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Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

circular.io

61–70 of 106 posts

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#61
post #54

Buffer does the stuff very good actually, I use its free tier and I couldn't even approach to its limit, personally. But having alternatives is always very good and apparently you spent really good time on this project. I'd love to hear a blog address where we can follow your stories about your development of Circular.

Well, one limit you can reach quickly with Buffer's free tier is if you want to use it with multiple accounts on the same platform (say, multiple Twitter accounts).

Thanks for the kind words, I'll think about writing something about the app's dev!

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#62
post #56

I am divided. As a developer, I think open source is great. As an entrepreneur, having more people release stuff for free devalues my work on the long term. I would say a good middle ground would be that open source should only be used to provide tools to developers, not to release production features. A few years back, people would buy a software $25, now they complain when your app is over $1 (thanks Apple).

The dream is that we can keep climbing the ladder of abstraction forever and build more complex software (and presumably sell it), by assembling the free and open-source software. Climb a rung, repeat.

The problem is we are bounded by our imagination and hardware. So we just keep making the same stuff in 100 different ways.

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#64

Just to hop in on the discussion, I have just launched a similar (hosted!) service similar to circular(/tampon)/buffer/hootsuite except it's completely white label and self brandable: http://sashboard.com

This is interesting, though it's probably more relevant for Facebook posting than for Twitter, as Twitter doesn't display the app name anymore (and it's a shame!).

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#65
post #56

I am divided. As a developer, I think open source is great. As an entrepreneur, having more people release stuff for free devalues my work on the long term. I would say a good middle ground would be that open source should only be used to provide tools to developers, not to release production features. A few years back, people would buy a software $25, now they complain when your app is over $1 (thanks Apple).

This makes for a decent developer analogy for the arguments designers have about services that devalue their time and efforts too. I don't know where the middle ground would be for us, though.

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#67
post #24
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good on you for renaming the project... but why would you chose that name in the first place? I'm not trying to start a flame war -- just curious because I've been in a similar situation. After university I named the first C unit test framework I wrote the oh-so-obvious C*NT. At the time I thought I was being funny, but over a decade later and I can see that this is a symptom of the underlying misogyny/"boy's club" t…

Because it stems a flow of twitter posts?

Isn't that good marketing? And won't most engineers use the code regardless of what its named? Seems like an interesting strategy to me :)

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#68

I think this is great, outside of plastering Buffer's name all over the thing. Seems kinda shitty to do. Open source tweet scheduler? Awesome. Slapping Buffer all over the thing to shimmy into their Google juice (or whatever) to promote it? Not as awesome.

I get your point. It was actually more of a "nod of the head" to them, but I can see why it would look unelegant. I've actually started pitching it as open source tweet scheduler, actually.

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#69

Just to hop in on the discussion, I have just launched a similar (hosted!) service similar to circular(/tampon)/buffer/hootsuite except it's completely white label and self brandable: http://sashboard.com

This is interesting, though it's probably more relevant for Facebook posting than for Twitter, as Twitter doesn't display the app name anymore (and it's a shame!).

True, but it's still in the meta and many 3rd party apps and services still display it, it's even shown in tweetdeck for example (I tried to swap the twitter picture for a tweetdeck screen shot but tweetdeck just keeps crashing (maybe not that many people see it after all ;)).

Re: Show HN: Circular, an open source clone of Buffer

#70
post #56

I am divided. As a developer, I think open source is great. As an entrepreneur, having more people release stuff for free devalues my work on the long term. I would say a good middle ground would be that open source should only be used to provide tools to developers, not to release production features. A few years back, people would buy a software $25, now they complain when your app is over $1 (thanks Apple).

Meh, I can do the same thing and undercut you on price, or offer a "better" freemium model. If being unique is your competitive advantage, enjoy your very brief time in the lime light.
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