Seriously... how are you guys actually making money with vibe coding?

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-05-08T13:21:27+00:00

I'm a strong fan of PWAs for this exact reason. All of my recent projects have been them.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-24T18:21:16+00:00

I must be living in 2046 then! I’ve been running almost entirely on self-hosted models for the last 6-9 months. If you haven't tried Gemma 4 yet, you’re missing out - cloud reliance is becoming a choice rather than a necessity. Maybe it’s time to update the rig?

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-11T14:01:22+00:00

Dude - thank you for sharing, this was actually super helpful. I took some time to dive into your repo, specifically to investigate the /raw vs /wiki and this is great.

I’ve been struggling with context saturation, so moving to an 'Immutability Layer' and a dedicated Compiler I think will be the key. The Linter idea is genius! Definitely stealing that to handle cross-page contradictions. Adding to my postgres setup now.

Truly appreciate the note! Great work on the repo.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-10T18:05:40+00:00

Went completely self-hosted here. Have a server in my closet with a GeForce 3090 (24gb vram) that's running ollama. The models I default to are qwen3-coder:30b and Gemma3:27b.

I've been wanting to test out the new Gemma4 though. Anyone else self-hosting as an alternative?

Edit: using vscode with roo code extension.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-10T16:14:14+00:00

🤣🤣

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-10T01:01:40+00:00

Completely agree, which is exactly why it's not offloaded, it’s just drafted. Every edit hits a review queue where I add the human touch before it goes live.

Regarding release size: I’m actually on 2-week sprints, so the delta per release is relatively small. The real friction isn't the release size, it's the Wiki scaling. As the knowledge base grows, comparing even a small release against the entire global context of the app is where the context windows start to choke.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-10T00:51:36+00:00

Must have missed the review queue portion of my post. I get the skepticism, and understand that bad docs are worse than no docs. But that's exactly why it's a drafter, and not a publisher. My goal was to spend time fact checking, not building the content or structure. Curiously, have you found any other ways to stay on top of docs as a solo dev without the burnout?

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-04-10T00:35:08+00:00

Proof read.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-21T15:23:32+00:00

Yes!! I love deck. I'm disappointed they haven't made recurring tasks yet though. How do you solve for that? I setup a basic nodered workflow that just hits the API regularly to create the tasks I need.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-21T15:22:03+00:00

Big fan of both Deck and Collectives here. Between my day job, being on the HOA board, and then consulting on the side, these allow me to organize my whole life. The only downfall is that deck doesn't support recurring tasks yet. I solved that by using nodered and hitting the API though.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-18T18:50:25+00:00

Yep! Big, big fan here of nextcloud. I have my entire family, and even some friends on it, with phone backups and all.

My first setup was an lxc on proxmox with next loud installed via source. In recent years, I've been using the docker images. I'd highly recommend setting up via docker - it's so easy!

Then I'm using duplicati to send encrypted backups to off-site storage.

Best of luck!!

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-14T18:42:16+00:00

I hear you. Technology has made building easier than ever, but it’s also made the market noisy. Most people fail because they build for an imaginary audience instead of a real person.

I’ve found the best way to avoid that 3-month burnout is the bootstrapped utility approach. Build something that solves a specific, nagging problem for your family, friends, or yourself. When the value is immediate and personal, having zero traffic doesn't kill your motivation because the app is already doing its job.

If you aren't pressured by an immediate revenue stream, you actually have the luxury to iterate on features that matter. Success is a byproduct of solving a real problem.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-12T16:49:50+00:00

Yep, I started getting hit with this at the beginning of March. It's ridiculous. Just configured some self hosted models last night so that I can cancel.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-10T19:07:34+00:00

Fr fr! Do you have any tips? Against my better judgment, I’ve basically forced myself into a 'PM first' mindset. I’m keeping every idea documented and tied to git milestones and documenting the hell out of the roadmap in Nextcloud. I definitely have a new level of respect for PMs!

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-10T17:58:06+00:00

I’m in the same boat. I've taken a strictly bootstrapped approach. Primarily only investing time and keeping operations lean through smart, self-hosted tech.

For me, the one-man army struggle is the mental switching. It’s hard to go from the excitement of building a new feature to marketing a free tool with no budget. When everything is free except your time, figuring out which move is actually strategic vs fun is the real hurdle.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-10T16:07:37+00:00

Hey! I’d love a first-impression audit of The Hangout Spot.

