Hacker News Reader

Comment by lapcat | Hacker News Reader

> The app became unexpectedly successful, hitting the top 100 paid utilities

What's your definition of "successful"? Mac App Store volume is quite low, especially with upfront paid apps. You're likely averaging only a few unit sales per day, right? Maybe only one unit per day, and even that might be a generous estimate.

> A few open-source clones have also appeared on GitHub

Is your app open source? If so, that's probably why you're getting copycats.

> It seems that derivative apps with plagiarized descriptions and app elements are being approved without issue. Does this signal a shift in App curation?

No. Apple's so-called "curation" has always been terrible.

View on HN

You're right, "successful" needs context, especially on the Mac App Store where volume can be low. For me, as a solo dev, it's meant having days with multiple sales. It's more than enough to validate the idea and fund ongoing development, which feels like a huge win.

To clarify, my app is not open source. I only mentioned the open-source clones that have also appeared.

> To clarify, my app is not open source. I only mentioned the open-source clones that have also appeared.

In what sense are open source Github projects "clones" of a closed source App Store app? Do you have links to these projects?

And do you have links to the Mac App Store apps that stole your origin story? I'm not finding any in Mac App Store search.

In your submission, what exactly did you mean by "organic press"? Press would imply news media coverage, but I'm not finding any of that in Google search.

> In what sense are open source Github projects "clones"

They don't mean in a technical sense like a git clone. I would say they simply mean in the sense of being a copy. Clone is a synonym for "copy".

That was my question, though. In what sense is an open source Github project a "copy" of a closed source App Store app?

In the sense that the intention of the open source project is to replicate (or copy) the function that the closed source app is providing?

A person commented on my post and said "I will make an open source copy of this" and then proceeded to. Lol.

It's a confusing question. Are you asking for a legal definition of the word "copy"?

I got featured in multiple blogs and more about to be released :).

Do you have links?

So far none of your claims have been substantiated.

Frankly, this entire submission feels like a ruse to get publicity.

If you wanted to just talk about your app, this should have been a Show HN like your past submissions: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=tTarnMhrkm

On the other hand, you appear to be blatantly violating the HN guidelines, which say "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity." Literally all of your submissions and comments are about your own apps. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You're right to call me out on my posting history and to be skeptical of the intent.

Looking at my submissions, you're correct that my recent activity has been too focused on my own projects. As a solo dev in launch mode, I've been overly focused on that, and I need to do a better job of contributing to the wider HN discussion. I appreciate the reminder of the guidelines.

My intent here was not a "Show HN" because the topic wasn't about app itself, but the phenomenon of rapid cloning and what it means for the app ecosystem. Something I thought was a genuinely interesting topic for this community.

I can see how it comes across as a ruse, and I should have been more prepared to substantiate the claims. I wanted to talk about how something like this is not app specific. I've been hesitant to post direct links to the other apps because I don't want this to turn into a witch hunt. In the world of LLMs who know what including those links will do to AI Overviews.

Thanks for holding me to a higher standard and for the critical feedback.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com