[SCdF]

I have no idea what this product does.

> Instantly create a secure URL to your Mac

OK so like a URL to... what? Screenshare? Access the HDD like dropbox? Do something else?

> Make changes in real time. Get feedback immediately. Effortless live previews.

Of what? About what? Of what?

> Nice cartoon picture of dog

/closes tab

Edit: reading the rest of the page it's still unclear what it does, or even why I'd want it. I guess I'm not the target audience?

[rwcorbett]

I had to look into the meta tags to get a better description: `<meta property="og:description" content="Effortless live publishing for web developers">`

so I guess the target audience is developers who do not know how to configure a web server, setup proxies or other means of testing webhooks maybe? maybe there is a market for a product like this but obviously I would not be target audience either...

[wuliwong]

I work for a small company and do lots of work that would be nice to just share with my boss through a service like this versus having to deploy. I think it's more for a testbed than a replacement for actual web servers.

[Deadron]

SSH remote port forwarding is your friend. You just need an ssh server somewhere thats publicly accessible.

[aynsof]

Hence this service which would appear to be much easier than setting up a persistent remote ssh server with port forwarding.

[kypro]

Check out ngrok. It's absolutely brilliant for what you're describing.

[wuliwong]

I remember doing it before from my macbook. I'm not sure if that's a feature or not in os x anymore?

[scrumper]

I went through the entire FAQ to try to figure this out. Best I can tell, it's a port forwarder so you can serve content from a firewalled Mac over the public internet.

[gregoriol]

Exactly this! So much focus on dog drawings and no clear word on what the product does!

[whoiskevin]

It was easy in one paragraph for me to tell what it does. Both the comments above seem like old people yelling "get off my lawn"

[tyingq]

Count me in with the old folks. I can't tell what this is. I read not only the home page, but the features and faq pages also. I can guess a bit, but it's still fuzzy.

[thrownaway954]

yep... this is why programmers make _the worst_ marketers. they market like they code... they think everyone who comes to their site can read their minds so they forgot that they need explain clearly what their product does.

[kwhitefoot]

> explain clearly what their product does

Before they even do that they should explain what it is for!

[youngdynasty]

Thanks for the feedback!

I was indeed trying to explain something technical (i.e. a tunneling service) in a non-technical way in an attempt to be friendly towards designers, but it seems like I still have some work to do on the product page.

[noxxten]

Try describing the process, that's usually what I look for at least when I'm looking at products/services/apps (I'm a designer). Briefly walk through how you can create a folder, throw files in, forward a domain/port, and then it's public. The best product pages I've seen offer a short brief like your current site does, but then also offers the very detailed technical bits behind a "read more" button or accordion. Best of both worlds that way I think.

[youngdynasty]

Thanks for your suggestion! I was hoping to perhaps put together a short video to show it off in action (it really is quite simple).

That said, it might actually be easier for me to use the "accordion" approach, as you suggested, My video editing skills are pretty limited and this is currently a side project of mine that's completely bootstrapped.

[mattsfrey]

I guessed what it did before even clicking the link, I would take this clap trap with a grain of salt - EDIT should note I actually use ngrok a lot for this so it clicked to me immediately - oh, ngrok with an app ui. I installed it as well. Long story short, your target audience will know what's up.

[youngdynasty]

Thanks for your positive input. HN can be brutal, but I have gotten some great feedback, even if it was hard to hear.

[ackfoo]

I often hear people proudly say, “I’m not technical...” but this is an anachronism. We live in a technical world now. If you’re not technical, you’re a dinosaur and you might as well die off. There’s no point pandering to dinosaurs.

The way you wrote your product page and app description is fascinating not because it was so oblique as to be completely meaningless, but because you appear to have been so thoroughly unaware of that fact.

This is an extremely common problem with technical documentation. We find pages and pages of description of frameworks and libraries created without simply answering the fundamental question, “What does this do?” And those pages could be easily replaced with one brief annotated example.

Technical people are often unaware that they have created a desert of meaning and substance.

[untog]

> There’s no point pandering to dinosaurs.

Err, yes there is, if they are willing to pay you money to simplify something they don't understand.

I agree that if you're not technical you're a dinosaur, but it turns out a good number of dinosaurs are still out there and they have money to spend. So why not cater to them while they're around?

[perfmode]

These people may not be your target audience.

Your product page made sense to me and might also make sense if your customers are web and mobile web developers

[mpweiher]

So maybe a replacement for the Back to My Mac feature that was removed (or is no longer supported) in Mojave?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_My_Mac