[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?