4 ms·
Show HN: textlog – A quiet, text-only microblogging platform, open-source, no JS
- cheesecakegood 2mo agoI'm a certified dark mode hater, so in that light, that's a no-go for me: there seems to be no way to change the theme.
- FroshKiller 2mo agoDoesn't your user agent support user stylesheets?
- stagas 2mo agoIt picks up your system theme, so you can't be dark mode hater since you're already using it for your OS :P i didn't want to complicate it with user settings yet, but it can be added if there is demand.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2mo agoMaybe OP customized the system “dark theme” to be extra light.
- cheesecakegood 2mo agoIt’s sorta my own fault, yes - I do indeed have Windows 10 on dark mode mostly because I like the dark toolbar and to a lesser extent UI, but notably that’s just because the OS almost never requires extensive reading. Wish Windows let me mix and match, but alas.
- digitalWestie 2mo agoYes! I've always said twitter was better before images/multimedia!
- cgannett 2mo agoOld web vibes!
- chrononaut 2mo agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20070123220857/http://twitter.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20070123220857/http://twitter.co... For those that never had an opportunity to see it.
- BeetleB 2mo agoReminds me of org-social (https://github.com/tanrax/org-social https://github.com/tanrax/org-social) > Notes are limited to 280 characters. The constraint keeps them quick to write and read, making room for one thought at a time. No thanks.
- stagas 2mo agoHi, I'm sorry you don't like the limitation :( this is for short thoughts you want to share, not really huge conversations, there are better places for that IMO.
- childintime 2mo agowell, you may consider rewarding known quality users with an extended limit, say double. the others can pay ;)
- stagas 2mo agohaha, yeah good idea. Also customize the theme as others wanted. So many opportunities here. :P
- Gooblebrai 2mo agoThat's how enshittification begins. Next thing you know and there are blue badges next to profiles.
- stagas 2mo agolol Yes enshittification is the thing I want to avoid, so hard decisions need to be made that will not make everybody happy. Still, this is open-source[0], so we can open a discussion (ideally alongside a PR) and evolve it. [0]: https://github.com/stagas/textlog https://github.com/stagas/textlog
- BeetleB 2mo agoThe character limit is, in my opinion, the primary reason Twitter became so bad. It encourages absolute language (qualifiers take up characters!) It discourages any level of nuance. I use Mastodon which has a 500 limit, and even that sometimes is not enough.
- toplinesoftsys 2mo agoI like this project. Simple, open-source, nice UI.
- Natfan 2mo agoClaude ui
- stagas 2mo agoThank you!
- Natalia724 2mo agoAgreed. A documented data export or stable feed would complement the minimal UI well: it would let a quiet service stay intentionally simple without making a user's archive feel trapped.
- Barbing 2mo agoImpressed they already had a download! https://textlog.cc/account/edit https://textlog.cc/account/edit Download your data Export your account, notes, connections, and activity as a JSON file. - btw you can write comments yourself Natalia! In fact that’ll keep ya compliant, we’re human-to-human here
- stagas 2mo agoAlready there[0], and also an API[1] to build things on top! And it's all open-source[2], so if we miss something we can add it. [0]: https://textlog.cc/account/edit https://textlog.cc/account/edit [1]: https://textlog.cc/api https://textlog.cc/api [2]: https://github.com/stagas/textlog https://github.com/stagas/textlog
- anoojb 2mo agoI really like this approach. I wonder if it needs such complexity for the rendering. Could you have built this as a SSG template?
- stagas 2mo agoHi, thanks! There is a lot of nuance on the rendered pages, I figured server-side React was the best choice - plus it's a technology I'm comfortable with and might also encourage contributions.
- supermatt 2mo agoThe 280 char limit seems arbitrary, given you cant even keep the about page within that limit: https://textlog.cc/about https://textlog.cc/about If you are going to limit it to short posts, maybe the length of a short post is the length to limit it to, rather than emulating the 2xSMS of every twitter clone? Other than that, it looks really clean and neat - I just dont think being 280 chars adds anything other than resulting in people posting with pagination as per X 1/3.
- stagas 2mo agoIt needs to be short - there is already a limit that worked well - why bikeshed it more?
- CitrusFruits 2mo agoI think this is the opposite of bikeshedding, it's literally a core feature and constraint.
- supermatt 2mo agoA limit that worked well for who? Almost every twitter/x post submitted to HN has people labelling their posts as "X of Y" threads, using images as text, or using pro account posts. You can see it yourself: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=twitter.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=twitter.com Ive just looked at 30 and each of them exceed 280 chars by far.
- albertfranquesa 2mo agoi'm experiencing a weird scenario. all time is asking me for a magic link :( I click on that link and again the same screen, ask for a magic link (said the old one expired). It may be our mimecast blocking something?
- stagas 2mo agoUhm maybe your client visits the magic link eagerly and when you visit it manually it's already been used?
