HelpRange

Web and SaaS

document tracking

SHOW HN2018

24points
22comments
#1,101of 2,155 in 2018
Top 52%of 2018 by points

How HN took it

RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical

2 positive, 6 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 8 critical, out of 16 comments about the project. Thread score -0.21.

Privacy: 0 for, 4 againstIdea: 2 for, 2 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Good idea and nice-looking site

    From 1 comment
    • I'm curious, do the two of you consider privacy at any point when building this? Well done launching, it's a nice looking site and a good idea which should appeal to…
      tombrossman on HN
  • Could help professors track student video watching

    From 1 comment
    • Seems like a good tool for professors at universities. For some classes my professors send out quizzes along with (mandatory watch) lecture videos (3-4 min) long and they track…
      shashanoid on HN

Objections

  • Hosting documents on the site raises privacy concerns

    From 3 comments
    • I'm curious, do the two of you consider privacy at any point when building this? Well done launching, it's a nice looking site and a good idea which should appeal to…
      tombrossman on HN
    • Horrible idea. Ethically. More so if the reader is not notified. You should probably add “loose potential customers” to the “cons” section. I would not follow such a link the way…
      onyva on HN
    • The only two questions that matter: 1. Why is the PDF reader running active or remote content without prompting? 2. What PDF readers do not respect my privacy?
      kevin_b_er on HN
  • Unclear market; HN readers are not the target audience

    From 2 comments
    • I'm not sure there is much of a market for this. Seems geared towards business users, as I can't imagine what the average person would need this for. As far as the business…
      turc1656 on HN
    • Hey Wiktor, ignore the HN hivemind, the age and target group is strongly skewed. While your competitor DocSend is recommended over here:…
      purerandomness on HN
  • Downloaded copies cannot be tracked

    From 1 comment
    • Yes, but there is optional possibility to allow for downloading the file, which we can't track in this case
      wsieroci on HN
  • Readers can screenshot content

    From 1 comment

Requests

  • Add a 'How it works' section and privacy policy

    From 2 comments
    • Can’t seem to find any information which PDF readers are supported (read - that fetch external resources without explicit user’s consent). I suspect that not that many... Edit -…
      eps on HN
    • I'm curious, do the two of you consider privacy at any point when building this? Well done launching, it's a nice looking site and a good idea which should appeal to…
      tombrossman on HN
  • Focus on a target persona and integrations with CRM tools

    From 1 comment
    • I was CEO and co-founder of doxIQ (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/doxiq), a similar product. We were acquired by Nitro, another PDF software company, after a couple of…
      mifeng on HN

Questions

  • Which PDF readers are supported and do they fetch external resources

    From 2 comments
    • Can’t seem to find any information which PDF readers are supported (read - that fetch external resources without explicit user’s consent). I suspect that not that many... Edit -…
      eps on HN
    • The only two questions that matter: 1. Why is the PDF reader running active or remote content without prompting? 2. What PDF readers do not respect my privacy?
      kevin_b_er on HN
  • Is the PDF still a PDF or hosted content

    From 2 comments
    • So they're not PDFs anymore?
      kevin_b_er on HN
    • Can you confirm that the end result is no longer a PDF, but content hosted on your site? Or rather a PDF hosted on your site that the user doesn't copy to their computer but…
      nwsm on HN

Alternatives named

  • DocSend

    From 2 comments
    • Hey Wiktor, ignore the HN hivemind, the age and target group is strongly skewed. While your competitor DocSend is recommended over here:…
      purerandomness on HN
    • "recommend" is a bit strong. Yes, two people recommended it. But another indicated that DocSend is disliked by investors and an actual investor chimed in to say they don't…
      turc1656 on HN
  • Google Analytics

    From 1 comment
    • At which point, why even bother with the PDF... just host your content on any web site, and run Google Analytics.
      codingdave on HN
  • Scribd

    From 1 comment
    • Horrible idea. Ethically. More so if the reader is not notified. You should probably add “loose potential customers” to the “cons” section. I would not follow such a link the way…
      onyva on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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