Very true when he says there is a lesson to be learned from starting a company for $12k and a few weeks.
Let this be a challenge. What can you start with the same constraints?
Let this be a challenge. What can you start with the same constraints?
As with most things Web 2.0, there's a catch-22 at the beginning; Nobody posts, so nobody visits, so nobody posts. Guy's PR ability to drive traffic to his site is certainly much more valuable than the idea or the technology.
Sure, any young hacker could have built a site like that for $12K and a few weeks...but that may not be enough to give it a similar chance for success.
I thought it would be amusing to go down the list one-by-one and make open-source clones of 'em, specifically made to scale using EC2 and S3 auto-magically.
I was actually thinking of implementing something like Scribd (it's very simple with Adobe Flashpaper) but don't wanna get sued and deal with DMCA/lawyers. Scribd's full of pirated stuff... they must be getting a ton of DMCA takedowns.
You should go ahead and implement :D Laugh at the lawyers!