The one part of our community that I loved more than anything else was the group learning experience. Someone would have an idea for a project, and maybe they needed to know how to start. Maybe they started and weren't sure how to attack a certain problem. Maybe it worked on the surface, but needed a bit of cleaning up.
If you knew me at all on any of the forums, you knew how long-winded I could be when a programming topic came up. The opportunity to teach things to newcomers and bounce incredibly complex algorithms off of the more advanced folk was what kept me coming back day after day. And there's just not a good environment for that on the internet -- at least that I've found. There are a million sites with guides to do this or that, or user groups to find answers to specific questions, but nowhere where someone can take a look at your project and suggest ways to make it even better.
I might be biased, but one specific area that has a need for this is web development. Very few schools -- colleges included -- teach things like PHP, Web-based Java, UNIX-based environments, Javascript, even CSS/HTML. While you can learn it all online, there's never anyone to tell you when there's a better direction to go in, or get you started with something you're stuck on.
So here's what I want to do. I want to launch a new forum for anyone who wants to learn, is learning, or has already learned any of the above. I want to teach everything I've learned during the course of AppDB and earlier, and I want to learn from people with their own creative ideas. And more than anything I want to do it in a relaxing, fun environment. The one thing every website needs is users, so what better way to start a new site you're working on than in the company of people excited to test it out?
If you're in, then awesome. Send an E-mail to newappulous AT gmail DOT com and type "I'M IN" in the subject. If I know you from one of the forums, let me know your username
. And definitely include what you know and what you're working on, or looking to learn. It's not like a job application or anything -- I'm just trying to gauge what kind of mix the new site will have. If you're not in or think it's a horrible idea ... then do nothing
. Thanks for your past support and I hope you enjoy the other services out there.
This isn't a promise to start a new site. If I only get a couple responses, I'll call it quits here and say my goodbyes. But with how many folks on Hackulous showed an interest in learning web stuff in the past, I'm hoping we get a good, tight group to start out with
. If it turns into something successful, ultimately what I'd like to do is develop a custom webapp with all of you instead of an out-of-the-box forum. In the end, you guys decide what this ends up as
. So shoot off that E-mail if you're interested, and we'll go from there!
Cheers, everyone
Kyek
I'm guessing that if you're caring enough to read this, you already know who I am. But just in case, Hi
I'm Kyek. I'm the sole author of AppDB, the web application that used to power this website. To give you a very brief history, I've been around this scene since the beginning, hacking around on the technical side of things, writing guides, teaching where I can, etc. I launched this website to fill a need in the community at the time. My launch coincided with a friend's launch of a brand new forum that many of you are familiar with: Hackulo.us.
After just a few months of being online, the hardware required to keep up with Appulous' traffic got crazy expensive. The donations Hackulous was taking for the sites didn't cut it. So in 2008, I took down AppDB for just a few hours and ran a donation drive, resulting in such a huge amount of funds that Appulous supported itself for months into 2009 -- after which I redirected anxious financial supporters to donate into the Hackulous account.
I'm saying this to dispel a common rumor. It seems that folks think Hackulous' recent decision to not to provide Appulous with any more of our donation money is what's causing all of this. That's obviously not true; if I needed the funds, I could run another three-hour donation drive and be set. Pulling the plug on AppDB is my own, independent, personal decision. And now, with all that out of the way, let me explain why.
Our community was once hugely positive. From the time we started out and well into Appulous' lifetime, this community was incredibly inspiring. Every member actively wanted to contribute, to find a way to be useful, to make their name. Hackers and crackers and artists and coders and writers and organizers and every one of us encouraging others to come up with something new and challenge what we already had. As the weeks and months passed, we gained a following. Those who didn't have anything unique to contribute still offered enthusiastic support, because they stood behind our vision.
The vision was not piracy. Not even close. People's frustration over Apple's terrible App Store was what sparked our community. We were all elated when Apple finally allowed third-party applications, but fell intensely annoyed after we bought app after app that made itself out to be incredible in its description, but was worthless after purchase. So many people think that my mini-tirade about this on Appulous' old "About" page was a load of BS to somehow justify piracy. Hell, some of my staff even thought that and refused to be convinced otherwise. Maybe now that the plug's been pulled, folks might believe it: We cracked applications to give our friends trials. Sick of wasting what accumulated into a significant amount of cash on truly crap applications, we shared so that everyone in our community would know what it was they were about to buy. It was great in our little forum until the App Store grew with thousands more apps, so I wrote the Appulous AppDB to keep things organized.
