Tell HN: 3 years of running a minimal blogging platform

[HermanMartinus]

Roughly 3 years ago I launched the open-source blogging platform [Bear Blog](https://bearblog.dev) (which was greeted by the HN hug on its first day live). Since then it's been cracking along well, with about 150 blogs per week being started, and some prolific bloggers settling into it.

The best thing is seeing the variety of blogs popping up. I'm going to have to set up a list of "neat Bear Blogs" in the future.

The worst thing is the sheer number of spam accounts being opened (about 30% of new blogs).I review all blogs by hand in a Tinder-esque system.

Currently there are a few people sponsoring the project (about $240 per month) which pays for the server and my coffee. It's fun. I only put in a handful of hours a month to maintain, update, and secure the blogs.

Next steps? I'm thinking of just keeping it up. Over the next few years it will become more refined, more robust, and more secure. This isn't a financial project (my other company pays me a salary). It's just fun building the blogging platform I want to use.

[sweetheart]

Dunno if this interests you at all, but I would gladly pay for this. A minimal blogging service which handles hosting, export of data (if needed), and basic styling is something I've been looking for for awhile. All the large platforms feel way too bloated and complicated.

Just made an account and excited to try it out, but if you ever decide to charge folks, you wouldn't lose me! Also just seeing that you say some folks sponsor the project; I'll take a look at that!

[nicpottier → sweetheart]

Check out posthaven as another interesting option. Their mission is basically just to be around forever at $5/mo. They basically haven't added new features in years but that's the point.

[5Qn8mNbc2FNCiVV → sweetheart]

write.as

[gushogg-blake]

Just signed up. The link in the confirmation email I got was http:// (no s) and it hung for a while then gave a 503. Changed it to https and it seems to have worked.

[omarhaneef]

Would this work: $1 for ever (or because that might create an eternal obligation, $1 for 5 years) or some minimal amount just to verify they are real.

If it is a spam account they forfeit their $1.

This may create a hassle in that once in a while a false negative comes up, but you just return their $1 if they complain. (of course someone could defeat that system too but you should be okay).

[KyleJune → omarhaneef]

To avoid long term obligation, instead of doing $1 for x amount of time, they could add a $1 setup fee for creating a blog.

[zakokor → omarhaneef]

Agree! Great project!

[whoibrar → omarhaneef]

$1 for 3-5yrs sounds like a great idea.

[shanecleveland]

Happy sponsor here. I'm not a prolific blogger, but I love the minimalistic nature of it and that I don't need to worry about maintaining it myself.

[higeorge13]

Hey, it looks great, i will probably give it a try as i want to practise my writing skills.

Just out of curiosity, I was wondering what is the context for no-nonsense in the platform description heading? I suppose technological nonsense like tracking etc?

[HermanMartinus → higeorge13]

Tracking, but also feature bloat. You can do exponentially more on something like Ghost, like a full-fledged media manager and full style customisation. Bear is, in essence, a text blog.

[simjnd]

Similar project that is also pretty nice and made it to the top HN fairly recently: https://mataroa.blog/

[krageon]

This is nice to read, and I must say I like the approach to filtering spam. More people should just do things for fun, maybe hearing your account will stimulate them to do so.

[bilekas]

I've actually come across this before and think I even POC'd it for myself.

I remember it was super light, must check it out again. Glad you're having fun with it anyway !

[ISL]

A possible next-step: Beginning to automate that spam-vetting.

[HermanMartinus → ISL]

It's something I've considered, but the swipe left/right at a glance actually works really well and I can review all the blogs for the week in about 10 minutes. Rarely I'll receive an email from someone who was blocked asking if I could reinstate their blog, which I do (assuming it's not spam of course).

[withinboredom → ISL]

That’s just joining an arms race you’ll never win with one dev. There are entire teams and divisions dedicated to it and it’s still an unsolved problem.

[nickdothutton]

I’m not a user but I think this approach is commendable. I hope you’re able to continue.

[PTOB]

Swiping spam away must be very satisfying!

[adalu]

This looks almost exactly like https://lists.sh/ which I stumbled upon today.

Maybe that guy saw your blog and re-did it. Or you saw someone's blog and re-did theirs. idk. But the 2 looks so similar that I had to comment on that.

[HermanMartinus → adalu]

Haha, it looks like lists is heavily inspired by Bear (see the "Built and maintained by" at the bottom).

Also, if you go to his [bio](https://lists.sh/erock) it looks [very familiar](https://herman.bearblog.dev)

[Veen → adalu]

There's not much room for aesthetic variation if the goal is typography-focused minimal design with sans serif fonts. Especially if they both followed typography "best practices" for heading sizes, line heights, readable measures, etc.

[simulate-me → adalu]

These two platforms don't look that similar.

[ISL → adalu]

Lists actually links at bearblog.