(1) What are the use cases you envision? I can see the value for a really large marketplace in having a ton of pricing data, or the value to a hedge fund etc in having raw data to analyze macro trends... what is the use case for someone paying $200/month for the developer tier? (If I'm a retailer myself I probably only need data on my direct competitors, unless there's something cool you're imagining that I've failed to see.)
(2) You've got some logos on the store splash that don't show up in store search (eg Nike). Is that a data error or a coding error?
(3) You should probably think about how you scrape and categorize marketplace data... the Walmart tab has a lot of products that are clearly third-party sellers transacting via walmart.com, which pollutes quite a bit of the data value if I primarily want to know what a big retailer is doing on products where they actually set the prices.
(4) Have you looked at grocery data? Have wished someone would build a grocery prices API for like a decade now... lots of cool consumer and hedge-fund monetization opportunities if you can show the price of strawberries in every store across the US (and graph the trendlines over time).
1. Here are the use-cases we've seen so far: marketplaces, search apps, fashion try-on apps, shopping agents, general purpose agents, web search for LLMs, e-commerce aggregators, hedge funds, etc. The most surprising has been new discovery experiences. Here's an example of an app that uses our data: https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2025/06/04/glance-a...
2. Great catch. We need to make this more clear on the site but we provide ~100k stores out of the box but keep the bigger brands behind an Enterprise paywall. We're working on fixing this.
3. Absolutely. We have purposely separated out search on the home page between our core index vs searching on Amazon, Walmart, etc. from within Agora. We haven't indexed products from the major marketplaces yet because of this challenge. Generally, we also focus on direct sellers and have filters in place with our crawler to parse out resellers.
4. Haven't looked at this but sounds interesting. And similar to how we think about storing e-commerce data with price history over time.
I'd love to chat more. I'm at param [at] searchagora.com if you want to reach out.
This was 100% written by ChatGPT -- and like most AI slop, it's completely missed foundational categories of e-commerce tech stacks (PIM? CMS? DAM? OMS? WMS?)
I don't know whether it speaks highly of Upside as an AI solutions agency that you're actually dogfooding some of the AI content creation tools here, or whether I should expect that I'll pay a huge premium to get the same advice and support I could get from a $20/month subscription to ChatGPT. (In either case - don't post AI slop to Hacker News, it's a waste of this community's time.)
If you are just trying to process the transaction and don't need eg catalog or inventory management, Stripe Payment Links probably does the trick: https://stripe.com/payments/payment-links
Thanks, great advice! I already created an account and looked around a bit. However, it seems that I need to make a payment link for each digital image (correct?), because I'd need to use the forwarding functionality to forward the user to the download link after the payment.
There are several open source solutions if you're interested... you can do a headless frontend with Vercel Commerce (Next.js) and use any of the supported e-commerce backends to manage catalog/cart/orders/etc: https://github.com/vercel/commerce
I know that they are, like, one of the biggest news sources in the world. But I still think NYT's reporting is underrated and taken for granted. Their coverage is pretty comprehensive, they don't jump on every zeitgeist, their editors hold the line on journalistic integrity, and they still meet the demand to crank out articles as fast as everyone else.
I was hoping WaPo would give them a run for their money, but the divergence in quality is there for anyone looking.
Fun Fact: it's been alleged by contemporaries like Jonathan Franzen that DFW fabricated many of these stories, there's a reason they were not published as nonfiction in a magazine with a rigorous fact-check process like the New Yorker. (Which is not to say DFW's "nonfiction" writing is not entertaining or illuminating - it is!)
As someone who has taken a lot of cruises I can tell you from firsthand experience that many of his descriptions are factually inaccurate. But I think that is missing the point. What is really going on here, I think, is DFW struggling with his clinical depression, from which a cruise offered no respite despite the fact that it's one of those things in life that is supposed to Make Everything Better. Viewed in that light, it's quite a poignant glimpse into the tortured psyche of a brilliant mind.
Just don't take it as anything remotely like an objective review.
I think the last thing you want to do with clinically depressed people is to put them within a continuously available means of easy suicide while at the same time exposing them to some pretty rude examples of exploitation and near indentured servitude.
Cruise ships are enough to make mentally healthy people depressed.
The story is an excellent metaphor for how people like him (dare I say “us”) look at life. We overthink and we are uncomfortable at the thought of being “pampered” as though we are superior to the person pampering us. Logical or not, that’s how I feel about it. Perhaps it’s because we are aware of the lousiness of a job such as “porter” whereas the average person is oblivious, disinterested, apathetic or whatever else.
In his famous "This is Water" essay DFW exhibits enormous empathy for others, but I find that empathy MIA here. Yes, there is a little bit of effort to describe the duffel bag story from the porter's point of view, but that's not really the overarching point, which is that Cruising Is Horrible because Life Is Horrible and there is No Way Out and there is no escape from the pit of existential despair.
