Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Café Wifi Search

cafewifi.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#11

Post by lucb1e »

This data is already in OpenStreetMap. Looking around, there are zero places in the Netherlands and I am certain I tagged at least a few places myself so this map is less complete because they want to do it themselves.

It also contains opening hours, addresses, etc., which is all in OSM. I don't understand why people always try to start anew when the data is right there. I can understand there is some complexity in getting your user's contributed data back into OSM and dealing with edit conflicts and abuse, but at least use it as a starting point and see about contributing back later.

(Also, Google Maps is such a confusing map, I hardly even recognize the town I've lived in for 20 years. But that is probably because I'm used to OSM.)

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#12

Post by benguild »

lucb1e wrote: post #11

This data is already in OpenStreetMap. Looking around, there are zero places in the Netherlands and I am certain I tagged at least a few places myself so this map is less complete because they want to do it themselves. It also contains opening hours, addresses, etc., which is all in OSM. I don't understand why people always try to start anew when the data is right there. I can understand there is some complexity in g…

So, I would say it's less about "everywhere" versus highlighting the best places. That's why there's a rating system involved.

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#13

Post by Gys »

niklas_a wrote: post #2

Can also recommend http://instabridge.com . The world's largest wifi sharing community. It's an app so works completely offline.

Tried to install on Android but it requires access to my contacts and media plus files ? For finding wifi spots ? No thanks.

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#15

Post by StavrosK »

Gys wrote: post #13
niklas_a wrote: post #2

Can also recommend http://instabridge.com . The world's largest wifi sharing community. It's an app so works completely offline.

Tried to install on Android but it requires access to my contacts and media plus files ? For finding wifi spots ? No thanks.

Yeah, wow. I turned those off as soon as I installed it.

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#16

Post by SyneRyder »

Ahh, so you're the one who owns this domain! I worked on prototyping an app with the same name for a while, but ultimately kept it to myself because I saw no promising monetization strategy. There's a lot of competition too, eg coffices.co and thecoffice.biz.

Something I found in my usage was that opening hours were more important to me than WiFi availability, and opening hours often don't match the public data (eg cafes that pack up their chairs an hour before closing). Power outlet availability was also important to me, until I bought an external laptop battery.

Nowadays I tend to use Google searches instead, as Google pays contributors to keep details in their area updated (eg free 1TB Google Drive after a certain number of contributions).

I like that you list actual network speed tests! That seems like a more objective measure than someone's subjective star rating.

Good luck with it!

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#17

Post by koolba »

niklas_a wrote: post #2

Can also recommend http://instabridge.com . The world's largest wifi sharing community. It's an app so works completely offline.

How does this list get updated? Do users manually upload the credentials or does it pull them automatically from the currently connected WiFi of the user?

Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search

#19

Post by aaronharnly »

niklas_a wrote: post #2

Can also recommend http://instabridge.com . The world's largest wifi sharing community. It's an app so works completely offline.

As noted by another comment in Swedish, that appears to be your project[1]. I don't see anything in the HN guidelines specifically[2], but I think it's customary to include a disclaimer when recommending one's own project. Just might bear that in mind for next time.

[1] http://agevik.se/about

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Post reply on HN