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Ask HN: What should we do with 5+ year side-project?
Little background: In 2009/10, we(2 of us) thought it would be nice to practice bash commands from Windows using browser. www.webminal.org launched sometime in 2011. Never made serious attempts to market it. Based on user requests, later, we added partial superuser commands with help of openvz/docker. Last year (April-2015) we added paid account for VM Access.
Last 6-months or so, our motivation on this project is going down. Last few weeks, we became very selective in responding to user chat queries/email because our FAQ has answers for them.
Earlier, at-least I used to reply& remind the FAQ section.
Should we just freeze the project (add no feature simply because few user asked for it?) or simply shutdown & be glad at-least we helped few users or try something different as last attempt? thanks!
some stats:
Apr-2015: our user base like 18000+
May-2016: We have like 35000+ users. (thats like 583/month from 2011.)
Our total revenue from this project in the range $300-$500 so far. (yes,that's for 5+ years!!) And monthly expense is like $50.
- sharemywin 10y agocould you move it over to github as a public project?
- giis 10y agoYes,that's a excellent suggestion. We already have github repo, but didn't update them in last few years. Essentially make it as public project and let the community decide. ps: we use opensource terminal emulator named 'shellinabox' EDIT: We receive quite few queries from students/professor for pointers on similar setup. This suggestion will be excellent for those cases.
- emilburzo 10y agoNo helpful suggestions, I just wanted to let you know there are others still keeping side projects going for a long time, even if at a financial loss. Trying to offset that you only hear about the success stories.
- giis 10y agoTaking financial loss is fine. Only the reason i'm worried is like not responding to users (mails/queries). I think moving to public and let the users help themselves with the issue can be one option. It takes burden of me responding to all queries.
- SyneRyder 10y agoMy concern with "letting the users help themselves" is that you'll probably find you still get support requests anyway. I have pages of support documents on my website (eg how to install the program), and I get support requests not just for my own product, but asking how to install rival products! If moving to public will let you feel less guilty about not replying to emails, then its a good move. But if you think moving to public support will stop the flood of support emails, I think you'll be disappointed.
- giis 10y agothanks for sharing your experience. Yes, Its more of guilty thing. At-least in public, some user may point to re-peated FAQ-listed question themselves, rather than writing individually and pointing them to FAQ section.
- kevinsimper 10y agoIt sounds like you should shut it down as it drags you down more than it motivates you. Sometimes you just have to move on! Much has also happend with bash and windows since 2009, but you should keep your users email and let them know about your new adventures, this way you already have people that know you can deliver! :) Maybe it would motivate you to develop this in the public? Like having all issues and pullrequests open? Also your website does not mention your names at all, which makes it very non-personal. If you show the people behind, users can often relatet more on a personal level and know that is a small but healthy side project.
- giis 10y agothanks for the great suggestions. Couple of times we thought about adding our names and didn't do it. Let me add them first. Shutdown the project is a hard decision, considering the time-effort went into this project (may be personally attached to it?) but on the positive side, it gives lot of time for new projects too. Moving to Github and having PR/issues will provide motivation.
- kevinsimper 10y agoBut what are you looking for in this project? It is not really clear what your goals are, the project seems very broad. If the project is for everybody, then it is for nobody! I learned that the hard way myself. If you for example chose education specifically, then you can reach out to professors, because it doesn't sound like you're talking to your users. That will make it a lot easier!
- giis 10y agoIts started as simple educational project (commandline/bash) but the project scope got expanded as we tried new things (mysql,programming & admin!). I'll cut-down unnecessary features & make it narrow. thanks
- Avalaxy 10y agoRead Seth Godin's "The Dip". It recommends you to quit often, and focus on those things that you are dedicated to. The rest is just a distraction. Your project sounds like his description of a cul de sac, or a dead end. It's taking away your time and mental capacity to work on other stuff that you care about.
- giis 10y agothanks for the book suggestion, will read it. Even I felt project is near its dead-end :( and preventing me from other stuffs.