How To Improve Actualized.org - Mega-Thread

[Tyler Robinson]

18 minutes ago, Gesundheit2 said:

Mainly the company that I work for. And/or if I'm on some freelancing site, the admins of the site.

Random devs are risky. There are no guarantees.

My whole point is that you can hire a company to do the job instead of a person. Having a single person contract like the "cup of coffee" developers is very risky. Through a company, it's much safer although quite expensive. The company bears all the risk. If I make a contract with a person, even though he is affiliated with a company, I'm taking a risk if he is working independent of the company at low charge, since the company is not involved in the contract, they are absolved of any responsibility. Hiring companies to do your job is always expensive versus hiring a single person no matter the level of expertise. I've never known companies that charge low fees for app development and maintenance, so far not in my personal experience dealing with the app market. 

If there's a company that charges low, I would still be skeptical of their overall reputation because maintaining a company of software developers is not a cheap thing at all, most high quality highly trustworthy software developers ask a high pay, so to maintain a consistent supply of these developers has to be a pricey thing. Most software developers monkey jump from one company to another to get higher pays, so it's extremely hard to keep them unless it's a high end biz company. Which basically means high costs to the client. 

It's a lose lose situation either way. 

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[Gesundheit2]

@Tyler Robinson Hiring a freelance developer is a great alternative, especially if your needs are simple like this. It can be a lot cheaper as cuts a lot of company costs, because it connects the developer and client directly on a platform that charges minimal fees for providing the market environment and moderation services.

Edited December 16, 2022 by Gesundheit2

[Tyler Robinson]

@Gesundheit2 I'm not sure if the app can be made available for free. I'm not sure about the hidden costs like hosting the app on Google Play Store or Apple Store. I've seen most apps being pay-for-play or pay-for-subscription so I'm assuming they are some hidden costs apart from just developing an app. 

Making an app is more like a business unless you are providing the app for free. For example my Twitter app is totally free. But that's because the costs of the app are born by a large corporation like Twitter, they won't need subscription fees to cover up costs. Most small businesses need a paid subscriptions. 

Leo is providing this forum for free which is already a great great privilege to all the people here. It's a service not a business. I guess if he has to make an app, he might have to charge people for a subscription. It can surely become a lucrative business, this is something that Sam Harris did with his meditation app, but that's because Sam Harris wants to run a business off meditation and spirituality. Leo is not looking for making money off the advice he gives here which is just the greatest free gift ever. 

I don't know if the app can be completely free. Maybe not. I'm just happy that this forum is totally free of cost to me. 

 

[Gesundheit2]

8 minutes ago, Tyler Robinson said:

@Gesundheit2 I'm not sure if the app can be made available for free. I'm not sure about the hidden costs like hosting the app on Google Play Store or Apple Store. I've seen most apps being pay-for-play or pay-for-subscription so I'm assuming they are some hidden costs apart from just developing an app.

I don't know a lot about developing mobile or desktop apps. But I can say with confidence that there would not be much hidden costs in this case, if any at all. The server hosting the platform is already up and running. The user interface is already designed, so there is no need for a UI/UX designer.

Quote

Making an app is more like a business unless you are providing the app for free. For example my Twitter app is totally free. But that's because the costs of the app are born by a large corporation like Twitter, they won't need subscription fees to cover up costs. Most small businesses need a paid subscriptions. 

Leo is providing this forum for free which is already a great great privilege to all the people here. It's a service not a business. I guess if he has to make an app, he might have to charge people for a subscription. It can surely become a lucrative business, this is something that Sam Harris did with his meditation app, but that's because Sam Harris wants to run a business off meditation and spirituality. Leo is not looking for making money off the advice he gives here which is just the greatest free gift ever. 

I don't know if the app can be completely free. Maybe not. I'm just happy that this forum is totally free of cost to me.

Here's an idea: Tell ChatGPT to replicate this forum in code. Tell it that you want a mobile app. Then sell that app to Leo, or give it for free.

[Tyler Robinson]

33 minutes ago, KH2 said:

@Tyler Robinson

 @Tyler Robinson 

Monthly subscribtion app with Discord-like chat🤭 I'd take that

Another coffee please

You might have to buy your own coffee, because the day you host a monthly subscription for this forum  is the day you lose all the freeloaders who spend their time here which is the majority populace. 

Half the population is broke or unemployed or looking how to make some money. You think that they would pay monthly for an app when they don't even regularly visit this place. 

Yea lol, your strategy is a sure shot way of losing half the forum members. 

The other half will be lost to splintering off by random Discord groups. 

Kudos to an empty forum.  enjoy your coffee. Lol. 

Your idea is like charging homeless people to sleep on the streets. Brilliant!!!

I think the best thing I love about this website is that it's for free. Leo couldn't have been more charitable. 

On the flip side if you assume that you are going to improve the quality of this place by charging people, you also have to be ready to morally compromise with the fact that you will lose a lot of people who are a part of this community and who genuinely need help. You might have an improved more competitive forum I agree, but you're also causing a subset of people to lose the benefits of free help, if that sits right with you. There's very few stuff out there which is both good as well as free and you have no idea how valuable it is for people who desperately need help, maybe they need a place like this more than you do. 

