I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it • Hacker News Board

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#371

Post by lovasoa » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 7:36 AM UTC

I think getting support requests from users who don't know what they are doing is actually a great problem to have.

I have a project that allows building web applications out of SQL queries [1]. When I started receiving support requests by people who did not know SQL and were basically learning it along, I was thrilled. I was happy that my tool had a greater audience than I initially envisioned.

In any given domain, specialists are the minority. If the thing I am building is unexpectedly appealing to non-specialists, I rejoice, even if it means getting strange support requests. In the end, it helps me making the project more approachable and easy to use for everyone.

[1] https://sql.datapage.app

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#372

Post by Fokamul » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 7:44 AM UTC

Feels weird to me, that you must login to platform to manually give someone access or strip access. This should be automated through their API since day one.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#373

Post by indulona » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 7:58 AM UTC

15k in four years is not really worth the time alone, unless it is a hands-off product.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#374

Post by campervans » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:03 AM UTC

Great work!

It reads like a pitch to work in B2B, higher professionalism, less needy customers, higher margins, fewer sales etc...

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#375

Post by seydor » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:05 AM UTC

Wait, he was selling the script for money. That's nothing.

Imagine if he had been giving it away for free, the abuse would be much higher

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#376

Post by andyish » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:11 AM UTC

There is something worse than building a side project and not having enough users, and that's building a side project and having enough users to make it a full-time job but you don't make enough money for it to be your full-time job.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#377

Post by lbotos » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:16 AM UTC

nick3443 wrote: post #298

lbotos wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uh, I beg to differ. I felt like an autocomplete with a knowledge base and "direct links to the right email forms" would have been faster than the fake chat interface that the "bot" uses. (Also, if you own a home in NY and use lemondade -- do know that they don't cover cast iron piping (extremely popular in NYC). I found that out at renewal...)

Cast iron water supply piping, cast iron gas supply piping, or cast iron drain/waste/vent?

the AI bot asked "cast iron plumbing" IIRC. Which in NYC -- Cast iron DWV is prominent, can't speak to the others.

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#378

Post by Crier1002 » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:30 AM UTC

richardw wrote: post #294

I very much feel you. Choosing customers is crucial. Patio11 has some great write ups on the type of customer who will suck your life force: Retail, not much money, not very busy. Rather have business clients who are less price sensitive and have better things to do than argue about font choices. I had one lady who spent 75 emails sending me on wild goose chases for a $30 app. At one point she mentioned a refund and…

this sounds like a cool story to write about!

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#379

Post by theapache64 » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:33 AM UTC

what a great story! ton of learnings

Re: I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it

#380

Post by LoganDark » Thu, Aug 22, 2024, 8:36 AM UTC

ipaddr wrote: post #268

LoganDark wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually it can't be reopened because you can't even really get someone to look at it, because issues are wrongfully closed so frequently that they don't pay attention to complaints about the closures. Take a look at this issue to see what it takes to keep something open: https://github.com/oobabooga/text-generation-webui/issues/41... (not especially proud of my reactions there, but I hate being abused, even by robots…

When I see some bug like this I do wonder why don't more people fix the issue themselves or think that it might be specific to their setup or accept a little random lag. If I received a bug like that I would immediately think why are you telling me this... just fix it yourself and share your fix if you want. I probably have higher expectations from my users. You give the software away now they want you to fix it for…

> If I received a bug like that I would immediately think why are you telling me this... just fix it yourself

Then you're part of the problem.

I am far less equipped to handle a bug like this than you'd think. It would take me so much more work and time than asking someone who already knows the project and how to work on it.

If I did this for every bug I reported, I wouldn't have a job because I wouldn't have any time left for one.

You know, this is also my issue with Linux. The attitude is generally that if you want to run Linux, you are expected to do anything you need completely on your own, including fixing bugs. This is why macOS is my preferred operating system. (Not that I can run it right now...)

I'm of course not entitled to anything from you (or anyone), but the one thing I won't do is fix it myself.

I don't really want to be a hacker right now. I've tried. I can be, but it rarely pays off for me. Not even financially, just emotionally.