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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

#121

Post by AndyPa32 »

pushedx wrote: post #61
swyx wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think the branding "open source Amazon" is just way too ambitious/big. invites a lot of confusion/criticism if Amazon is different things to different people.

I think it’s good marketing. Amazon’s primary source of revenue is as a market-maker/logisticics provider, so why not position yourself as a competitor if it gets contributors interested?

I had thought until now that Amazon primary revenue stream is running a good chunk of the internet. Quick research tells me, you are right.

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

#122

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

dudeinjapan wrote: post #82
swyx wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think the branding "open source Amazon" is just way too ambitious/big. invites a lot of confusion/criticism if Amazon is different things to different people.

should start small, like an open source Google, then work your way up to an open source Amazon.

Nobody ever wants to open source Pornhub. Wide consumer interest, no physical products to worry about, lots of advertising potential - and your not competing with Amazon, Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, or Target. Sounds like a better deal to me.

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

#123

Post by aaroninsf »

The consumer experience is that unregulated "open" markets fall prey quickly to abuse of many kinds which bewilder, mislead, and defraud.

Consider the now-standard criticism of Amazon wrt cookie-cutter phantom brands with identical products; false reviews; etc etc.

or one of the "amusing(?) stories of the week" about the fraudulent 30TB SSD on Walmart (another open market).

If you don't build protections for the customer in at the ground level, well...

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

#125

Post by swalsh »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #36
swalsh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> web3 makes this absolutely trivial to build So good to hear. Put differently: are you insane? ps. I built the original Amazon. On top of that, I have a brother who builds web-stuff related to decentralized coordinated activities and has done for many years. I didn't check in with him, but I'm pretty sure that we both think that you're insane.

lol, do you end every technical argument with "I'm Paul Davis, don't even try to debate me!"

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

#126

Post by homarp »

bsaul wrote: post #50
ryan29 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Using a copyleft license like AGPL makes this an automatic non-starter for most businesses, no matter how impressive your tech might be. You'll have a lot more luck with mid-size and enterprise adoption with an MIT license. What makes the AGPL unattractive? I thought it was basically just the GPL with a limitation on using the software to provide a SaaS product. You don't even have to contribute unpublished chang…

My 2 cents : In an ecosystem like this you may want to have businesses build extensions or plugins that they'd sell. GPL has this reputation of spreading to everything it touches, and as such would scare them away.

like wordpress plugin marketplace?

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

#127

Post by MaxBarraclough »

shagie wrote: post #90
boucher wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MongoDB is effectively licensed under the AGPL and seems to have no problem being used by corporations of all sizes.

MongoDB - the application is. MongoDB - the service isn't. You can use an Oracle database (however ugly its licensing is) without having an oracle license on every piece of data you expose. The same is true of Mongo license and the data it exposes as a service. The AGPL in this case is "you use MongoDB - someone wants to know about it, the source for MongoDB is over there." MongoDB AGPL doesn't 'infect' the applicati…

MongoDB no longer uses the AGPL licence.

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

#128

Post by egypturnash »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #122
dudeinjapan wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

should start small, like an open source Google, then work your way up to an open source Amazon.

Nobody ever wants to open source Pornhub. Wide consumer interest, no physical products to worry about, lots of advertising potential - and your not competing with Amazon, Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, or Target. Sounds like a better deal to me.

Constant hassle with payment processors deciding to ban smut once you get too big, though.

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

#129

Post by lolc »

clairity wrote: post #58
eastbayjake wrote: post #30

Love open source projects in the eCommerce domain, especially ones that are JavaScript instead of PHP! Two pieces of feedback: - Using a copyleft license like AGPL makes this an automatic non-starter for most businesses, no matter how impressive your tech might be. You'll have a lot more luck with mid-size and enterprise adoption with an MIT license. - You've really built an Order Management System for marketplace us…

js has come a long way but i'm skeptical that it's maturing fast enough for this to be the right medium- to long-term language/platform choice for something that's meant to be more infrastructure than just web app. and while php[0] is long past the hype cycle, it's more proven in this role than js, but even that is usually superceded, or at least augmented, by more "industrial" languages when approaching amazon's sca…

Isn't this project mostly about interfaces for businesses to connect their guts? The language used to implement services behind common interfaces shouldn't matter all that much. It's just the reference implementation in js, no?

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

#130

Post by XCSme »

rocket_surgeron wrote: post #44

Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.

https://bol.com in the Netherlands has delivery within a few hours (by bicycle) for some cities and select products. I got in this way an inflatable mattress (old one was punctured, so I needed one by the evening for my guests) and a few other electronic devices or household items.
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