7 ms·

Show HN: Save your side project

175 points by bitsweet 12y ago

pearjuice 12y ago
Somehow get the assembly newsletter once in a while and I have to say it's a great newsletter. Not because I am so interested in what assembly does but rather because the subject line is so compelling to click on. Almost like it's not a newsletter but a real email. I don't know whether it is the lowcaps which does the trick or the wording but it's nailing it.
- timdorr 12y ago
  That's probably because they dogfood and have a database of really good emails :) https://assembly.com/really-good-emails https://assembly.com/really-good-emails
  - sivaramom 12y ago
    I find most of the projects to require mostly Ruby/Rails/JavaScript stack.I guess its high time to learn Ruby/Rails. I am a java developer.Was hardly able to find any project here.
madflojo 12y ago
Can't say enough about how I feel about Assembly. It's such a great way to launch that idea you had but never got started.
hardwaresofton 12y ago
I don't know how I feel about this project. It feels like their product is a middleman, and sort of (maybe unintentionally) reinforces the idea that people "own" ideas... When I think about it, it's probably not actually different from just having an open collective that takes on ideas and builds them for clients for free, but this is a distinctively less personal feel... but 10% is (in my opinion) a pretty hefty amount of revenue to share for just hosting. If I'm understanding correctly, 10% revenue sharing for the simple value proposition of connecting you to people who want to build you app and hosting your app seems like too much. Maybe I'm just not open minded enough for this to seem like a great idea to me yet
- bitsweet 12y ago
  We're always looking at ways we can create more value for the community then the platform fee necessary to run it. Products on assembly benefit from administration of accounting, finances, legal, many operating costs (hosting) pre-profit, as well providing trust layer (with revenue) so that contributors on products know that if there is any success it will be fairly distributed to everyone. Most importantly there already is a community of other engineers, designers, and even creatives interested in helping with marketing/distribution. FWIW - other marketplaces often charge 30% or more (e.g. heroku, apple).
  - hardwaresofton 12y ago
    These are good points, especially the comparison with the other marketplaces, along with more informed breakdown of what you guys offer. I think the idea is novel (at least it is to me, I haven't seen another effort like it yet other than the open collective idea I mentioned earlier), and I think it's really interesting. Maybe I can try and describe the nagging feeling better: tldr - It feels like Assembly makes it easier for startups to be a machine with people-shaped cogs. I might also be completely wrong, and that is actually the better way to go (or the path that people will be happy to travel once they discover assembly) It feels like assembly is deconstructing the startup model (which is probably good and bad, maybe mostly good): - (+/- technical) founder => person with idea - initial dev team => contributors - VC => Assembly (w/ revenue share instead of equity) But I think that something gets lost in that deconstruction. The founders become "just" people with ideas, and not people who grew, nurtured and fostered a company/entity. I realize they are the core team, but learning all the accounting, finances, legal, and operating costs bits are kind of valuable to a budding founder. I may even go as far as to say that a person with an idea != a founder specifically because of the transformation that happens from having to deal with all that administration (otherwise known as running a company). Similarly for the dev team, they're invested... but I don't think they're as invested as they could be, or as part of the living breathing entity (figuratively) that is the company -- it's almost like being a freelancer/contract worker (more the disenfranchisement that might occur, I think, less the health benefits/other usual problems) And while the marketplace itself (Assembly) takes on quite a fair bit of risk in hosting the sites and providing all those services for free... I can't help but feel like the profit they may make comes at the cost of stunting the growth of a founder and her/his development team. If I could put it in a sentence, I might say that this system makes it easier to treat people as cogs. On the flip side, this could be a completely inane over-reaction, I may be on the wrong side of a trend that is about to be huge, and streamline startup culture in a big way.
derekp7 12y ago
Is this service basically for SAAS type projects that could potentially have a future revenue stream? Or is it also intended for regular open source standalone projects? I've got some stuff in the pipeline where I've been trying to find a way to get more exposure, so I can get people testing it giving me an idea of future development priorities. But I don't see any type of revenue stream, unless I sell support for the projects.
dogweather 12y ago
This is perfect timing for me. I have a project which is online and has users, yet is languishing because I just don't have time. (http://think200.com http://think200.com - Test-driven app monitoring.) I've been considering open-sourcing it and just hoping for the best. So this is a good alternative to investigate first.
- awwstn 12y ago
  Awesome. I'll follow up with you over email to chat about Think200 and how we can make it thrive.
  - dogweather 12y ago
    Thanks! If you create a project, you'll find a rock-solid request queue and user-feedback implementation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fz9c8bae97bqxi3/think200-queuing-demo.mov?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/fz9c8bae97bqxi3/think200-queuing-d... The app's about 85% done. I'm very open to how development can progress on this. That being said, I won't be offended if think200 doesn't fit Assembly's model.
whiddershins 12y ago
Is your focus web apps or would native mobile platforms be a candidate?
- awwstn 12y ago
  Pretty much any software product works. A few examples of mobile apps on Assembly: - http://getgigradio.com/ http://getgigradio.com/ - http://www.getripple.co/ http://www.getripple.co/ - https://assembly.com/meowboard https://assembly.com/meowboard
sideproject 12y ago
Apologies for a shameless plug. Should you ever find your side project un-savable - for a variety of reasons (commitment issue, personal, emotional, what-not), then you can always take your project to SideProjectors and let others take over. :) http://sideprojectors.com http://sideprojectors.com
- hrjet 12y ago
  I am interested in viewing, but a heads up: the site shows zero entries, even after enabling all first-party scripts and XHR requests. Not sure if third-party scripts are essential, but if they are, consider not depending on them.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- laurenmo 12y ago
  http://www.onoisms.com http://www.onoisms.com
stickperson 12y ago
Is there a way to filter by language?
- bitsweet 12y ago
  that is coming. We're releasing version 2 of the platform shortly
atarian 12y ago
How will you prevent ownership from being diluted by intentional (or even unintentional) inflation of future bounties?
- richthegeek 12y ago
  My experience with it a few months ago had this exact issue - there is no standardisation of bounties whatsoever. Initial work developing the API (10 hours of work, say) would be valued at 5000 credits but then after launch someone tweaking the color of a button might get set at 2000 credits. Perhaps there needs to be a review process for tasks that go through a list of per-project moderators? Both for reducing cruft, keeping focus on the currently-important stuff, and to normalise bounties across the project's lifetime. Alternatively, the bounties could be semi-invisible, instead with tasks assigned to various levels of difficulty and importance...
jv22222 12y ago
This project is very close to an idea I had in 2009 I really hope it takes off: http://justinvincent.com/page/tag/venture-matrix http://justinvincent.com/page/tag/venture-matrix

