Crashed after pausing/stopping the recording

[diraneyya]

I am trying this open-source alternative to Loom but it seems to still crash right after ending the recording. This matches my first experience with it many months ago.

I am attaching the crash report from Mac OS X

cap_crashed_after_recording.txt

[linear]

CAP-441 Crashed after stopping the recording

[diraneyya]

Hello I discovered that I was pausing, and not stopping the recording. Now that I taught myself how to stop the recording like a human being. It works really nicely. The mic volume somehow is not loud enough but I will figure a way to fix it. I want to give you kudos for this great project

[diraneyya]

Okay now it really crashed after stopping the recording and not pausing it

cap_crashed_after_recording.txt

[diraneyya]

Crashed again.

I will stop trying to record a class for my students until you let me know if this is something we can overcome easily or if the software not actually ready to be used by end users.

cap_crashed_after_recording.txt

[diraneyya]

I also want to add something.

I am very passionate about open-source software, and I understand that maintaining software is very, very hard. I completely get it, you want to make money. It is evident in the UI, where it uses every opportunity to let me know of some premium feature that I might want to pay for. This is okay and I get it.

I think when this is not entirely okay, is when the software is barely usable. In such cases, I find it a little insulting to the end user. I know that you do not mean it in this way. But I guess what I am trying to say is, can you hold off, just a little bit, until you have something that you and your users can use reliably, and that delivers actual value, before aggressively eroding the usability on purpose to create an even greater appeal for a premium version of the software?

It gives me a bad impression but I try to be as understanding as I can of the need to make money.

Maybe tone it down a little bit until you have something stable, would be my biggest wish.

Monologue

I wrote these notes a day after I wrote the message above. They contain more thoughts and a monologue about what I think would be best for this great project.

An example of a similar project that I deeply admire is RustDesk. It is filling a huge gap in the community, I think a gap as big as Cap or much bigger. The software is very usable, but it is hard to contribute to. It can be fully hosted and used independently without any pressure to buy anything. At the same time, if I was a school and I decided to use it during periods of home schooling or with certain students, I would almost certainly contribute to it monthly.

If you make something truly useful that you and others use daily, you would constantly be filing issues, fixing issues, discussing with people filing issues, and when there are not many issues, you will be contributing financially to it.

If Cap becomes useful and I start using it as a teacher, I will most certainly be sponsoring it on GitHub as a bare minimum, while still wanting to use it locally on my computer, without a SaaS, without bullshit, just a program on my computer to record educational videos for myself and others.

Knowing that people want to publish their videos often, you can create a completely separate product, CapCloud, that quickly and conveniently receives the recording and allows the user to publish it with various visibility settings, as long as you keep the desktop app as clean and as usable as possible: no crashes, records well, saves well, no erosion of features to promote another version of the same software, and remove all the cheap attention stealers in the UI and all the SaaS subscription options. A single button Push to CapCloud is enough. Once clicked you can make your offer of charging so and so monthly for this convenience feature that does not erode the usability of Cap or clutter its interface. This would be my genuine recommendation to help Cap gain the momentum it deserves.

In steps:

• Make Cap reliable
• Remove all the nasty UI overselling features
• Convince a few YouTubers to use it and indicate their use of it
• Make it even more reliable
• Now that it has a good track record and wide user base, introduce CapCloud maybe with a slack notification feature for companies using slack allowing them to send each other Cap video messages very conveniently
• Now start advertising Cap + CapCloud to companies using Slack

Bottomline:

• Cap stays forever a Desktop application for recording videos with nice usability features
• Everything else that needs internet connectivity remains as a SaaS, closed source if needed

[diraneyya]

Smoother version by Claude.ai:

Cap crashed during recording session - blocking educational use

The application crashed again while I was attempting to record a class for my students. Given the frequency of these crashes, I need to pause using Cap for educational content until I can understand whether these stability issues can be resolved in the near term.

Crash details: [attached: cap_crashed_after_recording.txt]

Feedback on product direction

I want to share some constructive feedback as someone who's passionate about open-source software and understands the challenges of maintaining it.

I recognize the need to monetize open-source projects - that's completely understandable. However, I think there's an opportunity to refine the approach to premium features in a way that could actually increase adoption and revenue.

Current concerns:

• Frequent crashes impact basic usability
• Premium feature prompts feel premature given stability issues
• This creates friction for users who want to support the project

Suggested approach:

1. Prioritize core stability - ensure reliable recording and saving
2. Streamline the core experience - reduce UI clutter around premium features
3. Consider a separate product strategy - perhaps "CapCloud" for publishing/sharing features, keeping the desktop app focused on reliable local recording
4. Build trust first - once users rely on Cap daily, they're more likely to pay for convenience features

Reference point

RustDesk has achieved this balance well - fully functional as a standalone tool, with clear value propositions for paid services that don't compromise the core experience.

Conclusion

I believe Cap has tremendous potential and would be happy to financially support it once it becomes a reliable part of my workflow. A stable, focused desktop app with optional cloud publishing would be incredibly valuable for educators like myself.

Happy to discuss this further or provide more specific feedback on the user experience.

[richiemcilroy]

The pause and stop and finalize paths have been substantially hardened since this was reported. This specific crash is believed resolved, please re-test on the latest version and open a fresh issue with logs if it still crashes.