#indieweb 2021-04-11
2021-04-11 UTC
[chrisaldrich], [tw2113_Slack_], KartikPrabhu, KempfCreative, [scojjac], wolftune, __minoru__shirae, [jeremycherfas], lahacker, kolaente_, dhanesh, dreamdust[m] and alex2 joined the channel; dreamdust[m] left the channel
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alex2 Hello everyone. I've built a simple blogging platform similar to Twitter, but it allows you to follow RSS/MF2 feeds, and you can create a blog that exposes RSS/MF2. In the future, I'd like to add comments/replies/reblogs with webmention support. I thought the people here might be interested. https://yunaru.com
# alex2 Of course, I'd also love to hear any feedback or questions you have about it.
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[chrisaldrich] alex2++ I think one or two of us had stumbled across your project a week or so back. Looks great!
# [chrisaldrich] My first question is can I map my own domain name onto it?
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# alex2 [chrisaldrich] You can, it's part of a premium plan ($4/mo) which includes custom domain, image uploads, and blog analytics. I'm open to ideas on how to fund, but ideally would like to fund via paid features.
# alex2 The trick with freemium is of course, what features to put behind a paid plan.
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# BinyaminGreen[m] Sorry, not sure what happened to my last message.
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# alex2 I agree. Do you feel custom domains or another feature should be free? Blogging and following are free, which in my opinion is a rather complete offering.
# BinyaminGreen[m] My last message was too long for the chat. Reposting for posterity (1/3)
# BinyaminGreen[m] > The trick with freemium is of course, what features to put behind a paid plan.
# BinyaminGreen[m] In my experience, I'm more drawn to brands which treat free users as actual customers (eg. netlify, github). Free users pay by trusting your promises. And, if you make a good impression, they'll advertise for you (ie. tell other people).
# BinyaminGreen[m] Also, I'm less likely to use a product when the free plan doesn't provide the basics for a complete solution. In other words, I prefer products where the "MVP" (minimum viable product) is free without a catch. This lets me test the product, and decide whether to give them money.
# BinyaminGreen[m] Just my two cents 😄
# alex2 What do you feel is a complete solution?
# alex2 Or put another way, how would you fund a blogging platform that is free to follow and blog
# BinyaminGreen[m] I think custom domains is fine to leave for the paid plan.
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# BinyaminGreen[m] You could add priority support for the paid plan. This might offer faster responses or more methods of communication. Netlify limits free users to the staff-run community forum. You need to pay for email support.
# BinyaminGreen[m] My instinct is that users will gladly join a paid plan if they like the services they already get. As fun as it is to add features, simplifying and streamlining existing features can be just as helpful long-term.
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[manton] My 2 cents on freemium is that’s it’s difficult to offer completely free blog hosting. There’s a reason that WordPress.com, Tumblr, etc. are ad-supported. You’ve gotta deal with hosting costs, of course, but also spammers, content farms, and illegal content. Drawing the like on photo storage is interesting and something I’ve considered with Micro.blog too.
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# [chrisaldrich] alex2, sorry away for kids sports for a bit. [manton]'s micro.blog is a good and successful example of a paid service in this area. There are a few others on the /Quick_Start page on the wiki. We definitely need more of them.
# [chrisaldrich] I particularly like the fact that one can start testing out the service without even providing an email, creating a password, etc. You can just start it up and kick the tires a bit without even having an account. Very clever and something that has been discussed as UI more services should offer.
# [chrisaldrich] my browser still remembers my accountless test post from over a month ago 🙂
# [chrisaldrich] The other bit of functionality I always look for on services like these is the ability to export data to other platforms. That is also usually a positive signal on behalf of the creators who may be charging for services.
# [chrisaldrich] What is export?
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Loqi export (specifically, How to export your data) in the context of the indieweb refers to the ability to download some or all of your data from a site, typically from a silo, though also for CMS or site migration https://indieweb.org/export
# [chrisaldrich] export << https://ma.tt/2021/04/wix-dirty-tricks/ The co-creator of WordPress takes [[Wix]] to task for many things including not allowing export of people's data
# Loqi ok, I added "https://ma.tt/2021/04/wix-dirty-tricks/ The co-creator of WordPress takes [[Wix]] to task for many things including not allowing export of people's data" to the "See Also" section of /export https://indieweb.org/wiki/index.php?diff=75254&oldid=56579
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[schmarty] i've been trying to read more and been thinking about what i want to give and get out of posting my /reading on my site.
# [schmarty] recently i hit a couple of books that were a _slog_ and i am thinking about adding a new read-status: did-not-finish https://bookriot.com/giving-up-on-books-when-to-be-read-becomes-did-not-finish/
# [chrisaldrich] [schmarty] I typically use didn't finish to designate books I might return to at some later point... if I don't plan on coming back I use a more severe word like "abandoned". I've yet to actually build anything beyond a tag for it specifically though.
# [schmarty] i think posting DNFs to my site could be interesting. for one thing, if i think of my read posts as a log of my book reading then DNFs are either forgotten or mis-represented with the standard "to-read", "reading", "finished".
# [schmarty] i'd also like to leave notes to myself in case i do come back later. maybe now wasn't the right time for me to see this book. or maybe someone else will reply to my post with good reasons to read it. or their own DNF story!
# [schmarty] chrisaldrich: a tag is a great start! do you have a single tag or two that you use for these?
# [chrisaldrich] the two I keep are "finish-later" and "abandoned" solely as tags. no public examples as they're all private posts on my site at the moment.
# [schmarty] chrisaldrich++ that's very helpful! i was interested that i couldn't find examples on the wiki and it makes sense that folks might not post publicly about something they didn't finish. 😂
# [chrisaldrich] I'll do it publicly with copies on goodreads.com but somehow it feels weird on my own site. It's my equivalent of a 0 star review often.
# [chrisaldrich] too often the completist in me wins out on mediocre/bad books when I could be doing something more productive with my time.
# [chrisaldrich] I remember my grandmother used to put a small pencil checkmark on page 57 of library books she read and liked at the public library. If she didn't like them she'd put an x. It was her system to prevent her from checking out books she'd read in the past, particularly when they weren't good. Apparently page 57 was the point at which one would know if the book was worth it or not. 🤷
# [schmarty] what a system!
# [chrisaldrich] I only discovered it when, at 93 she asked me to get some library books for her. What should I get you? She told me to look for anything in the mystery section that either had a checkmark or was blank on page 57. 🙂
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