175 points by bitsweet 12y ago

Somehow get the assembly newsletter once in a while and I have to say it's a great newsletter. Not because I am so interested in what assembly does but rather because the subject line is so compelling to click on. Almost like it's not a newsletter but a real email. I don't know whether it is the lowcaps which does the trick or the wording but it's nailing it.

timdorr 12y ago
That's probably because they dogfood and have a database of really good emails :) https://assembly.com/really-good-emails https://assembly.com/really-good-emails
- sivaramom 12y ago
  I find most of the projects to require mostly Ruby/Rails/JavaScript stack.I guess its high time to learn Ruby/Rails. I am a java developer.Was hardly able to find any project here.

madflojo 12y ago

Can't say enough about how I feel about Assembly. It's such a great way to launch that idea you had but never got started.

hardwaresofton 12y ago

I don't know how I feel about this project. It feels like their product is a middleman, and sort of (maybe unintentionally) reinforces the idea that people "own" ideas... When I think about it, it's probably not actually different from just having an open collective that takes on ideas and builds them for clients for free, but this is a distinctively less personal feel... but 10% is (in my opinion) a pretty hefty amount of revenue to share for just hosting. If I'm understanding correctly, 10% revenue sharing for the simple value proposition of connecting you to people who want to build you app and hosting your app seems like too much. Maybe I'm just not open minded enough for this to seem like a great idea to me yet