And it was great. It was positive. We continued to cheer on new developments, even when it meant some of our hard work was now wasted. We shut down and got rid of the folks who tried to profit off of cracked apps, because even though we knew that our actions could lead to piracy on a bigger scale, we fought tooth and nail to get rid of anyone with the audacity to try to make money off of other developers' work. And the whole time, I maintained in a very public voice that, should Apple come to their senses and build a trial system into their app store, I'd bring down the AppDB immediately. We were a community united in our mission.
But then it changed. By this point, the hardcore pirates had moved in and started taking the apps for free, with no intention to purchase them if they liked them. It was inevitable and no one was so naive as to think it wouldn't happen. This alone wasn't what turned things sour for me. It was intensely frustrating to see our community overrun by people interested in piracy alone, who thought they were somehow entitled to free iPhone apps -- but even that wasn't the nail in Appulous' coffin.
It was me. It was how the popularity changed me and the people I respected. I'm quick to admit that my biggest flaw is my ego. I'm driven entirely by the support of my peers, and in this case, the masses. In no time at all, Appulous ranked in the two-thousands for most visited website on the internet (according to alexa.com). I was pumped, and so were my supporters and other leaders within the community. Naturally, we wanted to hold on to what we had. Whenever something new came along to threaten Hackulous or Appulous' top-heirarchy status, we went into overdrive. Consciously and subconsciously we made posts and wrote articles to sway public opinion in our favor. We'd find ways to vilify the competition, giving us an excuse to hide behind when we focused our energies on shutting them down. We stifled any advancements that didn't come from us and the worst part about this whole mess is that none of us even understood what, exactly, we'd turned into, or how much of our lives we were devoting these horribly negative activities. I'm most certainly not the only one, but I was right there with the worst.
It's amazing what a break from that drama can do for a guy. My life got busy, had some ups and downs, and some subconscious part of me decided to put that mess on hold. As a result, the quality of Appulous fell, many E-mails went unanswered, and some opinions of me were shifted -- but I didn't care, because the result of it all was that my life had taken a sharp turn for the better. I hadn't read Hackulous for months up until a short time ago, when I went back and caught myself up on things. It was harrowing, seeing the kinds of things being said, and the pure, liquid cynicism that saturated every post. There's little more appalling than that (but don't let me tell you), and the realization that that's what I'd become was a much-needed personal reality check.
So, in the end, my decision to pull AppDB was based on a few things. The rampant piracy that was so against the original idea behind the site. Supporting a team whose focus wasn't as much on the community than it was their own products. But mostly because this isn't who I am. Before all this, I was an upbeat person who jumped at the chance to teach people what I've learned. And if stepping away from the drama of this scene brings me back to that, so much the better. Maybe that's selfish, but I think those of you who have been following our community since the beginning will understand.
But before I close on the book on AppDB and move into what I hope Appulous will become, there are some people who deserve mentioning. GeniusBlog, the driving force behind the two different forums that had me dumping hours of my time into ;-). Steve007, who single-handedly made Appulous the success that it was in the beginning, donating hours upon hours of time testing and submitting. Most_uniQue, who carried this entire website on his back for over a year, spending day after day banning profiteers, checking posts, and submitting like (literally) no one has ever submitted before. Man, this place would not even be here if it weren't for you. Dissident, who remains the most awesome person to bounce algorithm ideas off of, without whom AppDB would have been far more of a mess than it is ;-). SaladFork, also a crazily-inspiring coder, whose support and ideas are baked right into my work. Puy0, whose support (even through my chronic inability to respond to E-mails) kept me pushing through the project. Fusen, who has always stood up and shouted the dead-honest truth at all scene leaders, no matter how much we pushed back. It took my moment of clarity to see the gold in all of your posts, and if I could I'd put big flashing arrows in front of everything you've said. PoisonousFish, who is a constant reminder of what my name sounds like with an L in it ;-), but also scarily insightful when he needs to be. Thanks for keeping everything fun. Reilly, whose wealth of knowledge and behind-the-scenes work fueled everything that made Appulous possible in the first place. Doosje, whose uncanny inability to dig through code has provided Appulous with some great features and support. Venusanann, who holds the rank of possibly the single most helpful person I've had the pleasure of working with, even to a fault sometimes. And every single other person who's shown me support or offered encouragement. You guys are awesome, and I hope to run into you in future endeavors. My apologies, of course, to anyone I might have forgotten. I've never been accused of having a great memory, so an extra thanks to those of you who deserve your own shoutout but didn't get it. Rock on
--Kyek
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