I built Cowabunga Link because I was trying to market my own ebook and got really frustrated with the current options. Either very expensive paid placements, or you need a huge social media following to get any traction, or people just pay sites to be on top of lists with no real meritocracy behind it.
So I made this instead: a simple, no-algos place where indie creators can share links to their work (music packs, ebooks, art bundles, screenplays, courses, templates, digital downloads, etc.) or cool finds they love. Anyone can post a link + short desc + tags. Community upvotes surface the genuinely good stuff to Hot/Rising/New feeds (using an HN-style hotness formula for velocity + decay).
No payments on-site — just external links to Gumroad/Etsy/Bandcamp/etc. for direct sales. Anonymous posting is allowed, but logged-in users get profiles and bookmarks.
Tech: FastAPI + SQLAlchemy/PostgreSQL on Replit, Jinja/Bootstrap frontend, HTMX.
It's a very early MVP (just shipped this week), seeded with examples, no real users yet.
Would love honest feedback:
- Does the voting/meritocracy feel fair for discovering hidden indie gems?
- Any obvious spam or moderation holes I should plug early?
- What creative niches should I seed more (screenplays? art? courses?)?
- UI/UX annoyances or bugs?
Hey HN,
I built Cowabunga Link because I was trying to market my own ebook and got really frustrated with the current options. Either very expensive paid placements, or you need a huge social media following to get any traction, or people just pay sites to be on top of lists with no real meritocracy behind it.
So I made this instead: a simple, no-algos place where indie creators can share links to their work (music packs, ebooks, art bundles, screenplays, courses, templates, digital downloads, etc.) or cool finds they love. Anyone can post a link + short desc + tags. Community upvotes surface the genuinely good stuff to Hot/Rising/New feeds (using an HN-style hotness formula for velocity + decay).
No payments on-site — just external links to Gumroad/Etsy/Bandcamp/etc. for direct sales. Anonymous posting is allowed, but logged-in users get profiles and bookmarks.
Tech: FastAPI + SQLAlchemy/PostgreSQL on Replit, Jinja/Bootstrap frontend, HTMX.
It's a very early MVP (just shipped this week), seeded with examples, no real users yet.
Would love honest feedback: - Does the voting/meritocracy feel fair for discovering hidden indie gems? - Any obvious spam or moderation holes I should plug early? - What creative niches should I seed more (screenplays? art? courses?)? - UI/UX annoyances or bugs?
If you have indie work, feel free to drop a link and see how it does: https://cowabungalink.com
Thanks for taking a look! Jon (Livermore, CA)