- albertfranquesa 2mo agoi worked with my gmail but not corporate. mimecast does something wrong
- akkartik 2mo agoSee also https://github.com/buckket/twtxt https://github.com/buckket/twtxt https://indieweb.org/twtxt https://indieweb.org/twtxt
- nbbaier 2mo agoI think twtxt is really cool. I have one on my site but I don't use it, unfortunately
- andros 2mo agoI would like to invite you to read this article: https://en.andros.dev/blog/ba142044/twtxt-vs-org-social-the-evolution-of-an-idea/ https://en.andros.dev/blog/ba142044/twtxt-vs-org-social-the-... What do you think?
- knlb 2mo agoI recently started a section on my personal site for absolutely minimal and simple microblogging that I could Ctrl-F through: https://knlb.dev/scribbles/ https://knlb.dev/scribbles/ -- I should probably give this a shot.
- stagas 2mo agoHey, nice! If you want to try it, we have an API[0] you can pull your user feed from! [0]: https://textlog.cc/api https://textlog.cc/api
- bryanhogan 2mo agoI built something for a similar goal, make it easy for someone to start their blog. But instead it's a static website, clone the repo, adjust the config.ts, write the posts in markdown, host anywhere: https://starter.bryanhogan.com/ https://starter.bryanhogan.com/
- cube00 2mo agoPlease don't use !important at scale https://github.com/BryanHogan/astro-starter-template/commit/aa8831b5a2ee1d386c4e5514bcba068a4246edc1 https://github.com/BryanHogan/astro-starter-template/commit/...
- bryanhogan 2mo agoThis is the one use-case where !important makes the most sense, as it's a utility class they you only use if you want it. The other solution would be to make other CSS less specific, e.g. using `where` in the markdown.css file, but that would be more messy.
- cxr 2mo ago> The simplest way to build a high-quality website. The build (generation) step should be able to execute on/inside the browser runtime (using standardized APIs, not hardcoded against proprietary APIs that the NodeJS people invented). See also <https://crussell.ichi.city/pager.app.htm https://crussell.ichi.city/pager.app.htm>
- bryanhogan 2mo agoThat would mean using a completely different architecture, and I think there many benefits to using Astro. I like your underlying goal of fewer environment-specific dependencies, but the ones used here were carefully selected because they do provide a benefit.
- cxr 2mo agoI'm responding to a specific claim that you put at the top of the page the linked to. > the [dependencies] used here were carefully selected because they do provide a benefit. You're moving the goalposts.
- hndqbrg2uk 2mo agoThanks for the write-up
- extralongdivisi 2mo ago[dead]
- insane_dreamer 2mo agotwitter reborn :thumbs-up:
- andros 2mo ago[dead]
- eighty8days 2mo agoreminds me of https://bearblog.dev/ https://bearblog.dev/
- qudat 2mo agohttps://prose.sh https://prose.sh for an ssh app to manage a blog
- KomoD 2mo ago(which is their service, and most of their comments are just promotion for their services)
- qudat 2mo agoHi, you're right. I've been self-promoting on HN too much without any other contributions, which isn't right. I'm going to spend more time contributing without so much self-promotion. Thanks for the feedback.
- kindwords2026 2mo ago[flagged]
- equalbeforegod 2mo agoShould do the same but for 4chan.
- anupamk 2mo agoThis is really neat! The main thing that stood out to me was, unlike many other micro/minimalist blogging platforms, textlog has individual notes (as opposed to blogs) as the primary unit. I feel that this choice often makes it psychologically easier for users to post something quickly without getting stuck on managing their blog’s brand and identity. Nothing wrong with the latter, but it comes with a trade-off. And I really like the visual design: very clean and minimalistic, but also pleasant.
- sentinel1909 2mo agoSigned up, will use it. Having trouble seeing how long this will actually exist though, because people are miserable and it WILL be ruined.
- Fudgel 2mo agoIm having trouble getting to the site when using quad9 dns. Site works fine when using cloudflare dns though.
- byson94 2mo agoThat's really nice! I really like the UI of the site, its calm and soothing.
- zhixingheyi2023 2mo agoInteresting approach. I think the "individual notes instead of blogs" idea is an important UX decision. Many tools fail because they ask users to commit to an identity before they have something worth sharing.
- est 2mo agoI made something similar Source: https://github.com/est/gitweets https://github.com/est/gitweets Demo: https://f.est.im/ https://f.est.im/ The site and data is self-contained as a git repo. A git commit is a post. Blobs are pictures. Comments are stored in git notes.
- jaffa2 2mo agoWhat makes it ’quiet’?
- stagas 2mo agoNo likes, no karma points, no unnecessary notifications, no JS "X new posts" popups, no engagement trickery, no gamification. Just sharing thoughts and replying to others.
- cccchara 2mo agoLove the restraint. Feels like an anti-social social club to me.
- vancekai 2mo ago[dead]
- brownieman1325 2mo ago[flagged]
- ahmedehab_01 2mo agoIt's blazing fast too. Good job. But is it purely text? Or do you support/will support, images and videos?
- stagas 2mo agoThanks! Purely text. Inline images/etc. can be supported by someone building a browser extension. I wanted to keep the core distraction free.
- mohsinq227 2mo ago[flagged]
- Kassandraripley 2mo ago[flagged]
- kundanvarma15 2mo ago[flagged]
- rensike 2mo ago[flagged]