I recently built a GitHub Markeplace [0] app Pull Reminders [1] and have been really impressed by GitHub's ecosystem strategy. They seem to taking lessons from Slack's success and doubling down on supporting integrators who provide valuable apps and features built on top of GitHub (ie. TravisCI, ZenHub). I hope this direction continues under new ownership.
GitLab on the other hand is focused on solving every facet of the development lifecycle within their core product. From their blog post about GitHub's acquisition:
> ... instead of integrating multiple tools together, we believe a single application, built from the ground up to support the entire DevOps lifecycle is a better experience leading to a faster cycle time.
It will be interesting to see how the different strategies play out.
Thanks Mike. I'm sorry I wasn't more specific. The feedback you've provided is actually very useful since we redesigned the page just last week with the things you mentioned in mind.
Overall, we're working on properly communicating to our particular audience/demographic... old school guys. We don't want to make our product look cheap but we also don't want it to look too expensive.
Generally speaking (Basecamp user here), I feel like there's too much noise and it's difficult for me to focus and navigate through what I need to get done daily.
I've struggled to find an efficient way to do this for years so I built an app for this... I still don't know how useful it is for people out there, and I haven't decided if it's worth turning into a product.
We actually started out by displaying user flows as flow charts... we quickly realized that flow charts are an inefficient way to display a comprehensive batch of sequential user actions and application flows. It IS easier to type outlines in a text editor than mess around with flow charts.
We transferred that realization to this web app.
Our user actions are linked to application screens, which gives you a good overview of how your user interacts with your application.
I came up with the idea for Yar Matey last fall when applying for housing at UIUC. Many incoming Freshmen peruse Facebook groups looking for roommates in order to avoid being randomly assigned one by the university. I found paging through Facebook discussion boards to be horribly inefficient and envisioned an app that combined Facebook’s omnipresence with focused functionality to aid in searching for roommates.
Yar Matey is a pirate-themed site where college students can find potential roommates. Built with Facebook Connect, the user experience is modeled around how students typically look for roommates on Facebook — select your school, fill out an easy survey, then look for roommates.
Randal (keyword monitoring) and Historian (user history/analytics) are fantastic tools -- I've been looking for something like this for a long time. Well done, and looks nice too :)
GitLab on the other hand is focused on solving every facet of the development lifecycle within their core product. From their blog post about GitHub's acquisition:
> ... instead of integrating multiple tools together, we believe a single application, built from the ground up to support the entire DevOps lifecycle is a better experience leading to a faster cycle time.
It will be interesting to see how the different strategies play out.
[0] https://github.com/marketplace [1] https://github.com/marketplace/pull-reminders/