
Show HN: I made a privacy-focused online journal - KevinNTH
https://gekri.com
======
jamestomasino
First of all, beautiful site. I'm happy to see nuxt projects in the wild, and
especially happy when they're this beautiful. I really like the iconography
and illustration styles and how nicely it blends with the content. Your UI is
stellar.

On the technology side, the page explaining what Blockstack is reads poorly.
You use the same subheads a few times to ask that question, but don't really
answer it. It feels like an afterthought, which is unfortunate as it was my
first stop on the site.

It seems like the "how" of this tool is a big deal to you. Why is the data
being stored the way it is? How can you better tell that story? Can you use
the same level of awesome you use on the features page?

And finally, if you can't add a working demo to the site due to the blockstack
platform, you can still record video demos that highlight different features.
Keep that sweet animation style in your video work and you've got some really
enjoyable content.

I hope your project takes off. Cheers.

~~~
KevinNTH
Thank you so much for your awesome feedback!

I am very proud to get spotted using nuxt. I am very grateful to the Chopin
brothers (and the whole team of Vue) to make this possible. I can't wait to
have Vue 3 on production!

I made the logo using Figma [1] with my very beginner skill with this kind of
software. The illustrations come from [2].

I am really sorry to made a poorly reading experience. I guess I am not that
fluent with English nor with copywriting. Thank to your feedback, I will spend
some time to rewrite the copy ;)

I think I will spend some time to implement a demo to the site because I am
not comfortable with video editing.

[1] [https://www.figma.com](https://www.figma.com) [2]
[https://undraw.co](https://undraw.co)

------
nixpulvis
Very cool UI! As someone who runs something like a journal from time to time,
I might use some of this for inspiration.

One question though. If it's just a personal journal, and I don't care to
share any of it, why do I need blockchain? I think I'd rather just generate a
symmetric key and store this encrypted data on any storage I choose. Are you
planning social features?

~~~
KevinNTH
Thank you :)

Please read my answer here [1] to avoid duplicate content ^^

Beside, I may add social features in the future indeed. There is so much that
can be done (many ideas), but for now, I focus to build the journal with
polished basic features.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20652803](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20652803)

------
KevinNTH
I build this app with privacy in mind. I ended by using Blockstack ecosystem
to achieve user's data ownership, data encryption and data decentralization.
Also, Blockstack allow you to create an identity using a Blockchain. I work
full time on this product to make the one I always wished. I started to write
every day for more than 1 year and I notice many benefits with this keystone
habit. I really want to promote writing activity through Gekri. Beside, I am
on my way to implement many features, starting of a mood tracker ;) Ask me
anything.

~~~
thex10
Thanks, this looks really cool!

Would I be able to write in it offline too?

~~~
KevinNTH
I have to work on the offline mode, this is in the roadmap :)

------
vorpalhex
I'm interested in the idea but can't say I'm very much into Blockstack after
looking into it. The fact that they're tied heavily in the blockchain and pay
large sums to apps in the name of "app mining" is.. concerning. Even after a
fair bit of research, the origin of the money is extremely unclear.

~~~
muneeb
Muneeb from Blockstack here. The Stacks blockchain is needed to anchor user
identities in a system that is not controlled by any single company.

The App Mining rewards are incentives for developers to improve their app
quality. I'd recommend this research paper to dig deeper in to the game theory
behind App Mining: [https://blog.blockstack.org/app-mining-game-theory-
algorithm...](https://blog.blockstack.org/app-mining-game-theory-algorithm-
design/)

The source of money is newly minted tokens, just like in Bitcoin the miners
operating the nodes and processing transactions get the newly minted tokens.

~~~
justusthane
On your website, it seems that the overview and documentation is targeted at
developers. As a user, I would love an easy-to-understand overview of what
Blockstack is, how it works, and why I should care.

Edit: And here's a question maybe you can answer for me directly: If the user
data is stored in a location of my choice, and the code runs on the client,
what's the point of an app being powered by Blockstack rather than just being
a local offline app that saves data to iCloud/Dropbox/whatever?

Thanks!

~~~
muneeb
The point is global coordination without going through a big company like
Facebook.

Take the Dmails app for example, you can email me there on muneeb.id -- this
will not be possible with an offline app.

I hear you on the developer focus for Blockstack. We might start a different
brand that is consumer-focused. Right now the best page for consumer info is:
[https://blockstack.org/try-blockstack](https://blockstack.org/try-blockstack)

~~~
justusthane
Great, thanks. I'll explore it and try to understand it better! Looking
forward to seeing where this goes.

------
mettamage
KevinNTH could you give us a showcase of how you use it? When I look at your
demo GIFs I'm noticing that I'm journalling in a seemingly very different way.

