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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

MF

24 alternatives to My first web app - SociaLeaks.com - wikileaks for the social scene

Please have a look at www.socialeaks.com and tell me what you think. This is my first adventure in coding (my background is not CS). I started learning rails about a month ago via railstutorial.org. When I finished that, I felt the best way to continue learning would be to just build an app from scratch. I came up with this concept while observing how crazy the world had gone over WikiLeaks. I thought this was a funny idea. I also thought it would be fun to build! So, here I am. I built this in rails 3 and it is currently living on Heroku. It took me about two weeks to code, doing just about…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My first web app - SociaLeaks.com - wikileaks for the social scene launched in 2011; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1MF

    I'm getting my feet wet in programming again and wanted to learn Rails. So I followed railstutorial.org (you'll recognize the similarity if you've gone through it yourself) and changed a few fields around and created LinkRawr, a simple site to find and share links. It's here: http://linkrawr.heroku.com It works like Twitter, you follow others' links and people follow your links. You can follow me here: http://linkrawr.heroku.com/Justin I created this over the past couple of days and I'm a relative newbie when it comes to programming, so it's far from a polished project, but I thought I'd…

    2011 · linkrawr.heroku.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Launch of podcasts, API-first, React.js and Heroku

    2015 · 5by5.tv · its alternatives →

  3. 3WD

    Hey there, First time posting on Hacker News in about 2 years! The reason I’m posting is that I thought I’d write about the product I’ve been building, in hopes it resonates with people. Why build yet another social app? Because I deleted almost all social media around 3/4 years ago as it was just net negative on my life. There was very little that was truly interesting, I didn’t care about looking good to other people and because of the ‘media’ and ads, the apps were all designed to make me spend too much time for what I was getting. I hated it and what it meant for people’s behaviour,…

    2022 · oncircles.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4MF

    http://www.littlechits.com<br> This is my first web app; I built this on my own, over the past 4 months, using the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, a few other e-books, and a lot of help from the Stack Overflow community!<br>Feedback would be greatly appreciated, in particular: how can I make this more social?<br>Thanks,<br>Faisal

    2012 · littlechits.com& · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    I needed to get out of localhost:3000 land and ship a (somewhat functional) web app. Anyways, I built Current Ride as a place to put your bucket list items out in the open. The goal is really to inspire the community to do more things! Building the app helped me understand Rails a lot better and allowed me to hack-break-fix bugs/features more effectively :) Enjoy! http://www.currentride.com

    2012 · currentride.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6AA

    Got started with Rails earlier this week. Thought it'd be fun if I built something quick based on the introductory tutorial I've always been fascinated by the actions of others when complete and absolute anonymity is granted. Especially when they are put into a position of power. The goal of this project is simply to see what happens to the site. Have at it! https://anonblog.herokuapp.com/

    2013 · anonblog.herokuapp.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7IL

    What I built: Bonjournal, a travel journal app - iOS app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bonjournal/id719266933) - web app (https://bonjourn.al) What and how I learned (in order of importance): * Ruby on Rails * - Michael Hartl's Ruby On Rails Tutorial - Railscast - Code School - Ruby Toolbox * Objective-C * - Nerd Ranch iOS Programming - NSScreencast - Code School - WWDC Videos (for performance improvements) - CocoaPods Rank (https://gist.github.com/luvtechno/8842522) And of course, a lot of Stack Overflow. I didn't think it would…

    2014 · its alternatives →

  8. 8AM

    TLDR: I built a "quick and dirty " private social network for my friends, posted on Reddit and HN, got some interest so now have built it properly along with my brother. site link: https://intimost.com/login/ demo creds: [email protected] Demo123! Full version: I needed a social network where I can just send updates and nothing else. So I built it, my friends liked and now I have built it "for the world". Everything is private by default. - Text-only updates - No likes. Only views to acknowledge a post - [in development] Comments are private between the poster and…

    Oct 2025 · its alternatives →

  9. 9MP

    My first "real" web app! I appreciate any comments/suggestions.<p>Also I am available for hire. Contact me at www.sambolgert.com

    2012 · se.cret.ly · its alternatives →

  10. 10MF

    Here is the link: http://www.wikihowtodo.com I know a lot of geeks share the same dream -- build the next kick-ass todo-list/project management system. So do I. However, as I was quite positive that my web development skill is worse than 99% of developers' in this community, I decided to build something simple, useless but unique. So I built this. Basically it's a Wikihow scraper, nothing more. It gives you a place to store interesting Wikihow articles and yes, they are converted into todo lists. I know this site is not that good, but I still need your guys' feedback. For example, as I am a…

    2010 · wikihowtodo.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11HI

    I’ll put the tl;dr up front: I built my first web app with HN’s news.arc: http://hubski.com The long version (I can be verbose): Recently, I was in a startup that sputtered out. It was my seed idea, but my contribution was on the design/UI end. We applied to YC fall 2010, and were rejected (rightfully so, in retrospect). My previous coding experience entails a bit of Fortran from undergrad research, and building a couple of simple websites (Frontpage even. o-O). Anyway, I had tons of energy for the project, but lamented not being able to contribute to coding, where it was badly needed. After…

    2011 · hubski.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12FP

    A little background. For the last 1.5 years I lost what could be considered an embarrassing amount of money hiring other people to work on a project that I thought had potential, I got some important people involved, had some great coders, but couldn't launch. The failure was depressing, rejection by YC didn't help.. I had to take a job, I didn't enjoy and I had a girlfriend who stood by me despite going into debt. But bouncing back over the last 45 days I've taught myself Rails some Jquery, and Javascript and built this www.hangout.io. It's empowering to build something myself because I'm…

