Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours. • Hacker News Board

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#11

Post by faboo » Tue, May 17, 2011, 4:27 PM UTC

highace wrote: post #9

messel wrote: post #6

I tried it out. Ran into some problems that hopefully you'll shake out. Surprised by the choice of web stack (.net and asp). I didn't see an option to delete accounts, did I miss it?

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

I can think of a few practical reasons why (I can think of non-practical ones too, but I assume that's not what you're after :)

1. .Net and Asp have not insignificant upfront costs when compared to a stack based on Ruby, PHP, or practically anything else.

2. You're basically tied to Windows application servers. There really isn't much of an option to move to another OS (whether because you've changed hosts, or you want something more stripped down or leaner, or you've found a valuable library that's only available on a BSD or something).

3. ASP (even with .Net) presents a pretty rigid framework for application development (though I'm sure there's ways around it). If what you're after is MS's take on MVC, that's probably fine, but if you're looking to push boundaries, you might want to think about a more piecemeal approach.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#12

Post by checker » Tue, May 17, 2011, 5:09 PM UTC

faboo wrote: post #11

highace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

I can think of a few practical reasons why (I can think of non-practical ones too, but I assume that's not what you're after :) 1. .Net and Asp have not insignificant upfront costs when compared to a stack based on Ruby, PHP, or practically anything else. 2. You're basically tied to Windows application servers. There really isn't much of an option to move to another OS (whether because you've changed hosts, or you wa…

#3: I've messed around with .NET WebMethods a bit. They allow me to go completely around the rigidness of ASP when I need to and they can stay inside the same C# backing code for the page.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#13

Post by Jacob4u2 » Tue, May 17, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

evilduck wrote: post #10

highace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

I usually see this view explained that due to the .Net stack's higher up front cost than free alternatives, and (debatably) higher long term cost, it's an uncommon choice for startups. Basically, deploying a .Net site requires at minimum 1 personal license of Windows and 1 server license of Windows. Sometimes a non-free copy of Visual Studio, and usually a license for SQL Server (since many MS people use the whole st…

Regarding costs and licensing, have you heard of AppHarbor (http://appharbor.com). It's like Heroku but for .Net, free (at least right now) for small web apps and has SQL Server and MySQL database options.

Also, I've heard mention of BizSpark which kind of defers your costs but I haven't got any hard evidence that it is still a good option for startups.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#14

Post by qq66 » Tue, May 17, 2011, 5:54 PM UTC

evilduck wrote: post #10

highace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

I usually see this view explained that due to the .Net stack's higher up front cost than free alternatives, and (debatably) higher long term cost, it's an uncommon choice for startups. Basically, deploying a .Net site requires at minimum 1 personal license of Windows and 1 server license of Windows. Sometimes a non-free copy of Visual Studio, and usually a license for SQL Server (since many MS people use the whole st…

There's no upfront licensing cost due to Microsoft BizSpark.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#15

Post by praeclarum » Tue, May 17, 2011, 5:54 PM UTC

evilduck wrote: post #10

highace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: what's surprising about .net and asp?

I usually see this view explained that due to the .Net stack's higher up front cost than free alternatives, and (debatably) higher long term cost, it's an uncommon choice for startups. Basically, deploying a .Net site requires at minimum 1 personal license of Windows and 1 server license of Windows. Sometimes a non-free copy of Visual Studio, and usually a license for SQL Server (since many MS people use the whole st…

You're absolutely right about the costs of running real iron - Windows adds $1,000 per machine. But Windows virtual machines cost the same as Linux: about $20/mo for a lowend VPS. Plus the code is compiled and tends to run more efficiently than Ruby for instance. :-)

If you are awesome and outgrow that VPS with some paying customers, then I think you can swing the $1,000 on a windows license.

I really hate being a shill for MS...

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#16

Post by imns » Tue, May 17, 2011, 6:04 PM UTC

Great app, thanks for sharing and good luck with it. One thing I noticed, is your about page says "It's less intrusive intrusive ...".

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#17

Post by alnayyir » Tue, May 17, 2011, 9:17 PM UTC

praeclarum wrote: post #15

evilduck wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually see this view explained that due to the .Net stack's higher up front cost than free alternatives, and (debatably) higher long term cost, it's an uncommon choice for startups. Basically, deploying a .Net site requires at minimum 1 personal license of Windows and 1 server license of Windows. Sometimes a non-free copy of Visual Studio, and usually a license for SQL Server (since many MS people use the whole st…

You're absolutely right about the costs of running real iron - Windows adds $1,000 per machine. But Windows virtual machines cost the same as Linux: about $20/mo for a lowend VPS. Plus the code is compiled and tends to run more efficiently than Ruby for instance. :-) If you are awesome and outgrow that VPS with some paying customers, then I think you can swing the $1,000 on a windows license. I really hate being a sh…

>Plus the code is compiled and tends to run more efficiently than Ruby for instance. :-)

Those words don't mean what you think it means. You're right that most CLR code will be faster than equivalently idiomatic Ruby code that accomplishes the same task, but the reasons for it have nothing to do with compilation.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#18

Post by vannevar » Tue, May 17, 2011, 10:47 PM UTC

Kudos on taking the initiative and implementing this idea. I've often wondered how Facebook became so successful given that the one thing it's supposed to do well---manage your social network---is probably the least functional aspect of the site. For the most part Facebook is a personal homepage with photos and a forum and that's about it.

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#19

Post by guynamedloren » Wed, May 18, 2011, 1:19 AM UTC

Please explain in more detail how this works. I signed up, but did not connect facebook/twitter because I'd rather not spam my friends with something I'm not 100% sure on.

Do my friends have to sign up for Wolfpack to be able to use this service? Does the messaging only happen on your platform, or does it duplicate messages across other platforms as well (fb messages, emails, etc)?

Re: Apparently HN gives you great advice and then 1536 users in 4 hours.

#20

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 18, 2011, 1:49 AM UTC

alnayyir wrote: post #17

praeclarum wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're absolutely right about the costs of running real iron - Windows adds $1,000 per machine. But Windows virtual machines cost the same as Linux: about $20/mo for a lowend VPS. Plus the code is compiled and tends to run more efficiently than Ruby for instance. :-) If you are awesome and outgrow that VPS with some paying customers, then I think you can swing the $1,000 on a windows license. I really hate being a sh…

>Plus the code is compiled and tends to run more efficiently than Ruby for instance. :-) Those words don't mean what you think it means. You're right that most CLR code will be faster than equivalently idiomatic Ruby code that accomplishes the same task, but the reasons for it have nothing to do with compilation.

[deleted]