I journal once in the morning or twice (morning and evening). My journal is
mostly a list of likert-scale type questions on which I want data.

It also has a qualitative section on the lower end if I feel the need to be
qualitative, but I don't feel the need to do that every day.

~~~
KevinNTH
Thanks for your feedback :)

I have to say that my journaling is very basic as I am only a beginner (1
year). I just write down my thoughts, tell things about my day or comment
about my mood of the moment.

I read great content [1] about journaling so I will try to improve the way I
write in my journal.

I've never thought about implementing likert-scale type questions in the
journal but it's a great idea. I put this in the roadmap [2] so I'm going to
have some thinking about it.

I have planed a feature to have gratitude journaling which can be similar to
likert-scale type questions but without the likert-scale. So I definitely can
implement this kind of feature too :)

[1] [http://benjaminhardy.com/journal/](http://benjaminhardy.com/journal/)

[2] [https://trello.com/b/sHBLZTeQ/gekri-product-
roadmap](https://trello.com/b/sHBLZTeQ/gekri-product-roadmap)

------
karma20
I like the concept but share some of the blockchain concerns here. In
particular, I'm interested in how the Gaia "driver model" [1] is actually
architected, and how this compares to local storage:

> Gaia enables applications to access [it] via a uniform API.

[1] [https://gekri.com/privacy](https://gekri.com/privacy)

~~~
KevinNTH
I have been told that the privacy page [1] is reads poorly. I will rewrite the
copy ^^'

You can learn more about Gaia storage here: [2]

[1] [https://gekri.com/privacy](https://gekri.com/privacy)

[2] [https://github.com/blockstack/gaia](https://github.com/blockstack/gaia)

------
ConfusedDog
I really like UI/UX. It takes very little to get use to. The only thing is
that I wish I know how blockchain technology is actually tied into this?

~~~
KevinNTH
Thank you :D

I use Blockstack to allow users to create an identity which is handled on the
Bitcoin blockchain.

Essentially when Blockstack IDs are created for users during registration,
they are saved to the Bitcoin blockchain immutably so that the user him or
herself is the only one who can control their ID using their private key. This
is the way in which user independence is secured so that neither app
developers or Blockstack controls their identities.

Take a look to the whitepaper [1] to go deeply in the details.

I use Gaia storage [2] to store data.

[1] [https://blockstack.org/papers](https://blockstack.org/papers)

[2] [https://github.com/blockstack/gaia](https://github.com/blockstack/gaia)

------
Diaze
A feature idea, I think it could be great to track the moods of a whole
organization. HR could see the results and could see or not, each individual
mood.

~~~
KevinNTH
I keep this feature idea for a second product (or maybe for Gekri, but later).
There is something I wish to develop something since 2016 targeting people in
an organization.

------
spazzy81
I think there's been a few of these privacy-focused journals:

[https://penzu.com/](https://penzu.com/)
[https://280daily.com/](https://280daily.com/)
[https://standardnotes.org/](https://standardnotes.org/)

~~~
KevinNTH
I think these products are different from each other so Gekri is too :)

------
phantarch
I like the presentation a lot, but after looking at the features tab I'm left
wishing there were some sort of interactive demo.

This looks like a really cool project! I like the idea of a journaling tool
that also helps you reflect at a meta-level after you've entered in your
momentary feelings.

~~~
KevinNTH
Thank you!

I will take the time to implement a demo. It will help to visualize the actual
product before hitting the sign in button I guess :)

------
geoffreyy
Does the name come from the french "j'écris" (I write) phonetic ? That would
be cool :D

~~~
KevinNTH
You nailed it perfectly!!!! Jekri.com was taken, so Gekri.com was born xD

But most of the time Gekri is pronounced "Guékri" ^^'

------
bananocurrency
Private and distributed? .... Why?

~~~
KevinNTH
Because the journal is online. Data should be stored somewhere so I choose
Gaia Storage. [1]

I have explained more about this in this tweet: [2]

[1] [https://github.com/blockstack/gaia](https://github.com/blockstack/gaia)

[2]
[https://twitter.com/pixelwerk/status/1159532787843706881](https://twitter.com/pixelwerk/status/1159532787843706881)

------
KaoruAoiShiho
Great job man, everything about this page is super appealing to me.

~~~
KevinNTH
Thank you :)

I try my best to bring this appeal!

------
dmichulke
Is it just me or does everyone need to enable JS and allow cookies to see
anything at all?

Not very privacy-focused.

~~~
KevinNTH
I made a web app so I need Javascript to do so :)

I want to share with you something I've used back in 2013-2014. [1]

You won't need Javascript to use this ;)

[1] [https://jrnl.sh/](https://jrnl.sh/)

