[deyan]

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.

[danso]

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]

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]

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

[SyneRyder]

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/

[apple4ever]

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.

[ckastner]

> 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.

[kickscondor]

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]

Can I read somewhere how that works?

[yRetsyM]

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

[arendtio]

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/

[2]: https://help.micro.blog/2018/ifttt/

[wowamit]

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/

[drb91]

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]

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.

[mcguire]

"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.

[d--b]

> 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.

[eeZah7Ux]

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

[Boulth]

> 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]

> 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.

[prepend]

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.

[stedaniels]

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.

[rplnt]

Why are you forcing the look from the provider's perspective? OP mentioned an alternative that is cheaper (free), so it's expensive from user's perspective.

[prepend]

I don’t sell product like this. I do use WordPress for free on a shared host averaging about $1/site.

My problem is not making money by selling this type of service. My problem is finding a good tool.

It’s interesting that people think users care about provider profit models. What’s an acceptable profit? I certainly don’t know and don’t really care.

[Griffinsauce]

Sustainability and viability are not linked.

[notyourday]

Of course they are. There's no viable project or service that is not sustainable.

[detaro]

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]

$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]

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.

[arnvald]

Please stop criticising people for charging money for their work. You don't do that to a doctor you visit, you don't do that to a taxi driver, why do you do that to a fellow programmer?

[prepend]

I’m not criticizing OP per se, just pointing out that I don’t think it’s that valuable.

If my doctor said ve wanted to change my $10 visit to $100, I would certainly not use that. That’s not a criticism of the doctor.

Time costs money and that’s a reality. People want to make money off their business, that makes sense. But saying there’s a floor value to anything just because a human makes it is a bit odd. If OP hires a second person, does that mean we shouldn’t criticize the price doubling?

As a user, I don’t care much for expenses above a base level of ethical practices and sustainability. I’ve not used lots of products because I didn’t find them viable because of their price vs cost. But I’m sometimes wrong.

[vntok]

You would criticize a doctor who would order expensive unwarranted scans, or a taxi driver who would take longer routes than needed.

In other words you would criticize people who charge you for services that don't address your needs.

[mcguire]

Likewise, don't criticise a taxi driver because you can drive yourself.

[jen729w]

OSS project! Because software is libre free, hosting is ~beer free and a dev’s time is worth ... ah. Fuck all. Right.

As someone who is teaching himself to code so that he might one day make a thing on the internet that he – shock!, might want to sell, in order to make a living – this saddens me.

[prepend]

Think of it as volunteer work. Lots of people like coding and volunteer their time. Lots of people don’t do this.

This doesn’t mean time isn’t valuable, it just means that people donate their valuable time. And competing with that is a bad idea.

I have a friend who does pro bono legal work. Normal bill rate is hundreds per hour, but donated for free to people who can’t afford it. Been doing it for years.

Now imagine that I start a new legal aide company and only charge $5/month for it. It’s pretty silly to complain about these volunteers. It’s also silly to think that it’s not worth being a lawyer because of these volunteers.

Keep studying, become a good programmer. You’ll have work. Some of your ideas might not sustain you economically. But if you get a good enough job, you can help the world with a cool side project

[wowamit]

I believe it is one of the cheaper paid blogging platforms out there - of course ignoring the free ad-backed options. It is run by a single developer who does this full time -- not sure if $0.05/month will be profitable enough to make a viable living.

[mcguire]

Github pages and Dropbox don't allow for comments and conversations, right?