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Svbtle Funding
- andrew93101 14y agoWill they be compensating the bloggers whose content they are profiting from?
- cwe 14y agoAre they really profiting at this point? I haven't seen any ads on the sites, and funding shouldn't be considered profit.
- ceejayoz 14y agoI doubt the funding was set up as a charitable donation, so at some point, they're certainly going to have to figure out some way to make revenue.
- adambard 14y agoPresumably at least someone (i.e. the investors) means to turn a profit. Who knows how they'll go about it though.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoI don't think you take on venture funding if you don't intend to make a profit. Or do you...?
- MrAlmostWrong 14y agoI don't think there is any profiting going on at the moment, but svbtle wouldn't exist without the great contributor in the network. Because of this it will be interesting to see where Dustin takes things and how he handles the situation. I'm sure a lot of the writers in svbtle wanted to be part of a great group that just wanted to bring great content to the forefront of the web. That changes slightly when money is involved because now some writers will be wondering how much they can make off a post and whether they should write about what is hot or just the random stuff they are used to.
- karterk 14y agoReading this reminded me of 9rules[1], which used to be pretty popular some 8-10 years back but eventually withered away. As with most communities, scaling svbtle without comprising on the quality is going to be the greatest challenge. [1]: http://9rules.com http://9rules.com
- tnorthcutt 14y agos/comprising/compromising
- MrAlmostWrong 14y agoThis is why I'm really interested to see where things are headed (co-founder of 9rules here). It is easy to get great people together when the reason for joining is set behind an idea that everyone can share. In this case it was to bring great content back to the web. However, once money starts to enter the equation it changes the mindset of things a bit. Instead of writing because you are passionate to share your thoughts, you begin to start thinking about what you can write about that will get you the most views/money. I hope this doesn't happen to svbtle because some good content is coming from it, but as you said it is a difficult balance that will need to be achieved moving forward.
- camworld 14y agoIt's interesting what Dustin is trying, but I find the utter lack of design personality across the sites to be quite off-putting. It's trying to fix 200+ differently-shaped circles into the exact same square.
- nickheer 14y ago> It's interesting what Dalton is trying, but I find the utter lack of design personality across the sites to be quite off-putting. Dalton is the guy behind App.net. Svbtle is a Dustin Curtis thing, I believe.
- NathanKP 14y agoI personally like the lack of design. It puts the focus on the text and the ideas in the text, not the design of the page.
- webology 14y agoI agree. I was really impressed with Dustin's blog where each post had a different design theme. I was hoping that svbtle would pull something more creative off. The network itself is fine but the quality doesn't seem to be better than my rss feeds. /me shrugs
- RyanZAG 14y agoI don't understand - what possible business model could you have with such niche blogging? Can anybody explain how this is expected to work? Some kind of sponsored advertising on what the blog topic is about?
- tuananh 14y agoI was gonna type this but then I saw your post. I don't see where Svbtle is going. What benefit can membership get from joing Svbtle network? well there's only 1 thing i can think of right now is link exposure. and how Svbtle is going to make profit is still a huge question. Ads is obviously not an option because I felt like it's against the philosophy how Svbtle was created.
- steveklabnik 14y ago> What benefit can membership get from joing Svbtle network? I applied (and got in) to Svbtle because of two things: exclusivity and the interface. Svbtle at least attempts to have only high quality writers there, and it was made clear that sometimes, if posts were of low quality, they'd be asked to be revised. There was also talk of helping Svbtle members with their writing through things like copyediting. I haven't heard of any of those things happening yet, but I can tell you that (generally) I try to keep Svbtle much higher quality as a result. I still maintain a personal blog where I put shorter/news kinds of things, but bigger, more in-depth essays go to Svbtle. The interface is also really nice. It's good enough that I actually write in-browser, rather than writing in Vim and copying it over. Oh, and also: I suck real hard at design, and I'm sick of maintaining Yet Another Blog Platform/design. I really like the look and feel of Svbtle. My personal blog is basically just Skeleton default with a few small modifications: http://blog.steveklabnik.com/archive http://blog.steveklabnik.com/archive
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- nicholassmith 14y agoI wonder if they're going to try a revenue model that doesn't use ads, I can't see ads fitting the flow of the site overly well if they do go for them.
