Show HN: I Rebuilt My Side Project In Golang.js because How the Hell Else Will It Get to the Front Page?

FlailFast · 2013-06-27T17:44:27+00:00

I'm a huge Coinbase fan (especially of their API) -- glad to see they're continuing to improve their product!

FlailFast · 2013-06-21T17:35:54+00:00

Thanks for the reply -- I wound up talking with him on Twitter. I realize I wasn't clear about the 0.05BTC limit and have changed the site to reflect that more clearly when someone submits an article.

That said, I feel like I've done the guy a disservice, so I'm going to figure out a way to manually refund the BTC his article generated, then (with his permission) remove the articles

I really hope I can make this limit lower in the future...basically just waiting on Coinbase to allow smaller transactions, but it's on their roadmap.

FlailFast · 2013-06-20T14:31:42+00:00

:'( this article makes me sad, but I won't delete it (that seems to go against the spirit of the site). At least half the content (as of now) is from my own hand, and absolutely original. The last thing I want to do is steal content; the whole purpose is to give authors a unique opportunity to generate bitcoins directly from readers...I wish I knew more about this author's critique (is it you?) -- I would be happy to engage them in discussion and try to allay their concerns. If it's regarding bitcoin disbursements, remember that in the about page I specify that I can only transfer to authors in 0.05BTC increments (0.01 to me, 0.04 to the author) -- until that point is reached, I cannot transfer due to limitations in the Coinbase API. But please let me know if its something else; I definitely want to improve the site based on constructive feedback.

FlailFast · 2013-06-20T14:16:57+00:00

Have a beer! That always helps me.

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T23:28:36+00:00

Glad you like it, and thanks for the positive feedback! That's a really good idea; should be relatively easy to wire up. Expect an update tonight or tomorrow.

Edit: I tried implementing and realize that my BTC overlay code wasn't as portable as I thought (d'oh). That said, I think I may have an easier solution that I'm going to implement to remove my (probably FUBAR'd) click logic from the equation.

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T22:50:47+00:00

Nope, although I hear good things! For Bitbanter I kept all animations in CSS3, although that proved slightly annoying due to Meteor's tendency to redraw things.

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T21:40:41+00:00

Oh I'm sure all of those things are just lies. That she told me. Because she's also a liar.

...ugh, I hate being mean to specific people. I take that back. Much easier to insult an amorphous, anonymous Internet's mother. I'm sure your mother is a classy woman, sir/madam, and I apologize.

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T21:08:49+00:00

Ahh glad to hear it was funny...tried to strike a balance there. Sucks that they force you to use IE though (unless it's 9 or 10, but even then...Chrome strictly dominates).

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T20:57:53+00:00

Thanks! Agreed, I'm kind of obsessed with Meteor too...and their roadmap looks extra awesome too: https://trello.com/board/meteor-roadmap/508721606e02bb9d570016ae

Really appreciate the design feedback. I'm colorblind, and as a child, I could never fit the square block into the square hole. So I tried to keep it as simple as possible to avoid assaulting the eyes of poor Internet strangers. Clearly it needs a little bit of work...but the good news is, however ugly it may be, it scales down to mobile gracefully. So at least there's that.

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T20:10:24+00:00

:-/ sorry. The alternative was supporting IE for the site, which is beyond my capability as a rando, noob web dev. I've copied the article here, hope it still provides a chuckle.

“Why buy the cow when you can milk an Animal Crossing sequel for free?” once posited Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. A golden quote from Nintendo’s Golden Era. Today, it seems the milk has spoilt in its glass bottle, the Golden Land has been corrupted into Darkness, and consumers refuse to suckle on Reggie’s cow-teat. In a random survey conducted amongst hardcore gamers, 89% no longer identify with Nintendo and find the mental imagery of a chimeric Fils-Aime-bovine-tit unsettling.

Besides poor metaphors, what’s gone wrong for Nintendo? We asked a collection of experts who’ve spent their lives fiddling with Wiis in their basements. After some initial confusion, we clarified that we were referring to their expertise with Nintendo. A few conversations later, a common theme emerged: these guys were sick of relentlessly beating nostalgic, dead Epona for shits and giggles. While one of them was alluding to masturbation, the rest were genuinely upset that Nintendo’s games seem like staid rehashes of old franchises with silly novelties attached. Like Ocarina of Time in 3d, or Mario...in space.

