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Forrst like Community for Side-Projects?
73 points by ankitaggarwal on Jan 9, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 34 comments
I have a day job, but try to work on side-projects time to time. I made 5 side projects last year. Forrst is an awesome community, but I get a feeling that most of the members are Designers. Kinda feel left out in there.

Also, I am a great fan of "Show HN" posts but a good feedback is always a matter of luck. Only posts reaching frontpage gets the exposure and rest dies out with 2-3 comments.

Is there a community/forum for people like me to show my side-projects, get feedback etc.




I'm working on a webapp which turns side-projects into SAAS startups (by providing CMS, auth, billing etc.), and I would love to hear from anyone in this thread.

I have a 3 minute questionnaire which I would love to have filled out, or if you'd like to contact me my email is on my profile page.

thanks, Harry

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEhGWjl...


Thanks everyone, keep 'em coming!


I think you just found your next side project! ;)


Forrst was supposed to be _Dribbble for programmers_ but it has been hijacked by designers.


For a long time I tried to help correct that, but I gave up at the sheer number of designers offering bad (and sometimes harmful) programming advice.


Same for me. I think Forrst is kinda dead, I'm ranked #4 (was #1) since 1 year now, and I did no activity.


Same here. I was very active for three or four months, because I loved the idea, but after re-explaining what SQL injections are the fourth or fifth time in a week I decided the community had simply gone too designer and really needed a dose of Stack Overflow.

I loved the idea of a community to unite developers with designers, but there seems to be a different constant factor on exponential growth with developers than designers, presumably because we actually are, on average, a bit more introverted.

I feel a lot more slighted than is reasonable over the fact that they let you check developer or designer or both, so 90% of the designers checked both. I can't make a reasonable-sounding argument for why that irked me so much but it really did.


That's not entirely true. Forrst was originally developed to be a shareable collection of webdev things you found interesting that you can share, and sort of morphed into 'Show the progress of your app/ask questions/get advice' community that eventually morphed into.. well. what it is now.

Source: I was lead engineer at Forrst.


Yes I would like to see something like this.


By side projects I assume you mean web apps and programming related things. I've pondered a system to track these, but it would be even more fascinating to extend it beyond code - think: artwork, carpentry, electronics projects, robots, etc. Basically a 'Things I've Made' kinda site.

Edit: Interestingly, the thing about side projects is that most of their value is derived from what can be learned while building them. Often they simply die upon completion (or when boredom sets in) because there isn't much left to learn from the project. Because of this, I don't know if there's necessarily a personal benefit to archiving your own projects online (other than showing off / clout / credibility for resumes and such), but I can definitely see value in the social building part of it - which is probably the goal anyway.


I can definitely see the potential of this, and would love to contribute. I'd go even further and suggest the ability to collaborate on side-projects, think github with broader project types. The hard (and fun!) part would be to devise a minimal set of functionnalities to power such variety of projects.


Thats a very good point. Most of my projects were rarely updated after first release. Building them was fun. Updates were mostly in cases when I received mails from people using it, and in some cases I realised a need of a feature (I use most of my creations).


I've had this idea in my head for a while now. Rather than just for websites, it would be more for postin your creative projects. Maybe this thread will give me the motivation to give it a shot.


I made one in a hack day once, never actually told anyone about it. Would love to see an active one: http://leanly.co/


I was working on something like that called Shipyard. I got a bit stuck with it technically and am not sure how to proceed.

URL is Shipyard.me - Unfortunately it has mostly become a home to spam at the minute.

I was planning on hiring freelancers to help with the development tasks that were beyond my skill set but then my contract ended which put a stop to my budget for my side-projects.

It was meant to be a place for side-projects to get their early adopters and for the founders to discuss and share & get feedback. Then on the front end would be a blog that documented the latest sucesses and a discover page with side project logos and a quick description. The monetisation side was going to be a low cost payment to get a project logo on the discover page. Nothing major, just enough to cover costs.

I had got 20+ teams/founders with side projects waiting to become members and I'd had a lot of positive feedback.

If anyone would want to join me on working on it to get it usable, it would be great to share it.


ping me at termr00t\at\gmail\dot\com


Two years ago I was looking for something very similar myself and not finding it, decided I'd try to learn a bit of Python and try out Google App Engine simultaneously. This was the result:

http://www.ijustshipped.com

I am overhauling it at the moment because it needs a responsive design, SSL, and non-Google-reliant accounts (based on feedback I got when I initially released it).

I'd love to hear if anyone thinks they'd use this..


UPDATE: Just rewrote this so it's responsive and relies on email-based accounts (versus Google authentication as it had originally).

Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks!


I'm always interested in what others are building both professionally and as a side project. I think this is a great idea and would love to be part of it.


I just built a new app to satisfy this exact need and launched on monday! http://www.mycelial.com

I would love to get feedback about what you think.

This app essentially answers "guynamedloren's" comment above. It's a "things I've made kinda site" that goes beyond just coding projects. It can include any hobby you have, such as electronics, beer-brewing, etc...


http://www.founder2be.com

Share your project(s) as 'idea' with a link to prototype - about 12,000 people interested in early stage start-ups / projects and co-founders use the site. it's a bit like forrst for developers, designers, marketers, sales, etc. good luck!


Communities are really good at providing social rewards for certain behaviors. It would be nice to see a community like this include mechanics to reward those who "complete" their side projects. Shipping side projects is hard. This could provide additional, helpful incentive.


The simplest way to do it is to seek out or create a subreddit. You need to use RES[1] to display images inline, though.

[1]: http://redditenhancementsuite.com/


http://coderwall.com


Yeesh, I'm surprised a site aimed at developers doesn't allow for signup by plain email.


http://betali.st/


Most side projects don't end up as anything even beginning to resemble a startup.


Some HNers tried to do this with the Hacker News Monthly Launchpad Facebook Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/launchinnov/

YMMV.


If you could also pitch a side project idea and link up with people would be awesome. I'd use it.


Set up a mailing list form so we can all sign up to your new side-project :)


maybe these?

http://showinghn.com/ https://twitter.com/JustShowHN


Might be as simple as a scraper for "Show HN" posts.


http://www.hnshowcase.com/ is one. It's ok but I would prefer something with disqus comments so I would get notifications and stuff.


if you build this.. i'll be a member!




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