You'd have to be more specific about how the app is supposed to work. For instance maybe it can be accomplished with the Facebook javascript api, implementing it on top of Facebook. Maybe not.
Anyway, I wish you good luck.
Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
11–20 of 161 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#12You'd have to be more specific about how the app is supposed to work. For instance maybe it can be accomplished with the Facebook javascript api, implementing it on top of Facebook. Maybe not. Anyway, I wish you good luck.
Its kind of a social network structure, bu simpler than things like FB, twitter, etc. it doesn't rely on any API, and would be really easy for anyone who knows what they're doing on the backend.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#13I have to +1 the parse.com suggestion. Their API has an Angular wrapper if you really know it well. Or, if you haven't hit the 'Angular Wall' (meaning you haven't built something of real-world complexity with it), you can use their JS SDK, which is a backbone fork.
I suggest you open source all of it, and keep HN up to date on progress. List out what the product should do, and how you want to design your models. You'll get some solid feedback.
Web iterates fast, so I'd use web rather than jumping right into native. You'll be able to show your code to coders, and show your product to social workers and those who support at-risk people.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#14My favorite anti-suicide advice is 'Never commit suicide when hungover'. It sounds subversive but I think it gets the message across by first not discounting that the other person may have valid and important problems, and then emphasizing that all states of mind are subject to improvement. You could (carefully) curate a list of this sort of advice from people who have actually felt suicidal at one point or another a…
It sounds like the OP already knows what he wants to build, he is more looking for advice on the how.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#15I have to +1 the parse.com suggestion. Their API has an Angular wrapper if you really know it well. Or, if you haven't hit the 'Angular Wall' (meaning you haven't built something of real-world complexity with it), you can use their JS SDK, which is a backbone fork. I suggest you open source all of it, and keep HN up to date on progress. List out what the product should do, and how you want to design your models. You'…
Would you say the same about Firebase?
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#16You'll go far, kid! Glad you found someone here who can help you with the back-end.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#17You may find https://www.firebase.com/ or http://www.meteor.com/ allow you to do it all on the frontend
I was thinking about meteor, I'm just not sure how complex it would be to implement on a mobile app.
I've been using Meteor for a couple of years now, and although it does a lot of magic, I recommend using it only for very simple projects.
For this application, meteor may be suitable, but keep in mind that you'll need to build a lot of your supporting infrastructure until Meteor 1.0 comes out.
Reasons not to use Meteor:
It is currently very difficult to accurately profile memory issues.
Simple html mixups can take half an hour to debug due to the fact that they'll only show up in production, and in minimized/uglified form.
MongoDB costs 'money' to scale properly (sharding across multiple machines with lots of memory (if your database grows).
Edit: This is not a simple project, so maybe meteor is asking for trouble since it's not very mature yet.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#18On the development side: I'd go for firebase, frontender myself and the docs are pretty easy to follow. Since you know angular, you can use angularfire to easily get you started. If you have experience with yeoman you can try out this generator (https://github.com/dsimard/generator-angular-phonegap) which gives you an emulator to phonegap. Didn't try it myself, but seems interesting.
On the projectside: Cool that you would take your time and skills to work on a project like that. I had the sad experience of losing someone close through suicide, so... yeah. Thanks.
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#19A little tangential, but listening to this might help out with perspective:
http://themoth.org/posts/stories/perfect-moments
And maybe reach out to other suicide prevention non profits?
Re: Ask HN: I'm 15, won a grant to develop a suicide prevention app, what next?
#20I'm quite interested in suicide prevention, having lost several friends to suicide over the years. I'd do it pro bono. If you're interested, let me know - my e-mail is in my profile.
I'd be also willing to help you with the backend pro bono if I think the app has an ability to make positive impact. Check out my profile for some past projects.