Any web coders here?

[Vynce]

Im working on a social media app halftime for some weeks now. 

And I wonder if any programmers here can give some advice on how to set up an app like Patreon or even Instagram. 
 

It doesn’t need an fancy algorithms or ads infrastructure. In the end it will work maybe like OnlyFans. 
 

So would you hire anyone for that via freelance work? Or even employ someone fulltime? Learn it by myself? 
 

[Joshe]

If you know HTML, CSS, and basic JS, you should be able to use Claude and ChatGPT to build it. If you don't know those, you're probably a good ways out before you could produce a solid web app. And if you decide to get into modern frontend tools like React, Tailwind, etc, you'll have an even steeper climb. If you're a newbie, the problem is, you don't know what you don't know. It's very easy to build something that works but it's hard to build something that works well at scale, because to do that, you have to build things right, and there are dozens of ways you could build this app. Your entire tech stack would need to be well mapped out and understood. 

Such an app would need complicated state management solutions, so most would tell you to use React. I don't like React because it seems overly complicated, so I decided to build my own solutions for rendering elements in the DOM and managing their state. 

I plan on eventually building commercial apps myself, but first, I'm setting up a "systems builder" desktop app (screenshot below) that lays out my entire architecture with documentation and easy copy/paste for all my code. I'm creating all the building blocks I would ever need, that way, when I'm building my apps, I'll have everything ready to go. I'm using custom web components, which is where you build out your own custom elements and program them to behave however you want. 

Say you want to have a file drop element where people can upload a profile picture. Well, you could build it out normally with HTML, CSS, and JS, but it's not very efficient for reusing it, so you can put it all in a custom component and make it work however you want. I've designed my file drop component to work like this:

Now, anytime I want a file drop element, that's all I have to do. The idea is to build things so they can be used with as little friction as possible. 

That little bit of HTML sets up the functionality you see above, which is actually somewhat complex behind the scenes. 

And, to make sure I never forget about it, I'm setting up documentation for each component, which provides a demo and code for easy copy and paste. 

Once this system is set up, I'll be able to scaffold out apps very efficiently. 

It's taken me a while to figure out the best way to set this all up because I kept realizing I was handling things suboptimally, so I had to go back to drawing board and start from scratch many times. I didn't know what I didn't know. I'm finally at a point where I feel good about the architecture and everything but it took a lot of time. So if you have the money and don't care much about this tech or acquiring the skills, it's probably better to just pay someone, otherwise, there is a good bit to learn and the only way is to get your hands dirty and keep them dirty for a couple years. 

Edited 15 hours ago by Joshe

[Lucasxp64]

Anyone considering a "Web agency" business model for selling services to small businesses. 

[Joshe]

37 minutes ago, Lucasxp64 said:

Anyone considering a "Web agency" business model for selling services to small businesses. 

I thought about it. I'd be down for it but I don't like dealing with clients. It can be a pain in the ass. If someone was willing to do all the sales and client/account management, I could get on board with it. 

Also, maybe a better idea is to come up with complete business solutions for tiny businesses. For example, there are tons of successful one-man and even 3-5 man HVAC businesses that are stuck and don't know how to scale. You could offer them a complete brand, digital, and business strategy package for like 40-50k a pop and have all the systems basically plug and play. It would take a bit of set up in the beginning but once all the systems were dialed in, it would mostly just be a matter of sales. I've heard of people doing things like this and it seems like a sweet ass gig. 

Edited 11 hours ago by Joshe