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"Website like Amazon"

elance.com

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Re: "Website like Amazon"

#22

Post by minimaxir »

grecy wrote: post #5

I think this highlights the interesting lack of fundamental understanding by the general public about software and how complex and expensive it is. Intuitively people understand things like cars and laptops are expensive, time consuming and difficult to build requiring complex tools and machinery. This is not the case with software, where we see time and time again requests like "same as Facebook..." or "Same as Amaz…

Relevant quotes from clients who've commissioned web developers/designers (previously posted on Clients From Hell):

---

“I want to create a rival to Twitter. So I want it exactly the same except where it says What’s Happening? I want it to say How are you feeling?”

"There’s one thing that our social media site will have that Facebook hasn’t even thought of… People can rate each other! Out of a possible five stars, depending on looks and talent… We’re gonna put that Mark Zapperburger out of business, I know it!"

Re: "Website like Amazon"

#23

Post by yareally »

grecy wrote: post #5

I think this highlights the interesting lack of fundamental understanding by the general public about software and how complex and expensive it is. Intuitively people understand things like cars and laptops are expensive, time consuming and difficult to build requiring complex tools and machinery. This is not the case with software, where we see time and time again requests like "same as Facebook..." or "Same as Amaz…

Education can also be dangerous in the hands of a potential client. I've had to explain to clients why they were paying what they were paying for a website when one of the owners of the company pipped up saying "But it's just a bunch of HTML, I could do that, so why are you charging us so much?" In this situation, you really want to say "then go do it yourself if it's so easy", but that's not the best way to put it.

They know what HTML is, but then when you explain that while the output might be composed of HTML, it's dynamically rendered from the Server using a programming language along with data stored in the database and also on the frontend with JavaScript and CSS. At that point, you kind of lose them and they're not any better off than a client that didn't know HTML (other than they now think you're trying to BS them for more money).

I explained the above more eloquently than the short summary above and the other owners were less distrusting. However, what people are educated on can also easily backfire to be worse than if they stayed ignorant.

I've also had clients that were actual developers and way too busy to do all the work they had. Those sort of clients go pretty well and they know what they're paying for. Not saying that education won't help, but we should be cautious to how the average person is educated on the behind the scenes details of software development.

Re: "Website like Amazon"

#24

Post by autarch »

niggler wrote: post #16
grecy wrote: post #5

I think this highlights the interesting lack of fundamental understanding by the general public about software and how complex and expensive it is. Intuitively people understand things like cars and laptops are expensive, time consuming and difficult to build requiring complex tools and machinery. This is not the case with software, where we see time and time again requests like "same as Facebook..." or "Same as Amaz…

"the interesting lack of fundamental understanding by the general public about software and how complex and expensive it is." The reason why many people have a good understanding of other complex stuff, like a car, is because they are able to tinker and service it. You can't tinker with the internals of Amazon.com. Without a frame of reference, there's no way to know how complex a system is.

The amount of stuff you need to sit down at your computer and try to build a "site like Amazon" is pretty trivial. In fact, all you need is a computer and a net connection.

You'll discover quite quickly that you can't build Amazon by yourself, but there's little barrier to entry (there's a huge barrier to completion).

Re: "Website like Amazon"

#26

Post by fosap »

There are services that sell copycat websites like Twitter, ebay, and social networks and I have even seen a youtube clone for about that price.

I have never seen them in productions besides the demos, but i guess this is what they are looking for.

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