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Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

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Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#11

Post by CharlesW »

traceroute66 wrote: post #4
theturtletalks wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I saw that. The last one was a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision in detail.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

> Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question.

This also relates to the clickbait-y "I'm building an open-source Amazon" positioning, which I don't think serves you well.

You're building (I think) an e-commerce platform upon which someone can build online shops ("nano-Amazons"?). Where the "open-source Amazon" pitch is difficult to take seriously, I think there probably is space for new e-commerce platforms.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#13

Post by lmpdev »

traceroute66 wrote: post #4
theturtletalks wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I saw that. The last one was a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision in detail.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

Cunt it was 2019.

You rein it in a little.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#14

Post by theturtletalks »

CharlesW wrote: post #11
traceroute66 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

> Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. This also relates to the clickbait-y "I'm building an open-source Amazon" positioning, which I don't think serves you well. You're building (I think) an e-commerce platform upon which someone can build online shops ("nano-Amazons"?). Where the "open-source Amazon" pitch is difficult to take seriously, I think there probably is space for ne…

This is just one piece of the puzzle. I explained it in another comment:

> I think of it this way. Launching a marketplace today is very difficult, but what if we made the backend of a marketplace open-source and used that as leverage. One that could be your backend for all operations. You can choose to enable the integrated marketplace or not, but the system is yours. It’s about bringing power back to the sellers.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#15

Post by traceroute66 »

trinsic2 wrote: post #7
traceroute66 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

Execution starts with vision. I don't see a problem with thinking big, it inspires others that want to help become part of something great.

> Execution starts with vision.

Yes I agree.

But the OP had the vision in 2019.

We are now at the tail-end of 2022.

I still see a vision and not much execution.

Meanwhile, the Amazon that the OP is pitching themselves against has continued to move onwards and upwards....

As I said. The vision is fine. But the OP needs to realise that executing it will require a lot of time and a LOT more money !

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#16

Post by toofy »

i haven’t visited your site yet, but i’ve long thought something in this vein has been missing.

imagine if taxi companies could make use of it, or a group of friends could start their own GNUber.

or a group of high school kids who want to deliver groceries/items to the elderly as volunteer work.

or a bunch of middle school friends wanted to do a lawn mowing service.

or…

of course, anyone in the industry knows how many unpredictable pitfalls reality will throw at it, but we also know very well these kinds of ideas, if followed through can be remarkable and truly can change the world.

it’s been like tiny little pinpricks at me for years that apps like Uber, Lyft, door-dash, etc… don’t have a scaled down open-source alternative — a decent Configure, Describe Services Offered, Spin-Up-An Instance and Go.

i’ll take a look later today when my schedule loosens up.

edit: just reread your post and looked at the comments, i misread what you were doing, sorry bout that. still sounds interesting tho, good luck!

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#17

Post by tailspin2019 »

traceroute66 wrote: post #4
theturtletalks wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I saw that. The last one was a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision in detail.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

> I admire your ambition, but perhaps rein it in a little ?

Yeah, how dare they have ambition.

I bet they haven't even applied for their Ambition Licence or submitted their "permission to try and make something cool" (PTTAMSC) paperwork.

/s

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#18

Post by traceroute66 »

theturtletalks wrote: post #10
traceroute66 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a blog post I made in 2019 describing the vision Hence I think you have, regrettably, answered your own question. Its all very well having a vision, but executing it is a different question. The sort of thing you propose requires a lot of time and a lot of money to develop. Let alone maintain. Let alone market and sell. Look, its like all those "Bloomberg killers" that come out of the woodwork as often as the seaso…

I think of it this way. Launching a marketplace today is very difficult, but what if we made the backend of a marketplace open-source and used that as leverage. One that could be your backend for all operations. You can choose to enable the integrated marketplace or not, but the system is yours. It’s about bringing power back to the sellers. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change t…

> It’s about bringing power back to the sellers.

But let's be honest here. What sellers really want are buyers.

That's why sellers list on Apple, Amazon, Ebay etc. despite the fees.

They are paying for the virtual equivalent of a shop-front in the premium mall. They get the payment handling. They get the anti-fraud technologies. And with Amazon they get the forward and reverse logistics.

Its about SO much more than how open the backend software is.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#20

Post by swalsh »

toofy wrote: post #16

i haven’t visited your site yet, but i’ve long thought something in this vein has been missing. imagine if taxi companies could make use of it, or a group of friends could start their own GNUber. or a group of high school kids who want to deliver groceries/items to the elderly as volunteer work. or a bunch of middle school friends wanted to do a lawn mowing service. or… of course, anyone in the industry knows how man…

People are going to hate on me, but web3 makes this absolutely trivial to build. If you try to build this as another centralized service, you just end up in the same place but a new dominant owner.

Don't get me wrong, there IS a wrong way to build this in web3 where it's just a web2 service on-chain. But designed correctly, it can avoid the pitfall.

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