If instead he'd written a piece about how the staff on cruise ships work ridiculously hard for very low pay to give the guests a respite from their own shitty lives because the crew live even shittier lives than the guests, that would have been a much better piece. But that's not the piece he chose to write here. Alas.
But why should he write something to suit your moral demands? The piece is clearly and obviously designed to entertain, and is written by a character called DFW who is as much of an invention as everything described. I feel you're missing the depth and the angle - it's not meant to be purely descriptive, it's artistic entertainment.
Yeah, I get that. But as a fan of cruising it feels like a cheap shot at an activity I enjoy and the people who work their butts off to make it possible. DFW seems completely oblivious to the fact that the people behind the scenes of his dystopian fantasy (to say nothing of people like me who buy their product) are actual human beings with hopes and dreams and feelings. You can spin this as "suiting my moral demands" but I think that my entertainment should come at their expense.
Also, if you're a fan of cruising, why do you continue to do it knowing the completely compromised position of those below decks who are being cruelly taken advantage of and underpaid to deliver you your cruise? It seems like you're pinning your own issues with yourself and the activity onto DFW while continuing to enjoy it
Because the people below decks are still taking those jobs voluntarily, and so as bad as their situation is in those jobs, I figure they must still be worse off without them.
I also try to avoid cruise lines that really abuse their workers.
Is this the defense of your choice to support the industry? I'm not sure I understand it, as the same logic was/is used to justify slave labour and systemic racism - "they want to work, the children enjoy helping their parents in the field". Doesn't this ring sour to you?
It does indeed, but there is a salient difference: I have no influence over the economic policies of the countries from which cruise ships draw their labor forces. If I did, you would be absolutely correct that I would not have any claim to the moral high ground. But I don't, so AFAICT giving them money is the best I can do under the circumstances. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears.
I would also point out that this kind of "exploitation" seems empirically to be effective at lifting large numbers of people out of poverty. It's far from ideal, but it nonetheless produces better outcomes than anything else that has been tried.
I was showing some Skinny Puppy videos from the late 80s and early 90s to a millennial and she commented that the interesting thing about them was that they were leaning in to their mental illness, anxiety and depression to produce great art. That doesn't really happen these days. Everyone is so medicated they are just all robots and they don't have these strong emotional forces driving their creativity in those directions.
Perhaps peculiar to the incoherent egalitarian of our age, particular to the middle class: not quite rich enough. The same impulse that motivates the "oh, you shouldn't have, I can't accept this" bit of sentimental moral theater. There's a certain fear of being unmasked as a fraud. You don't quite have the money or je ne sais quoi you feel you should have before you can confidently claim the sense of superiority you'd like. Ah, yes, it's that old mysticism of money again.
Note that the king serves his people, and we do not typically characterize kings as inferiors. Parentd feed, clothe, and bathe their children in their early years with no risk to their rank. Perhaps here lingers a contempt for the work of the working men, an ingratitude, that inflames the strange spectacle of overcompensation, of overvaluing their work.
But it is simple. Either the arrangement is just, in which case there is no problem, or it is, in which case, what are you doing partaking in it, unless it is licit nonetheless, in which case, why the anxiety? Learn to receive what is given with the right amount of gratitude.
That’s interesting. I’ve only been on one or two cruises, but my recollection of the article is that it all seemed directionally accurate, or at least plausible.
It sounds like you certainly know better that I would, though, so I’m just curious - what are some examples of the inaccuracies?
I do not mean to be confrontational in the slightest, so I hope my question isn’t coming off that way.
Well, let's start with the title. It is simply not true that anything on a cruise ship is "nearly lethal". Cruise ships are ridiculously safe environments compared to the rest of the world. Just about the only place you're going to be safer is on an airplane. Even your own home is almost certainly more dangerous than a modern cruise ship.
The other thing that really struck me was his characterization of the cruise environment as "an enormous primordial stew of death and decay." It isn't, at least not any more than anyplace else on the planet. Sure, boats rust, but so what? This is just another example of the continual struggle of life against the Second Law. This entire planet is "an enormous primordial stew of death and decay." It is, of course, also an enormous nursery of life emerging from that death and decay. That's just the Way It Is. Cruse ships are just part of the human phenotype, no different from any other artifact. Nothing lasts forever. Getting maudlin about it is a choice.
Some other random examples: he renames the ship from Zenith to Nadir as a dark joke, but then he keeps referring to her that way. The micromanagement he describes on page 37 doesn't happen, except insofar as the staff will try to be helpful in allowing you to make the most of your limited time.
Reading back over it I guess the problem is not so much blatant factual inaccuracies as it is continually and unrelentingly putting the worst possible spin on every detail of what is actually a very enjoyable experience -- if you allow it to be, which he emphatically did not. The most charitable interpretation I can come up with is that this was the clinical depression talking.
I didn't like Seinfeld either. There are enough people behaving like assholes in the real world. I don't need more of that in my evening entertainment.
The problem with Seinfeld is that they deliberately set out to make a show with unsympathetic characters whose central personality trait is that they care about no one but themselves. Basically, they're sociopaths. Carlin can be abrasive, but I don't think he's a sociopath.
