

Ask HN: Feedback on crazy side projects ideas - DanPir

During the last days I have been wondering about few crazy side projects ideas and I would like to get your opinions about them:<p>1. Streamy -  The Voice Of Internet. A social network without the &quot;social&quot; and the &quot;network&quot;. A user can post something and it is visible to everybody but not like Twitter where everybody has her own &quot;stream&quot; of tweets. There is just a single huge stream of posts. No followers, no friends, no private&#x2F;dedicated stream. Just post something and it will be visible to everybody.<p>2. Tempexchange - Upload a file with no size limit and set an expiration time (max 24 hours). Download it from anywhere with a public or private url. No registration required. No client required. Just upload, share the url, download.<p>3. Moneyplicator. This is a bit complex to explain (and to realize). The concept is: give us X $ and we will you back X + Y% $ (where Y is considerably high, like 20%) but we cannot tell you when (maybe in few hours, in few months or years). How is it possible to manage that in a profitable way? Example: User A gives 10 $ and expect to receive back 12 $ (10$ + 20%). User B, later on, gives 20 $ and expect to receive back 24 $ (20$ + 20%). When the intermediary collects the money from user B it is able to repay user A, retaining a small percentage fee Z (let&#x27;s say 2%) for itself. So the balance for the intermediary would be: +10 (from A) +20 (from B) -11.8 (to A, including a fee of 0.2) = 18.2 of which 0.2 is cashed as the fee and 18 will be used to pay back the money to B. The whole loop keeps going with the following users. It is clear that the intermediary will always have debts to pay but not a deadline to do that and meanwhile it is cashing fees. I am not sure all of this makes proper sense, what do you think?<p>Please let me know your feedbacks!
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mtmail
1\. as soon as it gets enough traffic/attention it will be run over by
spammers or other self-promoters. You'd need at least a way to treat some
content as more valuable then other. That would require moderators, who need
to be vetted, e.g. by reputation. Take a look at 24h worth of
[http://www.reddit.com/r/all/new/](http://www.reddit.com/r/all/new/), expect
100 submissions per minute, and try to figure out how you'd managed the
submissions from a quality point of view.

3\. if news users pay out existing users who are in dept it sounds like a
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme).
If the contract says you have dept but don't need to pay within a certain
timeframe then don't be surprised if users signup and never ever pay.

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DanPir
1\. I agree with your points but they are not needed for a MVP. Unfortunately
I was not thinking that the whole platform would be very similar to Reddit...
I need to find some elements of differentiation.

3\. Also in this case you are right but I was wondering about a situation
where the first users try it with a very small amounts of money (few dollars),
they see they are repaid, then word of mouth, more users, more money etc.

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mod
3\. Still a ponzi scheme. Those are not legal, nor are they something you
should be willing to do.

The last users to sign up get screwed. Every time.

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DanPir
Yes... that was actually my concern

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mapimopi
2\. There is [http://rghost.net](http://rghost.net) Upload size is actually
limited to 50 MB, but otherwise it is pretty much the same thing.

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DanPir
Thanks, I did not know about it!

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anotheryou
I'm currently building (1), but just as a pre-alpha for something more
elaborate :) though it will probably stay a testing platform. Your pruposal
also is very close to 4chan/imageboards.

If anyone wants to discuss possible mechanisms for news aggregation, please
chat me up!

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DanPir
Of course it sounds interesting...

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stevekemp
2\. Sounds fun, but you need a plan in place for the first time somebody
uploads child porn, or movies. I suspect dealing with abuse would be your
biggest hassle, beyond the obvious upload/storage requirements and lack of
income.

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DanPir
A freemium model of course is needed if the whole thing should be successful.
About filtering the content... well, that is an interesting topic... how
Dropbox ant its competitors deal with that?

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1123581321
They use hashes of known material, and in some cases, image recognition
technology for more detailed review.

Files that are shared receive more attention. This helps since most files on
Dropbox aren't shared. A file-sharing application would not be able to use
that filter, obviously.

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DanPir
Do you think would work the concept that the platform would not be responsible
for the files uploaded?

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1123581321
Probably would at first. Go ahead and build it!

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DanPir
I am not sure how many "competitors" there are already

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1123581321
My opinion is that file sending is a market that can support a lot of
competitors. Maybe start with a basic prototype and see if you want to
continue.

