thebaer

Just to mention, MySQL isn't actually required for WriteFreely -- as of v0.6, you can use SQLite instead.

Hah, indeed. Happy to help make the web better in many ways :)

Nice!

I'm going to follow a similar path for Snap.as and the rest: getting the product right as a hosted platform (only worrying about a single configuration, not doing additional project management, moving faster, etc.), and then go open source when it's essentially "finished," like Write.as is.

Especially while the company is still working toward sustainability, I think this is the best way to keep our focus on building a great product, ensure we continue growing, and build for our primary users (non-techy folks).

We'll eventually build in image uploads, but for now, you need to upload them somewhere and then use a little Markdown to insert the image:

    ![the earth](https://i.snap.as/6NFG7Tj.jpg)

Here's a guide: https://guides.write.as/writing/#adding-images-to-posts

Awesome! Thank you!

Thanks! This is great feedback -- I'll be sure to incorporate it.

Otherwise let me know if I can help with anything as you get set up.

Today I solve this on Write.as with a site called Read Write.as [0], which has a modest, but regular group of readers -- that's my model.

So for the WriteFreely project, I'm also building a federated reader app [1] that'll connect to your blog(s), interoperate with other ActivityPub platforms, and be a similar destination for people looking to read, rather than write. You could imagine people hosting the two platforms together to create mini-Mediums across the web, which also communicate with each other.

Otherwise, as things are today, enabling people to follow your blog from the fediverse means they can read your posts right in their social media streams and share them with their followers by clicking one button.

[0] https://read.write.as

[1] https://read.as

Right now it's aimed at existing users of decentralized social software (e.g. Mastodon), but yeah, that's great feedback. Thanks for the input!

Yep, it supports microformats and RSS -- and I'd like to integrate more IndieWeb stuff, like Micropub.

You can also configure the server to not federate your posts if you prefer.

That lowest plan lets you connect a custom domain and publish to Read.Write.as -- there isn't much more to it that isn't already included in the free plan.

If you want to try out everything on Pro, though, let me know your username [0] and I'll get you on a trial.

[0] https://write.as/contact

Yep! This is the core software behind it all, so bug fixes and new features will make it into Write.as too. It's also kept up-to-date with changes as soon as they're finished, so you'll see everything live there first.

Really glad you're liking it though :)

Absolutely. We do support MathJax already (you can enable it in blog settings), but I'm happy to talk about adding these into upstream, or maybe starting to support plugins for these sort of things. If you want to join the forums [0] we can start talking about what that might look like!

[0] https://discuss.write.as/c/writefreely

Possibly! If someone wants to implement the Client-to-Server side of ActivityPub I'll be happy to merge it in. But I'd personally like to build support for protocols like Micropub [0] into the backend and our first-party clients [1], as I think that's more suited for regular blogging.

[0] https://indieweb.org/Micropub [1] https://write.as/apps

We do have discounts for open source projects [0], but send me an email (hello at write.as) -- I'd be happy to talk about a bigger discount for what you're doing.

[0] https://write.as/pricing/opensource

The editorial "we" I suppose :)

As for the code, yep I built everything myself (and wrote about it here [0]). But I've also had the help of people translating the app, giving feedback, and making suggestions along the way. Listening to people and filtering ideas through my own vision has really made the product what it is today.

Thanks, though! I'm just excited to keep pushing the AP ecosystem forward and making the platforms on it more usable.

[0] https://write.as/matt/how-i-built-a-multi-platform-app

Thanks :) You're exactly right, which is why it'll support SQLite by v1.0. Again this came out of our hosted platform, so there's still plenty to do to make it easy for self-hosting. But the goal is an entirely self-contained binary -- upload it, run, and you're online.

To explain a little more behind this project: this started out as a simple, privacy-focused blogging platform called Write.as.

We've been running a Mastodon instance for a while and keeping up with the fediverse, so over the summer as it got much easier to implement, we added support for ActivityPub (the protocol behind Mastodon, PixelFed, Funkwhale, etc.) The fediverse has a strong FOSS culture, so after releasing AP support, I got to work on opening up the source for Write.as, and this is that final result.

