5 ms·

137 Rails ideas hacked together in 48 hrs

31 points by slay2k 17y ago

slay2k 17y ago
Inspiring, to say the least.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  It sure is! But here's a question: How do these "I hacked together 50 websites overnight" sites stack up in the long run ? I've gone through a couple of those lists now, including a large number of 'rate my startup' type posts on HN and usually when I visit them a couple of weeks later there is either nothing left of it or the site has been taken over by spammers. It's like with children, making them is easy, supporting them over their lifetime is hard, very hard. So, what's the story, how many of those 'one night hacks' make it in the long run ?
  - zapnap 17y ago
    Here are a couple previous winners: http://tastyplanner.com http://tastyplanner.com http://meetinbetween.us http://meetinbetween.us Both are still running and doing quite well. Although no one has made a million dollars on a Rumble exit quite yet, we're looking forward to the first one :). Maybe someone will buy us a steak for organizing the event heh.
    - zapnap 17y ago
      Here are a few more: * http://prioritizd.com http://prioritizd.com * http://bidbuildbill.com http://bidbuildbill.com * http://jot.ly http://jot.ly * http://imatightwad.com http://imatightwad.com * http://qflip.net http://qflip.net * http://trackclass.com http://trackclass.com * http://whatdoesthiserrormean.com http://whatdoesthiserrormean.com * http://remindr.info http://remindr.info * http://www.riverdex.com http://www.riverdex.com * http://www.learnbylikis.com http://www.learnbylikis.com * http://so2speak.net http://so2speak.net * http://pictmeme.com http://pictmeme.com * http://ndebted.com http://ndebted.com * http://pricepounce.info http://pricepounce.info
      - slay2k 17y ago
        Just curious, zapnap, but I didn't see any useful information on the site about finding partners. I saw a list of project suggestions and interested people, but none of finding partners local to your area, or how the existing teams found or knew each other..
        zapnap 17y ago
        That's a great question. Up to this point we've really assumed that most people come to the table with a team or potential teammates already in mind. One thing we could certainly do better in the future is providing mechanisms through which teams can find collaborators (they don't need to be in their area though, of course, since the competition is completely virtual). If you check the discussion list and do some Twitter searches you'll find that many teams advertised that they were looking for collaborators that way. Still, probably not the best mechanism for that.
        thismat 17y ago
        I commend you on this and wish I had known about it sooner. What a great way to allow people to practice so many skills and have so much fun as well. To expand on the previous post and your post as well, some sort of "team finder" would be really cool. Great, great job.
tvon 17y ago
pet peeve: having to scroll a page to find the 'close' link on a lightbox.
- javaru 17y ago
  Just click outside the lightbox, this works 90% of the time.
johnbender 17y ago
Really impressed by some of the ideas and execution. Great stuff.
Tichy 17y ago
Some cool projects. However, a small tagline would help a lot with browsing the list. Edit: just saw that the long list has descriptions.
vaksel 17y ago
i bet a lot of people cheated, no way some of those ideas only took 48 hours to develop
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- cubicle67 17y ago
  It's not obvious if your comment is serious or tongue in cheek. Prior to the competition, teams can prepare as much as they like, with pretty much the only proviso being no creation of any digital artifacts. This means no code and no digital artwork can be created before the 48hrs starts, but teams are allowed to do as much non-digital (ie. pencil and paper) prep as they deem necessary. Sure, there's room for people to cheat if they wish, but I think it's disingenuous to throw out a "i bet a lot of people cheated" comment instead of perhaps crediting them with good planning, hard work and skill.
cubicle67 17y ago
A few notes from someone (me) who competed: * Extremely well run. zapnap, if you're ever in Perth, I'll buy you a steak. awesome job guys. * There's a comment about the longevity of the entries here. Can't speak for others, but I entered just for fun and for the experience. I built something quick and simple that I planned to throw away, however... * The quality of the feedback was fantastic. The criticism my app received was very constructive (and justified :), but there was also some very positive feedback, enough that I'm going to take what I've created, keep working on it and keep it going. I entered as a solo entrant, and my app was pretty simple but there's so much I learnt; for example, setting up a server. I've never done this before (always had someone else to do it for me), but I've had to learn how to get everything up and running from nothing. Too me a stupidly long time to do, but I had a great time doing it.
texel 17y ago
This was my first time competing and our entire team had an awesome time. We had the idea for quippopotamus for months, but Rails Rumble finally put the fire under our collective asses to actually build it. The organizers truly did an amazing job, and we can't wait for voting to end so that we can act on the feedback we've gotten and start making improvements.
jrockway 17y ago
Judging by how nice most of these sites look, I think this was more of a web design contest than a programming contest. Let's see the code.
- zapnap 17y ago
  You really want to make judging code a part of an innovation competition? I know some have gone that route. But personally, I can't think of a more subjective thing. Most commercially viable web applications find their success through execution of their idea and connecting with an end user audience. So it seems, to me, like the best way to judge their likelihood of success in the "real world" is by reviewing the end product rather than the integrity of the code. If they didn't write tests, if their authorization code is full of holes, if there are XSS vulnerabilities everywhere -- end users are going to find these. They're also going to comment on them, and these comments will affect other ratings and overall public opinion. I'm a developer myself and of course I have my opinions about the 'right way' to write code. But judging from that perspective isn't part of the contest for a reason. Not that it's wrong, it's just not the perspective that we're approaching it from.