bitsweet 12y ago
We're always looking at ways we can create more value for the community then the platform fee necessary to run it. Products on assembly benefit from administration of accounting, finances, legal, many operating costs (hosting) pre-profit, as well providing trust layer (with revenue) so that contributors on products know that if there is any success it will be fairly distributed to everyone. Most importantly there already is a community of other engineers, designers, and even creatives interested in helping with marketing/distribution. FWIW - other marketplaces often charge 30% or more (e.g. heroku, apple).
- hardwaresofton 12y ago
  These are good points, especially the comparison with the other marketplaces, along with more informed breakdown of what you guys offer. I think the idea is novel (at least it is to me, I haven't seen another effort like it yet other than the open collective idea I mentioned earlier), and I think it's really interesting. Maybe I can try and describe the nagging feeling better: tldr - It feels like Assembly makes it easier for startups to be a machine with people-shaped cogs. I might also be completely wrong, and that is actually the better way to go (or the path that people will be happy to travel once they discover assembly) It feels like assembly is deconstructing the startup model (which is probably good and bad, maybe mostly good): - (+/- technical) founder => person with idea - initial dev team => contributors - VC => Assembly (w/ revenue share instead of equity) But I think that something gets lost in that deconstruction. The founders become "just" people with ideas, and not people who grew, nurtured and fostered a company/entity. I realize they are the core team, but learning all the accounting, finances, legal, and operating costs bits are kind of valuable to a budding founder. I may even go as far as to say that a person with an idea != a founder specifically because of the transformation that happens from having to deal with all that administration (otherwise known as running a company). Similarly for the dev team, they're invested... but I don't think they're as invested as they could be, or as part of the living breathing entity (figuratively) that is the company -- it's almost like being a freelancer/contract worker (more the disenfranchisement that might occur, I think, less the health benefits/other usual problems) And while the marketplace itself (Assembly) takes on quite a fair bit of risk in hosting the sites and providing all those services for free... I can't help but feel like the profit they may make comes at the cost of stunting the growth of a founder and her/his development team. If I could put it in a sentence, I might say that this system makes it easier to treat people as cogs. On the flip side, this could be a completely inane over-reaction, I may be on the wrong side of a trend that is about to be huge, and streamline startup culture in a big way.

derekp7 12y ago

Is this service basically for SAAS type projects that could potentially have a future revenue stream? Or is it also intended for regular open source standalone projects? I've got some stuff in the pipeline where I've been trying to find a way to get more exposure, so I can get people testing it giving me an idea of future development priorities. But I don't see any type of revenue stream, unless I sell support for the projects.

dogweather 12y ago

This is perfect timing for me. I have a project which is online and has users, yet is languishing because I just don't have time. (http://think200.com http://think200.com - Test-driven app monitoring.) I've been considering open-sourcing it and just hoping for the best. So this is a good alternative to investigate first.

awwstn 12y ago
Awesome. I'll follow up with you over email to chat about Think200 and how we can make it thrive.
- dogweather 12y ago
  Thanks! If you create a project, you'll find a rock-solid request queue and user-feedback implementation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fz9c8bae97bqxi3/think200-queuing-demo.mov?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/fz9c8bae97bqxi3/think200-queuing-d... The app's about 85% done. I'm very open to how development can progress on this. That being said, I won't be offended if think200 doesn't fit Assembly's model.

whiddershins 12y ago

Is your focus web apps or would native mobile platforms be a candidate?

awwstn 12y ago
Pretty much any software product works. A few examples of mobile apps on Assembly: - http://getgigradio.com/ http://getgigradio.com/ - http://www.getripple.co/ http://www.getripple.co/ - https://assembly.com/meowboard https://assembly.com/meowboard

sideproject 12y ago

Apologies for a shameless plug. Should you ever find your side project un-savable - for a variety of reasons (commitment issue, personal, emotional, what-not), then you can always take your project to SideProjectors and let others take over. :) http://sideprojectors.com http://sideprojectors.com

hrjet 12y ago
I am interested in viewing, but a heads up: the site shows zero entries, even after enabling all first-party scripts and XHR requests. Not sure if third-party scripts are essential, but if they are, consider not depending on them.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

laurenmo 12y ago
http://www.onoisms.com http://www.onoisms.com

stickperson 12y ago

Is there a way to filter by language?

bitsweet 12y ago
that is coming. We're releasing version 2 of the platform shortly

atarian 12y ago

How will you prevent ownership from being diluted by intentional (or even unintentional) inflation of future bounties?

richthegeek 12y ago
My experience with it a few months ago had this exact issue - there is no standardisation of bounties whatsoever. Initial work developing the API (10 hours of work, say) would be valued at 5000 credits but then after launch someone tweaking the color of a button might get set at 2000 credits. Perhaps there needs to be a review process for tasks that go through a list of per-project moderators? Both for reducing cruft, keeping focus on the currently-important stuff, and to normalise bounties across the project's lifetime. Alternatively, the bounties could be semi-invisible, instead with tasks assigned to various levels of difficulty and importance...

jv22222 12y ago

This project is very close to an idea I had in 2009 I really hope it takes off: http://justinvincent.com/page/tag/venture-matrix http://justinvincent.com/page/tag/venture-matrix