Puneet-Kumar2010

Posted on Oct 3 AI-assisted

Crowdwide v1 Is FINALLY HERE!! 🚀🎉

#buildinpublic #discuss #webdev #opensource

Okay…

IT'S DONE.

Not “almost done.”

Not “I'll finish it tomorrow.”

Not “just one more bug.”

CROWDWIDE v1 IS FINALLY RELEASED!! 😭🎉🚀

After weeks of building, testing, breaking things, fixing them, breaking them again, fighting APIs, fighting free-tier limitations, and occasionally questioning why I started this project in the first place…

the first stable version of Crowdwide is LIVE.

🌐 Live: https://www.crowdwide.run.place/

💻 Open source: https://github.com/DeveloperPuneet/Crowdwide

🚀 Crowdwide v1 — Released!

Crowdwide started as an idea for a social platform where communities could actually grow and have their own space.

And now…

It's a working platform.

The first stable version includes the core social features I wanted Crowdwide to have, along with a bunch of things that I didn't even plan when I started.

Posts, articles, polls, communities, profiles, chat, media, reactions, bookmarks, notifications, moderation tools, and much more are now part of the platform.

And honestly…

Looking at it now, I still can't believe I built all of this. 😂

🌍 But I Didn't Want It To Be "Just Another Social Media"

One thing kept bothering me while building Crowdwide.

If I just add posts, likes, comments, followers, chats, communities, etc…

what actually makes Crowdwide different?

Those are features that basically every social platform can have.

So instead of stopping there, I started experimenting with some more unusual ideas.

🗺️ Community Map

Communities can be represented on a map, with the size of their presence growing as the community grows.

The idea is to make communities feel like they're actually part of a larger world instead of just existing as another page in a database.

And yes…

the map looks REALLY COOL. 😂

🏆 Community Quests

Communities can create quests or challenges for their members and announce a winner.

Winners can receive a badge on their profile.

I originally got the idea after seeing a quest/challenge concept on DEV and thought:

"Wait… why don't I make something like this for communities?"

So I did. 😭

🎧 Personal Recap

Inspired by things like Spotify's personal recap, Crowdwide now has a recap section that can show things about your activity and interests on the platform.

As Crowdwide gets more useful statistics, I want to expand this even further.

Maybe one day you'll look at your recap and think:

"WHAT WAS I EVEN DOING THIS YEAR?!" 💀

✍️ Co-authored Posts

This is another feature I really wanted to try.

A post can have multiple authors, and the co-authors can work on the same post.

Not just a mention.

Not just a tag.

Actual co-authorship.

I think this could be especially useful for community announcements, collaborative articles, projects, and other shared content.

💬 And Yes… The Basic Stuff Too 😂

While working on the bigger ideas, I also realized there were a bunch of things I simply couldn't leave out.

So Crowdwide also includes things like:

GIF support
Media sharing in chats
Message search
Group chat details
Community moderation
Polls
Articles
Drafts
Scheduled publishing
Hashtags
Mentions
Quote posts
Replies
Reactions
Bookmarks
Private/public communities
Community roles and moderators
Post approval
Pinned posts
Community guidelines
Profiles
Followers/following
Saved posts
Two-factor authentication
Recovery codes
Password reset
Email verification
And a LOT more

There are probably still tiny things I've forgotten to mention. 😂

🐛 The Bugs… OH GOD THE BUGS

Of course, getting here wasn't exactly peaceful.

I learned a LOT while building Crowdwide.

Sometimes I'd find a bug and spend hours trying to fix the code.

Then eventually…

the code wasn't the problem.

It was an API key.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 😭

Sometimes an API key would get revoked or a service would stop responding, and I'd sit there debugging perfectly fine code.

That was a fun experience.

10/10 would not recommend.

🗺️ The Map Nearly Made Me Lose It

Adding the map sounded simple.

Until I actually started doing it.

Endpoints weren't working.

Policies were getting in the way.

Some things worked locally but not where I expected them to.

Documentation sent me in five different directions.

And every time I thought:

"Okay, NOW it's working."

Something else broke.

But eventually…

I GOT IT WORKING.

And honestly, seeing the final map was one of those moments where I went:

"Okay… all that pain was kinda worth it." 😂

🌐 Translation… Yeah, About That 😭

Okay, I need to be honest about one thing.

Translation is STILL not working properly in the released version.

The funny part?

It works on my local device.

But after deployment…

NOPE. 💀

It decided to behave completely differently.

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out why the exact same thing works locally but doesn't behave properly in production.

So yes, Crowdwide v1 is released, but translation is still a known issue.

I'll keep working on it and hopefully get it working properly in a future update.

So if you visit Crowdwide and notice that translation isn't working…

it's not you. It's me. 😂

🎨 And The UI Isn't "FINAL" Either!

