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Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days. Especially given that this project is what HN is supposed to be about - don

by deyan 8y ago

Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days. Especially given that this project is what HN is supposed to be about - done by a lone hacker with help from volunteers, trying to create a different and hopefully better social media. Sure, it may or may not work, it has all sorts of pros and cons, but I’d vote for being open-minded and constructive rather than cynical from the get go. For what it’s worth, I played with it literally a couple of days ago. I found the set up very easy, the themes limited but decent, the functionality around creating posts and pages very fast and clean. It also has cross-posting to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Medium built-in. I also found that $5/mo is perfectly acceptable - many blogs charge more. I absolutely loved that you could enable a GitHub Pages integration, de facto backing up your website for free. On the con side, there are things you can’t customize (eg their default footer that says to follow the user, or their archive page), search is only present in some themes and also can’t be customized, and there is very limited information about the project overall. The lack of ability to add an option for email subscription also is a significant issue in my opinion. I was investigating the project from a blogging point of view and concluded it is trying to be Twitter first and foremost so not a good fit. Still, it was a pleasure to discover something new, interesting, and reasonably clean and functional.

drb91 8y ago
I would want to know if my product did not address any demands, especially since they’re charging money. This is not a run-it-yourself Show HN link to a github repo, and honest critique is the whole reason to post here. Personally, I’m struggling to see the value over any of the many static blog generators out there, considering the recurring(!) cost.
- detaro 8y ago
  As other comments have noted, you can integrate your (static) blog hosted somewhere else into its platform for free. Other people don't want to mess with setting that up, like having mobile apps, and pay for that extra comfort.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- mcguire 8y ago
  "Micro.blog encourages publishing at your own domain name, where you can control your own content, but it still integrates posts into a familiar timeline user interface, with centralized replies, favorites, and an open API based on JSON Feed and IndieWeb standards." Static blog generators are different beasts. If this were Disqus without ads and slowness, I'd give them some money.
eeZah7Ux 8y ago
Labeling ideas we don't like as "negativity" does not encourage a rational discussion. It's imprecise and often judgemental.
ckastner 8y ago
> Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days. Lot's of objectivity here, I'd say. You admit yourself that "it has all sorts of pros and cons", so why shouldn't the cons be discussed here? Constructive criticism is something positive.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
danso 8y ago
When the very first lines on a homepage are: > Today's social networks are broken. Ads are everywhere. Hate and harassment are too common. Fake news spreads unchecked. -- the author has set themselves up for high and lofty expectations. Especially for a paid service.
- bun_at_work 8y ago
  By making it a paid service, the author effectively kills two of those issues straight away - No ads and reduced fake news issues. The ads claim is obvious, they don't host ads because they don't need the revenue. However, that fake news is defeated is less obvious. Fake news largely spreads on free platforms by bot armies, which need to pay $5/mo per bot, making them highly expensive and reducing the likelihood they exist there at all. People will still post and shill shit that is fake, but it's less of a problem in a social network if only the minority who actually buy into the fake news or other garbage are spreading it.
  - wowamit 8y ago
    In addition, there are no global timelines or auto-generated trends or retweets at this point. There is Discover feed [1] which is manually curated. So, in case you do see the fake or spam posts, that would be primarily because you follow the accounts. There are also mechanisms to block users which should address the replies spams. Edit: Added the link to discover feed, accessible without an account too. [1]: https://micro.blog/discover https://micro.blog/discover
    - SyneRyder 8y ago
      I forgot the Discover feed is publicly accessible, it's a good way of getting a sense of what the community is like. There's also the 2 min video tour that they just released today, and should probably have been added to the front page of the website: http://help.micro.blog/2018/video-intro/ http://help.micro.blog/2018/video-intro/
    - apple4ever 8y ago
      I don't see the problem with retweets. Sure it can be used for bad, but also for good. I think micro.blog is worse for failing to have easily ways of sharing content.
kickscondor 8y ago
You don't have to be a member to take advantage of this. I syndicate my RSS feed to my micro.blog account (no membership) and have had quite a few useful conversations through there. I didn't see any point at first, but I'm sold now - it's a small community where you get to know people, which is rather rare at the moment.
- arendtio 8y ago
  Can I read somewhere how that works?
  - yRetsyM 8y ago
    I tried to find myself, but there is a bit more detail on the help site which isn't very well linked to: http://help.micro.blog http://help.micro.blog
    - arendtio 8y ago
      Thanks. After searching a bit more, I found the page about Feeds [1], and while it seems to touch the topic, it is rather shallow. A specific example is given on the IFTTT [2] page, but I am unsure if that is the best way to achieve RSS cross postings on micro.blog. [1]: https://help.micro.blog/2017/api-feeds/ https://help.micro.blog/2017/api-feeds/ [2]: https://help.micro.blog/2018/ifttt/ https://help.micro.blog/2018/ifttt/
      - wowamit 8y ago
        API feeds is to pull data from Micro.blog - for example replies. To enable cross posting from your existing blog, a setting can be enabled. From the help page on getting started [1] > "If you already have a blog, such as one based on WordPress, connect it to Micro.blog by adding the feed URL to your account under Account → “Edit Feeds”." [1]: https://help.micro.blog/2017/getting-started/ https://help.micro.blog/2017/getting-started/
prepend 8y ago
I think it’s a neat idea and seems to be what blogger was way back in the day. $5/month is completely unreasonable as a github pages account is free and Dropbox/OneDrive is $8/month. This would be a really neat oss project. And I’m sure some people will find this useful, but seems like not the solution to social media problems. The only way I would think this is good is if it donates $4.95/month to some sort of simple 99% charity that builds water or gives cows.
- detaro 8y ago
  On the other hand, $5 is relatively cheap compared to other paid hosting platforms, so clearly people are willing to pay for additional comfort over Github Pages. I seriously don't get how people don't seem to understand that (and I say that as someone who self-hosts a lot of stuff, and thus personally isn't interested paying for a blog, but know plenty people who do).
  - Zanni 8y ago
    $5/mo seems high to me, but that's irrelevant. I'd happily pay it, if this could be a replacement for Facebook. But it can't, because $5/mo would be insanely high to most of my friends, many of whom decide what their plans are for the evening by how much gas is in their tank, i.e. can they afford to drive to town? And if my friends aren't there, it's not really a social network. I love this idea, but it needs a free tier to scale, and it needs a "pro" tier that's around $10-$20/year. EDIT: Okay, apparently there is a free tier, but it isn't really viable. No way to post (without an existing, external blog) and no profile page.
  - prepend 8y ago
    It’s all relative. I pay $30/year for a shared hosting service. It runs a ton of different sites and software (anything supported by cpanel basically). So doubling that price for just blogging is out for me. But it’s cool if you, and others like it and are willing to pay. I wish OP best of luck.
- stedaniels 8y ago
  You reckon you could build and run this as a service for $0.05 a user per month? Whilst perhaps scraping profit? Care to share some of your own products, I'm keen to see how sustainable your business models are.
d--b 8y ago
> Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days. Well, people are not bullish about this website, so they're expressing their views (which happen to be negative). Check out the 'Show HN' posts, there's a ton of positive feedback on many projects. Maybe HN crew can somtimes be aggressive and opinionated, especially when it touches the economy and politics, but Show HNs and product reviews in general are the most honest you'll get on the net. This part works pretty damn well.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Boulth 8y ago
> Especially given that this project is what HN is supposed to be about - done by a lone hacker with help from volunteers, trying to create a different and hopefully better social media. I've emailed the author of micro.blog once over some small technical issue with their bot and they were very responsive solving the issue within days. That's one of the best support experiences I've ever had. Usually big companies ignore or consider user reported problems as a non-issue.
ramblerman 8y ago
> Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days As a long time HN user I disagree. Tech nerds, hackers by their nature cut to the point, and communicate quite directly. You are essentially saying in your last sentence that you don't like it, but adding a full preamble to make sure your message sounds positive enough. That's not the norm of communication in this place. And perhaps it should be, and will be. But from where I'm sitting, that is new. HN wasn't a safe space, or a beacon of positive communication in the past. It was a place for sharing ideas, and shooting down bad ones without too much fluff around it.

