🎣 AREALAB

Where it came from

A person came with a ready logo and said: I want a classifieds app, but only for anglers. So you don't scroll past baby strollers and iPhones but see spinning rods, reels and outboard motors right away. And so you can call a seller without exposing your number to the whole internet.

I looked at Kukarek, which already had chat and calls, and thought: well, that's half the job done. Just need to bolt on listings.

One day from “Fish-crazed” to AREALAB

In the morning the project was called “Рыбанутые” — roughly “Fish-crazed”. I liked it; sounds like a club that doesn't let normal people in. By the evening the logo arrived: white AREALAB letters on light blue. Renamed everything in an hour. The first saves still list the project as “Fish-crazed”, and I'm not touching that; let history remember.

What I took from Kukarek

Chat, calls, push notifications and the garbage filter — I didn't write them a second time. Sawed them off Kukarek and fitted them here. The calling engine I'd spent a week teaching to ring worked here immediately. That's what fixing bugs properly is for: the next project gets everything ready-made.

But there's a difference. In Kukarek messages live on the phone and the server remembers a message for a day, then wipes it. A marketplace can't do that: you agree on a price with a seller, and a day later the conversation is gone. So here the chat history is stored on the server and doesn't disappear.

What it does

Open it: search on top, category tiles below — rods and spinning, reels, lures, lines, hooks, boats, motors, fish finders. Then a two-column feed of fresh listings.

A listing has two big buttons: “Call” and “Message”. The call goes through the app; the number is shown to neither the seller nor the buyer. Chat is inside too, and the header of each chat shows the listing being discussed so you don't get lost when there are many.

There are also favourites, a profile with your listings, and reporting — can't do without it.

The laws I didn't want to read

This is where vibecoding ended and adult life began.

In Kukarek you can register with a nickname, full stop. A marketplace can't do that: by law an account must be tied to a phone number. Not an email, not a nickname — a number. Fine. But sending SMS codes costs money, and I wanted to launch for free. So sign-in goes through VK ID and Yandex ID: they hand over a verified number for free, and SMS comes later.

I tried a couple of other options too. One service doesn't let third-party apps sign in through it at all. Another does, but only under a partnership agreement. Thanks, no.

Then it turned out that Russian users' data must be stored on servers in Russia, that chat and calls make you an “information distribution organizer” with its own obligations, and that the app must contain consent to data processing, a privacy policy, a user agreement and listing rules. In one evening I read more law than in my entire previous life. All the documents are written, the phone number never appears in any of the app's responses, and moving the server to Russia is on the plan before release.

Prohibited goods

A fishing marketplace has its own specifics. Nets, electric fishing rigs and other poaching joys can't be sold; this is not a marketplace for poachers. So a check runs when you post a listing: obviously banned stuff is rejected on the spot with an explanation, and borderline cases go to manual review. While a listing is under review, only its author sees it.

What's next

The app is in beta for iPhone. Ahead: the server move, legal details that aren't mine to decide, and release. If you're an angler and want to test it, write and I'll send a link.

Questions and answers