[jdex]

Still building https://ongoingthings.com - a way to document and privately share life updates with close people.

I used to post personal updates in group chats - scattered, repetitive, and easy to miss. Now each topic (like raising a child, a trip, a project) gets its own private space - an Ongoing Thing - where updates stay organized.

People get email notifications for new posts. There's no feed, no comments, no ads - just a calm way to stay connected.

We just added Partner Things so multiple people (like two parents) can post to the same thing. Our small user base loves it.

Still figuring out marketing. Until now, it's mostly been word-of-mouth. Feedback welcome!

[blargwill]

This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently! My friends group all seem burnt out by the direction social media is going, with what you're building seeming like a better return to the norm. Will follow along to see your progress!

One thing that kept tripping me up when thinking about this was pricing - everyone is so conditioned to think that social media is free that this will be a huge hill to overcome. Your pricing, although I think if done right feels very fair, instinctively makes me recoil a bit.

[jdex]

Yeah, even calling it anything close to "social media" turns some people off. And most people are totally fine using group chats or DMs — which are free, for now.

It felt weird paying for email after using Gmail for so long. Even now, most people do not care enough in order to justify paying for it. This feels similar.

We can't afford to offer free-forever accounts to everyone - not without compromising on principles. But we are thinking of ways to make it more accessible at least for some people. Open to ideas!

The "social media" baggage, and the pricing bit you pointed, those are definitely the two biggest challenges imo. If this was not something we needed and used ourselves, we probably wouldn't have built it.