I have been a Ramamia user for several months and I hate to say it, but I think your execution may be holding you back. It's not flawless and it needs to be. In order to become viral you need raving fans and based upon the experience with my family you don't have that (yet).

I described my family's needs and got the recommendation for Ramamia here at hn. I think it's exactly what we need and I'm happy with it for the most part, but haven't seen the same feedback from my family members. Ramamia satisfies my 2 most important requirements perfectly: users don't need logins and passwords, and the site is maintained by anyone in the family, not just me.

I know this thread is not for specific feedback and I know that I'm a beta user, but I thought I'd share it anyway since it's so closely related. You guys have also done great work; you deserve to see my feedback in a thread like this instead of an email in case anyone else wants to build upon it...

- About half my family members (45 people) have never contributed to the site. I don't even know if they've ever even visited. I suppose this is normal, but I don't know.

- The biggest complaint is ease of use. Many members have left the comment "Enter a comment..." because they clicked the "Add Comment" button before entering their text. Then they're embarrassed and don't try again.

- When a link is emailed to someone, that link takes them to the post referenced, not the main page heading. All they can see is that post. It's not obviously apparent that by clicking on our family's name that you can go "Home". You should either put a giant "Home" button at the top, or better yet, just have all links go directly to the Home page. Chances are the referenced link is right at the top anyway.

- Although it's possible to attach text to a picture, it's not apparent how to attach text to an album, or if you even can.

- People have figured out how to post pictures or text, but not both in the same posting.

- The comments are not threaded (like here at hn) so it's tough to ask and answer questions and have conversations.

- Lots of people have forgotten how to get to the site. You might want to consider a giant sign, "In order to come back here to Ramamia, just click any link in any email from us."

- Some family members want to download and share pictures. I have explained that that's not what this site is for. Then they say, "Well then, we should use <xyz> instead." I don't know how to respond to them.

- I have 2 accounts for our family (just to see what everyone else sees). Several times I have posted but not gotten an email to the other account. I suspect this was a temporary glitch; it hasn't happened again.

Some of this may sound like nit-picking, but you really need to make it idiot proof. They keep having problems where I would never imagine. A family website must always be prepared for non-sophisticated users.

Also, I may be expecting too much of my family members. Maybe a lot of them just don't care. I suspect that's the nature of this beast, too.

I have been meaning to share this with you guys, but you know how it is, you get busy and then... It's just as well; use this community for feedback.

I don't want it to sound like it's all problems. Many family members have shared great pictures and many of us are thrilled. Several cousins have seen childhood pictures of their parents that they never saw before.

You guys are doing great work on something that really is important. You should have raving fans; I hope you get them.

If you contact me offline, I'll share email addresses with my family members that have had the most difficulty. Feedback from them may help you more than I ever could.