31 points by slay2k 17y ago

slay2k 17y ago

Inspiring, to say the least.

jacquesm 17y ago
It sure is! But here's a question: How do these "I hacked together 50 websites overnight" sites stack up in the long run ? I've gone through a couple of those lists now, including a large number of 'rate my startup' type posts on HN and usually when I visit them a couple of weeks later there is either nothing left of it or the site has been taken over by spammers. It's like with children, making them is easy, supporting them over their lifetime is hard, very hard. So, what's the story, how many of those 'one night hacks' make it in the long run ?
- zapnap 17y ago
  Here are a couple previous winners: http://tastyplanner.com http://tastyplanner.com http://meetinbetween.us http://meetinbetween.us Both are still running and doing quite well. Although no one has made a million dollars on a Rumble exit quite yet, we're looking forward to the first one :). Maybe someone will buy us a steak for organizing the event heh.
  - zapnap 17y ago
    Here are a few more: * http://prioritizd.com http://prioritizd.com * http://bidbuildbill.com http://bidbuildbill.com * http://jot.ly http://jot.ly * http://imatightwad.com http://imatightwad.com * http://qflip.net http://qflip.net * http://trackclass.com http://trackclass.com * http://whatdoesthiserrormean.com http://whatdoesthiserrormean.com * http://remindr.info http://remindr.info * http://www.riverdex.com http://www.riverdex.com * http://www.learnbylikis.com http://www.learnbylikis.com * http://so2speak.net http://so2speak.net * http://pictmeme.com http://pictmeme.com * http://ndebted.com http://ndebted.com * http://pricepounce.info http://pricepounce.info
    - slay2k 17y ago
      Just curious, zapnap, but I didn't see any useful information on the site about finding partners. I saw a list of project suggestions and interested people, but none of finding partners local to your area, or how the existing teams found or knew each other..
      - zapnap 17y ago
        That's a great question. Up to this point we've really assumed that most people come to the table with a team or potential teammates already in mind. One thing we could certainly do better in the future is providing mechanisms through which teams can find collaborators (they don't need to be in their area though, of course, since the competition is completely virtual). If you check the discussion list and do some Twitter searches you'll find that many teams advertised that they were looking for collaborators that way. Still, probably not the best mechanism for that.
        thismat 17y ago
        I commend you on this and wish I had known about it sooner. What a great way to allow people to practice so many skills and have so much fun as well. To expand on the previous post and your post as well, some sort of "team finder" would be really cool. Great, great job.

tvon 17y ago

pet peeve: having to scroll a page to find the 'close' link on a lightbox.

javaru 17y ago
Just click outside the lightbox, this works 90% of the time.

johnbender 17y ago

Really impressed by some of the ideas and execution. Great stuff.

Tichy 17y ago

Some cool projects. However, a small tagline would help a lot with browsing the list. Edit: just saw that the long list has descriptions.

vaksel 17y ago

i bet a lot of people cheated, no way some of those ideas only took 48 hours to develop

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
cubicle67 17y ago
It's not obvious if your comment is serious or tongue in cheek. Prior to the competition, teams can prepare as much as they like, with pretty much the only proviso being no creation of any digital artifacts. This means no code and no digital artwork can be created before the 48hrs starts, but teams are allowed to do as much non-digital (ie. pencil and paper) prep as they deem necessary. Sure, there's room for people to cheat if they wish, but I think it's disingenuous to throw out a "i bet a lot of people cheated" comment instead of perhaps crediting them with good planning, hard work and skill.

cubicle67 17y ago

A few notes from someone (me) who competed: * Extremely well run. zapnap, if you're ever in Perth, I'll buy you a steak. awesome job guys. * There's a comment about the longevity of the entries here. Can't speak for others, but I entered just for fun and for the experience. I built something quick and simple that I planned to throw away, however... * The quality of the feedback was fantastic. The criticism my app received was very constructive (and justified :), but there was also some very positive feedback, enough that I'm going to take what I've created, keep working on it and keep it going. I entered as a solo entrant, and my app was pretty simple but there's so much I learnt; for example, setting up a server. I've never done this before (always had someone else to do it for me), but I've had to learn how to get everything up and running from nothing. Too me a stupidly long time to do, but I had a great time doing it.

texel 17y ago

This was my first time competing and our entire team had an awesome time. We had the idea for quippopotamus for months, but Rails Rumble finally put the fire under our collective asses to actually build it. The organizers truly did an amazing job, and we can't wait for voting to end so that we can act on the feedback we've gotten and start making improvements.

jrockway 17y ago

Judging by how nice most of these sites look, I think this was more of a web design contest than a programming contest. Let's see the code.

zapnap 17y ago
You really want to make judging code a part of an innovation competition? I know some have gone that route. But personally, I can't think of a more subjective thing. Most commercially viable web applications find their success through execution of their idea and connecting with an end user audience. So it seems, to me, like the best way to judge their likelihood of success in the "real world" is by reviewing the end product rather than the integrity of the code. If they didn't write tests, if their authorization code is full of holes, if there are XSS vulnerabilities everywhere -- end users are going to find these. They're also going to comment on them, and these comments will affect other ratings and overall public opinion. I'm a developer myself and of course I have my opinions about the 'right way' to write code. But judging from that perspective isn't part of the contest for a reason. Not that it's wrong, it's just not the perspective that we're approaching it from.