> What’s next? Well you can extend your app by adding payment options, email notifications, user feedback. . .
Aren't those core features of AirBnB? That's like saying "Next, you build the entire application." So you really haven't built a clone at all, you've just built an empty shell with a tiny fraction of the functionality.
This is absolutely true and I agree, but you also totally missed the point of the post, and this criticism is totally off-base.
OP wrote this post as a demonstration of how to get a native ios app prototype up and running quickly using tools like app design vault and stackmob, not in order to make any comments about airbnb or to actually try to make a full business out of this clone. The basic Airbnb interface/data structure was simply used as an example framework for the author to show off the tools and workflow.
I do think that an adjustment to the title would help to clear up the confusion around this -- this is not the only post in this thread making a similar criticism.
Maybe the title should be modified to better fit the content of the post then? If I wrote an article called "How to build a Lamborghini clone for $2,500" but demonstrated how to put a look-alike body kit on an old Honda Civic, you would be justified in telling me that I didn't accomplish my stated intention.
"Luckily, with the availability of backend services and tools like StackMob, you can fairly quickly come up with a very functional app in a matter of hours."
It's not a functional app unless it has all of the back-end structures that make the actual thing an 'application'.
The basic Airbnb interface/data structure was simply used as an example framework for the author to show off the tools and workflow.
That was implied, but not stated, hence the criticism. Hyperbole wins again!
Well, they used a link bait title to get click-throughs, and the article didn't live up to their hype. It's unsurprising that some people are calling them out on it.
EDIT - I'm glad this is off the front page. This etiquette kick that HN is on is really tiresome. None of you or me (except maybe pg) are the arbiters of what defines polite discourse here. And shame on me for getting dragged into it. The policy I strive towards is that if it's a bad comment (egregiously wrong, trolling, etc) I downvote, if it's a good comment I upvote, and if it's interesting and I have something interesting to add I upvote and reply. It's not the worst policy.
I'm sorry to add fuel to the fire but I've noticed this last few weeks. Almost every single top post to every new Show HN type submission is a brutal teardown or sometimes unfounded criticism. This kind of behavior does not encourage sharing of neat things we build. I've made many things and shared on HN in the past but I'm pretty sure if I were to submit similar things today I'd be called out for not supporting PlatformOfChoice in v0.1a or using improper font-size. I would be nice if people constructively criticized the core product being shared not the tertiary aspects.
If I write a blog post on how to find and fix leaks in single-page JS apps in various browsers, the top post shouldn't be the one complaining about how Chrome takes more memory than Firefox. Comments like that are certainly on topic because memory leaks end up using more memory by definition. The problem is that those kind of comments are too generic to improve anything for anyone but incite enough vitriol to get voted to the top. The top post should be the one finding faults with my leak handling practices and suggesting better methods of doing the same.
Almost every single non-reply post on this article is criticizing how much the app isn't AirBnB. Maybe the new measure of success on HN is finding the excellent discussions under those criticizing posts? Those criticizing top posts always have a huge amount of discussion under them.
Using Stripe, disquss etc it should be doable in a couple of hours/days.
Of course the main feature of AirBnB and the large copycats is the market penetration. Nobody cares if you have a fancy backend or e.g. a node.js based mobile app. It's about active users and transactions.
It's still a more interesting article than "build a blog in two hours" or "chat apps in 3.14 lines of code!". There will always be functionality left for later but as an example of a quick prototyping framework I think the article is pretty great.
Exactly. These "I built a clone of X in Y hours" posts seem to imply that a website or a mobile app are what makes a successful company. In reality they are just the tip of the iceberg. What you don't see are the countless hours of hustling, the distribution deals, the marketing, the organic growth of the brand, etc, etc.
It could be like saying: "hey, I just built a clone of McDonalds; I made a burger with fries."
It could be like saying: "hey, I just built a clone of McDonalds; I made a burger with fries."
Why troll? This is obviously a developer tutorial meant to show off a platform. I just can't believe you actually think the author claimed to clone AirBnB's whole business in this article.
The title may be a bit misleading, but having read the article, it's obvious this is about how easy the tools they suggest make building (scaffolding?) an AirBnB app, not how easy it is to build an AirBnB business.
It never fails to amaze how so many tech folk are such pedants. For all of you who are whining about this not being a real clone for any number of reasons you are well and truly stuck in the trees. You've failed to notice that this is a demo of the StackMob API which is more than a common Hello World, Blog engine or ToDo list. There is a lot of great stuff here and the OP makes a great case for StackMob. Grow up.
I don't think you can call this a 'clone'. It's at most a proof of concept. I can build a POC of Airbnb in Rails in an hour. It doesn't mean I should build an Airbnb clone in Rails.
> What’s next? Well you can extend your app by adding payment options, email notifications, user feedback. . .
Aren't those core features of AirBnB? That's like saying "Next, you build the entire application." So you really haven't built a clone at all, you've just built an empty shell with a tiny fraction of the functionality.