3 ms·

Author here o/ In general I've had like infrequent but large influx of money from the project, so it's hard to answer. Although I have relatively long runway,

Author here o/ In general I've had like infrequent but large influx of money from the project, so it's hard to answer. Although I have relatively long runway, no small thanks to nlnet for their generous grant. On some level it's all a gamble. Either I try to make this work somehow, or I close up shop and keep working as an office drone, because I really can't keep doing both. My hope is that I'm able to make it work on a wikipedia-like model donation model, maybe supplemented with selling commercial API access (access is free CC-BY-NC-SA). My burn rate is literally my living expenses plus a hundred dollars per month of service costs to I don't have to be spectacularly profitable to sustain flight. ... all that is contingent on making it work quite a lot better than it does now, so I guess I have my work cut out for me. It's also a weird project, since it's had an almost absurdly positive reaction. For example, many people develop a search engine and get almost lynched on HN for not working exactly like Google or not dealing with some query as expected. Someone found a link to my barely working search engine that didn't properly support multiple-keyword queries and this happens: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28550764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28550764

jerf 3y ago
If nothing else, you could open with just a Patreon or something. Basically as a way of outsourcing the "subscription revenue" implementation until such time as something direct yourself makes sense.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  I do have a Patreon, but I guess people aren't finding it and/or have ad-blindness to the words 'donate' and 'patreon' ;P
  - abnercoimbre 3y ago
    I recommend saying 'Patreon' instead of 'Donate' on the site's main navigation menu! It does have a stronger effect because they'll associate it with a human being behind the screen.
  - Handprint4469 3y ago
    The links seem broken. On https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/ https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/, when I click the Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee links, they go to: https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/patreon https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/patre... https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/buymeacoffee https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/buyme... (the text of the links is correct though)
    - marginalia_nu 3y ago
      It's fixed now.
  - Firmwarrior 3y ago
    You have my pittance! Your search engine is useful to me for recipes and that crazy cyberpunk network of back-alley Geocities-esque pages it's tapped into
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Please sell something business-like that people can purchase and expense. A book, software, something. I can't quite expense patreon and others may have a similar issue. (Useful "free SaaS" where all there is is the cup of coffee button makes me sad).
    - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
      I second this. My buyer won't even blink if I say that I need a $150 tool: I can just bill it to whatever project it's being used for as long as I get an invoice or a receipt or some kind of documentation. If I say that I found a free tool and I'd like to donate $10 to the author, no one will know how to do that.
wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
I do find it a bit strange you "punish modern design", while your own design is very hard to read. I'm not sure you made up that quote, or someone on HN did. It's very hard to read your search results. I've always disliked grid views to represent data. It's very hard to find what you want. Im not sure. But it looks like you didn't want to copy google and wanted to make something "authentic", same reason why often modern design is unusable. Every competitor of Google just gave up trying finding a better sexier way. DuckDuckGo, bing etc. Pure copies. A list view, with a good contrasting header is the best way to scan and find the results you want. If you want to keep it, at least provide a list / grid switcher so users can pick themselves. Good luck! Happy you get to pursue your passion.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  Yeah I'm not a huge fan of how the magic the gathering layout has turned out. Been experimenting with something more list-like, e.g. https://twitter.com/MarginaliaNu/status/1644058334440443916 https://twitter.com/MarginaliaNu/status/1644058334440443916 I don't like the basic old school google style list though. It makes very poor use of the screen space. This is primarily a service for desktop users finding desktop content, but I still want something that's accessible to other screen sizes. Really hard to find a good design that works well.
  - 0x0203 3y ago
    For whatever it's worth, I personally like the screenshots of the pages that shows up when you browse random; I think it really helps in recognizing a site you may have been to before. If there were a way to incorporate that into all search results, along with a more information dense listing, I for one would find that quite useful. Kind of a 'I can't remember what it was called, but I'd recognize it if I saw it' sort of thing. I also really appreciate the desire to use available screen space. It irks me to no end when a site forces a narrow column of info/content and wide empty borders wasting half or more of my screen. Wikipedia recently started doing this and I can't say they're better for it in my opinion.
    - 3y ago
petercooper 3y ago
It's also a weird project, since it's had an almost absurdly positive reaction. For example, many people develop a search engine and get almost lynched on HN for not working exactly like Google or not dealing with some query as expected. I don't know you personally, but you come across as an earnest lone developer doing something for the passion of it. I think that goes a long way on here, versus someone giving off "portfolio project", "hire me" or "seeking investment" vibes. I've not really found a use case for your engine yet but I am really enjoying seeing your progress.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  It's not just on HN either. The project was mentioned in The New Yorker and I've done interviews with German radio. Just the weirdest stuff's been happening since basically day one.
  - sogen 3y ago
    Link for anyone looking the New Yorker article: https://archive.ph/iIwtV https://archive.ph/iIwtV
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  It has a nostalgic feel about it. Not just the visual design, but how it wont answer questions but it will look for terms. Sometimes you want a less algorithmic engine. Takes me back to my first messing around with dialup in 1994.
ayewo 3y ago
In case you want to explore additional ways to extend your runway, there is the STF (Sovereign Tech Fund) https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/challenges/ https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/challenges/ where they claim to offer €65,000 up to a maximum of €300,000 in funding to FOSS projects. I have no affiliation but recently came across them from a weekly newsletter (via https://changelog.com/news/48/email https://changelog.com/news/48/email).
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  Thanks, nice lead!
  - pabs3 3y ago
    More grants links here: https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources#grants https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources#grants

jerf 3y ago

If nothing else, you could open with just a Patreon or something. Basically as a way of outsourcing the "subscription revenue" implementation until such time as something direct yourself makes sense.

