Now this is exactly the kind of criticism we like to see.
Thanks so much for your comments, bootload. Thanks for the compliments on the parts you liked. We're with you on the blogging - it's a big part of writewith, but we're making a tool that's useful any time you're working on something with other people.
The stuff you found underwhelming is mostly near the top of our to-do list, but hearing what people want definitely helps us prioritize.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean about privacy details. We actually do let you delete your documents, if you go to the home page, and nobody can see what's happening in a document unless you invite them in. If there are other privacy features you want, we'd love to hear about it (get us at honchos@writewith.com)
Oh, and we do try to extract titles, but we might be missing some. If you're comfortable sending us a document where that didn't work, we'll take a look.
'... I'm not sure I understand what you mean about privacy details. We actually do let you delete your documents ...'
Hi Phil.
I just tried a simple set of tasks of an old file that I had (open office) and worked on it as I would each week. I remember reading your article a while ago on how you started, so I'm not surprised its so polished. Re-reading the original parent article I missed the collaborative blogging bit.
So I took some time and tried some more stuff and it works fine. I wouldn't go overboard on the 'underwhelming bits' I mentioned (spelling - because real-time could hit you on the server & you could optomise. eg: Firefox 2 with spelling included on the textboxes). So what I found, was pretty factual for a single user working on a document.
'... I'm not sure I understand what you mean about privacy details ...'
The privacy deletion bit, I mentioned happened when I did a bit of a poke around in your licensing files [0]. It states you keep a copy but remove the viewing capability, but not remove the file. This could be a problem for users (it would for me) but I don't know.
'... but we're making a tool that's useful any time you're working on something with other people ...'
I didn't get to do this bit. I assume you differentiate the users additions to documents? Can 2 users work at the same time?
'... If there are other privacy features you want, we'd love to hear about it (get us at honchos@writewith.com) ...'
I'll add it to the todo list I have, can't promise ... gotta work on my product as well :) One thing I will add is, check flickr for the way they license their text/images (creative content).
Regs PR
Reference
[0] writewith, legal privacy, 'Your Preferences: ... If you close your Unimedia account, we will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable data. Content posted by you may remain on Writewith.com ...' ~ I interpret this as you can keep a copy of content!
The stuff you found underwhelming is mostly near the top of our to-do list, but hearing what people want definitely helps us prioritize.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean about privacy details. We actually do let you delete your documents, if you go to the home page, and nobody can see what's happening in a document unless you invite them in. If there are other privacy features you want, we'd love to hear about it (get us at honchos@writewith.com)
Oh, and we do try to extract titles, but we might be missing some. If you're comfortable sending us a document where that didn't work, we'll take a look.