Today, we launch our little app out of public beta and into the big, bright world of paid-for web apps for software teams. When we started building PlayNice.ly just over a year ago, the conversations used to go something like this:
“So, what are you doing these days?”
“We’re working on a start-up!”
“Cool! What are you making?”
“A bug tracker!”
“ … Oh.”
Until they learned what we were doing differently, not many people could get themselves enthused about a bug tracking app, and honestly, I didn’t blame them. Most bug trackers are so sub-optimal that given the choice, many small teams opt to track their bugs in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Why? Because it’s lightweight, it’s web-based, it’s easily shared and it’s easy to use. Ultimately, of course, it’s still just a spreadsheet, so not massively suited to the pass-and-play style of collaborative software development. Which is why we scratched our own itch by starting PlayNice.ly.
We needed a bug tracker, so we tried out a few options and discovered that each one was more dismal than the last. We couldn’t find a single tool that was fast, fun, easy to use, and above all, fun. Did I mention fun? Bug tracking is a chore and any bug tracker that adds unnecessary layers of chores to the initial chore is, frankly, missing the point.
The bug tracker you use is important. It’s as important to your overall flow and happiness as a comfy work environment, a good supply of fresh air and sunshine and a steady stream of caffeinated beverines. This philosophy underpins everything we do in shaping PlayNice.ly and it’s the reason we keep the app focused on doing a few simple things incredibly well.
PlayNice.ly is entering what looks like a saturated market. The truth is the market is saturated - with bloated, sluggish bug trackers that do more to slow you down than speed you along. PlayNice.ly is here to change that. Start your 30-day free trial today and see the difference for yourself.
We’re rapidly approaching the long-awaited day when we’ll exit beta and start charging for the app – which will be in the next week or so.
Our pricing structure is tiered according to the number of projects per plan. All projects come with unlimited users, as well as the rest of the fast and efficient feature-set that makes PlayNice.ly a damn fine bug and issue tracker.
Here’s a sneak peek at our pricing plans: Continue reading →
Good news! PlayNice.ly has been nominated for an award in The Europas 2010 awards in the category of Best European Tool For Start-Ups.
The Europas is TechCrunch Europe's way of honouring Europe's best tech companies and startups across the web and mobile scene. The winners are chosen through a combination of public votes and those cast by a panel of judges.
PlayNice.ly is still a very young product which has only been in beta for 5 months. That said, we have worked very hard to build an excellent tool which developers love, so we are extraordinarily proud to be nominated. If you think PlayNice.ly rocks, please vote for us. 
We have been covering some fairly complex Redis topics here so far, so I thought it would be nice to do a good ol’ getting started guide. This should get you on your feet with Python and Redis on Ubuntu Linux. So, fire up a terminal window and get going!
Getting Redis installed & running
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When PlayNice.ly was about to enter private beta we had a decision to make: should we add support for IE?
Adam and I had skirted around the issue whilst developing the initial version of the app (read: we both program on Macs and never had time to test it on IE) but we had a few murmurings asking why the app didn’t work in IE. Take a look at our pre-launch blog statistics (we had a few posts on Hacker News and ran a small adwords campaign)
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We are very pleased to announce that the next London Redis Meetup will be held on October 27th at The Guardian. As a special bonus, Redis creator Salvatore Sanfilippo has kindly agreed to fly over to give a talk on the upcoming Redis Cluster implementation, as well as answer your questions. A big thank you to VMWare for sending him over from Italy.
Sound good? RSVP quickly as we only have a limited amount of space. If you would like to help, we still need:
- Sponsorship. We are looking for an organisation to sponsor the beer and pizza for lots of geeks and techies (probably in the region of a couple hundred pounds). Please let us know if you are interested.
- Presentation ideas. Are you doing something really cool with Redis? Give us a shout.
- Tweets and upvotes. A tweet or an upvote (Hacker News) to help promote the meetup would be much appreciated. Thank you!
We are really looking forward to this one, it is promising to be a great evening!
As you may know, the Libyan government has taken action against at least one .ly domain in recent days. We wanted to write a quick blog post to assure our users that we are keeping a close eye on the situation. Here is what we know so far: Continue reading →
It's a little late in coming, but here it is: the first in our weekly change log posts to accompany our weekly releases, starting with Release 9, code-named McGann. The eight previous releases we didn't tell you about were Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Tom, Davison, Colin, McCoy and, er... McGann. (Don't ask). Spotted the pattern yet? Continue reading →
Almost a year to the day that we wrote the first line of code, PlayNice.ly has entered public beta. Woohoo!
With that, we have a few announcements.
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It’s been pretty quiet around here lately, but that’s only because all the action has been happening on The Playground.
We made a major update to PlayNice.ly last week, with the release of a few new features and many bug-fixes. We now support the much-anticipated integration with GitHub and Subversion. Continue reading →
