious!
I think the key difference between this web app and just a timer is precisely the message. Some people find it funny that it uses some profanity. I were the author, I'd focus on those, and just accept the fact that they'll lose some users that would've liked a different choice of words.
Feature Request: Allow the use of a hashmark (or a different method) to pre-fill the user input, and auto-start the timer. Then you could send it to people who you want to get stuff done.
I need to see lists of tasks on which I fucked up and the ones I completed. Basically, I need to track my progress.
And yes, customized timer obviously.
p.s. : More profanity will be appreciated, maybe customize option for that too.
Interesting... maybe we can even chart out for you the average number of f* ups vs success and do some data mining on this and suggest change (with more profanity).
It needs to source profanity from urbandictionary.com in an intelligent way relative to the race, gender, age, and sexual preference of my users... all of which will not be optional on my JFDIN app.
Looking forward to it. When you read "only 12 minutes left" does not seem as dangerous as "the most significant bit in the counter integer, just flipped from 1 to 0"
(Drafted) consequences:
Someone will die -> you will see a 8-bit character running towards you with a gun
My girlfriend is going to leave me -> 8-bit girl running away from 8-bit boy
I will start hurting myself -> 8-bit you carrying a knife...
Yeah, that's what I had in mind. So if you POST this to a particular URL, I can probably do something - Send a text to my phone or send myself an E-mail, etc..
Edit: And please ignore the other comments asking you to stop with the profanity, etc. Clearly, those people aren't your target audience, but we are. If anyone feels offended, I think it's fair they don't use your service at all, than complain about it...
