Building Firsto on Open Launch: Our Journey, Modifications, and Attribution

Date: May 23, 2025

Our Mission

Firsto was born out of a simple idea: every product deserves to be seen. While many platforms highlight only the top or most popular launches, we wanted to create a space where every submission is discoverable, regardless of size or fame. Whether you're building in public or quietly launching your first tool, Firsto is here to amplify your work.

Why We Chose Open Launch

Open Launch provided a clean and functional foundation for a product showcase platform. Its MIT license gave us the freedom to iterate rapidly and explore what a more maker-focused launch platform could look like.

Major Modifications Made to Firsto

Since forking the project, we have introduced a number of key features and architectural changes, organized by completion date:

Completed by 2025-05-23

1. Enhanced Submission Capabilities

  • Support for uploading multiple poster images per product, the creator can upload multiple images to represent their product.
  • Support for writing detailed markdown descriptions, including formatted code blocks, links, and headings.
  • Support for writing exclusive discount codes to better promote the product.
  • Support for multiple social media links, allowing creators to connect their entire online presence.

2. A Redesigned Detail Page

  • The product page layout has been completely redesigned.
  • Multiple poster images now display in a carousel format.
  • Markdown content is rendered dynamically to improve readability and presentation.

3. SEO and Discovery Enhancements

  • RSS feed for new product launches.
  • Dynamic sitemap generation to improve indexing and discoverability.
  • A redesigned tag system, allowing users to explore products by tags, improving both navigation and SEO.

4. Admin Dashboard Improvements

  • A new Admin interface to manage submissions, update launch types, and reschedule launches.
  • An interactive calendar view to plan and review upcoming product launches.

5. Public Browsing Experience

  • Users can now access all categories and tags without logging in, increasing visibility and reducing friction.

6. Upvote Flexibility

  • We removed the limitation that only allowed upvotes on the launch day. Now, users can upvote any product throughout the week, making it easier to surface the real weekly top products.

Completed by 2025-05-26

7. Enhanced Product Discovery

To fulfill our mission that "every product deserves to be seen," we've implemented several discovery mechanisms:

  • Complete Product Catalog: Added a comprehensive product catalog page that allows users to browse all launches with multiple sorting options (by date, name, popularity, and engagement).

  • Time-Based Navigation:

    • Implemented weekly and monthly views to explore all products launched during specific time periods
    • Created dedicated pages for browsing products by week (/week/YYYY-WW) and month (/month/YYYY-MM)

  • Winners Recognition System:

    • Developed a multi-tiered winners showcase with daily, weekly, and monthly winners
    • Added specialized navigation for browsing winners by specific dates, weeks, and months

Completed by 2025-05-28

8. Redesigned Submission Experience

  • Restructured the submission flow with a horizontal step layout to minimize scrolling and provide a clearer path to completion.
  • Added live Markdown preview in the review step, allowing users to see exactly how their detailed descriptions will appear when published.
  • Implemented an intuitive launch calendar component with visual indicators for available dates, making scheduling more straightforward.

9. Enhanced Promotion Capabilities

  • Implemented a sophisticated promoted content system that seamlessly integrates promoted products into the main feed.
  • Designed promotion slots to maintain a natural browsing experience.
  • Created balanced algorithms to ensure promoted content doesn't overwhelm organic discoveries.

Completed by 2025-06-13

10. Blog

  • Introduced a new blog system to share insights, strategies, and community stories.
  • Built with MDX support and a clean card-style layout for easier content discovery.
  • Includes category filters, detailed article pages, and related posts to boost engagement.

Completed by 2025-07-24

11. Added Quick Navigation on Project Pages

  • Introduced a Quick Navigation bar on each product detail page (/app/projects/[slug]/), enabling users to switch between launches without returning to the homepage.
  • Users can now navigate to the previous or next project based on launch date using on-screen buttons or keyboard arrow keys (← / →).
  • Added hover tooltips on navigation buttons to improve discoverability: "Go to previous launch (or press ←)" and "Go to next launch (or press →)".
  • This update improves user retention and discoverability by encouraging exploration across launched products.

On Licensing and Attribution

Recently, the original Open Launch author updated the project’s license terms, now requiring a powered by Open Launch badge with a dofollow link on all pages.

As of May 23, 2025, we have responded to the author and confirmed that we will comply with this requirement. A badge has been added to our footer.

Our team respects the work done by the Open Launch project and is committed to upholding attribution where due.

The original Open Launch project is licensed under the MIT License. You can view the license here.

Future Plans

While we continue to build and grow Firsto, we understand the importance of technical independence. Over the coming months, we plan to gradually redesign and refactor both the frontend and the product experience to further differentiate Firsto's UX and UI from Open Launch.

We are also considering a complete redesign of the user interface and interaction flow as the platform evolves.

Change Log

  • 2025-05-23: Initial version of this document and official attribution response.

This article will be updated periodically as Firsto evolves.

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