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The app would include a database (perhaps sqlite), so that shouldn't be an issue unless I'm misunderstanding you. you can host it for free on replit already (al

The app would include a database (perhaps sqlite), so that shouldn't be an issue unless I'm misunderstanding you. you can host it for free on replit already (albeit with sleeping/cold starts)

pdonis 6y ago
> The app would include a database (perhaps sqlite) Meaning an sqlite database hosted with the app's code? How will "host it for free" scale when your app goes viral and you have a million plus (or a billion plus) users?
- jacobobryant 6y ago
  It'll scale because it's self-hosted. You don't serve everyone with the same app instance; everyone runs their own instance.
  - pdonis 6y ago
    > It'll scale because it's self-hosted. You don't serve everyone with the same app instance; everyone runs their own instance. So everyone has their own free hosting account with repl.it and runs an app instance on it? Yes, technically that's "free" as in "no cost", but it's not "free" as in "no effort". The latter is the kind of "free" that Facebook users expect.
    - jacobobryant 6y ago
      It's hardly more effort than making a Facebook account, and replit is still young--it's only going to get easier.
      - pdonis 6y ago
        > It's hardly more effort than making a Facebook account I'm not talking about the effort involved in opening an account. I'm talking about the effort involved in managing one's own instance of an app. That is not zero, and nobody, not repl.it or anyone else, can magically make it zero. But it is zero for Facebook users, because they aren't managing anything; Facebook is. If, OTOH, your idea is that repl.it does all the managing (what happens if the server hosting the app goes down? how is the data backed up? etc., etc.), then we're back to the scaling problem: how do you scale that to a huge number of users without either not being free, or adopting the same business model that Facebook has (the avoiding of which was supposed to be the reason for doing all this in the first place)?

The app would include a database (perhaps sqlite), so that shouldn't be an issue unless I'm misunderstanding you. you can host it for free on replit already (albeit with sleeping/cold starts)

pdonis 6y ago

> The app would include a database (perhaps sqlite) Meaning an sqlite database hosted with the app's code? How will "host it for free" scale when your app goes viral and you have a million plus (or a billion plus) users?

jacobobryant 6y ago
It'll scale because it's self-hosted. You don't serve everyone with the same app instance; everyone runs their own instance.
- pdonis 6y ago
  > It'll scale because it's self-hosted. You don't serve everyone with the same app instance; everyone runs their own instance. So everyone has their own free hosting account with repl.it and runs an app instance on it? Yes, technically that's "free" as in "no cost", but it's not "free" as in "no effort". The latter is the kind of "free" that Facebook users expect.
  - jacobobryant 6y ago
    It's hardly more effort than making a Facebook account, and replit is still young--it's only going to get easier.
    - pdonis 6y ago
      > It's hardly more effort than making a Facebook account I'm not talking about the effort involved in opening an account. I'm talking about the effort involved in managing one's own instance of an app. That is not zero, and nobody, not repl.it or anyone else, can magically make it zero. But it is zero for Facebook users, because they aren't managing anything; Facebook is. If, OTOH, your idea is that repl.it does all the managing (what happens if the server hosting the app goes down? how is the data backed up? etc., etc.), then we're back to the scaling problem: how do you scale that to a huge number of users without either not being free, or adopting the same business model that Facebook has (the avoiding of which was supposed to be the reason for doing all this in the first place)?