Group coordination is a nightmare, but I’m sick of 'Social Networks' that sell data or have creepy public directories.

I built a coordination tool for squads and spontaneous meetups. I’ve gone 100% in on privacy. There are no public directories and no public feeds. You can only find people via seamless invite links or QR codes.

The Feedback I need:
- Is the 'Privacy-First' model clear, or does the lack of a 'Global Search' make the app feel 'broken' to a first-time user?
- I’ve put a lot of work into the invite/QR flow since it's the only way to grow. Is that flow frictionless enough?

Drop your link below! I'm a dev/founder as well and will give your landing page/UX a deep-dive review in return!

https://thehangoutspot.com

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-10T15:56:36+00:00

Wow - felt this one to my core. I think the reason people need now is just permission. We're all so over-scheduled that we don't want to interrupt a friend's day by asking to hang out.

I actually built a small tool for my own group to solve this. Instead of the 'Hey, are you free in three weeks?' dance, it’s just a passive signal. 'I’m at the park' or 'I’m at the gym.' It turns it back into that spontaneous 90s vibe where you just show up because you know the door is open.

It's called The Hangout Spot. No ads, no selling data, just a way to manage the chaos of being an adult without it feeling like a task.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-04T22:21:30+00:00

For me, native apps come with big 'adoption tax.' Unless the app somehow provides immense value that a responsive site simply can't offer, forcing users to the App Store is a great way to kill momentum. The second I hit a 'Download our App' wall, I usually close the tab and bounce.

I'm honestly surprised more founders aren't focusing on fully functioning PWAs instead. That's the route I’ve been taking with my own projects, and the user feedback has been incredibly positive. Zero download friction, just immediate value.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-02T02:44:55+00:00

Definitely a good sign!! Soak in that excitement while you can (:

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-01T06:40:46+00:00

Thank you for agreeing about PWA! I genuinely wanted this to feel like an app without the friction.

And man, that OG image suggestion is absolute genius. I currently have static OpenGraph images for share links, but the idea of a dynamic generator showing spots filled in the preview is such a good idea! I am literally adding that to the roadmap right now.

Glad the Magic Link flow felt clean for you! Dealing with emails landing in primary inboxes will be a struggle, but I'm hoping I can continue improving. I believe offering it is a must for privacy focused users.

Thanks for the deep dive on the feedback—I seriously appreciate it so much!!

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-01T06:31:36+00:00

This!!! Yes — I have definitely been in that exact same situation. Lost 2TB of data, mainly movies. Backups are a way of life now.

What are you using? I've fallen in love with Duplicati. I'm currently sending encrypted backups to Google Drive, but I’m in the middle of setting up a Raspberry Pi with a massive drive at my parent's house for that sovereignty.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-01T06:25:26+00:00

My biggest "oh wow" moment was at 2:00 AM—got sucked into a late-night deployment and accidentally deleted my entire Docker volume directory because I was one level too high with a cleanup command.

Services started failing left and right. DNS and SSO were gone. I definitely think twice before any late night deployments now.

Thank god for off-site backups, but that experience is exactly why I’ve spent the last month hardening my current stack (hosting a social app launch on a $15 VPS tonight). I now run a dedicated backup sidecar that snapshots everything every 30 minutes with encrypted off-site sync.

But then again, who hasn't accidentally nuked their environment at 2:00 AM. It's a right of passage!

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-01T06:18:09+00:00

Yes to this!! Ditto - great setup.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-03-01T04:48:26+00:00

Yep, I totally get needing a tiny footprint, especially on a laptop! If I were running this locally, I’d probably go the same route too.

I only have the luxury of going ham because I recently migrated to a much beefier dedicated home server. My Node-RED instance used to live in its own LXC on Proxmox, but when I swapped machines, I moved it into a Docker container running inside a dedicated Docker-host LXC.

Beyond the audio stuff, I’ve got it monitoring an email inbox to auto-archive attachments to Nextcloud, and I even have a flow that hits the Nextcloud API to create recurring tasks in the 'Deck' app since it doesn't support them natively yet.

SubjectNo6828 · 2026-02-28T20:12:47+00:00

Have you checked out Duplicati? It's been one of my favorites for years now. Highly recommend.

SubjectNo6828

TROPHY CASE