FablePool
Crowdfunded software builder in AI tools
Lets people pool money behind a software build prompt, with a public ledger and funding released milestone by milestone. Critics doubt the anonymous team, the copyright claims, and whether the AI finishes the work.
Lets people pool money behind a software build prompt, with a public ledger and funding released milestone by milestone. Critics doubt the anonymous team, the copyright claims, and whether the AI finishes the work.
47 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 24
- approval share
- 49%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Enthusiasm for the idea
“Really fun idea that is simultaneously deeply embarrassing for Anthropic.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “This is a genius idea, I love it!!”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “This is actually kinda exciting.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” - Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
- Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
- Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
- Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
Public ledger and milestone funding
“it’s honestly the public ledger and funding the build milestone by milestone”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “Brilliant idea! We need consensus protocols for voting on phases.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” Promises to finish the job
“The entire promise is that it just works.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “Fable will actually finish the job.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” Funder voting and consensus ideas
“This is a good idea and for features and modifications you can make it so whoever chips in the most money gets more votes.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “Brilliant idea! We need consensus protocols for voting on phases.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Copyright and trademark concerns
“Copyright simply doesn't work like that. Unless there's real human creativity involved in the process, they can't just claim copyright to LLM output.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “I'm not sure why folks continue to build services with trademarked names they don't own.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “using Fable in the name is a mistake, who knows how long that model will be around”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” - Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
Doubts it finishes autonomously
“Kinda fun but the approach today is strictly oneshot”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “doing this autonomously is a pipe dream”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “This will be an excellent demonstration of what AI is incapable of.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” - Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
Cost estimates look unreliable
“It seems highly suspicious that all the target cost estimates are for $150-$400”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “it's a small subset of AWS features, but yeah, the estimate is still off”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “This bot is almost as bad as I am at estimating projects.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” Anonymous team lowers trust
“Before putting in money to this small anonymous website, I'd love to hear about the people behind the project.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public” “It indicates the level of trust people have in the platform”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: FablePool – pool money behind a prompt, and Fable builds it in public”
What people said
40 of the 47 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it’s honestly the public ledger and funding the build milestone by milestone”
“This is such a interesting idea.”
“I'm not sure why folks continue to build services with trademarked names they don't own.”
“It seems highly suspicious that all the target cost estimates are for $150-$400”
“puts the output under MIT, thats not growing Anthropic's moat, its commoditizing it”
“Hope a model like FablePool can change that.”
“This is such a great idea.”
“Copyright simply doesn't work like that. Unless there's real human creativity involved in the process, they can't just claim copyright to LLM output.”
“The entire promise is that it just works.”
“why people are more eager to pool money to pay a corporate-owned computer to build things”
“If so, there would need to be a massive fee overhead.”
“I'd love to see Anthropic (or someone with mythos access) create a cybersecurity version of this.”
“It seems weird that you would have about 3% of your revenue taken away by card providers”
“Really fun idea that is simultaneously deeply embarrassing for Anthropic.”
“This will be an excellent demonstration of what AI is incapable of.”
“This is actually kinda exciting.”
“your server is struggling. It took about 20+ seconds to respond just now”
“This is engineering theatre (pun intended).”
“It indicates the level of trust people have in the platform”
“it's a small subset of AWS features, but yeah, the estimate is still off”
“requiring a google sign-in both to submit new projects and to donate to projects”
“doing this autonomously is a pipe dream”
“What happens when the pool exhausts but the task is not done?”
“some of these projects are so over the top pie-in-the-sky silly, and funded with $0.25”
“Fable will actually finish the job.”
“This is a genius idea, I love it!!”
“This bot is almost as bad as I am at estimating projects.”
“Brilliant idea! We need consensus protocols for voting on phases.”
“where it changed the link from a wikimedia image to a nonexistent file in /assets”
“The mention of quality puts it firmly into the joke territory”
“It didn't even put a picture in!”
“Kinda fun but the approach today is strictly oneshot”
“This is a good idea and for features and modifications you can make it so whoever chips in the most money gets more votes.”
“I don't think saying "it's MIT, we all own it" is defensible.”
“Fantastic idea for a rug pull”
“This is a fantastic idea.”
“Before putting in money to this small anonymous website, I'd love to hear about the people behind the project.”
“using Fable in the name is a mistake, who knows how long that model will be around”
“This is such a good idea.”
“Hell yeah, $516 for a complete AWS replacement, I'm in lol!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.