Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#1

Post by Trayja-Peter » Mon, May 15, 2023, 4:53 PM UTC

We built Sortabase to let communities collaborate on visual databases of the things they know and care about.

The fields of each database are defined by its moderators using a no-code drag-n-drop interface, and the resulting database is easy to search, filter, sort, and contribute to.

The platform is 100% free to use - take a look, and feedback is appreciated!

Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities
sortabase.com

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#2

Post by tikkun » Mon, May 15, 2023, 5:17 PM UTC

Smart, seems like a great way to make some money on affiliate commissions and provide a useful product to the creators and the end users at the same time. Nice!

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#3

Post by marwis » Mon, May 15, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

What's the license on the data? Needs grid view and export/api.

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#4

Post by sl-dolt » Mon, May 15, 2023, 5:54 PM UTC

We're doing something a bit similar at DoltHub, where databases are managed with a GitHub like workflow, and where you get the pros and cons of that kind of system. Our hospital price database (work ongoing daily) is community built: https://www.dolthub.com/repositories/dolthub/transparency-in... (context: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NifwgKHBCeF35ZRZsfpgg4bE...)

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#5

Post by esafak » Mon, May 15, 2023, 5:56 PM UTC

edit: Dumb question. deleted

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#6

Post by 16bitvoid » Mon, May 15, 2023, 6:07 PM UTC

esafak wrote: post #5

edit: Dumb question. deleted

Do you mind elaborating? I don't get how they're comparable. Vetted.ai uses AI to rank products based on user reviews and check prices across retailers. OP's project is a community-based, collaborative database (almost a fusion of Reddit and Airtable) where anyone can contribute to a database, which also isn't limited to products.

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#7

Post by pbronez » Mon, May 15, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

very cool. UI to compare items is a little clunky. Would like to select multiple items to compare from the main grid view. Right now it jumps me to the dedicated compare screen as soon as I select one item, and then I have to search to add new ones. I want to filter a list through facets and select a subset of the items on that list for detailed comparison.

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#8

Post by taw1516 » Mon, May 15, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

wow this looks amazing. Do you mind shedding some light on how you built this? especially how you organize taxonomy and product metadata for each category

I am working on an e-commerce platform that would benefits a lot from your experience here

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#9

Post by 16bitvoid » Mon, May 15, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

This feels like a combination of Airtable (before the push to be a no-code app platform) and Reddit. This seems way better than the public Google Sheets that make their way around the latter site.

I'm curious though. How do you plan to make money from this project (premium subscription option, affiliate links for product-focused databases, etc.)? Will it remain free to use?

Regardless, it seems like an interesting project!

Re: Show HN: Sortabase, a collaborative, visual database builder for communities

#10

Post by Trayja-Peter » Mon, May 15, 2023, 6:26 PM UTC

taw1516 wrote: post #8

wow this looks amazing. Do you mind shedding some light on how you built this? especially how you organize taxonomy and product metadata for each category I am working on an e-commerce platform that would benefits a lot from your experience here

The taxonomy and metadata, as you put it, is defined by the moderators/community of each database. We just give them drag-and-drop tools to do so :)