[DenisM]

One problem we have witnessed with Dropbox is that low-tech users tends to delete files they don't personally need. Often times this causes deletion of the files for the entire company. Resultingly admins are afraid to share file access with users, and users are afraid to cause problems, so they ask admins to email the files instead, which sort of puts you back at the square one.

We might be approaching a point where different different kinds of users and maybe different verticals will be able to justify separate file sharing apps. Or even all other apps, for that matter.

[rogerbinns]

Dropbox need to do a lot better job on space usage. It is trivial for Dropbox accounts to end up with more usage than many common devices have (cough MacBook Air cough). We had managers deleting content to free up space, not realising that deleted it for everyone. I guess their mental model is seeing the Dropbox folders as more of a cache than synced files affecting everyone.

Yes, there is selective sync. Now use it to reduce consumption by 10GB. It requires lots of non-Dropbox tools to try to achieve that. They do need an alternate way similar to hierarchical storage that brings in files as you need/reference them, rather than everything.

[justinpaulson]

This is entirely my problem with dropbox. I can't even use the desktop client on my Macbook Air because of the terribly limited space, and my Macbook Air is where I want to be able to use cloud storage the most. What is the point in cloud-based storage if I have to have copies of all of the files on all my computers!?

[mattlutze]

It used to be a big pile of something-or-other, but the newest iteration of SharePoint is really quite a solid product, particularly for some of the trickier tasks around document management and distribution. And with the Office 365 versions, smaller businesses don't need to worry about building out the physical resources (or hiring the admin personnel) to run an instance.

It might be something to ask your IT folks if they've considered recently.

[DenisM]

That's a good point. Sharepoint might have solved some of these problems, but I have made my bet in the opposite direction - my startup is making and selling a vertically-tailored content distribution system; it distributes the structured data via vertical-specific "apps", and the (as of yet) unstructured data as generic "documents" - a simplified,'locked down "dropbox" functionality . So, while Sharepoint is good for everyone, our system is great for the select few it's aimed at.

There are two large trends making it possible:

1) It gets cheaper to make software.

2) Technology becomes cheaper and more prevalent in the hands of the end users, especially mobile tech, thus increasing the addressable market size.

Resultingly, it becomes viable to create distinct software for separate user groups. This is a trend reversal from the previous 20 years, when different groups of users were trying to use the same piece of software. As the "universal" software gets more complex, it requires more customization, so its the usability is eroding (see: dropbox file deletion problem). A tailored solution is inherently more user-friendly. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it! :)

[mattlutze]

Well, using a dropbox like a content management system is the issue in the case in your OP, really... it's a file synchronization and storage tool :)

I'd like to talk about what you're building, but I honestly couldn't understand what you said in that first paragraph, and I shill market-speak to corporate clients for (part of) a living. Could you give that another shot?

[DenisM]

Our clients are small and medium size manufacturers (e.g. furniture). They need to distribute data to their salesforce - catalogs, pricelists, pictures, credit application forms, assembly instructions, etc. 50 years ago they used paper for everything, 15 years ago they switched some document distribution to FTP - the documents which you don't need to close the sale, but those that must follow after (credit applications, assembly instructions). Then Dropbox came along, and half of them jumped to replace FTP with that. FTP has its own problems, DB has its own. You're right in that it's a wrong tool for the job, but that's what they use for the (perceived) lack of better alternatives. My point is that Dropbox is often times used where it doesn't fit, so there is plenty of room for competition in the "file-sharing" space, which is counterintuitive - one would think that Dropbox owns the space by now.

Going back to my first paragraph... What is the minimally viable content management and distribution system (CM/DS) for such business? It's a Dropbox that doesn't let "subscriber" users delete files (and is otherwise friendly to low-tech "subscriber" users). The sales manager will load it with PDFs and JPGs and Excels, and the sales reps will then get the files and use them. That's MVP. What is the ideal system? Rather than distributing the product catalog as a pile of JPG and Excel files you would want to distribute a native catalog application where the list of clients is well-organized, history of the past orders is right there next to each client, all products are neatly categorized, and it's easy to build a new order with all the math done for you. In other words, rather that treating content as opaque files, this CM/DS is keenly aware of the inner structure of the data and about the workflow surrounding use of that data. This awareness begets usability and accuracy. That's the vertical-specific CM/DS I am talking about.

Does this make more sense now?

[mattlutze]

Yeah, I think it was the liberal use of "vertical" in your elevator pitch that made it confusing.

You're building a one-way file sharing app.

The other things you're talking about, is your goal to build a point-of-sale or sales management system? What's your goal for differentiating yours against a relatively broad market? A cheap, low-feature alternative to the biggers CRMs and Sales systems could certainly provide a service.

For example, how does your vision compare with the customer management, inventory, product development, etc. from Square: https://squareup.com/ ?

[DenisM]

We're primarily wholesale, not retail, so it's not POS and not competing with Square on any level. Not yet, anyway.

A better comparison is SAP - the data management that we provide can be done in SAP for a few million dollars, but if you happen to be in the vertical we're targeting, like furniture, and have modest needs, you can go wih us for two orders of magnitude less, and it takes only hours to set up because it's tailored to the vertical. That is the differentiator - vertical tailoring makes it quick and cheap to install.

I've been in it so deep for so long, it's surprisingly difficult to explain...

[steven777400]

This is a confusing case even for non "low-tech" users. I had a shared dropbox folder with a friend. I was done with my copy of the files, so I deleted them because I was close to my dropbox space limit. He freaked out because dropbox then deleted them from his drive too. In retrospect, I guess it makes sense, but the idea that a delete would propagate was certainly not the expected behavior.

[lazzlazzlazz]

If Dropbox synchronizes folders, including edits made to files, why wouldn't it synchronize a delete? If the expected behavior would be that it propagates anything but a deletion, that would be truly bizarre and confusing wouldn't it?

[steven777400]

Sure. It makes absolute sense, but it wasn't the behavior either of us expected. You could easily, and rightfully, say that our expectations were wrong and inconsistent. I deal with frustratingly inconsistent customer expectations all the time, so I sympathize when I'm on the other side of the table. Just an anecdote point.

Edit: To be more clear, I expected the behavior that SVN gives me, which is that a change is pending to commit by default, but an add or delete isn't. I have no good explanation for why I expected dropbox to behavior like SVN.

[DenisM]

Unlike high-tech users, low-tech users end up permanently scarred. They are also afraid of looking dumb, which compounds the problem. Dropbox has incurred significant, if hidden, usability debt.