5 ms·

Show HN: Fictionhub, a place to share fiction

46 points by rayalez 11y ago

rayalez 11y ago
My goal is to make fictionhub a perfect place for writers to post and discuss fiction. It is like a blogging platform with discovery system and community features of reddit. It is also open source: https://github.com/raymestalez/fictionhub https://github.com/raymestalez/fictionhub You are welcome to join and upload your stories, and to ask me any questions =)
- robotnoises 11y ago
  Great start! Love the UI. FYI I bookmarked this in my "cool shit" folder. This is a high honor.
  - rayalez 11y ago
    Thank you, I'm honored =)
- astazangasta 11y ago
  Speaking as a guy who wants to write books until I die, is there a way to filter out fan fiction? I'm REALLY uninterested in people's knock-off writing, and it makes me much less likely to participate in this community. It seems like you need a little more structure to allow people to self-segregate better.
  - rayalez 11y ago
    Hmm... I haven't encountered many writers who really dislike fanfiction, so I haven't really thought about that problem. But it is very solvable. I will make it possible to subscribe to and unsubscribe from categories("hubs"), they will function just like subreddits, so all the things you are not interested in will be hidden.
    - astazangasta 11y ago
      There are writers who will have no truck with genre fiction. Writers are an opinionated and cranky bunch who will require a lot of hand-holding to draw them out into a community. May I suggest that you give this problem (and the more general problem of how to create and foster communities) its due weight? This is not a problem to be treated idly or easily solved with some clever tagging scheme, it is the central question of your site. It is probably worth working with someone who has training or experience in this area explicitly.
    - rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
      Perhaps upon submission there should be a required option to state whether the text is fanfiction. Regardless of quality, by including fanfiction among other works, you've reduced the average perceived quality SIGNIFICANTLY. Because everyone's seen one or two tremendous fanfic trainwrecks in their time and that's enough to make them avoid an inclusive community entirely. It's ok to allow fanfic, just make sure it's clearly labeled and filter-able.
- onurozkan 11y ago
  how long does it take to build from scratch? its been started 4 months ago but how much work did you put on actually?
  - rayalez 11y ago
    Well, the first commit on github is 4.5 months ago, so that is how much the actual coding took. Keep in mind that website is still in beta, so there's a lot that needs to be done. I will need to do a lot of debugging and refactoring, and I'm still working on many necessary features. Beyond that, I already had .psd files with design(I had them for a long time, I asked a freelance designer to make it for me for my previous blog). Also, I wanted to become a successful blogger for a long time, so I've spend a lot of time thinking about how the perfect blogging platform for me would look like.
    - onurozkan 11y ago
      a suggestion for structure: github like forks might work well for people end stories with their plot twists.
rch 11y ago
Reminds me of Fictionaut.
vincentperes 11y ago
You might get a big traffic from HN and don't get much out of it. People might just go, read a page and bookmarked it or think they will come back later. But they usually don't. If I was prompted or had a field where I could enter my email address to get the best story of a genre I picked at the end of each week, I would gladly enter my email address. Convert!
- thehoff 11y ago
  I'll second this. Great idea but I doubt I will remember to come back in a couple days. But other sites where I know I'll forget I freely give my email to get content pushed to me or reminding me to come back (ie. weekly highlights).
  - rayalez 11y ago
    You are right, as I've commented above - I will definitely implement this functionality. If you want - feel free to create an account, and I'll send you a message when the feature is ready.
- rayalez 11y ago
  Thank you for the suggestion! The website is still a work in progress, and I welcome any feedback. I have added this idea to my todo list, I will definitely implement that kind of weekly/monthly newsletter. If you want - you can create an account, and I'll personally email you to tell you when the feature is available.
- rokhayakebe 11y ago
  <Insert Michael Scott Thank You Gif> Among HN readers are many who have denounced prompting users to give you their email. This is the best thing you could do for your product.
ntw1103 11y ago
For the signup, you should display your privacy policy, and probably any information related to licensing. As an author, I don't want to just throw my work on some site and have it come back to bit me later. :) The layout looks decent, and works nicely on a phone, which is where I do a lot of reading. I like how you've handled multiple chapters. In the future, adding a search box, or maybe the ability to define tags, and search by those would be nice to see. (Thinking of the point where the site could host thousands of stories) - I hope this comes across as constrictive criticism, and not bashing :)
- rayalez 11y ago
  Thank you for the awesome feedback! You can find the search box and a list of tags on the stories page: http://fictionhub.io/browse/ http://fictionhub.io/browse/ In terms of licensing - I have not dealt with any legal issues yet, but all the rights to submitted stories belong to their authors.
  - dangerlibrary 11y ago
    You need some basic rights just to do digital distribution. There is an implicit "well they uploaded it, so they must want it distributed/published," but that's a legal headache waiting to happen.
    - icebraining 11y ago
      Also, they need to register an agent at the Copyright Office if they want to have DMCA Safe Harbor protection.
    - rayalez 11y ago
      I'll talk to the professional lawyer and ask about how to do this right. But legal technicalities aside, my intention is to make the licensing maximally favorable for writers, so that everyone preserves all the rights to their work.
- xerophyte12932 11y ago
tobydownton 11y ago
As a new author looking to get his work out there I was interested to take a look around ... and slightly disappointed that you don't tell me anything about the site! (the kind of stuff you explain below, where you say you want to "make fictionhub a perfect place for writers to post and discuss fiction. It is like a blogging platform with discovery system and community features of reddit.") I would suggest including an easy to find About page where you explain the value of the site to people (both authors and readers). As it is, I looked around for ten seconds and wondered what the value proposition was. Good luck!
- rayalez 11y ago
  Thanks! I agree, I should write the about page and tutorials for the new users. I'm on it, and it will be done soon =)
- xerophyte12932 11y ago
  Oh apparently the Banner image is a link to a welcome page.