by deyan 8y ago

drb91 8y ago

I would want to know if my product did not address any demands, especially since they’re charging money. This is not a run-it-yourself Show HN link to a github repo, and honest critique is the whole reason to post here. Personally, I’m struggling to see the value over any of the many static blog generators out there, considering the recurring(!) cost.

detaro 8y ago
As other comments have noted, you can integrate your (static) blog hosted somewhere else into its platform for free. Other people don't want to mess with setting that up, like having mobile apps, and pay for that extra comfort.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
mcguire 8y ago
"Micro.blog encourages publishing at your own domain name, where you can control your own content, but it still integrates posts into a familiar timeline user interface, with centralized replies, favorites, and an open API based on JSON Feed and IndieWeb standards." Static blog generators are different beasts. If this were Disqus without ads and slowness, I'd give them some money.

eeZah7Ux 8y ago

Labeling ideas we don't like as "negativity" does not encourage a rational discussion. It's imprecise and often judgemental.

ckastner 8y ago

> Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days. Lot's of objectivity here, I'd say. You admit yourself that "it has all sorts of pros and cons", so why shouldn't the cons be discussed here? Constructive criticism is something positive.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

danso 8y ago

When the very first lines on a homepage are: > Today's social networks are broken. Ads are everywhere. Hate and harassment are too common. Fake news spreads unchecked. -- the author has set themselves up for high and lofty expectations. Especially for a paid service.

