VibeFails

I had a terrible time using bolt to build a project for the hackathon, after 5 failed attempts I decide to make a space to provide emotional and technical support to other "vibers". And jokes :)

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Inspiration

I had an absolutely horrific time trying to vibe code for the hackathon and had some project ideas that I was really inspired by and they kept failing, with things like bolt refusing to work with git, insistence that I should use a particular expo package when it was wrong, resetting the whole project and leaving me with nothing etc. Out of frustration I vibe raged VibeFails.com out of spite but as it went on I started to feel like it was actually an idea with merit and a cross-platform space for people to help each other with Vibe Coding was probably a really helpful thing.

I'm an old man and I've been coding since I taught myself basic at the age of seven in the mid 80's (you either taught yourself or you didn't learn back then) I work as an engineer but as well as my engineering degrees I also have a computer science degree and I absolutely adore coding. The idea of vibe coding at first disgusted me having been taught to code very formally and strictly. However, as time went on I realised that my love of coding was as much about the creation and the realisation of ideas as it was the using proper indents and the elegance of a one-liner that can send a rocket to the moon. And so I completely flipped. In an instant I fell in love with the idea of vibe coding and so when it failed me so hard it cut me very deep and I took it irrationally personally.

From that VibeFails.com was born

What it does

A social space for people to share their VibeCoding horror stories for tech and emotional support. the goal is to keep the space super friendly, light hearted self deprecating and ultimately helpful. People can post their "fails" and others can offer support and advice.

I have a scrolling header of ridiculous potential user profiles but the idea is to set the tone as really light hearted. For example you'll see "I'm really angry and I want to vent. Is VibeFails.com for me? with the simple reply "Nope"

Currently it only has made up scenarios that bolt itself made up. I had to tone some down a bit because it was pretty savage. At the time of writing I have two users.

How we built it

Started with the idea and then focused on the look for a long time with functionality changes along the way. It is still very much WIP as I only started yesterday after 5 failed attempts at the apps I really wanted to make (I keep mentioning that because it's the origin story). It was my first deployed app so there is a bit of work in that. I had some fancy scrolling ideas that I spent a lot of time (and tokens) on and they are still not great, I'll admit.

Challenges we ran into

I tried so many other app ideas and they failed hard, Expo integration was a disaster, trying to navigate Git for external changes lost me 10years off my life and complete destruction of a neat scrolling prototype I was working on took me to the brink of tears. My heart was in dark mode and the button to switch it back was returning an unhandled exception.

Supabase backend is really nice but the SQL integration with bolt is a bit iffy, very rare that the supplied SQL query actually works.

Changes to structure after the first shot often result in a completely broken app, getting back can then be an endless loop.

Using Git as you would use git in the "outside world" just really doesn't work so when you are used to that it's a shock to the system.

I had to buy my own custom domain because the free offer didn't seem to work.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting something working in the end. Having two users already. Yep two, I'm ordering my super yacht right now.

What we learned

I love coding still, I love creating, Vibe Coding is a way to express that love but all things worth having take effort.

What's next for VibeFails

Users, please.

Search to help people find the support they need.

More fun and jokes. (And Guinea-Pigs)

Maybe monetise to support the costs. Probably ad supported but if we build a user base such that the helpful intent becomes locked in then perhaps some partnerships to offer discounts etc.

Maybe even premium subscription for added support or corporate subscription for the likes of bolt.new to allow direct access to customers in need of help.

For example, if someone complains about lovable.dev and a bolt official user comes in with help cantered on how bolt wouldn't have the problem, and then can say "PS here is 1million tokens to see that it's true.... etc, etc." that would be very cool.

AI generated titles that are really wacky to keep the fun up.

AI crafted help

AI moderation just to keep the tone and content correct for the intent.

Analytics on the reactions, mainly for fun

A kudos system to recognise really helpful users.

A place for people to report Vibe successes, so really just different framing of the same info, giving them a chance to showcase best practice.

Colour schemes (I tried earlier and it destroyed the whole app), white screen of death. If only there was a place to post about that and get some advice.....

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