Write.as has existed for 4 years, so the application code is very stable. But right now I'm getting the code to a place that works great in any configuration, installs easily, etc.

Here's the source code: https://github.com/writeas/writefreely

As mentioned, it's an open source project.

Well, yes. This is the internet growing up.

Servers cost money. People making the software and running the servers cost money. Previously those costs were hidden from end-users, usually by advertising-based business models. Now that consumers aren't putting up with that as much, smart companies are doing the old-fashioned thing of charging people for the valuable services they provide, instead of selling off human attention to advertisers. On the whole, this kind of stuff is better for everyone.

...and then notify every ISP, every place that offers free public Wi-Fi, every airline that has Wi-Fi on their planes, anyone else who injects code into web pages...

Then it wouldn't work on Medium-powered sites like hackernoon.com. There is an open, up-for-grabs issue to fix that permission [0] if anyone wants to help us solve this!

In the meantime, there isn't anything crazy you have to do to make it only work on medium.com -- just clone the repo to your machine, change this one line to "https://medium.com/*" [1], and then load the extension in your browser.

[0] https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA/issues/15

[1] https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA/blob/master/manifest.json#L2...

Yep, you can see this type of commenting in action already on Plume [0], an AP-enabled blogging platform in development.

[0] https://baptiste.gelez.xyz/~/PlumeDevelopment/this-month-in-...

Haven't tried it in a while, but there's this: http://www.carsten-mielke.com/redquits.html

Haha well they certainly don't make the covers of magazines very often, but I don't know that they're as rare as you think. The people behind Basecamp, Balsamiq, and tons of other smaller companies are able to build "old-fashioned" businesses that stick to their principles and only answer to their customers. You need a little fortitude on the founder's part of course, but also the right financial incentives -- a key aspect the GP post missed.

As for Write.as, I spend copious time talking about why I built it [0] and making sure people know me personally, to address your exact point. Personally, I'm a simple dude who relishes putting more value on principles than a number in a bank account. And I'd rather have a tent in the woods than Mai Thais on the beach.

But we do have an open API [1] and one-click export to get your data out, so you can be sure :)

[0] https://write.as/matt/who-is-this

[1] https://developers.write.as/docs/api/

Exactly. I'm doing this with the company I've been building [0] and it works. While it's taken a while being completely bootstrapped, we make enough money to grow and focus on our users. No one is obligated to track and stalk everyone online; that's just the prevailing business model (unfortunately).

[0] https://write.as/principles

Right, you can't just take a free-to-the-user (paid by advertising) product, slap a fee on it, and expect people to pay for it. Instead products need to be user-centric from the start, with business models that align users and the company making the products. It's just rare to see companies thinking critically about this.

Once they've said "let's monetize our free users" they've already lost. What people miss is that free users are incredibly valuable with a digital product -- whether it's seeing how real people use it or the free marketing they give you. Sure, a freemium product will generally have >95% of its users not paying a cent. That doesn't mean you need to sell of their data to generate value from them.

And as a consumer "outraged about privacy and advertising," frankly we're faced with many products that are overpriced for the value they deliver. More companies need to find the middle ground between surveillance business models and gouging consumers.

Exactly. Personally I'm following the same steps with a blogging platform I'm building [0], but avoiding that third step in it and my future products, and it's working out so far.

A lot of it comes down to financial incentives, and I think VC-backed products are going to go head-first into step 3 without thinking, and then we all suffer. If there were more small, grow-slow products (probably bootstrapped) that based success on delivering a nice product that never goes to shit (instead of constantly conquering the world), we might have less of this cycle.

[0] https://write.as

Absolutely -- feel free to submit a GitHub issue and I'll take care of it: https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA

So it works on custom domains like hackernoon.com [0]

[0]: https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA/blob/master/content.js#L66

Hey, creator here. This is also available for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/make-medium-r...

And feel free to suggest any improvements, or submit a pull request on GitHub! https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA