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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

#131

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It's amazing how many people condescend to others on here and then are surprised when someone else defends them.

I feel like I should bookmark this thread so I can come back in a few years when this dude is huge and say "Geez, I bet you wish you kept your yap shut" to all these people telling him to reel his ambitions in.

I still smirk at the chucklehead who dismissed Drew Houston when he "Show HN: Dropbox"

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

#132
post #32

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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.

Maybe practice creating an open source Microsoft before quitting your day job?

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

#133
What's your USP compared to others in this crowded iPaaS+EDI space (ex. Celigo, Boomi, SPS, etc.)? Maintaining reliable integrations requires a lot of money, especially at scale and even more so when traversing borders. And EDI 850 is pretty well-entrenched. I guess I'm mostly asking who is this for, like specifically what size and type of customer?

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

#134

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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 ?

I hope whatever happened to you to make you think like this is resolved, because it saddens me to see people tell others to pipe their ambitions, goals and visions down because THEY don't see it as a reality.

If everyone believed this, we'd have never advanced at all as a society because nobody would push the boundaries.

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

#135
post #2

Quick note, the third submission was automatically blocked by the HN algorithms. Posting the same three times in 24h is too much. > Show HN: I'm building an open-source order management system and marketplace API > Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon > Using open-source to disrupt marketplaces

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

Nothing wrong with wanting to showcase what you're working on but don't spam HN when you're not pleased with the amount of eyeballs on it (At least not multiple times within 24 hours with varying titles like you're trying to AB test)

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

#136

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.

getting stuff that fast is very stupid 98% of the time. people may like it and want it and sing its praises, but its mostly stupid. and i think stupid things generally tend to die out. that is all to say that maybe that edge that amazon has is not that important.

It's not stupid.

Unnecessary most of the time but it becomes an expected processing and delivery standard, which makes the experience much more predictable for consumers.

Very few can really compete effectively with Amazon on this front.

Source: Used to run an e-commerce company that shipped up to 2 million packages annually. Once we optimised shipping and processing, customer service inquiries and complaints dropped dramatically, and customer trust / sentiment skyrocketed.

My understanding is that in certain regions Amazon offers the option to consolidate orders to be delivered on a specific day. This is actually impressive as it's much harder to do at scale than you'd imagine.

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

#137
post #46

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> - 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…

In this case, there is nothing at all wrong with a GPL license. Everyone is answering from the perspective of a software company. That isn't who this product seems to be targeting. It's targeting businesses that sell physical goods and need a virtual storefront to do that. They aren't looking to fork this and repackage it as a different product. The purpose of it being open source at all is so they can more easily se…

Thank you for adding practical sanity to this thread.

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

#138
post #61

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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.

Revenue for Amazon is in the retail business. The margin however is a lot better in the AWS side. Warehouses and logistics cost real money to operate.

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

#139
post #125

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> 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!"

I try not to. But when someone claims that building a platform for distributed, cooperative, coordinated action is "trivial", and it's in the context of "I'm building an open source Amazon", it is a little hard not to fail at this goal.

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

#140
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.

Many have already done open source Google and MS. We have those solutions already, and they are great though not yet pervasive. We need open source market place and logistics, and that is where they should stay focused.
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