There are loads of wonderful paid places on the internet that you can pay for and explore. 

Maybe leave a few places free for the homeless and the destitute. 

I don't know if Leo's decision was out of charity or business or both, but either way it is hugely beneficial. 

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[Tyler Robinson]

10 minutes ago, KH2 said:

and would be something of an elite enlightened society😏

That's exactly the evil Leo doesn't want. Leo is not Sam Harris and that's why Leo is the OG of free spiritual communities. And that's why people love Leo. 

Love love love love Leo. Yay!!! 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[the_void_of_chaos]

@Tyler Robinson @Gesundheit2  You can use Upwork for hiring freelance developer. Hire a professional with good rating, submit the money in escrow...if you don't like the work, tell the dev to fix it and if you still don't like it, your money is safe, you don't have to pay. Also, there are no hidden charges when submitting an app to Google Play Store or Apple App Store. The developer just needs an account (which obviously he has), complete the app, show it to you and if you like it then you can approve for submitting for review. The app store will review the app. When it's approved (note that app store will know if the app has any hidden features or virus in which case it won't get approved), you can create your own developer account which costs ~25 dollars for android and 100 dollars for iOS and transfer the app to your account. The source code will also be included so if in future your app needs some changes, you can hire the same person or some other freelancer. Also, freelancers don't cost much...if you want to hire a professional freelancer, it will cost ~500-1000 dollars. Also, there are agencies you can work with...high reputation, senior developers. But given the site's UI, I don't think it will be a great idea to build an app for it.

[Tyler Robinson]

 

1 minute ago, the_void_of_chaos said:

@Tyler Robinson @Gesundheit2  You can use Upwork for hiring freelance developer. Hire a professional with good rating, submit the money in escrow...if you don't like the work, tell the dev to fix it and if you still don't like it, your money is safe, you don't have to pay. Also, there are no hidden charges when submitting an app to Google Play Store or Apple App Store. The developer just needs an account (which obviously he has), complete the app, show it to you and if you like it then you can approve for submitting for review. The app store will review the app. When it's approved (note that app store will know if the app has any hidden features or virus in which case it won't get approved), you can create your own developer account which costs ~25 dollars for android and 100 dollars for iOS and transfer the app to your account. The source code will also be included so if in future your app needs some changes, you can hire the same person or some other freelancer. Also, freelancers don't cost much...if you want to hire a professional freelancer, it will cost ~500-1000 dollars. Also, there are agencies you can work with...high reputation, senior developers. But given the site's UI, I don't think it will be a great idea to build an app for it.

Well that's good. I'll leave it to Leo and watch his opinions on this. 

[Bob Seeker]

introduce a stack overflow section

[something_else]

@Tyler Robinson There are tons of high quality freelance developers who will do almost anything you can think of. Non-technical people think they got 'scammed' because they hire the cheapest developer and expect them to replicate something like a twitter app for minimum wage or less and then are disappointed with the results.

They didn't get scammed, they got exactly what they paid for.

I worked for a freelance developer as an intern (websites not apps, but roughly same idea) who was probably one of the best developers of the particular framework he was an expert on in the country. He worked freelance because it offered him more flexibility, more pay, and he wanted to grow his own business. But some of the bespoke web apps he produced were exceptional. 

And actually, one of the groups who are MOST likely to scam you are overly corporate IT companies, not freelancers. They may often charge a company ridiculous prices for an average (at best) end product that takes them quite a long time to produce. For example my university paid Oracle around £15 million for the bit of software that manages our students information and class timetables, and it is buggy, slow, looks like it was built in the late 90s and is almost impossible to navigate. They also paid a further £1-2 million for follow up maintenance. And it's not like that software does anything all that special or unique.

[the_void_of_chaos]

 

[Yog]

If you want a more expensive option then hire a cheaper dev.

[Guest]

Try and not use every possible opportunity to tell everyone how stupid they are

[integral]

How To Improve Actualized.org - Mega-Thread 

Is community brainstorming. 

Create a section that is Brainstorming. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by integral

[Tyler Robinson]

Make it possible for mods to restrict a user from commenting in journals. It's very annoying. 

That would be a huge blessing. 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Tyler Robinson

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, Tyler Robinson said:

Make it possible for mods to restrict a user from commenting in journals. It's very annoying. 

That would be a huge blessing. 

Member Ajournalistic?

[Tyler Robinson]

10 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Member Ajournalistic?

Yes

[Carl-Richard]

4 minutes ago, Tyler Robinson said:

Yes

That could be possible, but then they can't have their own journal in that section, but you could solve that by giving the ajournalistic people their own journal section.

[Thought Art]

20 hours ago, Stretch said:

Try and not use every possible opportunity to tell everyone how stupid they are

Lol, my mind played with this one 

[Tyler Robinson]

53 minutes ago, Judy2 said:

 if the mods know that you are struggling so much, maybe they can agree to simply remove all the intrusive comments you report without it being that big of a deal every single time?

i'm sure we'll find a solution though. stay strong♡

@Carl-Richard since nothing is going to be done about it as we know, the only temporary solution to it is what some other user has suggested above. 

Just removing all Intrusive comments and keeping the journal clean. 

Sorry there's just not much other than that that can be done.