Because I don't believe in mocking people for their personal shortcomings.
I also think a fundamental principle of good drama is that it should have a protagonist that you can root for even if they are flawed. (Frasier is a good example.) None of Seinfeld's characters had any redeeming qualities whatsoever.
> The most charitable interpretation I can come up with is that this was the clinical depression talking.
I think cruises are kind of shitty. Is it possible that one could dislike the experience without suffering from something in DSM?
To me they're the crowning jewel of shameless consumerism. It's like getting one of those 14-in-1 tools from the dollar store. Sure, you got everything in one pocket but they're all pretty crappy versions of the original.
I get the travel angle, but airplanes are a hell of a lot faster. I've never found myself reading sky mall thinking I'd prefer to be roaming through an actual mall.
I think it's a big mistake for young people (like my former self) to take deeply unhappy 20th century authors like DFW, Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson too much to heart.
Yes, they did have important things to say, and yes, it wasn't their fault that they were so unhappy, but you should never try to be like them.
It's really hard for me to see this as anything more than, Oh, Franzen's a hater.
Come to think of it, I've never read anything about DFW that comes remotely close to what he did on the page? Like it seems like every writer who has more than a few paragraphs on DFW is someone obviously inferior?
Relatedly, a wild thing, Chuck Palahniuk has written very little about him, but this included the fact that HE AND DFW SHARE A BIRTHDAY.
Franzen wasn't the first and hasn't been the most consistent among those raising this concern. DT Max, who was Wallace's friend, and not even a rival-friend like Franzen, has said he thinks the chess encounter from this story is fabricated.
It's also been very convincingly established that the "companion" of the state fair essay didn't exist or wasn't there, which fundamentally changes the piece in a very serious way. His relationship to the publication in the famous "consider the lobster" essay was also not at all what he claimed within the essay.
He was a great writer in many ways and these don't change that or reflect on his skill. I think his even publishing as "nonfiction" was more a characteristic of the literary-journalistic culture of his time, rather than an informed choice on his behalf. Tall tales and partially fictionalized accounts of real events are themselves a deep American literary tradition and there's no shame in that heritage.
But it's well established now that he wasn't the most strictly scrupulous writer or person in general. He stalked and harassed Mary Karr for years, and he has absolutely been caught in small lies in his published works. Whether you still trust him on the big stuff is up to you I guess, doesn't speak to his literary legacy much either way imo.
I mean, it's definitely my opinion, that's why I did the "it seems." To me it does feel obvious, but I do wonder if others agree?
I mean, I've read Infinite Jest (I did mostly skip the footnotes) but I can't get through more than a few pages of every Franzen novel I've tried. Could just be me.
Thats really funny. Part of the appeal of DFW stories is that they are perfectly mundane - nothing fantastical, implausible or scripted happens, the genius is him overthinking it.
I almost don't mind if he made up, say, going to lobsterfest, because the story is about the concept of lobsterfest (and beating his drum about the vapidity of american culture) more than the actual event.
Also, isn't jonathan franzen the guy who got in trouble for fabricating his big book?
The McKinsey "Bible" for structured communication is The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto. I've coached dozens of engineers who found its insights helpful in structuring their own communications to non-technical audiences, even about complex and nuanced topics. Highly recommend reading it!
This is typically an issue with the payment gateway and/or processor rather than the site or the platform underneath it. You probably had a better error message in the second experience because the site uses a different payment gateway/processor. That's not to say the first site's experience is great, but payment processor selection has lots of competing considerations... processing fees, ability to support enterprise-grade MSA/SLA requirements, security, audit trail, etc etc. (Others are also correct in observing that more vague error messages are actually a strategy by some processors to avoid tipping off fraudsters.)
The most interesting part of this test would be for the bot to avoid getting sued out of existence by IP lawyers. The bots you're referring to -- the Twitter "where can I get this on a t-shirt?" bots come to mind -- are easily baited by people posting copyrighted content that trigger cease-and-desist letters from the law firms that police copyright infringement on the web.
(1) What are the use cases you envision? I can see the value for a really large marketplace in having a ton of pricing data, or the value to a hedge fund etc in having raw data to analyze macro trends... what is the use case for someone paying $200/month for the developer tier? (If I'm a retailer myself I probably only need data on my direct competitors, unless there's something cool you're imagining that I've failed to see.)
(2) You've got some logos on the store splash that don't show up in store search (eg Nike). Is that a data error or a coding error?
(3) You should probably think about how you scrape and categorize marketplace data... the Walmart tab has a lot of products that are clearly third-party sellers transacting via walmart.com, which pollutes quite a bit of the data value if I primarily want to know what a big retailer is doing on products where they actually set the prices.
(4) Have you looked at grocery data? Have wished someone would build a grocery prices API for like a decade now... lots of cool consumer and hedge-fund monetization opportunities if you can show the price of strawberries in every store across the US (and graph the trendlines over time).