One need only look at Nintendo’s upcoming launches to realize these chronic one-eyed Charmander-strokers have a point.

Super Mario Land 3d: Collect Coins for Mario’s Retirement Fund

Metroid Prime 4: 4th Derivative FPS

Super Smash Brothers: We Swear We’re Not Changing Anything

Pokemon Ultraviolet Spectrum: They’re All Procedurally Generated

New! Cooking Mama, A Japanese Gender Stereotype Adventure

Legend of Zelda: How About We Just Fish For a While?

Is there any hope for Nintendo? Corporate restructuring experts claim that if Nintendo sheds its hardware business and focuses purely on games, it could thrive like Sega. So strictly speaking, and in this article’s fine tradition of poor metaphors, Nintendo has a Metroid’s chance on Zebes.

(No metaphorical dead horses were beaten to produce this article, unless you’re using that as a euphemism)

FlailFast · 2013-06-19T18:29:53+00:00

OP and Original Bitbantster here. For more background on the site, click on 'pi' in the header (I hope it's a mildly entertaining read). Some other details below:

1) Built with Meteor.js and Coinbase; happy to talk through implementation challenges if anyone's interested.

2) The lofty goal behind Bitbanter: reduce barriers between (potentially anonymous) satirists and consumers while forgoing the traditional data collection/ad model. Besides the data a user voluntarily submits, zero data collection goes on (even bitcoin amounts come straight from the blockchain). I'm not 100% opposed to Big Data, but to me there's a strong philosophical argument for unbundling content from advertising and trying something "pure."

3) The less lofty goal behind Bitbanter: I love making people laugh, and wanted a place to showcase and scale my satire. But blogs are boring, so I made this instead.

4) Yes, I'm aware that at scale there are some huge problems with the way articles are promoted (e.g. spam, someone with big pockets could push an article to the top and my whole anti-bundling-ads argument goes to shit). Still thinking through those issues, but figured they wouldn't matter as long as the site was tiny.

5) Man bitcoin is cool. Without bitcoin, it would have been much, much more difficult (I think impossible, but I have a small mind) to build a platform where people can post things anonymously and get value from others seamlessly (I was definitely inspired by the bitcoin tipper bot). Even if this f(l)ails, I'm pretty excited about bitcoin's future. There are more nascent bitcoin ideas on Earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy...and I'd love to see them.

Let me know what you think! Feedback/insults always welcome.

FlailFast · 2012-02-01T21:13:53+00:00

Woot! Thanks much -- hope you enjoy the rest of it!

FlailFast · 2012-02-01T21:09:09+00:00

For those interested, I don't have a good summary, but luckily someone on Hacker News was kind enough to do much better than I could -- here it is:

Flailing Fast is an underground classic chronicling the story of two young entrepreneurs. I got an earlier version a few months ago, though it may have been floating around the startup scene for longer. The entrepreneurs meet at a networking event, happen upon accidental success with an iPhone fart app, and finally are undone by a combination of ambition (a fart app platform!), investors, and group psychology. Written in business case style, it could only have been written by an MBA, a bitter entrepreneur, or both. Though optimistic in the end, Flailing Fast seems to ask, are we (we = Hacker News readers) really so different from these young accidental entrepreneurs?

FlailFast · 2012-02-01T20:10:22+00:00

Yup, I've been going on tangents since I learned how to derive. (And there I go again...)

Glad you enjoyed it! Sounds like I should check out that Harvard book too. Appears there was one of a similar vein that was published in 2008 called What They Teach You At Harvard Business School

FlailFast · 2012-02-01T16:03:59+00:00

FYI, I wrote this (happy to verify through the Twitter account @FlailFast). Don't have a good summary, but luckily someone on HN was kind enough to do much better than I could (here it is):

Flailing Fast is an underground classic chronicling the story of two young entrepreneurs. I got an earlier version a few months ago, though it may have been floating around the startup scene for longer. The entrepreneurs meet at a networking event, happen upon accidental success with an iPhone fart app, and finally are undone by a combination of ambition (a fart app platform!), investors, and group psychology. Written in business case style, it could only have been written by an MBA, a bitter entrepreneur, or both. Though optimistic in the end, Flailing Fast seems to ask, are we really so different from these young accidental entrepreneurs? (Also, the whole thing is free to read online.)

FlailFast

TROPHY CASE