    2011 · its alternatives →

  13. 13IM

    I'm writing a book which teaches Python/Django web app development for non-programmers, and fundraising on Kickstarter (passed minimum funding, 2 days left): http://hellowebapp.com https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-app-intro-to-building-web-apps-with-djan It's basically the process I used to teach myself programming as a web designer a few years back, which I then launched a small web app (infant-version of WeddingInviteLove.com), which has grown into my bootstrapped startup which supports me full-time (WeddingLovely.com). Most…

    2014 · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Two years ago, I started building this site that allows people to document their learning and progress in real time. The idea is: as you learn new things, you document your progress piece by piece, creating a collection of failures, breakthroughs, and knowledge. Along the way, your friends can cheer you on, and the community can give you tips and feedback. Over time, we'll create a public collection on how different problems were solved. With each progress, the site prompts you to reflect on questions like, "If you could go back in time, what do you wish you had known?" This was my first web…

    2024 · opus.cafe · its alternatives →

  15. 15AI
  16. 16PR

    www.schmeebs.com I built this site in two days. I tried to make it a fusion of Twitter + Digg in that people will be able to follow certain "domains" of news then be able to see popular stuff from there. Its as real time as it can be at this point. Would welcome any thoughts on it!

    2010 · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hi Everyone, I created a mobile app called Accumoo, and I would appreciate it if y'all can have a look, download and give me a favorable review. Lots of blood, sweat, tears and love went into this app, and I hope you LOVE it as much as I do - it's the app I always needed and wanted. Anyhow, I've been a Rails developer and Software Engineer for a long time, and this is my first stab at a mobile app. It's a "habit tracker" app on steroids that's just fun to use - syncs across devices, local-first architecture - and an easter egg game for good measure. Help a disabled vet out and give it a go.…

    Jan 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18MW

    Primary link: http://hackerscoffee.org I thought Coder’s Coffee (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4010355) was a great idea but disagreed with a few aspects of its execution (registration solely via linkedin, iOS app only, manual approval process, brittle: crashed every time I used it on my phone). I noticed the app had stopped working entirely last week, and went to the site (http://www.coderscoffee.com) to discover that the project seems to be no more. I re-implemented the concept, minus my grievances, in about 20 free hours I had last week (and also took the opportunity to make a…

    2013 · hackerscoffee.org · its alternatives →

  19. 19MF

    https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wtfsoftware.wtfgeneratorfunnypics I submit it as a proof that in 14 days anyone can become a (crappy) programmer :) I'm 32, educated in humanities, I work in a bookstore and in my entire life I have never tried programming. Just a typical user, I knew basic HTML, like adding bold to text etc. Few months ago I started lurking on hackernews, I read about CodeAcademy and decided to learn how to code JavaScript. Fast-forward 14 days: Wow, it's easier than I thought;) Here's my first app. It's written in Javascript and compiled in Appcelerator Titanium.…

    2012 · market.android.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    This weekend I finally shipped Gryt, a project I’ve been building since 2022 — an open-source, self-hostable Discord-style app focused on reliable voice chat + text. I’m the creator. I started it after getting fed up with Discord disconnects/paywalls and wanted something self-hosted and auditable. I started on this in 2022 and had an early proof-of-concept working back then (auth + friends list), but I quickly realized WebRTC voice isn’t something you can duct-tape together. I spent a big chunk of the next couple years learning the stack (ICE/DTLS-SRTP, NAT traversal, SFU design),…

    Feb 2026 · gryt.chat · its alternatives →

  21. 21MN

    Link: http://this.isby.us/ I've been working on this on and off for a few weeks as part of an apprenticeship program with a Rails shop. I was given the opportunity to create a 'toy' app to learn more about Rails development. The basic idea is this: If you know people you often share links with, you can create a 'bin' on the site, and share that bin with others. Then, you and your friends can all add and view links that you find interesting. My goal was to make this happen as simply as possible, so there are no user accounts, and there is a bookmarklet for adding links without having to go…

    2011 · this.isby.us · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Hi HN, I’ve been building a small social network where the feed is always chronological — newest posts come first, always. It’s not 100% algorithm-free (there’s still basic filtering to avoid spam or abuse), but the core idea is that every user has a real chance to be seen, even with zero followers. It’s lightweight, works well on mobile, and supports both posts and comments. Most of the content is currently in Portuguese, since it started with a Brazilian audience, but the interface is mostly language-neutral. I’d love any feedback on the concept, UX, performance, or anything else. Thanks!

    2025 · qqpost.netlify.app · its alternatives →

  23. 23HP

    Hey everyone, I've been experimenting with collaborative learning and active learning for a while (I launched Coderoulette a couple of months ago) and I'm launching something new today that I'm really excited about. Online learning is pretty passive (video lectures) and lonely, and I think we could create an online learning experience much engaging and effective than that. Only 5% of people who start a Coursera course finish it. My hypothesis is that we can increase that number significantly by matching learners online in teams of 2-3 and giving them a real project to build together. On top…

    2016 · its alternatives →

  24. 24SN

    I've just launched swytch.net, a little social network I've been working on for a month or so. It's nowhere near ready for public consumption but the core ideas are there and I'd be interested to hear what others think. Here are some of the things that I think differentiate it from facebook and co: 1) multiple profiles: having one set of "friends" from all your different social circles limits you to sharing only what you're willing to share with the entire group. On swytch, a user can have a separate, distinct profile for each social circle. 2) robust privacy: each profile is either public…

    2010 · swytch.net · its alternatives →

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