ShareFly: A Community Platform for Sharing Essentials

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ShareFly- Give what you can. Find what you need. Help when you can.

Inspiration At the University of Southern Mississippi(USM), there's someone we know simply as Ms. Kathy. She is a social worker who helps students settle into their new lives at USM, whether it is finding furniture, clothes, or other everyday necessities. We have received her help ourselves, so we know what makes Ms. Kathy special. What matters most is not just the furniture or the clothes she helps students find, but the feeling she gives them that they are not starting over alone. Her kindness made us realize something. There are people with useful things they no longer need, while others are struggling to afford those same things. Often, the only thing missing is a connection between them. "What if the kind of help Ms. Kathy gives could become something an entire community takes part in?" That question inspired ShareFly. We wanted to turn the kindness we have experienced into something more people could share. Ms. Kathy showed us what one person can do for a community. ShareFly is our way of helping that kindness reach further. What it does ShareFly is a community-sharing platform where people can give away items they no longer need and find things they could use. Imagine a student moving out with a desk they do not need anymore, while another student moving in is looking for one. ShareFly helps them find each other. Users can post items, browse listings, and create wishlists. Our matching system helps connect people with relevant items, while the room preview feature helps them visualize furniture in their space. Our idea is simple: "Give what you can. Find what you need. Help when you can." How we built it We built ShareFly as a web application during HackPrinceton, focusing on making item sharing as simple as possible. We developed a listing and wishlist system, along with rule-based matching that connects people with relevant items and explains why they match. We also added a room preview feature and optional AI assistance for suggesting listing details that users can review and edit. We used Mongodb to store users, listings, wishlists, matches, and notifications. Challenges we ran into Our biggest challenge was turning a personal experience into a practical application. We initially thought about building a simple item-sharing website, but realized that finding an item was only part of the problem. What if someone finds a desk but does not know whether it will fit? We had to figure out how to bring matching and room previews together without making the platform complicated. With limited hackathon time, we also had to make decisions about which features mattered most and what we could realistically build. Accomplishments that we're proud of We are proud that we turned an idea inspired by someone who helped us into a working prototype. Rather than building just another place to post free items, we brought together listings, wishlists, matching and room previews that helps solve a real problem. Most importantly, we are proud that ShareFly started with a real experience and a person who made a difference in our lives. What we learned We learned that building something useful is not always about adding more features. It is about understanding what people actually need and making the experience easier for them. We also learned how challenging it can be to connect different features into one simple application, especially within a short amount of time. Above all, this project reminded us that a meaningful idea can come from something as simple as someone helping another person. What's next for ShareFly We started ShareFly with students in mind, but we hope it can eventually serve universities and surrounding communities. Our next steps are to test it with real students and improve matching. We also want to make the platform easier to use as more people join. ShareFly is still a prototype, but we hope it can grow into something that makes giving and receiving help a little easier. "If something inspired by Ms. Kathy can he...

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