TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Show HN: Whimsical – Get anything done, via SMS

23 pointsby jameshkabout 10 years ago

16 comments

ComputerGuruabout 10 years ago
I am sorry for being so blunt, but makers of things like this are the very dregs of startup society.<p>Cloning an idea concept-for-concept screenshot-for-screenshot that was posted just a month ago and went viral just hoping to capitalize on a previous company&#x27;s success is pathetic. It might be successful (i.e. given that this includes zero original effort, any amount of income could be termed &quot;success&quot;), but it is despicable and should not be encouraged or even condoned.<p>Taking an existing service and cloning it for a different userbase (e.g. making Twitter for China or Facebook for Jordan) are pretty lame and rank near-zero on the scales of creativity and respect. But something like this, that makes absolutely zero effort to differentiate itself in any way, shape, or form, hoping to only take leftovers from an existing (and original) service, and maybe someday overtake them via sheer brute force or persistence, are shameless and insulting.<p>But I think most of all, what irks me is that the OP has the gall to post this as &quot;Show HN&quot; which has traditionally been the &quot;let me show you something COOL or INSPIRING that I did&quot; - do you really think no one here will catch that this is an exact clone of Magic and there&#x27;s absolutely zero substance to it? It&#x27;s insulting.
评论 #9212437 未加载
评论 #9212483 未加载
评论 #9212670 未加载
评论 #9212728 未加载
评论 #9212603 未加载
评论 #9213748 未加载
vishaldpatelabout 10 years ago
I don&#x27;t understand all this hate. Unlike US-only offerings, Whimsical is a service that&#x27;s trying to open up to readers of Hacker News from other countries.<p>As some have already pointed out, it is not easy to go International.<p>On top of that, I&#x27;m sure by now you&#x27;ve realized that HackerNews has many international readers and they&#x27;d be very happy to see services that were previously only in the US with no plans of going international have some International competition.<p>I&#x27;m sorry that some of you are not entertained, but for the rest of us, HackerNews is a great place to Show and talk about what we&#x27;re working on and get advice on how we could do it better!
评论 #9212678 未加载
oliv__about 10 years ago
Sorry to say this but I hate to see services that just pop up to clone something existing (and that barely even started) without adding any value.<p>&quot;Oh that&#x27;s a good idea, lemme just change the name real quick, whip out the same website with a stock nyc image and post a link on HN&quot;
评论 #9212410 未加载
jstanleyabout 10 years ago
Is this a Magic clone?
评论 #9212006 未加载
评论 #9212326 未加载
评论 #9212002 未加载
devonoelabout 10 years ago
Yeah, I thought Magic was pretty cool too.
jwcruxabout 10 years ago
How is this any different than Magic?
评论 #9212405 未加载
asennaabout 10 years ago
At first,I was like &quot;oh, the magic team did some rebranding.&quot;<p>And then I realized this was actually a complete clone, right to the screenshot.
frakkingcylonsabout 10 years ago
It&#x27;s easier to read the phone number and dial if you format it like (###)-###-#### instead of ##########.
评论 #9212192 未加载
评论 #9212231 未加载
humanarityabout 10 years ago
It&#x27;s like an API aggregator for the real world. Wow. Like Magic. I think Quintessentially has something similar, tho Whimsical (and Magic) seem to have democratised concierge (possibly with rational pricing.) Cool.
downandoutabout 10 years ago
So now I guess I need to build a service that compares prices for what you request between these two, and the next hundred knockoffs. I&#x27;ll call it Witchcraft.
jameshkabout 10 years ago
You pay via an SSL link to a page with a Stripe payment form, for those want to know.
vishaldpatelabout 10 years ago
It&#x27;s great to see that this is going to support Canada! =)
beachwood23about 10 years ago
What is the advantage of your service vs Magic?
jameshkabout 10 years ago
I&#x27;ll update the screenshots, ASAP. Thanks!
nekinieabout 10 years ago
Whats the UK number?
评论 #9212267 未加载
hammeiamabout 10 years ago
Well done!
评论 #9213713 未加载