A non-Amazon wish list, anyone?
I once thought I was making a neutral choice to shop at Amazon, and that their wish list was a nice convenience.
Just like I one thought Google was my friend, and signed up for their “free” email. I deeply regretted that and have now deeply deGoogled.
Nowadays I recognise a greedy mega-corp when I see one, with everything wrong that goes along with that, and so I shut down my wish list there and almost completely avoid shopping there.
Each year my family conducts an awkward but functional exchange of emails: “I want a U and a V, any colour, size W.” “Here's my list in plain text inside attached ms word doc.” (ick!) “Dad told me earlier he wants an X as well.” “I'm getting Y for mum; is that ok with everyone else?” “I already got him a Z last year so don't get that.”
I don't really mind that. Although a bit awkward, it's a social conversation between us, and it takes place over a decentralised standard communication medium. I appreciate that about it.
Until somebody points to a wish list hosted by Amazon. That irks me. (It's not personal: all mega capitalism irks me these days.) One, I hate to associate with such a commercial giant and all it stands for. Two, people are taught to refer to it as “their” wish list when it's really Amazon's.
Each year I want to tell all my friends and family about a nice, clean, tidy, easy, freedom software (open-source self-hostable) alternative. Something my non-techie aunt would use. Something that might even persuade her to ditch her Amazon list.
To my surprise I haven't yet found it. I was and am still hoping to find it's already made and suitable for non-techies. However, so far I have found nothing.
The closest I've found is https://whattogive.com which is a small (single-person) proprietary service which you can use for free or make a donation. Functionally, although a bit clunky, it has the right kind of feature set that I'm looking for. I used it a few years, but I'm through with proprietary solutions, even small friendly ones. I want to be able to modify it, attach it to my own domain, have those kinds of freedom.
So: Anyone know a nice open tech wish list?
Until I asked a techie community, I hadn't guessed quite how many different functions and modes of operation are potentially “wish list” related. It seems I need to specify “it” more precisely.
For my family, the basic need is:
- Private, restricted to a small group of participants.
- each person or family can write their wish list(s)
- basic format is free-form text
- free-form includes the ability to list things “for us jointly” and so on (not only for a specific person)
- free-form includes the ability to list non-specific things in one sentence: e.g. “also I always appreciate any nice sweets, chocolates, cosmetics etc.”
- optional images and links; no attempt to make these point to a commercial service
Nice to have
- ability to add new people to the group
- ability to semi-anonymously mark things as “promised”
- ability to suggest/recommend things for someone else
- rich text
- ability to make part of my list publicly visible (but with no input of any kind from unauthenticated people).
Not Wanted
- integration with shopping, shipping, payment or comparison services.
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