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Ask HN: Do you have a Not Invented Here mentality?

2 points by waterside81 16y ago

This question is aimed more at programmers than non-programmers. First a bit of background: We have a lot of landing pages that are unique to a particular Ad Group on Google AdWords. When it comes to tracking which ads/keyword/landing page combinations lead to better conversions, I find it tedious to setup all of the tunnels and Goals on Analytics. Reporting is just as tedious, too. I've instead just built in some of my own tracking using Django and my PostgreSQL database. I find I can report on things much more readily and I don't have to futz around with web interfaces that are slow and cumbersome. So my question is, how often do you find yourself developing a solution yourself, as opposed to having to learn or adapt to a 3rd party's system?

viraptor 16y ago
It depends a lot on the complexity of the system, but I have a rule of thumb: if after 2-3 days I cannot get a minimal prototype of something I want to achieve (this doesn't include running attached examples), it's time to reconsider. Maybe the interface is too different, maybe the system was not designed for what I need, or maybe it's good but we simply have to spend more time on it. Then again, maybe we learnt enough to write our own solution instead.