Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#1

Post by jjcm » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

Heya HN, I've been working on a reddit-like platform as my primary side project for the last few years. Doing a (very) soft launch today, mainly because I want to use it to encourage discussion of alternatives.

How non.io works:

1. Free to browse, paid to interact.

2. Minimum subscription is $2 (though you can choose more). I take $1 to run the servers, everything left gets split evenly between everything you upvote that month.

It's a simple model, but I hope it's a better one than the freemium model we've been relying on for the last few years. Fundamentally I feel like any ad-supported network doesn't have alignment between the needs of the users and the needs of the platform, which is what drove me to make this.

Because this is a soft launch, if you do subscribe I'd encourage you not to pay for the time being. I'm still testing the distribution algorithm for returning funds - you won't get overcharged or anything, but I just want to guarantee your funds are properly distributed at the end of the month. I've opened up free accounts to post and interact in the meantime. If you want to try a test account, use this login:

login: hackernews pw: helloworld

Edit: Loginless browsing here: https://non.io/#all

If you want to browse the code or the api:

https://api.non.io

https://github.com/jjcm/nonio

Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years
non.io

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#2

Post by jjcm » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

Some other fun tidbits: I'm trying to make this an API-first service, with the frontend being just a representation of how to use it. Because of that, I wanted to make the frontend as reusable/refactorable as possible, regardless of frontend framework. I relied on webcomponents for everything, and the full app is a SPA built purely in vanilla js.

I'd never recommend anyone take that approach, it was masochistic. Use react or something. It was a great learning experience, but writing everything in vanilla js does slow down dev time overall.

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#3

Post by UmYeahNo » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

The UID/PW demo combo doesn't work for me. Tried to actually sign up and couldn't figure it out (maybe you can't yet?)

It sounds interesting, but I can't figure it out.

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#4

Post by darkstar999 » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

The main page shouldn't be login-walled. I don't want to create an account just to find out what kind of content this community has and how active it is.

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#5

Post by creamyhorror » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:04 PM UTC

I like the monetisation model, it'll hopefully incentivise and reward creators, while being cheap enough that a lot of people won't mind paying. Best of luck!

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#6

Post by jjcm » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:08 PM UTC

UmYeahNo wrote: post #3

The UID/PW demo combo doesn't work for me. Tried to actually sign up and couldn't figure it out (maybe you can't yet?) It sounds interesting, but I can't figure it out.

Looks like someone's first action logging in was setting the password to something else. I've reset it back to "helloworld".

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#7

Post by gardenfelder » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

It's quite an interesting business model. Qudos...

Happy to see it at github: go server, javascript frontside.

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#8

Post by jjcm » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:17 PM UTC

darkstar999 wrote: post #4

The main page shouldn't be login-walled. I don't want to create an account just to find out what kind of content this community has and how active it is.

Fair. I removed login requirements for browsing. You should be able to see all posts here: https://non.io/#all

As a disclaimer, this is truly me just launching today, there's only 4 posts currently.

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#9

Post by jshreder » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:24 PM UTC

I like the idea and am curious to see how well / if this gains traction. Nice UI, although I'm having trouble actually subscribing on the financials page, and it seems to show demo data?

Great job launching something!

https://pasteboard.co/eRp2eCMwkExq.png

Re: Show HN: Non.io, a Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

#10

Post by unshavedyak » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 5:32 PM UTC

Looks great! Silly question, but have you considered ActivityPub integration? I ask because while it may not benefit you directly, these days i'm liking the idea more and more of joining a community if they're in "the fediverse". Which is to say i don't need to worry about the instance being small and isolated, i get benefits of the fediverse regardless of where i am in it.

Ie, i get friction currently when looking at alternatives not in "the verse". Eg Tildes, i have the same concern.