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Your app subscription is now my weekend project

rselbach.com

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Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#321

Post by somenameforme »

snarf21 wrote: post #320
Shank wrote: post #5

First of all, I’m skeptical about these being free. Time isn’t free, and the tokens to make these projects certainly weren’t free. Second of all, all of these SaaS apps that don’t actually have a need for recurring charge probably should be paid one time. I don’t use Loom — I use CleanShot X and it was a one-time $30 payment and has a lot of great features I benefit from. I can’t reimplement it in $30 of tokens or $3…

Some of this "I can do it for free " stuff gives me the vibes of people who monitor gas prices every day. Only to drive 10 miles out of their way to save $0.30 a gallon filing their 15 gallon tank ($4.50 savings - $2.00 gas used - $X for time). They probably also buy an overpriced drink/snack for a net negative value proposition even if time is free. Some of these things are the feeling of "getting a deal" or "screwi…

I'm one of those guys you speak of, that would do that fully knowingly. The point is principle. If I feel I'm being exploited, then I will refuse to deal with something/somebody even if it's in my own short term best interest. It's not really screwing the system so much as screwing people trying to screw me, and I find the satisfaction that gives me as being worth substantially more than whatever I might lose in money. For a less self motivated reason, if all of society behaved like this - the world would also be a much better place.

More generally, I don't view time as some resource to be used to achieve some ultimate goal. In the end the only goal we're going to achieve is death. So in the interim I'd rather do actions that give me satisfaction rather than those that give me money, because in the end - the point of that money is to bring satisfaction anyhow, so I'm just cutting out the middle man.

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#322

Post by acheron »

Shank wrote: post #5

First of all, I’m skeptical about these being free. Time isn’t free, and the tokens to make these projects certainly weren’t free. Second of all, all of these SaaS apps that don’t actually have a need for recurring charge probably should be paid one time. I don’t use Loom — I use CleanShot X and it was a one-time $30 payment and has a lot of great features I benefit from. I can’t reimplement it in $30 of tokens or $3…

Almost all software “subscriptions” are a complete scam.

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#323

Post by acheron »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #261
sjw987 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like an incredibly defensive take for vibe coding personal apps. Replacing some subscription app like Any.do, Google Calendar, fitness/diet tracking or basically any other CRUD-centric app, needn't be insecure, and a semi-competent developer can easily host it, continue further development (with or without vibe coding) and secure it. There's huge benefit for software developers that do find themselves usin…

>There's huge benefit for software developers that do find themselves using many of these apps with active subscriptions to make their own, tailored for themselves, and cut down their spending. I guess if you're unemployed or in an area with spectacularly low wages, and don't have any ideas of your own that seem monetizable. >Most people will continue spending $1.00/month here, and $2.99/month there. If I make 100 do…

Almost nobody can just arbitrarily decide to go make money in a given hour. You work 40 hours a week, you get paid for 40 hours a week, and that’s it.

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#324

Post by IshKebab »

Illniyar wrote: post #272
rhubarbtree wrote: post #233

You too can implement a slither of the features you need right now in an insecure form without hosting, support, maintenance or future development. This reminds me of the people who think they can build docsend in a weekend. No, you cannot. You can build a wee throwaway app with some of the features of docsend. But that is not equivalent to what people pay docsend for. Businesses and SaaS aren’t just a bunch of stati…

There is probably a huge chunk of people who only need a slither of the features of a SaaS but are paying for everything they don't need. If your particular use of a SaaS is not susceptible to security issues (for example you can use it on your local laptop) then a slither of features that are insecure is exactly the thing for you. Not everyone is going to replace SaaS with half-baked personal implementations, especi…

Sliver!! Snakes slither, cakes sliver.

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#325

Post by cultofmetatron »

some of these apps are ridiculous. I downloaded an app to track the number of days I spend in each country. Its somewhat important for me since Im hoping countries all the time. I deleted it because while I'd hapiily pay 5-10 bucks one time, the app wanted $4/month which just seeems ridculous

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#326

Post by itintheory »

Illniyar wrote: post #272
rhubarbtree wrote: post #233

You too can implement a slither of the features you need right now in an insecure form without hosting, support, maintenance or future development. This reminds me of the people who think they can build docsend in a weekend. No, you cannot. You can build a wee throwaway app with some of the features of docsend. But that is not equivalent to what people pay docsend for. Businesses and SaaS aren’t just a bunch of stati…

There is probably a huge chunk of people who only need a slither of the features of a SaaS but are paying for everything they don't need. If your particular use of a SaaS is not susceptible to security issues (for example you can use it on your local laptop) then a slither of features that are insecure is exactly the thing for you. Not everyone is going to replace SaaS with half-baked personal implementations, especi…

> slither

What is a slither in this context? Or should this be "sliver"?

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#327

Post by arrozconcosas »

Somewhere along the line software went from being $99 for life to $9.99/month for life. The net result is massive inflation. I dusted off an old video game system recently and the game still played, through the end, for just the cost of electricity. I realize that maintenance is important and should be paid for, but let's be honest maintenance is a small sliver of your monthly subscription cost.

Re: Your app subscription is now my weekend project

#329

Post by Havoc »

I’m enjoying building my own tools via vibecoding but don’t think I could replace much this way in terms of SaaS.

Most of the paid subs is specifically because i can’t easily do it myself. ie there is an attribute there that extends beyond coding skill. I can’t easily defend myself against Ddos or can’t easily do multi region redundancy etc. Stuff that even a nice home server and coding plan just can’t cover

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