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Comment by chrysoprace | Hacker News Reader

To add onto this, I used to frequent a cafe near my old work and had quite a good rapport with the owner. One day I was going for lunch and wanted to check their menu, pick something new and then go order. When I went and ordered it she said she they no longer serve that and couldn't get onto the developer to change their menu on the site. They were a couple working 7 days a week, only taking public holidays off, so it was easily the least of their concerns.

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I think if you are half capable you should just adopt the project and do it for free.

I have a web app that is a html document with an [edit] button at the end. It points at edit.html which has a textarea, a password field and a submit button. (Below is a list of links to all pages in the folder starting with index-) The textarea shows the middle chunk of the html document. You edit it, fill out the password (the browser will do it) and press the save button. It posts to save.php which constructs a new index.html and save a copy as index-2026-03-18.html The link to the copy shows up on edit.html The edit link there points to edit.html?file=index-2026-03-18.html if you save it that will become the new index.html (it refuses to edit anything that isn't "index-\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d\.html")

If each menu entry is: `<tr><td>Beer</td><td>$3.50</td></tr>` They can just edit, delete or copy and paste it. Simply: `<br>Beer $3.50` Would work just as well. If they screw up they can put back an older version.

Put your phone number on the edit page. Write some html tags on a napkin. `<br> <b> <i> <h3> <img> <a>`

They want more pages? make the /about folder drop index edit and save.php into it, remind them to make a link to it on the front page and they will figure it out.

> I think if you are half capable you should just adopt the project and do it for free.

Why? A website is a standard business expense. Should their accountant work for free also? And their waiters and kitchen staff?

Good question, I do such things because 1) web design is full of con artists 2) there is no money in restaurants, it is a horrible sector to be. I want as much of the business expenses on my plate. 3) I want a simple snappy website with a phone number, what time they are open and the menu. 4) I can do this in less than 10 minutes. 5) I love to code specially if the project isn't complicated. 6) It is hilarious to look at once every 3rd month. Some leave it in sterile perfection, some turn it into a geocities/myspace page, some go crazy with youtube videos. 7) I've never seen downtime, no one ever calls.

> Should their accountant work for free also?

If they did, do you think they get good service? Would they be allowed to pay for their food/drinks?

> And their waiters and kitchen staff?

Thats hard work man. Shit pay too usually. Ill fill it under almost free.

And in our day jobs we earn money for providing negative value to society. Least we can do is give a little something to someone everynow and then.

At first, I agreed with the sentiment that the earlier poster ought to do them a favor. But you're right. Business expense.

Although, I suppose if they (the proprietors) had up-to-date creds and such, maybe offering to remove the one item from the menu as favor would be a nice way to become a favorite customer. The rest is clearly their problem. And I'm pretty sure from the description that they won't have all the necessary documentation.

That, and giving something nice to your local community ----- the place where you belong.

Like, if I have a skill, why shouldn't I use that skill in service of those around me? Especially when it's barely an inconvenience for me.

The western culture of individualism runs contrary to our biology.

Firstly, I think you missed that they are small business-owners and simply do not have the time to manage this. Even if I volunteered to do charity work for a local business, they would still need to spend the time to get onto the old developer to transfer domain access, host access, billing info, etc.

Secondly, I no longer work near there and haven't gone to that cafe in about 5 years. I keep up with old colleagues who say the cafe is doing well, but now if I had taken on that work now I'm their contact.

Lastly, this is all ignoring the maintenance cost. What version of PHP? What version of Apache/NGINX/Traefik? Any security vulnerability in Ubuntu in the past half decade? Now we have to play the security cat & mouse game.

At the end of the day, while I don't want to go to Instagram/Facebook to find menus/opening hours, the truth is that it is significantly easier for the average person to just make a social media post.

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