Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

horizon.pics

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 221 posts

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#91

Post by Dalewyn »

sweca wrote: post #86
Dalewyn wrote: post #84

>Unlike Imgur, Horizon has absolutely no ads, doesn't sell your data, has built-in security and privacy controls, and is fully focused on your file sharing needs. No social media or other bloat. Why and how is your service's financial future secured? I took a quick glance, and your free tier is perfectly adequate for most people. >Horizon allows you to quickly upload and store all types of files, from images and vide…

1. Maybe it's a matter of perspective. I actually find the free plan to be quite restrictive, especially for long term use. The current model is designed to be profitable. The free plan is sustainable. 2. Yes, you can. Just open the web app, click Upload Files, and select what you want. More details here: https://horizon.pics/help/articles/start-uploading-files . 3. Yes, it's lightweight, fast, and user-friendly. It'…

>Maybe it's a matter of perspective.

Definitely! I think 500MB is more than enough, even as a tech guy, for a rolling storage with oldest giving way to newest. Most people aren't going to upload files as big as 75MB either. Unlimited bandwidth is icing on the cake.

While on the subject, $45 for 100 GB of cloud storage a year is a rip off (no offence). I can (and do) pay $70 for a year of Microsoft 365 Personal which gives me 2TB of cloud storage and the industry standard office suite. I can (and do) pay $20 for a year of Google One which gives me 100GB cloud storage and thus Google Drive and Photos space.

Your pricing by comparison isn't competitive, at least to me. Between an uncompetitive product and a free tier that is (read: should be) more than adequate for most users I'm still curious how secure your financials are.

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#92

Post by [deleted] »

fsckboy wrote: post #76
lelandbatey wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly; I still remember reading the imgur announcement post on reddit which had all the same descriptions. They were ad free and they were aiming to be great forever. Now though they're the "big bad". https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/7zlyd/comment/c...

In 2016, Imgur raised $40 million in funding from investors, valuing the company at around $500 million. In 2021, Imgur was acquired by the media company, MediaLab, for an undisclosed amount, reportedly around $200-300 million. Alan Schaaf, the CEO and founder, reportedly owned around 40% of the company at the time of the acquisition, which would have netted him a significant amount, estimated to be around $80-120 mi…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#93

Post by phito »

fsckboy wrote: post #76
lelandbatey wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly; I still remember reading the imgur announcement post on reddit which had all the same descriptions. They were ad free and they were aiming to be great forever. Now though they're the "big bad". https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/7zlyd/comment/c...

In 2016, Imgur raised $40 million in funding from investors, valuing the company at around $500 million. In 2021, Imgur was acquired by the media company, MediaLab, for an undisclosed amount, reportedly around $200-300 million. Alan Schaaf, the CEO and founder, reportedly owned around 40% of the company at the time of the acquisition, which would have netted him a significant amount, estimated to be around $80-120 mi…

So the goal is to make another unsustainable business, make everyone use and love it, then sell it to someone who will make it uterly shitty with the hopes of squeezing at least a bit of money out of the people who now rely on it, before it inevitably dies?

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#94

Post by isatty »

sweca wrote: post #90
tzfld wrote: post #88

>Unlimited Bandwidth* >Keep on sharing with peace of mind that your files will always be accessible for those who need them. What about sharing them in a forum post which may become viral or may be targeted by a ddos attack?

That's ok! Horizon should be able to handle it.

It’s a great service and forgive my cynicism but how, without losing money?

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#95

Post by sweca »

isatty wrote: post #94
sweca wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ok! Horizon should be able to handle it.

It’s a great service and forgive my cynicism but how, without losing money?

I've worked out the economics! The cost of the free plan is negligible.

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#96

Post by MzHN »

Monetization and abuse has been mentioned a bunch as things to consider as you gain more users, but I'll add a couple more I think are relevant, at least once the service is big enough.

Your payment processor. Payment processors might get triggered by the fact that adult content is pretty much explicitly allowed. They might also just generally deem you "high risk" and kick you out. I think this is one of the biggest risks you run. For example Stripe, according to their legal docs, prohibit "Cyberlockers, regardless of whether they host adult content", whatever that means, but it sounds a lot like file sharing in general is a prohibited business.

Ever-tightening think-of-the-children laws. You may not want to implement expensive and privacy invasive scanning (note that even local scanning may be privacy invasive[1]), but you might be forced or face a fine. You could always do like Google and budget it in as an expense, love that "fines" line in their reports. This may also be relevant to the previous one, since payment processors might deem you higher risk if you have no scanning.

Getting blacklisted for hosting malware. Specifically the support for non-media files. You could end up being blocked by browsers, search engines and whatnot. See for example Google Safe Browsing.

[1] https://rys.io/en/173.html

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#97

Post by uuuuuquu »

sweca wrote: post #16
devnull212 wrote: post #14

Congrats on the launch! But, something that stops me from using a number of services is the sale of fixed size plans where I'll typically either under utilize them (e.g. do I have 100 GB of screenshots to upload) or I'll over utilize and might not have an upgrade path immediately available for more storage. I tend to toss my photos in backblaze or S3 for this reason -- UX is severely lacking but I pay for what I use.…

I understand where you're coming from. Most people do not have 100 GB of media on hand, nor will they probably in the next 5 years. As a result, it's basically unlimited from a reasonable usage standpoint. Before adding a 100 GB cap, I actually experimented with having "unlimited storage", but this can go wrong in many ways. I've spoken to companies in the VPN and cloud storage industries and having unlimited anythin…

> Most people do not have 100 GB of media on hand, ...

I have over 130 GB of media and really just started taking pictures two years ago. My mother for sure has way over 100 GB of media. My gf too. My father also has over 100 GB of media. And we all are not photographers or people who must take pictures of everything. 100 GB is not that much really, especially since everybody cat take 4K pictures and record 4K videos. Who do you mean by "most people"?

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#98

Post by isatty »

This is very well done, congrats on the launch and I am extremely impressed by your decisions (to keep this as simple as possible, to avoid scanning, and to provide apps). I am equally, if not more, impressed by your replies to comments here and criticism. Keep up the good work!

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#99

Post by sweca »

uuuuuquu wrote: post #97
sweca wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand where you're coming from. Most people do not have 100 GB of media on hand, nor will they probably in the next 5 years. As a result, it's basically unlimited from a reasonable usage standpoint. Before adding a 100 GB cap, I actually experimented with having "unlimited storage", but this can go wrong in many ways. I've spoken to companies in the VPN and cloud storage industries and having unlimited anythin…

> Most people do not have 100 GB of media on hand, ... I have over 130 GB of media and really just started taking pictures two years ago. My mother for sure has way over 100 GB of media. My gf too. My father also has over 100 GB of media. And we all are not photographers or people who must take pictures of everything. 100 GB is not that much really, especially since everybody cat take 4K pictures and record 4K videos…

By the term "media", I was referring to OP's potential usecase of Horizon, like their screenshots and screen recordings.

I think you're framing Horizon as potential photo backup, in which case, it is not designed nor meant for that.

Re: Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

#100

Post by sweca »

isatty wrote: post #98

This is very well done, congrats on the launch and I am extremely impressed by your decisions (to keep this as simple as possible, to avoid scanning, and to provide apps). I am equally, if not more, impressed by your replies to comments here and criticism. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, this means a lot!
Post reply on HN