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Comment by johndebord | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the thoughtful comparison and the links!

You actually inspired me to make a quick change. Based on your note about photos and media, I just ungated the platform. I previously had a text Pieces only flag active, but I've turned it off. You can now attach images, video, audio, and docs to a Piece; not just text.

As for your other points:

Time-limits for release: This is a super interesting idea. If people find it useful, I think it could fit into Pieces.

Tipping vs. Funding: The investigative journalist or artist scenario is exactly the shape that Pieces is built for ("fund the unlock"). While voluntary post-release tips are great, they don't fully solve the free-rider problem that Pieces aims to address via dominant assurance contracts. Platforms like BuyMeACoffee handle tips well, but Pieces is laser-focused on the pre-release funding stage.

Good luck with your projects as well! What are you currently working on?

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Thanks - I am working on a couple of DIY home-oriented projects (not computer related.)

But I am also interested in getting something up on tinkeriDOTng too - something about tinkering - maybe a Github for inventions.

Checkout https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47967800 (DripStack) it is actually designed primarily for agents querying human writers - although on the front-end, humans can definitely query too. That concerns pre-release funding for financial writers.. wait how are humans writing these days? Who's to know how much slop it will return?

Regarding pre-release funding, I was thinking artist/creators might want to setup a mini-portfolio of content on the site, but then use the site as a "pipeline of ideas" with each seeking funding.

One use-case for Pieces are DJ playlists. I've seen DJs on Soundcloud wait until a mix gets a certain number of likes or reposts before they post the tracklist. You could contact DJs directly and tell them about the site.

A "GitHub for inventions" sounds like a project worth building. I wonder if you could pre-fill the site in with public patents and show the diffs of each patent; that would be interesting to me. Good luck with that and the DIY projects!

You hit the nail on the head regarding the "AI slop" worry. I think the majority of it will be AI agents in the future and/or heavily assisted with AI. To filter out that noise, Pieces tracks a creator's lifetime volume and uses a weighted rating system where only actual participants in a Piece can affect the rating. That should help a little, but still needs to be proven in practice.

The "pipeline of ideas" concept is interesting. I'll definitely reach out to some DJs and see if this would interest them.

Really appreciate the ideas and the brainstorm!

No problem. The whole creators/bonders/backers thing is interesting. It feels like it adds a layer of extra cost to the content. So a content creator is paying a kickback to the bonders - it's like paying a commission.

Why should the creator pay a bonder anything, what have they done? Are they doing favors for the creator or the backers? Would it be in a backer's interest to also become a bonder? Why does there need to be an extra bonder entity? Maybe the creator should just pay a listing fee that is reimbursed if fully funded, otherwise it is distributed to backers in a funding-fail?

Bonding is also like a prediction bet - "I bet this piece gets fully funded / I bet it doesn't." That's all they're doing, right, or would bonders be like a record company who would fund and endorse some type of content, so it's like a stamp of approval or provide expectation/goodwill to a piece pre-release?

Why not just have a standard group-funding model, and then run prediction betting alongside it separately?

Anyway, I was thinking - what would be the most valuable piece of information to back, while also being the most minimal? A password? What's behind the password? How about a new album to download from a webpage with HTTP Basic Authentication?

How about backers who want some information to NOT be released before a deadline? That could be pretty funny, or would it be like blackmail?

It's like Pieces is where you go once you've got the NOC list.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v8P1T1pgOjU

Some people want the information released, some people want the information suppressed.. who wins? Is it really the NOC list or a fake?

WikiStopLeaks / SpyNation. Make sure that hard drive is in a secret location and fully purged!

I had another idea - linked in my profile.

It's really about getting another person involved in a Piece, rather than waving something semi-cloaked in front of people.

I suppose being pre-release and post-built is the sweet spot you'd be looking for - even if it's been built by someone else.

So you'd add a field - "third-party recipient" and they'd be notified of the piece once it goes live. They could also claim that piece if they wanted to actually cooperate.

An AskMeAnything setup by fans would seem like the most obvious use-case but really anything goes. So the Claimant (or creator?) would post a link to the forum for the AMA and the Piece concludes at that.

There was some discussion I was in a number of months ago about bounties. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44654489 - it was said "wish there were more solid options. It's an interesting space and there's a lot of opportunity for people who can get it right"

Best of luck with it, once again.

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