New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Can “Show HN” be dangerous?
Ask HN: Can “Show HN” be dangerous?
3 by threeeyedcrow | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Imagine someone submits something they have been working on "Show HN" to get some feedback. For example they developed a low latency HD video chat app (FastChat), where the person's face is modeled beforehand. Then during the chat only the movements of the face are transmitted, thereby requiring less data to be sent. During the "Show HN" some bugs are discovered and issues with scaling, but overall the feedback is extremely positive. So they know, that it is worth working on and continue to make it a proper product (dealing with scaling, privacy, security, pricing). Since they are a sole developer it will take time to do this. Wouldn't it be possible that Skype, Whatsapp, Zoom or some other actor in that area would copy their idea? Given that they have explained on some level how it works in the "Show HN". In addition, now that it has been shown to be possible, the big companies can assign a team to reverse engineer it. Two weeks later, the original developer has fixed the problems and launches the product successfully. A few days later Skype introduces a new video chat feature that essentially does the same thing. No one bothers to switch to FastChat, since it doesn't have any outstanding features. Is this scenario likely? Can it be dangerous to post your MVP on "Show HN"?
3 by threeeyedcrow | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Imagine someone submits something they have been working on "Show HN" to get some feedback. For example they developed a low latency HD video chat app (FastChat), where the person's face is modeled beforehand. Then during the chat only the movements of the face are transmitted, thereby requiring less data to be sent. During the "Show HN" some bugs are discovered and issues with scaling, but overall the feedback is extremely positive. So they know, that it is worth working on and continue to make it a proper product (dealing with scaling, privacy, security, pricing). Since they are a sole developer it will take time to do this. Wouldn't it be possible that Skype, Whatsapp, Zoom or some other actor in that area would copy their idea? Given that they have explained on some level how it works in the "Show HN". In addition, now that it has been shown to be possible, the big companies can assign a team to reverse engineer it. Two weeks later, the original developer has fixed the problems and launches the product successfully. A few days later Skype introduces a new video chat feature that essentially does the same thing. No one bothers to switch to FastChat, since it doesn't have any outstanding features. Is this scenario likely? Can it be dangerous to post your MVP on "Show HN"?
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