- pknerd 14y agoSelling data?
- nicholassmith 14y agoSelling what data though? There's probably some analytics, but enough for a VC to be interested? There's two outcomes, they're either bought by a bigger network and make the VC's happy, or they take find a revenue model and try make the VC's happy. Curious to see what happens, if nothing it's been an interesting experiment for the web.
- xt 14y agoI liked the minimlistic approach of Svbtle, so I created a super simple Git+Markdown-based blog that draws inspiration from Svbtle. Check it out: http://hveem.no/simple-blogging-with-lua-and-git http://hveem.no/simple-blogging-with-lua-and-git
- pclark 14y agoSilicon Valley appears to think there is a fine line between "drawing inspiration" and "copying." There isn't and to be honest, your output is a good example of the latter, not the former.
- cjh_ 14y agoThe background dots behind the text make this a chore to read, I had to give up as this was hurting my eyes.
- pdog 14y ago"Svbtle now has more than 200 writers with expertise spanning at least eight disciplines, including entrepreneurship, business, finance, political science, and literature." Is there a directory of all blogs in the Svbtle network? The only ones I've seen have been about technology/entrepreneurs, but I'd be interested in finance topics.
- steveklabnik 14y agoThere is explicitly no directory. There is a feed: https://svbtle.com/home https://svbtle.com/home But it's only for 'featured' posts.
- brown9-2 14y agoI'm curious what the rationale of this is if one of the ideas behind this network is it's "exclusivity" and curation of authors. Why be cautious of who you pick to be in your network yet not promote who you've picked to be in your network?
- steveklabnik 14y agoI'm speculating, but: the best of the best. Everyone has off days.
- spxdcz 14y agoSomeone made a collection of the RSS feeds at http://read.subpug.com/shared-lhqi7 http://read.subpug.com/shared-lhqi7 (see: http://peterwatts.net/post/27254383527/shared-rss-is-that-so-much-to-ask http://peterwatts.net/post/27254383527/shared-rss-is-that-so...)
- brackin 14y agoEither TechMeme got it wrong or the story was edited to remove it but the TechMeme quote includes "YCombinator" in that list. http://www.techmeme.com/130108/p31#a130108p31 http://www.techmeme.com/130108/p31#a130108p31 Edit: Now says "(including, previously, Y Combinator)"
- kurtvarner 14y agoTechmeme is correct. The post originally said, "investors like CrunchFund, Betaworks, Y Combinator, and more, including some fantastic angels".
- dcurtis 14y agoY Combinator was not part of the most recent round, so I edited to clarify.
- wahnfrieden 14y agoNice empty "Also read..." beneath the article.
- akoumjian 14y agoHow is this in any way a new approach to journalism? It is a network of editorial / expert writers. Online and offline publications have been doing this for over a century.
- citricsquid 14y agoPrediction: Kudos will become a Flattr esque financing model.
- w1ntermute 14y agoAfter the discussion I had with jrockway in this thread[0], I've come to really dislike the Svbtle network and what it stands for. I can't speak for the rest of the community, but I would consider Svbtle branding to be a strike against a blog, and not something that is a sign of its quality. 0: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4993094 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4993094
- teej 14y agoThe thread in which you call a person you've never met a douchebag for trying to build something?
- w1ntermute 14y agoYou must've missed this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4996236 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4996236
- dcurtis 14y agoI now find those posts somewhat embarrassing. The vitriol was unnecessary and diluted my arguments. In fact, I no longer even link to those articles from my website. Still, I don't think something I wrote several years ago in a completely different context should impact your opinion of Svbtle as a network.
- kmfrk 14y agoI think that some - not I - feel this way about Svbtle, because they have an impression that it is a "mindshare" platform rather than a blogging CMS - thus an extension and continuation of the things you have said and done. People's first impression of Svbtle happened in the context of the whole argybargy surrounding the launch and copied design, and even I didn't get a great impression of Svbtle as a result. People impute, when creators and founders don't explain what the project is about. Maybe it's time to re-explain what Svbtle is and aspires to do to salvage the brand. EDIT: mladenkovch did a good job of summarizing what I find to be the inkling of a lack of humility in the project description: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5027929 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5027929.