46 points by rayalez 11y ago

My goal is to make fictionhub a perfect place for writers to post and discuss fiction. It is like a blogging platform with discovery system and community features of reddit. It is also open source: https://github.com/raymestalez/fictionhub https://github.com/raymestalez/fictionhub You are welcome to join and upload your stories, and to ask me any questions =)

robotnoises 11y ago
Great start! Love the UI. FYI I bookmarked this in my "cool shit" folder. This is a high honor.
- rayalez 11y ago
  Thank you, I'm honored =)
astazangasta 11y ago
Speaking as a guy who wants to write books until I die, is there a way to filter out fan fiction? I'm REALLY uninterested in people's knock-off writing, and it makes me much less likely to participate in this community. It seems like you need a little more structure to allow people to self-segregate better.
- rayalez 11y ago
  Hmm... I haven't encountered many writers who really dislike fanfiction, so I haven't really thought about that problem. But it is very solvable. I will make it possible to subscribe to and unsubscribe from categories("hubs"), they will function just like subreddits, so all the things you are not interested in will be hidden.
  - astazangasta 11y ago
    There are writers who will have no truck with genre fiction. Writers are an opinionated and cranky bunch who will require a lot of hand-holding to draw them out into a community. May I suggest that you give this problem (and the more general problem of how to create and foster communities) its due weight? This is not a problem to be treated idly or easily solved with some clever tagging scheme, it is the central question of your site. It is probably worth working with someone who has training or experience in this area explicitly.
  - rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
    Perhaps upon submission there should be a required option to state whether the text is fanfiction. Regardless of quality, by including fanfiction among other works, you've reduced the average perceived quality SIGNIFICANTLY. Because everyone's seen one or two tremendous fanfic trainwrecks in their time and that's enough to make them avoid an inclusive community entirely. It's ok to allow fanfic, just make sure it's clearly labeled and filter-able.
onurozkan 11y ago
how long does it take to build from scratch? its been started 4 months ago but how much work did you put on actually?
- rayalez 11y ago
  Well, the first commit on github is 4.5 months ago, so that is how much the actual coding took. Keep in mind that website is still in beta, so there's a lot that needs to be done. I will need to do a lot of debugging and refactoring, and I'm still working on many necessary features. Beyond that, I already had .psd files with design(I had them for a long time, I asked a freelance designer to make it for me for my previous blog). Also, I wanted to become a successful blogger for a long time, so I've spend a lot of time thinking about how the perfect blogging platform for me would look like.
  - onurozkan 11y ago
    a suggestion for structure: github like forks might work well for people end stories with their plot twists.

rch 11y ago

Reminds me of Fictionaut.

vincentperes 11y ago

You might get a big traffic from HN and don't get much out of it. People might just go, read a page and bookmarked it or think they will come back later. But they usually don't. If I was prompted or had a field where I could enter my email address to get the best story of a genre I picked at the end of each week, I would gladly enter my email address. Convert!

thehoff 11y ago
I'll second this. Great idea but I doubt I will remember to come back in a couple days. But other sites where I know I'll forget I freely give my email to get content pushed to me or reminding me to come back (ie. weekly highlights).
- rayalez 11y ago
  You are right, as I've commented above - I will definitely implement this functionality. If you want - feel free to create an account, and I'll send you a message when the feature is ready.
rayalez 11y ago
Thank you for the suggestion! The website is still a work in progress, and I welcome any feedback. I have added this idea to my todo list, I will definitely implement that kind of weekly/monthly newsletter. If you want - you can create an account, and I'll personally email you to tell you when the feature is available.
rokhayakebe 11y ago
<Insert Michael Scott Thank You Gif> Among HN readers are many who have denounced prompting users to give you their email. This is the best thing you could do for your product.

ntw1103 11y ago

For the signup, you should display your privacy policy, and probably any information related to licensing. As an author, I don't want to just throw my work on some site and have it come back to bit me later. :) The layout looks decent, and works nicely on a phone, which is where I do a lot of reading. I like how you've handled multiple chapters. In the future, adding a search box, or maybe the ability to define tags, and search by those would be nice to see. (Thinking of the point where the site could host thousands of stories) - I hope this comes across as constrictive criticism, and not bashing :)

rayalez 11y ago
Thank you for the awesome feedback! You can find the search box and a list of tags on the stories page: http://fictionhub.io/browse/ http://fictionhub.io/browse/ In terms of licensing - I have not dealt with any legal issues yet, but all the rights to submitted stories belong to their authors.
- dangerlibrary 11y ago
  You need some basic rights just to do digital distribution. There is an implicit "well they uploaded it, so they must want it distributed/published," but that's a legal headache waiting to happen.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    Also, they need to register an agent at the Copyright Office if they want to have DMCA Safe Harbor protection.
  - rayalez 11y ago
    I'll talk to the professional lawyer and ask about how to do this right. But legal technicalities aside, my intention is to make the licensing maximally favorable for writers, so that everyone preserves all the rights to their work.
xerophyte12932 11y ago

tobydownton 11y ago

As a new author looking to get his work out there I was interested to take a look around ... and slightly disappointed that you don't tell me anything about the site! (the kind of stuff you explain below, where you say you want to "make fictionhub a perfect place for writers to post and discuss fiction. It is like a blogging platform with discovery system and community features of reddit.") I would suggest including an easy to find About page where you explain the value of the site to people (both authors and readers). As it is, I looked around for ten seconds and wondered what the value proposition was. Good luck!

rayalez 11y ago
Thanks! I agree, I should write the about page and tutorials for the new users. I'm on it, and it will be done soon =)
xerophyte12932 11y ago
Oh apparently the Banner image is a link to a welcome page.