bun_at_work 8y ago
By making it a paid service, the author effectively kills two of those issues straight away - No ads and reduced fake news issues. The ads claim is obvious, they don't host ads because they don't need the revenue. However, that fake news is defeated is less obvious. Fake news largely spreads on free platforms by bot armies, which need to pay $5/mo per bot, making them highly expensive and reducing the likelihood they exist there at all. People will still post and shill shit that is fake, but it's less of a problem in a social network if only the minority who actually buy into the fake news or other garbage are spreading it.
- wowamit 8y ago
  In addition, there are no global timelines or auto-generated trends or retweets at this point. There is Discover feed [1] which is manually curated. So, in case you do see the fake or spam posts, that would be primarily because you follow the accounts. There are also mechanisms to block users which should address the replies spams. Edit: Added the link to discover feed, accessible without an account too. [1]: https://micro.blog/discover https://micro.blog/discover
  - SyneRyder 8y ago
    I forgot the Discover feed is publicly accessible, it's a good way of getting a sense of what the community is like. There's also the 2 min video tour that they just released today, and should probably have been added to the front page of the website: http://help.micro.blog/2018/video-intro/ http://help.micro.blog/2018/video-intro/
  - apple4ever 8y ago
    I don't see the problem with retweets. Sure it can be used for bad, but also for good. I think micro.blog is worse for failing to have easily ways of sharing content.

kickscondor 8y ago

You don't have to be a member to take advantage of this. I syndicate my RSS feed to my micro.blog account (no membership) and have had quite a few useful conversations through there. I didn't see any point at first, but I'm sold now - it's a small community where you get to know people, which is rather rare at the moment.

arendtio 8y ago
Can I read somewhere how that works?
- yRetsyM 8y ago
  I tried to find myself, but there is a bit more detail on the help site which isn't very well linked to: http://help.micro.blog http://help.micro.blog
  - arendtio 8y ago
    Thanks. After searching a bit more, I found the page about Feeds [1], and while it seems to touch the topic, it is rather shallow. A specific example is given on the IFTTT [2] page, but I am unsure if that is the best way to achieve RSS cross postings on micro.blog. [1]: https://help.micro.blog/2017/api-feeds/ https://help.micro.blog/2017/api-feeds/ [2]: https://help.micro.blog/2018/ifttt/ https://help.micro.blog/2018/ifttt/
    - wowamit 8y ago
      API feeds is to pull data from Micro.blog - for example replies. To enable cross posting from your existing blog, a setting can be enabled. From the help page on getting started [1] > "If you already have a blog, such as one based on WordPress, connect it to Micro.blog by adding the feed URL to your account under Account → “Edit Feeds”." [1]: https://help.micro.blog/2017/getting-started/ https://help.micro.blog/2017/getting-started/

prepend 8y ago

I think it’s a neat idea and seems to be what blogger was way back in the day. $5/month is completely unreasonable as a github pages account is free and Dropbox/OneDrive is $8/month. This would be a really neat oss project. And I’m sure some people will find this useful, but seems like not the solution to social media problems. The only way I would think this is good is if it donates $4.95/month to some sort of simple 99% charity that builds water or gives cows.

detaro 8y ago
On the other hand, $5 is relatively cheap compared to other paid hosting platforms, so clearly people are willing to pay for additional comfort over Github Pages. I seriously don't get how people don't seem to understand that (and I say that as someone who self-hosts a lot of stuff, and thus personally isn't interested paying for a blog, but know plenty people who do).
- Zanni 8y ago
  $5/mo seems high to me, but that's irrelevant. I'd happily pay it, if this could be a replacement for Facebook. But it can't, because $5/mo would be insanely high to most of my friends, many of whom decide what their plans are for the evening by how much gas is in their tank, i.e. can they afford to drive to town? And if my friends aren't there, it's not really a social network. I love this idea, but it needs a free tier to scale, and it needs a "pro" tier that's around $10-$20/year. EDIT: Okay, apparently there is a free tier, but it isn't really viable. No way to post (without an existing, external blog) and no profile page.
- prepend 8y ago
  It’s all relative. I pay $30/year for a shared hosting service. It runs a ton of different sites and software (anything supported by cpanel basically). So doubling that price for just blogging is out for me. But it’s cool if you, and others like it and are willing to pay. I wish OP best of luck.
stedaniels 8y ago
You reckon you could build and run this as a service for $0.05 a user per month? Whilst perhaps scraping profit? Care to share some of your own products, I'm keen to see how sustainable your business models are.

d--b 8y ago

> Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days. Well, people are not bullish about this website, so they're expressing their views (which happen to be negative). Check out the 'Show HN' posts, there's a ton of positive feedback on many projects. Maybe HN crew can somtimes be aggressive and opinionated, especially when it touches the economy and politics, but Show HNs and product reviews in general are the most honest you'll get on the net. This part works pretty damn well.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Boulth 8y ago

> Especially given that this project is what HN is supposed to be about - done by a lone hacker with help from volunteers, trying to create a different and hopefully better social media. I've emailed the author of micro.blog once over some small technical issue with their bot and they were very responsive solving the issue within days. That's one of the best support experiences I've ever had. Usually big companies ignore or consider user reported problems as a non-issue.

ramblerman 8y ago

> Lots of negativity here, as is unfortunately typical at HN far too often these days As a long time HN user I disagree. Tech nerds, hackers by their nature cut to the point, and communicate quite directly. You are essentially saying in your last sentence that you don't like it, but adding a full preamble to make sure your message sounds positive enough. That's not the norm of communication in this place. And perhaps it should be, and will be. But from where I'm sitting, that is new. HN wasn't a safe space, or a beacon of positive communication in the past. It was a place for sharing ideas, and shooting down bad ones without too much fluff around it.