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Is this what HN has come to? Upvoting low effort posts with cookie cutter programming templates? This is the kind of garbage that constantly gets posted to all

Is this what HN has come to? Upvoting low effort posts with cookie cutter programming templates? This is the kind of garbage that constantly gets posted to all programming subreddits to everyone's dismay, and usually gets downvoted to oblivion, as it should. Here's a protip: The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. Also.. SaaS with next? If you're building a SaaS application, you're probably building an API first and an application second. You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can.

that_guy_iain 5y ago
> The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. It really isn't.
Zababa 5y ago
> Here's a protip: The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. Why? Considering the mess that is JS development, it's nice to have projects like that to quickly evaluate some options. > Also.. SaaS with next? If you're building a SaaS application, you're probably building an API first and an application second. You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can. That sounds like a very specific vision of SaaS, one mainly aimed at programmers. That's not the only kind of SaaS out there.
smoldesu 5y ago
Reading this gave me a similar "beginning-of-the-end" vibe. Just last night I complained to my SO for hours about how B2B sales are going to destroy our current notion of the individual developer. I shudder to imagine what "development" will look like in 10 years: you pay Github $0.25 for access to your online dev environment, then $0.05 for each debug build and $0.50 for each release build? It sounds insane to frame things like that, but both Apple and Google have made it clear that they intend to move app compilation off-device. So yeah, I have a hard time seeing anything other than dystopia when I look at this. It's certainly not poorly made or developed in bad faith, but the optics and rhetoric around it really make me sick.
gptrv 5y ago
I just wanted to share my side-project of the last weekend. I've made it for myself first. It is a very opinionated template, made with the tools i like to use currently (Typescript, Prisma, Next.JS) I'll be happy if it's useful to someone else. I'm sad you found that it's garbage :(
- aerovistae 5y ago
  If it makes you feel better, he's dead wrong. Whenever I'm building a new software project I'm always thinking "God damn why do I have to start from scratch every time for the same things." I do really wish there were a well-established open source framework for bootstrapping projects with authentication and payments, something that was vetted by a lot of people though.
  - gptrv 5y ago
    My dream :)
- blowski 5y ago
  I like that you posted a useful template, but it is difficult to see why it's so much better than all the alternatives that it deserves the title "ultimate". Perhaps if it just said "Open-source template for bootstrapping a SaaS project" that would be better.
  - gptrv 5y ago
    This is the ultimate template for ME :)
    - blowski 5y ago
      My son is the most special thing in the world for me, but if I post his picture on a parents' forum saying "The ultimate child", I suspect some would disagree. It's a useful project, and I genuinely thank you for sharing it. That people are upvoting it and commenting positively on it gives me much more information than you saying it's "the ultimate".
jakelazaroff 5y ago
> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kjhughes 5y ago
The target market is much larger than your empty set dig suggests. There are very talented developers, often deeply technical and highly skilled in areas separate from the idiosyncrasies of building SaaS web apps, who appreciate a functional jump start in an area outside of their core competency. If your expertise extends to the areas covered by OP's SaaS template, consider offering suggestions rather than dismissing the (graciously shared) project's entire raison d'etre.
marcosdumay 5y ago
> The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. It's nice to start from something that is not an empty canvas. That said, I think this one mixes way too many independent opinions to be useful. Anyway, "I made a thing, what do you think" is a common kind of post here, and starting templates are something that attracts a lot of interest.
Trufa 5y ago
I don't know man, I find it pretty useful.
sergiomattei 5y ago
My God, it's just a cool weekend programming project. Calm down and tone down the elitist attitude. > You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can. How about you build a SaaS with whatever gets the job done? Could be a single PHP file as long as it ships.
joshmanders 5y ago
> Also.. SaaS with next? If you're building a SaaS application, you're probably building an API first and an application second. You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can. Oh no, someone tell rauchg and the rest of the Vercel team that they've not only built a terrible framework (next.js) but their using it to build Vercel is also bad because checks notes IceDane on HN said nobody does this.

that_guy_iain 5y ago

> The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. It really isn't.

Zababa 5y ago

> Here's a protip: The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. Why? Considering the mess that is JS development, it's nice to have projects like that to quickly evaluate some options. > Also.. SaaS with next? If you're building a SaaS application, you're probably building an API first and an application second. You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can. That sounds like a very specific vision of SaaS, one mainly aimed at programmers. That's not the only kind of SaaS out there.

smoldesu 5y ago

Reading this gave me a similar "beginning-of-the-end" vibe. Just last night I complained to my SO for hours about how B2B sales are going to destroy our current notion of the individual developer. I shudder to imagine what "development" will look like in 10 years: you pay Github $0.25 for access to your online dev environment, then $0.05 for each debug build and $0.50 for each release build? It sounds insane to frame things like that, but both Apple and Google have made it clear that they intend to move app compilation off-device. So yeah, I have a hard time seeing anything other than dystopia when I look at this. It's certainly not poorly made or developed in bad faith, but the optics and rhetoric around it really make me sick.

gptrv 5y ago

I just wanted to share my side-project of the last weekend. I've made it for myself first. It is a very opinionated template, made with the tools i like to use currently (Typescript, Prisma, Next.JS) I'll be happy if it's useful to someone else. I'm sad you found that it's garbage :(

aerovistae 5y ago
If it makes you feel better, he's dead wrong. Whenever I'm building a new software project I'm always thinking "God damn why do I have to start from scratch every time for the same things." I do really wish there were a well-established open source framework for bootstrapping projects with authentication and payments, something that was vetted by a lot of people though.
- gptrv 5y ago
  My dream :)
blowski 5y ago
I like that you posted a useful template, but it is difficult to see why it's so much better than all the alternatives that it deserves the title "ultimate". Perhaps if it just said "Open-source template for bootstrapping a SaaS project" that would be better.
- gptrv 5y ago
  This is the ultimate template for ME :)
  - blowski 5y ago
    My son is the most special thing in the world for me, but if I post his picture on a parents' forum saying "The ultimate child", I suspect some would disagree. It's a useful project, and I genuinely thank you for sharing it. That people are upvoting it and commenting positively on it gives me much more information than you saying it's "the ultimate".

jakelazaroff 5y ago

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

kjhughes 5y ago

The target market is much larger than your empty set dig suggests. There are very talented developers, often deeply technical and highly skilled in areas separate from the idiosyncrasies of building SaaS web apps, who appreciate a functional jump start in an area outside of their core competency. If your expertise extends to the areas covered by OP's SaaS template, consider offering suggestions rather than dismissing the (graciously shared) project's entire raison d'etre.

marcosdumay 5y ago

> The intersection of (people who are capable of building a SaaS application) and (people who need or want cookie cutter programming templates) is the empty set. It's nice to start from something that is not an empty canvas. That said, I think this one mixes way too many independent opinions to be useful. Anyway, "I made a thing, what do you think" is a common kind of post here, and starting templates are something that attracts a lot of interest.

Trufa 5y ago

I don't know man, I find it pretty useful.

sergiomattei 5y ago

My God, it's just a cool weekend programming project. Calm down and tone down the elitist attitude. > You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can. How about you build a SaaS with whatever gets the job done? Could be a single PHP file as long as it ships.

joshmanders 5y ago

> Also.. SaaS with next? If you're building a SaaS application, you're probably building an API first and an application second. You probably don't want to entangle this API with your frontend, even though you can. Oh no, someone tell rauchg and the rest of the Vercel team that they've not only built a terrible framework (next.js) but their using it to build Vercel is also bad because checks notes IceDane on HN said nobody does this.