OurBoard

Productivity

online whiteboard

SHOW HN2021

178points
58comments
#267of 2,533 in 2021
Top 11%of 2021 by points

How HN took it

RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical

5 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 15 critical, out of 26 comments about the project. Thread score -0.45.

Idea: 3 for, 4 againstExecution: 0 for, 6 againstDesign: 0 for, 3 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Simple, clean interface

    From 2 comments
    • Congrats for reaching this state. I really like the clean and simple interface. What I am missing are a few more sentences about hosting. I saw the documentation about the…
      arendtio on HN
    • Looks cool! Like the super plain appearance and simplicity. Would suit to screencasts and quick diagrams, while OurBoard is more of a collaboration tool, I’d say.
      nullzzz on HN
  • Open source and self-hostable

    From 2 comments
    • this no doubt appeals to a certain niche (of which I'm a part of), but this (along with open source) is a massive benefit. Thanks so much!
      freedomben on HN
    • Thanks! The goal is simplicity, so it doesn't attempt feature parity with a more comprehensive tool like yours. Collaboration features, along with any features that can't be…
      jncraton on HN

Objections

  • No freehand drawing or pen tool

    From 3 comments
    • No pen tool sorry! Change log is not fully functional. Whiteboarding maybe a bit misleading here. Let’s call it a sticky note wall, with images and connectors?
      nullzzz on HN
    • That's a good point. It's definitely not a drawing tool. More of an electronic version of post-it notes and images on a whiteboard. You can "draw" diagrams using shapes and…
      nullzzz on HN
    • Images can be drag/dropped or copy pasted onto the board. Freeform drawing is not supported.
      nullzzz on HN
  • Not mobile friendly

    From 2 comments
    • It’s not mobile friendly at all though
      nullzzz on HN
    • Even the home page is mangled on my iPhone SE 2nd edition
      spzb on HN
  • Back button navigation broken

    From 2 comments
  • Grey background and sticky notes feel unlike a whiteboard

    From 2 comments
    • And it's grey. This is in no way a whiteboard, it's a grey wall for post-its.
      remram on HN
    • Title says whiteboard. Can't draw on it. Hmmm. This is more like a free-form Trello board.
      butwhywhyoh on HN

Requests

  • Freehand drawing

    From 2 comments
    • Can you comment quickly on what state it's in? What features does it support? What does it offer that you wouldn't get with Miro or Mural? What are some features you might miss…
      easygenes on HN
    • I work with physicists and circuit designers. To us, "whiteboard" is synonymous with freeform drawing...
      boothby on HN
  • Fix mobile layout

    From 1 comment
    • Especially the home page is a total disaster :( The actual board view is read-only usable. This is definitely a fixer. Wanna contribute? :)
      nullzzz on HN
  • Pan the minimap view rectangle by dragging

    From 1 comment
    • I'm mildly surprised that the view rectangle in the "mini-map" in the bottom right is not draggable with the usual semantics of panning the view. Or at least if it's supposed to…
      jhgb on HN
  • Clearer tool labels and hover text

    From 1 comment
    • The hover text for "note" and "area" both say "drag to add a new text note". Then the one for "text" says "drag to add a new text area". I'm not sure if that's on purpose, but…
      tyingq on HN

Questions

  • How to run in production

    From 1 comment
    • Congrats for reaching this state. I really like the clean and simple interface. What I am missing are a few more sentences about hosting. I saw the documentation about the…
      arendtio on HN
  • How it is used for whiteboarding

    From 2 comments
    • I think I'm missing something. How do you use it for whiteboarding? Where is the pen tool? Also, is the change log in a working state? I can't seem to make it show anything. Is…
      mkl on HN
    • How do you use online whiteboards in you organization? (I've never tried)
      cutemonster on HN

Alternatives named

  • Excalidraw

    From 2 comments
    • I have tried quite a few online whiteboards during the pandemic WFH. IMHO nothing comes close to https://excalidraw.com No signup needed, clean interface, fast load times and an…
      indianhippie on HN
    • I like Excalidraw too, but in my opinion OurBoard has a different focus. - Excalidraw is superb if you want to draw something freestyle. - Ourboard seems to focus more on…
      arendtio on HN
  • Miro

    From 2 comments
    • This is my open-source project. I use it almost daily for simple whiteboarding, notetaking, online whiteboard sessions. The idea is to have a simple and highly usable, fast…
      nullzzz on HN
    • That looks really sharp! I’ve been very pleased with Miro for corporate use though.
      brightball on HN
  • FigJam

    From 1 comment
    • Looks cool, unfortunately Figma already did the perfect solution called FigJam and it’s absolutely awesome and free.
      ianberdin on HN
  • Padlet

    From 1 comment
    • This is great, congrats for shipping. It also reminds me a bit of Padlet in that there is no freehand drawing and the focus is more around connections between objects. Maybe it…
      tikwidd on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

Add a badge to your READMEShown on HackerShow
[![Shown on HackerShow](https://hackershow.org/badge.svg)](https://hackershow.org/show/28808556)