lichess.org and the corresponding open source project[1] are really quite someth...

wallace_f · on Dec 23, 2016

This may sound naive, but what are the incentives and/or how are the developers of Lichess making a profit. The site is one of the best executed webapps I've ever used. What motivates the creators?

jdjb · on Dec 23, 2016

Thibault simply wants to deliver the best online chess experience. Period.

It's purely donation driven and he pulls a small salary from whatever's leftover after buying enough servers to keep the site up.

ggrochow · on Dec 23, 2016

detailed cost breakdown

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CGgu-7aNxlZkjLl9l-Ol...

( link came from here https://en.lichess.org/patron )

oli5679 · on Dec 23, 2016

I'm supprised that they get $47 mn in donations. Rarely see the patron icon when I play.

Someone · on Dec 23, 2016

$47k, not million. Amounts in that spreadsheet aren't in thousands.

oli5679 · on Dec 23, 2016

Apologies, thanks for clarifying

mazesc · on Dec 23, 2016

gghh · on Dec 23, 2016

Has the site been around for long? I've never heard of it but it looks like a large-ish community.

pstch · on Dec 23, 2016

It was launched in 2016, with a much simpler interface (no accounts iirc), which evolved a lot to come to this day.

Its source code is also really interesting, it makes me want to learn Scala.

tzs · on Dec 23, 2016

> It was launched in 2016

It's been around at least as far back as 2010. Here is a 6 year old HN submission about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1927188

sanderjd · on Dec 23, 2016

Yeah, I borrowed some css for a chess board from it for a (never published) project I was working around 2010 or perhaps slightly earlier!

pstch · on Dec 24, 2016

I should reread my posts before sending, this was a mixup between "6 years old" and the launch year. Thanks for the correction.