Another thing I want to make clear:

v1 being released doesn't mean I'm never touching the UI again.

The platform is stable enough to call this the first version, but I'll continue improving the UI over time.

There will probably be:

Better layouts
Better spacing
Small design improvements
Better mobile experience
Improved interactions
More polished components
And random little things that I suddenly decide look ugly. 😂

So expect Crowdwide to keep changing.

v1 is the beginning, not the final-final version.

💸 Building Without a Credit Card Is… Interesting

Another big challenge was infrastructure.

I don't have a credit card, so I've been relying heavily on free-tier services and free resources.

And finding free services that actually work for what you're trying to build is sometimes like:

chewing nuts through your nose.

😂

But honestly, this limitation taught me a lot.

You learn how to research.

You learn to find alternatives.

You learn what different services actually provide.

And you learn that sometimes the solution is simply:

"Okay… what free thing can I use instead?"

💰 Community Monetization Is Still Coming

One of the bigger things I want to add in the future is community monetization.

The goal is to give community owners a way to monetize their communities, somewhat similar to how platforms like Blogger allow creators to monetize their content.

This part isn't ready yet.

It requires more infrastructure, research, and resources to do properly.

But it's something I definitely want Crowdwide to have.

So…

coming later. 👀

🧠 What I Learned From Building Crowdwide

Honestly, this project taught me way more than I expected.

I learned about:

Building a large application from the ground up.
Working with APIs.
Authentication and account security.
Production debugging.
Third-party services.
Database design.
Community systems.
Moderation.
Handling media.
Working with free infrastructure.
Testing.
Deployment.
And probably the most important one…

A feature working on localhost does NOT mean it will work in production. 😭

I also learned that building a project isn't just about writing code.

A lot of the work happens after the code is written.

Testing.

Finding weird edge cases.

Fixing production-only bugs.

Making things reliable.

Trying to understand why something that worked yesterday suddenly doesn't work today.

And then doing it all again.

🎉 So… Crowdwide v1 Is Here!

This is the part I've been waiting to write.

Crowdwide v1 is officially released.

The test data has been cleared.

The first stable version is now live.

And Crowdwide is officially moving from:

"A project I'm building"

to:

"A platform that's actually out there." 🚀

That feels REALLY weird to say. 😂

❤️ It's Open Source!

Crowdwide is completely open source.

You can check out the code here:

💻 https://github.com/DeveloperPuneet/Crowdwide

And yes…

The repository still has 0 stars.

FAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH. 😭

It's fine.

If nobody stars it…

I'll star it myself.

Problem solved. ⭐😂

But seriously, if you want to contribute, find a bug, suggest something, improve something, or just explore the code, you're absolutely welcome.

Create a branch, make your changes, and open a pull request!

🌐 Try Crowdwide

The platform is live here:

https://www.crowdwide.run.place/

Go create an account.

Create a community.

Join one.

Make a post.

Try the chat.

Explore the features.

And if something breaks…

PLEASE TELL ME. 😂

Crowdwide is currently running on free-tier infrastructure, so unexpected problems can still happen.

🚀 What's Next?

v1 doesn't mean I'm finished.

Actually…

it's kind of the opposite.

Now that the foundation is stable, I can start working on the things I've been putting aside.

More community features.

Monetization.

Better infrastructure.

Better translation support.

More statistics for Personal Recap.

More improvements to the map.

More UI improvements.

More tools for community owners.

And whatever crazy idea I get next. 😂

Hopefully, over the next 6–8 months, Crowdwide can grow enough for me to move it to better infrastructure, get a proper domain, use better databases, and make the whole thing more reliable.

We'll see where it goes.

🙌 Special Thanks

A small shoutout to the people who tested and used Crowdwide before the v1 release — thanks for helping me test, break, and improve it! 😂❤️

@koda2026

Feel free to come back and check out the final v1! 🚀

🥳 THANK YOU!!

I don't really know how to end this article without sounding dramatic, so I'll just say it:

THANK YOU.

To anyone who checks out Crowdwide.

To anyone who reports a bug.

To anyone who contributes.

To anyone who reads this ridiculous article.

And even to the people who just open the website for 30 seconds and go:

"hmm… interesting." 😂

It all means something when you're building something from scratch.

I'm 15.

I started Crowdwide as a project.

It grew into something much bigger than I expected.

And today…

Crowdwide v1 is officially LIVE.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! 🎉🚀🔥

Now let's see what happens next.

— Puneet

Top comments (6)

nyaomaru • Oct 3

Congrats on the v1 release! 🚀🎉
I just became your second GitHub star ⭐😸
You clearly put a huge amount of work into getting Crowdwide this far.
Let’s keep building and growing our projects!