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I sold upvoted.com to Alexis Ohanian earlier this year. I'm glad it's not just a redirect anymore! I wanted to do something cool with it but never did. Then on

by staunch 11y ago

I sold upvoted.com to Alexis Ohanian earlier this year. I'm glad it's not just a redirect anymore! I wanted to do something cool with it but never did. Then one day I got an email from an assistant of Alexis Ohanian's asking to sell it cheap for his little school project :P I knew he was just trying to avoid being gouged, so I offered to sell it to Alexis for his initial asking price, if he'd give me a meeting and some feedback on my startup. He agreed and we had a good meeting. He gave my co-founder and I some genuinely usable advice, and technically funded our bootstrapped startup (https://portal.cloud https://portal.cloud) for a few weeks there.

alexis 11y ago
Thanks again! Let's have another date. Email me! edit: Update: It's happening!!!!!! Thanks, HN.
- staunch 11y ago
  Thank you! Would love to talk some more. Sent.
- ForFreedom 11y ago
  @alexis Why on a wordpress VIP? http://ajean.net/reddits-news-website-upvoted-com/ http://ajean.net/reddits-news-website-upvoted-com/
  - on_ 11y ago
    Wordpress is an extremely new framework, so it will be new to a lot of developers, but it provides an extremely performant developer friendly product. One drawback is that it is highly specialized, so it only had a few applications but luckily upvoted fits into this niche. Hosting is really still a problem as their is a lack of providers and a steep complexity curve. No one has really provided a flexible way to host a platform like wordpress and coupled with the lack of maturity and bleeding edge nature it makes sense that they went with a managed hosting service. Even as new as the organization is, they have a great array of security products and plugins which will certainly shield it from the less scrupulous users. This is going to likely be the first major company using wordpress, but I bet it could be a platform that will underpin a large percentage of websites.
    - heathwblack 11y ago
      PM at reddit here... ^What this individual said is way better than I could say it, but is basically why we chose Wordpress VIP ^ In addition the Wordpress VIP program has much higher standards for plugins and security, which are things we care about greatly. Lots of great publications use VIP like Techcrunch, FiveThirtyEight, Facebook, and Time.
      - on_ 11y ago
        Awesome, that is what I thought. PHP is one of those languages that wasn't designed by committee so there isn't that much documentation about it, but the founder built it specifically as scalable programming language and had been designing languages for years. I can see it replacing newer languages like nodeJS, Go and PERL in the future. In the next couple years people will start realizing that the consistency, speed and security offset the lack of communities using it, and I can see it becoming really popular. Wordpress will become big as well as LAMP architectures are really hot right now, and not a lot projects provide a CMS that has a minimal UI that provides only what a user needs and that makes it a really lightweight choice for a CMS. No bloat, high security and a trendy new design. Excited to see vip.wordpress finally getting some love!
        cryptophreak 11y ago
        Is this a troll account?
        on_ 11y ago
        No sorry, I am usually a thoughtful commenter but that was a satirical comment which I doubled down on.
        meowface 11y ago
        You made HN much more enjoyable for me today. Please consider continuing this trend in the future. I'm also a big fan of the "Node.js evangelist" who pops up in /r/programming.
  - alexis 11y ago
    Heath did the diligence, so I'll ask him to chime in, but my only requirement was that we ask as little of our FT Reddit devs as possible.
pgrote 11y ago
That is awesome. Good job!
ForFreedom 11y ago
@staunch Sold it for around $2000-3000? (asking)
- staunch 11y ago
  Yes. (You don't need @replies on HN guys!)
  - ForFreedom 11y ago
    I know, but it was an indication it was directed to you and not Alexis.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    There is no consistent style for referring to users here. I've seen people writing Twitter-style @user, Reddit-style /u/user; personally, I usually go with Lisp symbols - 'user :).
    - iraphael 11y ago
      'TeMPOraL :) is the smiley part of it or am I doing it wrong?
      - ForFreedom 11y ago
        :-) Is that wrong too?
      - TeMPOraL 11y ago
        Yes, 'iraphael, you are. Smiley is not a part of Lisp symbol syntax ;).
Reedx 11y ago
Little school project? Was that the original intention?
- darkstar999 11y ago
  It was a negotiation tactic to get the domain at a reasonable price. What you see at upvoted.com right now is/was the intent.
rasz_pl 11y ago
> for his little school project :P there are negotiations, and there are straight lies
- blhack 11y ago
  I read this is a joke about reddit being a little school project.
  - JeremyMorgan 11y ago
    That's how I read it as well.
  - staunch 11y ago
    Nah, they were just trying to buy the domain for a fair price and not get gouged based on who they are. I totally understand and blame domainers for poisoning the well.
    - gozo 11y ago
      On the other hand they are now poisoning the well for anyone who really have a need for this "trick" or are actually doing a school project. It's a shitty situation no matter what of course so I'm not that upset. Edit: I think the inspiration for this comes from the guide how to buy domains someone (founder?) from Stripe wrote.
      - ma2rten 11y ago
        Do you or anyone else have a link to that guide?
        gozo 11y ago
        It's probably this one, but I might have been reading some other blog post talking about that post, but anyhow. https://www.quora.com/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name https://www.quora.com/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name
lucaspottersky 11y ago
aand now i regret searching for 'gouged' on google images...
fuckreddit666 11y ago
School project? The website certainly looks like one. Who wrote those headlines for them? Did they outsource it to a school for the differently mentally-abled?

