Show HN: I built a domain name marketplace for folks (like me) who hoard domains

Show HN: I built a domain name marketplace for folks (like me) who hoard domains(dwarf.domains)

16 points by thecoppinger 2 years ago | 13 comments

Problem: I (accidentally) hoard domains :')

1. I get excited about a new project 2. I buy a domain 3. I get busy, and the domain collects a thick layer of dust

I know I'm not alone in this, either

So, I had the idea of creating a simple and casual marketplace for folks like me to list their domains at a fair price with a nice community feel to free up these caged domains

It felt like a great project for me to pick up some new skills, so I got to it

All up, it took me about a month, and I built the whole thing live on Twitch

I've always sat on the design, marketing and front-end side of the fence, so this was my first attempt at making a 'full' web app

Here's the stack I used:

- SvelteKit (https://kit.svelte.dev/)

- Supabase (https://supabase.com/)

- Resend (https://resend.com/)

- ShadCN Svelte (https://www.shadcn-svelte.com/)

It was super fun to build, and as a beginner, I learnt so much

I leaned on AI quite heavily to help advance my speed of groking certain concepts within both SvelteKit & Supabase, and I blogged about the experience and my learnings here: https://aroreretini.dev/projects/dwarf/

Any feedback/criticism very much welcome, I've got a lot to learn :)

gsuuon 2 years ago |

I was recently looking at domains and it's kind of frustrating how many good names are parked or listed on some site for 6 figures. I mean, I'm guilty of it too (hoarding), but I wonder what the internet would be like if there was some sort of "if you don't use it, you lose it" rule. In any case, a reasonable second-hand market should only help right? You may want to consider putting a cap on the prices to keep the market focused, like up to 5x a new registration price or something, if the intent is to get domains into good (useful) homes. Also, the site looks good!

thecoppinger 2 years ago | |

> I wonder what the internet would be like if there was some sort of "if you don't use it, you lose it" rule

I think about this a lot, too! I think the current system was a bit of a mistake ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

> In any case, a reasonable second-hand market should only help right?

That's the goal! A friendly, reasonably priced marketplace with the idea of letting others use the domains you're accidentally hoarding

> Also, the site looks good!

Thank you very much :)

duped 2 years ago | |

In the physical world, property taxes help with this. You can hoard land all you want but if you don't do anything useful with it you're going to have to pay for it, until it becomes more economical to sell it or build on top of it.

Granted it's not a perfect world.

jamager 2 years ago |

Congrats on the project, but do I hate domain hoarding. It does not contribute any value to the society, it just makes finding a decent domain name a royal PITA.

nadermx 2 years ago | |

Although a lot of these domains listed are far from usable easily.

gravity2060 2 years ago |

Nice work. I’d add domains but logging in only via x is a deal breaker.

thecoppinger 2 years ago | |

Thank you!

Yeah, apologies—I should have implemented other auth early on but figured I could start with X given I was only going to tweet about it to my immediate circle...

One of these weekends I'll refactor in magic password and Google et al

gardenhedge 2 years ago | |

Yeah, I was ready to add domains but I don't have a Xitter account

tamimio 2 years ago |

As much as I hate with passion domain squatters, but congrats on your work.

nulltxt 2 years ago |

Are you possibly going to open it up to non twitter sign in?

KomoD 2 years ago |

"Currently, domains can be submitted without verification."

thecoppinger 2 years ago | |

Yep: this is by intention. Here's the logic:

- I wanted to ship fast to see if anyone liked the idea and would actually use it

- There are a couple of safeguards in place:

1. Since you can only sign in via Twitter, you get a good sense for the other person (buyer or seller), as well as the likelihood that they own the domain they are claiming to

i.e.

7 followers, 3 day old account... probably doesn't own 'google.com'

17k followers, 10+ year account, active indie hacker... I can believe they own 'dwarf.domains'

2. Any sales are escrow'd by me as a middle party, so there's not much room to scam someone anyhow

So this isn't a perfect nor permanent solution, but good enough to test whether or not it's worth taking the platform further

pmzy 2 years ago |

cool. Good job launching your first project. How do you plan to spread the word about it? A marketplace is only as valuable as the traffic it gets.