dean_mcpherson

I decided three days ago that I'm going to build https://dubble.so in public (I know it's getting a bad rep lately, but it looks too fun to let it be).

I don't have many connections to the #buildinpublic community though, so I'm trying out running a giveaway to get connected.

Dubble made $1024 USD in January - so the idea is that I'm going to give away all of February's revenue to the person who guesses the closest amount.

I'll be submitting updates on how this works out as a campaign on Indie Hackers and Twitter (@dean_mcpherson) if you want to see if silly give aways help, hinder or do not much at all

Love it! Gave it a test run yesterday, looks promising so far.

Thanks aleem, I wrote up my initial experiences at https://medium.com/@dean_mcpherson/townske-app-in-react-nati... a while ago, some of the points are probably no longer an issue. As per my response above, the update prompt is for http://microsoft.github.io/code-push/.

Agreed, we probably need to work on offsetting those prompts til after onboarding, and preparing the user. An implementation issue though, not a react native one.

The two permissions modals are required by iOS to access those features, and RN definitely has the ability to defer when those are shown.

The update prompt is actually from http://microsoft.github.io/code-push/ which allows us to push minor updates directly to the app without going via the app store. Say goodbye to 2 week time cycles. A newer release of Code Push actually doesn't prompt the user at all, and can download an update during use and load it when the app goes inactive.

Correct, Curbit shares 80% between iOS and Android

Here's a bit about my experience with React Native.

I've been using React Native on iOS in production since last November for http://townske.com/app,

Over that period, I did hit some performance issues, but the vast majority of those were implementation flaws (i.e. my fault), not framework flaws. Real user feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, including being featured in the app store multiple times.

I just launched another app for iOS and Android last weekend (https://curbitapp.com) that was built with React Native in a few weeks, and shares about 80% of the codebase. I haven't spent any time optimising these apps for performance, other than following standard react best practices and see sufficient performance on both iOS and Android.

For someone who has a web background, React Native is a no brainer. 60fps native UI is generally attainable, you can use the exact same tooling (good dev tools, hot reloading), and you have the ability to pick up a large chunk of your code and put it on Android, or web, or now potentially OSX.

If you want to keep up with future developments, there is a waitlist at http://curbitapp.com.

Thanks jonesb6 :)

That's a cool idea. A lot of charities in Aus will come and pick up stuff that's valuable if you organise it.

With Curbit we're really trying to create infrastructure for one way gifting that takes the weight of organisational weight off the donor. There is nothing stopping charities from picking up items listed on Curbit though.

Creating services for local government to use is definitely an avenue of monetisation we will investigate later down the track if the app gains traction.

Obviously however, user privacy and encouraging the core use of the app is the primary concern, and we won't pursue any method of monetisation that will jeopardise that.

Thanks jsankey, I agree. One of our key target demographics are parents home with children. From anecdotal experience, they are a good fit to both the supply and demand of temporary use items, and also more likely to be working on restoration projects or DIY that will benefit from free materials.

Curbit is my side project, I work for travel startup townske.com.

Hey jsankey, the advantage of Curbit is simplicity. All existing solutions require a fair amount of effort of the person wanting to get rid of something. Freecycle is solving the exact same issue, but I feel that the burden that comes from having to manage pickup / messaging / condition reports all from a very rough web UI deters a huge portion of the population. We shouldn't have to work to get rid of something for free :)

Compared to classifieds in general, it can be much simpler to use, because money isn't changing hands.

At the moment, we're not really interested in monetising. We're treating this as infrastructure that we wish existed that doesn't. However, if it does turn out to solve a problem for people, I'm confident that we will be able to generate enough small methods of monetisation to keep the doors open.

Hey femto, I'm Dean McPherson (@dean_mcpherson), the dev making Curbit. Our current plan is exactly that, if the user is posting their own stuff, we ask them to place it in a legal, accessible location. This is accomplished by asking them for special pickup instructions (e.g. "On the porch", or "On top of the mailbox").

The other big use case though is reporting stuff that others have dumped. Using the app makes no statement that you put the stuff there, and we in no way are trying to encourage people to break the law :)