by staunch 11y ago

alexis 11y ago

Thanks again! Let's have another date. Email me! edit: Update: It's happening!!!!!! Thanks, HN.

staunch 11y ago
Thank you! Would love to talk some more. Sent.
ForFreedom 11y ago
@alexis Why on a wordpress VIP? http://ajean.net/reddits-news-website-upvoted-com/ http://ajean.net/reddits-news-website-upvoted-com/
- on_ 11y ago
  Wordpress is an extremely new framework, so it will be new to a lot of developers, but it provides an extremely performant developer friendly product. One drawback is that it is highly specialized, so it only had a few applications but luckily upvoted fits into this niche. Hosting is really still a problem as their is a lack of providers and a steep complexity curve. No one has really provided a flexible way to host a platform like wordpress and coupled with the lack of maturity and bleeding edge nature it makes sense that they went with a managed hosting service. Even as new as the organization is, they have a great array of security products and plugins which will certainly shield it from the less scrupulous users. This is going to likely be the first major company using wordpress, but I bet it could be a platform that will underpin a large percentage of websites.
  - heathwblack 11y ago
    PM at reddit here... ^What this individual said is way better than I could say it, but is basically why we chose Wordpress VIP ^ In addition the Wordpress VIP program has much higher standards for plugins and security, which are things we care about greatly. Lots of great publications use VIP like Techcrunch, FiveThirtyEight, Facebook, and Time.
    - on_ 11y ago
      Awesome, that is what I thought. PHP is one of those languages that wasn't designed by committee so there isn't that much documentation about it, but the founder built it specifically as scalable programming language and had been designing languages for years. I can see it replacing newer languages like nodeJS, Go and PERL in the future. In the next couple years people will start realizing that the consistency, speed and security offset the lack of communities using it, and I can see it becoming really popular. Wordpress will become big as well as LAMP architectures are really hot right now, and not a lot projects provide a CMS that has a minimal UI that provides only what a user needs and that makes it a really lightweight choice for a CMS. No bloat, high security and a trendy new design. Excited to see vip.wordpress finally getting some love!
      - cryptophreak 11y ago
        Is this a troll account?
        on_ 11y ago
        No sorry, I am usually a thoughtful commenter but that was a satirical comment which I doubled down on.
        meowface 11y ago
        You made HN much more enjoyable for me today. Please consider continuing this trend in the future. I'm also a big fan of the "Node.js evangelist" who pops up in /r/programming.
- alexis 11y ago
  Heath did the diligence, so I'll ask him to chime in, but my only requirement was that we ask as little of our FT Reddit devs as possible.

pgrote 11y ago

That is awesome. Good job!

ForFreedom 11y ago

@staunch Sold it for around $2000-3000? (asking)

staunch 11y ago
Yes. (You don't need @replies on HN guys!)
- ForFreedom 11y ago
  I know, but it was an indication it was directed to you and not Alexis.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  There is no consistent style for referring to users here. I've seen people writing Twitter-style @user, Reddit-style /u/user; personally, I usually go with Lisp symbols - 'user :).
  - iraphael 11y ago
    'TeMPOraL :) is the smiley part of it or am I doing it wrong?
    - ForFreedom 11y ago
      :-) Is that wrong too?
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Yes, 'iraphael, you are. Smiley is not a part of Lisp symbol syntax ;).

Reedx 11y ago

Little school project? Was that the original intention?

darkstar999 11y ago
It was a negotiation tactic to get the domain at a reasonable price. What you see at upvoted.com right now is/was the intent.

rasz_pl 11y ago

> for his little school project :P there are negotiations, and there are straight lies

blhack 11y ago
I read this is a joke about reddit being a little school project.
- JeremyMorgan 11y ago
  That's how I read it as well.
- staunch 11y ago
  Nah, they were just trying to buy the domain for a fair price and not get gouged based on who they are. I totally understand and blame domainers for poisoning the well.
  - gozo 11y ago
    On the other hand they are now poisoning the well for anyone who really have a need for this "trick" or are actually doing a school project. It's a shitty situation no matter what of course so I'm not that upset. Edit: I think the inspiration for this comes from the guide how to buy domains someone (founder?) from Stripe wrote.
    - ma2rten 11y ago
      Do you or anyone else have a link to that guide?
      - gozo 11y ago
        It's probably this one, but I might have been reading some other blog post talking about that post, but anyhow. https://www.quora.com/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name https://www.quora.com/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name

lucaspottersky 11y ago

aand now i regret searching for 'gouged' on google images...

fuckreddit666 11y ago

School project? The website certainly looks like one. Who wrote those headlines for them? Did they outsource it to a school for the differently mentally-abled?