marginalia_nu 3y ago
I do have a Patreon, but I guess people aren't finding it and/or have ad-blindness to the words 'donate' and 'patreon' ;P
- abnercoimbre 3y ago
  I recommend saying 'Patreon' instead of 'Donate' on the site's main navigation menu! It does have a stronger effect because they'll associate it with a human being behind the screen.
- Handprint4469 3y ago
  The links seem broken. On https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/ https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/, when I click the Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee links, they go to: https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/patreon https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/patre... https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/buymeacoffee https://www.marginalia.nu/marginalia-search/supporting/buyme... (the text of the links is correct though)
  - marginalia_nu 3y ago
    It's fixed now.
- Firmwarrior 3y ago
  You have my pittance! Your search engine is useful to me for recipes and that crazy cyberpunk network of back-alley Geocities-esque pages it's tapped into
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- bombcar 3y ago
  Please sell something business-like that people can purchase and expense. A book, software, something. I can't quite expense patreon and others may have a similar issue. (Useful "free SaaS" where all there is is the cup of coffee button makes me sad).
  - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
    I second this. My buyer won't even blink if I say that I need a $150 tool: I can just bill it to whatever project it's being used for as long as I get an invoice or a receipt or some kind of documentation. If I say that I found a free tool and I'd like to donate $10 to the author, no one will know how to do that.

wouldbecouldbe 3y ago

I do find it a bit strange you "punish modern design", while your own design is very hard to read. I'm not sure you made up that quote, or someone on HN did. It's very hard to read your search results. I've always disliked grid views to represent data. It's very hard to find what you want. Im not sure. But it looks like you didn't want to copy google and wanted to make something "authentic", same reason why often modern design is unusable. Every competitor of Google just gave up trying finding a better sexier way. DuckDuckGo, bing etc. Pure copies. A list view, with a good contrasting header is the best way to scan and find the results you want. If you want to keep it, at least provide a list / grid switcher so users can pick themselves. Good luck! Happy you get to pursue your passion.

marginalia_nu 3y ago
Yeah I'm not a huge fan of how the magic the gathering layout has turned out. Been experimenting with something more list-like, e.g. https://twitter.com/MarginaliaNu/status/1644058334440443916 https://twitter.com/MarginaliaNu/status/1644058334440443916 I don't like the basic old school google style list though. It makes very poor use of the screen space. This is primarily a service for desktop users finding desktop content, but I still want something that's accessible to other screen sizes. Really hard to find a good design that works well.
- 0x0203 3y ago
  For whatever it's worth, I personally like the screenshots of the pages that shows up when you browse random; I think it really helps in recognizing a site you may have been to before. If there were a way to incorporate that into all search results, along with a more information dense listing, I for one would find that quite useful. Kind of a 'I can't remember what it was called, but I'd recognize it if I saw it' sort of thing. I also really appreciate the desire to use available screen space. It irks me to no end when a site forces a narrow column of info/content and wide empty borders wasting half or more of my screen. Wikipedia recently started doing this and I can't say they're better for it in my opinion.
  - 3y ago

petercooper 3y ago

It's also a weird project, since it's had an almost absurdly positive reaction. For example, many people develop a search engine and get almost lynched on HN for not working exactly like Google or not dealing with some query as expected. I don't know you personally, but you come across as an earnest lone developer doing something for the passion of it. I think that goes a long way on here, versus someone giving off "portfolio project", "hire me" or "seeking investment" vibes. I've not really found a use case for your engine yet but I am really enjoying seeing your progress.

marginalia_nu 3y ago
It's not just on HN either. The project was mentioned in The New Yorker and I've done interviews with German radio. Just the weirdest stuff's been happening since basically day one.
- sogen 3y ago
  Link for anyone looking the New Yorker article: https://archive.ph/iIwtV https://archive.ph/iIwtV
quickthrower2 3y ago
It has a nostalgic feel about it. Not just the visual design, but how it wont answer questions but it will look for terms. Sometimes you want a less algorithmic engine. Takes me back to my first messing around with dialup in 1994.

ayewo 3y ago

In case you want to explore additional ways to extend your runway, there is the STF (Sovereign Tech Fund) https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/challenges/ https://sovereigntechfund.de/en/challenges/ where they claim to offer €65,000 up to a maximum of €300,000 in funding to FOSS projects. I have no affiliation but recently came across them from a weekly newsletter (via https://changelog.com/news/48/email https://changelog.com/news/48/email).

marginalia_nu 3y ago
Thanks, nice lead!
- pabs3 3y ago
  More grants links here: https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources#grants https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources#grants