- waxjar 14y ago> The future of journalism I can't help but laugh at this. All Svbtle does is slap a pretty, unified design on the articles of people that have interesting stuff to say. It's very good at doing that and I appreciate it for doing that. Like Curtis intended, when you see the Svbtle design you can expect something interesting. Most of the articles I've read on it were indeed interesting. However, these articles would also exist without Svbtle, they just wouldn't look the same. Svbtle's got a good thing going, but future of journalism? Please.
- brown9-2 14y agoI think in the full context of the quote this makes more sense. He is saying that now they have the resources to build something that could maybe be "the future of journalism", not that the current state is "the future". In other words, what they build next could be "the future of journalism".
- calinet6 14y agoThe container and the medium is surely important for content, especially now when (as you imply) there's such a confusion about what container your content comes in. I just don't think Svbtle is that container. At least not yet.
- le_isms 14y agoI think there is quite a bit of animosity and maybe even jealousy in the HN circle regarding Svbtle because of the apparently pretentious manner that Dustin Curtis launched and promoted it. However, it seems what he did is working out for him in the long run. Svbtle has also adjusted its message significantly since the launch to be more friendly. Personally I would like to learn more about how Dustin used the situation to his advantage, even leading to funding.
- bdcravens 14y agoExplains the angst against WordPress themes copying the interface. It's not an artistic issue, but a money one. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4993094 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4993094
- nchlswu 14y agoEven if it was a financially/revenue-independent blog network, it's an issue. It was never an artistic -- it was always a branding issue.
- pg 14y agoSvbtle is probably one of the most misunderstood companies we've funded. Partly because what they're doing is hard to understand, and partly because Dustin has alienated a few people along the way, who now in the usual way with haters want to misunderstand what Svbtle is. One of the reasons Svbtle is hard to understand is that it's a work in progress. At its current fairly fuzzy resolution, it's what I'd guess a traditional magazine evolves into when it hits the Internet: a loose confederation of lightly edited writers with their own individual reputations. Beyond that few of the details are figured out. But costs are low and traffic is growing steeply, so although in most cases I'd be nagging founders to figure out more details, in this case I've advised Dustin to let this grow and see what it turns into. I encourage neutral observers to do the same: let's see what this turns into. And as for the haters, it's fine with me if you want to keep hating. Though this was not a deliberate strategy by Dustin (he is actually confused and hurt by all the hate), being controversial is actually a good thing for a publication.
- oinksoft 14y agoCan we all agree to stop calling critics "haters"?
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- glomph 14y agoEspecially when many of them are making quite long and thought out points. Haters seems appropriate to me only when applied to the most vacuous of comments. Real points deserve real responses or at least the respect of being called comments or criticisms not hate.
- nchlswu 14y agoThat's fair, but I feel like the majority of comments I've read through appear that the poster cannot separate the prospects of Svbtle with their perception of Dustin and his brand. Those aren't critics. They're haters.
- SeoxyS 14y agoIn order to be a respected author and build a personality online, I think we'd all be much better off taking the time and care to build our own personal theme and identity. Our blogs are our online identities. Using something like Svbtle take all the personality and brand recognition out of it. For me, I designed my own blog around my personal tastes in minimalism, and the way I want to brand myself: http://kswizz.com http://kswizz.com.
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- neya 14y agoThere is nothing wrong in running an invite-only network. But claiming to be a genuinely 'quality-oriented' network[1] when your are not is tricking your readers and is plain wrong. For example, there are a lot of shitty blogs[2] on this network. Even shitty posts[3]. It's just like any other blog network with some extra-hype and a minimalistic design mixed and matched from theme sites (Trust me, I've seen a dozen themes like this before Dustin came up with this and dismissed anyone trying to create a similar design[4]) A really good quality-oriented network would be something like Quora, but for blogs. The readers, people, us should rate what is good and what is bad,what is ethical, what is unethical, what is right and what is wrong. Not at the mercy of some clown advocating minimalism to emphasize elitism and branding for himself. [1] This was SVBTLE's pitch initially. [2] massivegreatness.com [An arrogant, unethical Apple fanboy, writer at Techcrunch who supports anything Apple without proper logic] [3]http://influencehacks.com/the-stunning-hypocrisy-of-venturebeats-assault-on-y-combinator http://influencehacks.com/the-stunning-hypocrisy-of-ventureb... [4]http://howells.ws/posts/view/93/svbtle-vs-obtvse-and-on-copying http://howells.ws/posts/view/93/svbtle-vs-obtvse-and-on-copy...
