u/ScarcityDry8870

I’m currently finishing a product and recently started thinking more seriously about distribution for the first time.

For people who have already launched products before:

1. Where did you actually get your first real users from?
2. Not talking about huge viral spikes.
3. More like places that kept bringing traffic or users over time.

I used to think Product Hunt was basically the only place that mattered, but recently I tried EverFeatured and honestly the process felt much more personal and curated than I expected.

Honestly, just trying to understand what actually works now for early-stage products.

Would love to hear real experiences from people here.

A few months ago, I thought tools like Claude, Copilot, Cursor, etc. were mostly just advanced autocomplete.

Now I’m seeing people build full working products insanely fast with them.

Not random “vibe-coded” apps, but actual, useful products.

Especially developers who already understand how systems work. They seem to move way faster now.

Feels like the skill is slowly becoming:

• knowing what to build
• giving clear instructions
• reviewing the code
• catching bad outputs

Instead of typing every single line manually.
What do you think?

I’ve been noticing this for a while.

Phones and laptops are way more powerful now, but a lot of apps somehow feel slower than before.

Some apps take longer to open, use a lot of RAM, and sometimes lag even for simple things. And almost everything needs updates every few days.

I know modern apps have more features now, cloud stuff, AI, animations, cross-platform support, etc. But still, sometimes it feels like performance is no longer the main focus.

For people who actually build software, what do you think is the biggest reason?

• Too many features?
• modern frameworks?
• pressure to release fast?
• less optimization?
• something else?

Just curious what developers think about this.

I’m building a system that generates short ad videos using FFmpeg (Node.js backend).

Basic idea:

• multiple scenes (images + text)
• transitions
• background audio
• final mp4 output

It works, but once things get dynamic, it gets messy fast.

Main pain points:

• filter_complex becomes unreadable with multiple chained effects
• Small changes (like timing or transitions) require rewriting big chunks
• Debugging is mostly trial-and-error
• Performance becomes inconsistent with longer videos

At this point, it feels like I’m not “using FFmpeg” — I’m generating FFmpeg programs.

Curious how people handle this in real systems:

Do you stick with one big command or split it into multiple steps?
How do you keep things maintainable?

I’m working on a project where I generate short ad videos using FFmpeg (Node.js backend).

The idea is:

• Multiple scenes (images/text)
• Transitions
• Background audio
• Final mp4 output

I’m dynamically building the FFmpeg command based on user input, and it works… but it’s getting messy fast 😅

Some issues I’m facing:

1. filter_complex becomes very hard to read/debug once multiple effects are chained
2. Performance feels inconsistent when videos get longer
3. Even small changes require tweaking a long command

One thing I’ve realized is that FFmpeg is super powerful, but managing it programmatically is not straightforward.

Wanted to ask:

• Do you guys usually generate one big command or split processing into steps?
• How do you structure this kind of pipeline in real systems?
• Any tips to keep FFmpeg commands maintainable?

Would love to hear how others are handling this.