Interesting approach. I think the "individual notes instead of blogs" idea is an important UX decision. Many tools fail because they ask users to commit to an identity before they have something worth sharing.
The main thing that stood out to me was, unlike many other micro/minimalist blogging platforms, textlog has individual notes (as opposed to blogs) as the primary unit. I feel that this choice often makes it psychologically easier for users to post something quickly without getting stuck on managing their blog’s brand and identity. Nothing wrong with the latter, but it comes with a trade-off.
And I really like the visual design: very clean and minimalistic, but also pleasant.
I recently started a section on my personal site for absolutely minimal and simple microblogging that I could Ctrl-F through: https://knlb.dev/scribbles/ -- I should probably give this a shot.
The 280 char limit seems arbitrary, given you cant even keep the about page within that limit: https://textlog.cc/about
If you are going to limit it to short posts, maybe the length of a short post is the length to limit it to, rather than emulating the 2xSMS of every twitter clone?
Other than that, it looks really clean and neat - I just dont think being 280 chars adds anything other than resulting in people posting with pagination as per X 1/3.
I built something for a similar goal, make it easy for someone to start their blog. But instead it's a static website, clone the repo, adjust the config.ts, write the posts in markdown, host anywhere: https://starter.bryanhogan.com/
i'm experiencing a weird scenario. all time is asking me for a magic link :( I click on that link and again the same screen, ask for a magic link (said the old one expired). It may be our mimecast blocking something?
Show HN: textlog – A quiet, text-only microblogging platform, open-source, no JS
(textlog.cc)163 points by stagas 20 hours ago | 66 comments
Comments
The main thing that stood out to me was, unlike many other micro/minimalist blogging platforms, textlog has individual notes (as opposed to blogs) as the primary unit. I feel that this choice often makes it psychologically easier for users to post something quickly without getting stuck on managing their blog’s brand and identity. Nothing wrong with the latter, but it comes with a trade-off.
And I really like the visual design: very clean and minimalistic, but also pleasant.
> Notes are limited to 280 characters. The constraint keeps them quick to write and read, making room for one thought at a time.
No thanks.
If you are going to limit it to short posts, maybe the length of a short post is the length to limit it to, rather than emulating the 2xSMS of every twitter clone?
Other than that, it looks really clean and neat - I just dont think being 280 chars adds anything other than resulting in people posting with pagination as per X 1/3.
https://indieweb.org/twtxt
:thumbs-up: