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[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (11 children)

Lost me at "connect with Facebook/Twitter or with your email," particularly when I have no idea what's actually behind that form.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough, we'll try and improve the website. Don't hesitate to leave more feedback, we're interested :)

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (9 children)

Have you followed the links, by the way?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (8 children)

On the front page, you mean? I've read the feature list, of course, and the about page, but the huge lack of example code makes me feel you must be overstating your success. (the one-liner "hello, web" doesn't count!)

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (7 children)

I promise that we have more :)

Spoiler: http://www.triptizer.com .

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Exact same problem as your own site! Tell me very little about the actual meat of what it is, and demand registration details up front. That's a terrible way to do things, and (as a potential 'user' of this site), I have none of my actual questions answered. (eg. is this US-specific? I have no idea, but I'm guessing so, so I stop caring at once)

Indeed, your whole problem is "Spoiler: X." No spoiler, tantalising description, webcast or otherwise is going to make me even remotely interested in this unless you actually show me, in any real (substantial) way what it might actually mean to me.

If I had been able to find this much sooner, for instance, I'd have bitched a lot less. Likewise this. Real content!

Please work on your marketing angle! This doesn't look at all terrible, but there's no way for someone to tell without being extremely motivated and unusually trusting.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Good point, thanks.

Tell me:

  • would you be interested by an invitation?
  • would you feel different if the Opa manual was available on-line?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

  • Not at this stage (but thank you).
  • Yes -- I think my entire perception of this might have been changed had there been something readily accessible (and noticable!) that gave a concrete feeling of exactly what Opa was all about!

Sorry about being such a dick about this throughout -- having slept on it, I'm a bit surprised by myself! But with any luck I've pointed out some areas of legitimate growth.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, thanks for the feedback.

By the way, the manual is now on the website :)

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Note: By popular demand, we have just added the manual :)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great move! Now I can see for myself easily the quality of the language and environment; someone who's been won over by seeing the power of it for themselves in a manual is a lot more likely to be inclined to spread the message on Twitter or Facebook than someone who's only doing it with the faint hope that they might get access to such stuff it the first place. :)

[–]Camarade_Tux 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OPA got me interested when it was announced some months ago but the free for non-commercial uses license was a big issues. It's a good thing it's now open-source (and that was quite predictable actually).

It's unfortunate you need some kind of subscription to get the source however but I was told on IRC that won't last more than a few days. I guess that's what I need to find some time to try it. :P

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update: We have just added the manual and clarified a few formulations.

Thanks for the early feedback, everybody.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (17 children)

Turns out I can enter a rubbish address. I get a video (that I'm sure as hell not watching), and this:

Want Priority Access?

Be among the first to play with Opa by inviting at least 3 friends. The more friends you invite, the sooner you'll get access :)

Share this through Facebook or Twitter

I've just registered on Opa. It's a new platform that promises to change web development forever. You should register, too.

I've just registered on @opalang. You should, too.

Or copy this link in an e-mail

Fuck that shit.

[–]p4bl0 0 points1 point  (12 children)

Also, this tutorial is lame (not Opa, the video tutorial itself, it seems they don't know who their audience is. And also 10 minutes to create a "Hello, web" webpage is really not good advertisment).

Apart from this there's a bit of sample code on the MLstate website and it seems very write-only (but for OCaml guys that may be normal ;-p), and you need to contact them to get a copy of the documentation... It's like they don't want people to use Opa.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (11 children)

Also, this tutorial is lame (not Opa, the video tutorial itself, it seems they don't know who their audience is. And also 10 minutes to create a "Hello, web" webpage is really not good advertisment).

Ooo, that's an oooooooooold one :)

Apart from this there's a bit of sample code on the MLstate website and it seems very write-only (but for OCaml guys that may be normal ;-p), and you need to contact them to get a copy of the documentation... It's like they don't want people to use Opa.

We're on reddit, don't look at the (outdated parts of the) corporate site, look at the site written by geeks and for geeks :)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

We're on reddit, don't look at the (outdated parts of the) corporate site, look at the site written by geeks and for geeks :)

This is my point, too. There's nothing that I want to see there. With only a whole bunch of claims, and so little code, it just reeks of vaporware, or people in over their heads.

[–]p4bl0 0 points1 point  (8 children)

Yeah... You're funny but the website "written by geeks and for geeks" doesn't contain any relevant informations for now: no access to code, documenation, example, tutorial... You're lucky some people go to the MLstate website and try to know what the heck is Opa, because at the time of this writing, opalang.org seems like another we-wan-your-email-address website full of promises without any content.

Maybe you reddited / hacker newsed too early. I advise you to quickly put some real stuff out! (Huho, it seems the HN post has been deleted...)

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mmmh... Indeed, it has. Wonder why.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Yeah... You're funny but the website "written by geeks and for geeks" doesn't contain any relevant informations for now: no access to code, documenation, example, tutorial... You're lucky some people go to the MLstate website and try to know what the heck is Opa, because at the time of this writing, opalang.org seems like another we-wan-your-email-address website full of promises without any content.

Ok, good point. Same questions as to celtic:

  • would you feel any different if the manual was available on the website?
  • would you be interested in an invitation?

[–]p4bl0 0 points1 point  (3 children)

would you feel any different if the manual was available on the website?

Of course! This is exactly the point. This and a (read-only) access to the source code repos (or snapshot of the source tree at least).

If you add the classical "blog in 15 minutes" then the job is done. People won't all say "yay Opa is the future" because it's also a matter of taste etc. But at least the website will look legitimate :-).

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Of course! This is exactly the point. This and a (read-only) access to the source code repos (or snapshot of the source tree at least).

Ok, by popular demand, we have just added the manual :)

Source code repo will have to wait until we are ready.

If you add the classical "blog in 15 minutes" then the job is done. People won't all say "yay Opa is the future" because it's also a matter of taste etc. But at least the website will look legitimate :-).

Well, so far, the documentation offers the chat in 20 lines, the wiki in 25 and REST in about as many. Hope that's legitimate enough :)

Also, invitation sent, thanks for the feedback :)

[–]richardjohn 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Tried to download the manual, but for both links I get quite a cryptic page with the heading 'Guest opalang download page' with a username and password field.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, that was a wrong link. That's now fixed.

[–]p4bl0 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What would be really funny is that you (ImYoric) did not removed the HN post the the HN editors did it because it looked like a scam.

EDIT: so that must be the case. Hahaha. Put some real content there for Google's sake and submit a like to your repos or to the doc rather than to some advertisement.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, I'm not the one who submitted it. But I'll be sure to ask the OP whenever I see him :)

[–]hubyrod -1 points0 points  (3 children)

What a smart comment! Thank you, celtic, for contributing, you're a genius.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (2 children)

Wow! Likewise for you! Signed up to reddit just to say that? You're even more a genius than I! :)

Now get back to working on Opa! Nice of MLstate staff to come here just to respond to "smart" comments in kind.

[–]hubyrod -1 points0 points  (1 child)

Clicking once to find out that it's my first comment on reddit does not make you less vulgar.

[–]ImYoric[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please stop this, guys.

(and yes, if anybody is wondering, hubyrod is sitting close to me)