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Looking for product feedback from GitHub users

Hi Devs,

I'm hoping to get some feedback for my product Mergefly (mergefly.com). In a nutshell, I found GitHub's UI to be too limiting/frustrating to use when looking through repositories or especially when reviewing larger pull requests. More often than not, I would need more context about the code changes rather than just the immediate lines of code being updated and comment threads break up the code to make the change lines unreadable.

Mergefly is my solution to create a UI that I myself love to use and hopefully other developers will love too. We provide a file tree, full code context for every file/change, two different ways of viewing comments either as floating elements or in a sidebar, live updates, slack integration, multiple file views and multiple themes to name a few.

Right now, I could really use some feedback. Is this a tool that you would find useful or is it something that is "just nice to have"? Either way, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Mergefly works both on Desktop and Mobile and you don't have to create an account. Just login with your GitHub account and you are good to go!

Thanks so much everyone!

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    Howdy! I'm using Github in my day job as a developer. I had a look at mergefly, and here's some feedback:

    I found GitHub's UI to be too limiting/frustrating to use when looking through repositories or doing pull requests

    I think I don't share this frustration — I think the web UI is good enough nowadays. I like to think that keeping pull requests small and commits atomic helps a lot in opening and reviewing pull requests.

    I do some code reviews on repository level (coding assignments), which can be a bit painful, but Octotree plugin for browser helps a bit on the navigation. And if I need more, I can always clone the repository and then I have full VSCode on my hands.

    So I'm sorry but I don't see the immediate value in your product yet — perhaps I'm not even the right customer for you. But the product looks really polished and professional!

    Oh yeah, and I would not trust a "random" tool with full read+write access to my clients' repositories. So probably I'd need someone I trust to verify the trustworthiness of your app before fully trying it out

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      Hi Jehna,

      Thanks so much for your honest feedback! I really appreciate the well thought out and detailed response.

      I think I don't share this frustration — I think the web UI is good enough nowadays. I like to think that keeping pull requests small and commits atomic helps a lot in opening and reviewing pull requests.

      I think where Mergefly really differentiates itself is in how it handles larger pull requests. The main goal of Mergefly is to provide clarity around code changes and how comments are displayed. I'm sure you've had situations where you see a change and don't have a clear understanding just from reading the change as to why it was done that way? Or maybe there is a line of code that has a long conversation which breaks up the change and really makes it more difficult to read? Mergefly really shines in these situations by providing a better interface for handling comments and reviews.

      I am going to update my original post to hopefully reflect this a bit more.

      which can be a bit painful, but Octotree plugin for browser helps a bit on the navigation

      Would you be open to giving Mergefly a shot for a few pull requests? Maybe you will be pleasantly surprised :)

      I would not trust a "random" tool with full read+write access to my clients' repositories. So probably I'd need someone I trust to verify the trustworthiness of your app before fully trying it out

      You are right we are asking for a lot when it comes to permissions, but I'm in a bit of a catch-22. GitHub API doesn't provide a way to get read-only access. It's either full permissions or nothing. (Here is an open GitHub issue about it: https://github.com/jollygoodcode/jollygoodcode.github.io/issues/6). Also, you give the same read+write permissions to Octotree in order for them to view your private repositories. What makes you trust them enough to give these permissions? Do you have any suggestions as to how I can move away from being just a "random" tool?

      Thanks again for the amazing feedback!

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