- tuananh 14y ago[2] He's MG Siegler which is short for 'Mini Gruber' for a reason.
- mladenkovacevic 14y agoI don't know much about Svbtle but there's something so un-exciting and unapproachable about the way they describe their objectives: >Svbtle is a curated, invite-only collection of great people who have things to say. ... >Our goal is to make it easier and more natural for interesting people to write down their thoughts. ... >Think you should be a part of the network? Apply for membership below. The most exciting thing about idea exchanges (whether in oral or written form) is the openness of it. You can go out into the world wide web and read as much or as little as you want. You can have favorite sources of information, least favorite sources and have some of your beliefs confirmed, while turning other ones on their head. In Svbtle, it seems like everyone is a self-proclaimed "great" person with interesting things to say. Then the Svbtle network invites you, gives you a stark blog theme to share your brilliant thoughts with other people of equal greatness. I guess the quality of content will ultimately be deciding factor of whether this has merit, but for right now I can't get excited about it.
- kevinalexbrown 14y agoWhen people suggest this is a stupid idea, I think there's a profound misunderstanding of how enticing exclusivity is. Not everyone gets to send a piece in to the NYTimes, the WSJ, the National Review and get it published as an op-ed. But for someone in political science or macroeconomics it's definitely a status symbol. Note that anyone could just as easily put something on their own blog. In fact, many people who regularly send in pieces do publish on their own blogs. People who have much larger fan-bases, power, and immediate influence than almost anyone in tech still seem to find value in spending a few hours writing a piece for no profit, no ad revenues, no pictures next to their name. Larry Summers, who was the head of arguably the most gate-keeper-ish institution in the nation still wanted to get his views published in the WSJ. Tech people may not view these venues as worthwhile for their field. What then, is the prestigious place to have your content featured? I think Svbtle could be that. If you own something every influential person wants to be featured in, that would be huge. You'd be a gatekeeper of ideas.
- heartbreak 14y agoThat's the problem with Svbtle. You can't just "be" that. You have to earn it.
- tptacek 14y agoSays exactly who, and with what evidence?
- heartbreak 14y agoWell I account for respect on a personal level so the answer is me. Other readers may behave the same way, and they could also feel that respect is something which must be earned. As for evidence, plenty of research has gone into respect and credibility, particularly as they relate to leadership. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=leadership+credibility http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=leadership+credibility
- jmcqk6 14y agoBy jove, I think you've got it!
- joeblau 14y agoI didn't realize there was so much contention over the Svbtle theme. I was using a Tumblr version, but I just changed to something standard as I spend time to work on my own custom theme. As far as the funding, I think it's great that the blog platform will continue. As a relative new comer to the valley, I have gained some pretty insightful information from some of the Svbtle authors.
- addlepate 14y agoI know this makes me sound like yet another asshole, and I guess that's what I am, but it's sad that the stuff on Svbtle is considered by anyone to be good writing. Much less a large group of smart people.
- chrisgoodrich 14y agoSvbtle sounds eerily familiar to the old 9rules blog network. The only difference (from what I can tell) is that Svbtle provides the bloggging platform and site design as part of membership in the "network." If Svbtle is to ever monetize as a "publication" aren't they going to pay the writers? Or maybe they'll take the HuffingtonPost route and not pay them? Not a hater, just voicing some legitimate concerns.
- rglover 14y agoI was a bit uncertain at first, but Svbtle has really grown into a great resource. The writing on there is phenomenal and it's great that the list of authors keeps growing. Excited to see how they use their new resources.