I saw your video intro also. I tried to do something similar using Flickr API and Javascript -- to create free Photographer Portfolio websites using Dropbox for my friend.
Then I abandoned the project few days after we went live because every few days, the site visitor would get a bandwidth exceeded error from Dropbox and the site would not render.
In this context, some questions for you
1) How do you account for Dropbox bandwidth usage exceeding? Esp. if I start using your service, and my post ends up on front page of HN?
2) How do we embed Media, ex: Images and Videos? Is there some convention that a blogger must follow in the markdown posts? Should the media be uploaded to some common folder (like how wordpress has wp-upload folder) or does it reside in a sub-folder?
3) URLs? How are urls handled? Do we have ability to over-ride it?
4) Archives (for SEO) ?
5) PermUrls (for social sharing) ?
6) Sitemaps to submit to google, yahoo etc (for increasing Traffic) ?
Sorry for all the questions, but I am really looking to use Dropbox for blogging and this seems like a great idea! Just trying to make sure some/all my needs are met.
Great questions! These are definitely things I should address on Blot's website.
1) Blog posts are converted into HTML, stored on my servers, which Blot then serves to people who visit your blog. Dropbox's bandwidth cap won't affect your blog.
2) Currently you can use markdown to embed an external image. In future I want to add a way to embed images that are inside Blot's Dropbox folder.
3) Each blog post is assigned an id. The slug after the ID is for SEO purposes. For example, all these URLs point to the same blog post:
I signed up. Was as simple to use as the video describes.
Things I would like added:
1)Possibility to add a seperate about page and other pages.
2)Allow for a one line blurb on sidebar to describe what the blog is all about.
3)Custom Title for blog/site. Eg <name>'s blog to My Awesome Site.
4)Option to remove date from post instead of having to use CSS display:none:
Otherwise I'm happy. Was using WordPress and SquareSpace recently to host a simple blog but felt like it was overkill. I do not like either of their mobile apps. They feel clunky compared to IA Writer.
And for me, for writing, you cannot beat the simplicity of your favourite text editor and dropbox for publishing. Whether on desktop or mobile. The combination works really well.
First impressions, am happy with blot.im. Its barebones but lets see how it turns out in the wild.
Hi, a global option to hide dates would be handy. See some people love posts to have dates on them say if you're discussing a current event, its a good idea. Other times, removing a date, makes the content seem more timeless.
This is so simple. Well done. Collaboration wise, and editing wise, this is just a magnificent solution. All native.
Something to work on, as this is really plain jane:-
Media embedding? Comments? Custom URL generation? Some nice custom CSS's available? Microsoft Word support? If I upload my Thesis (MS Word), will the tables/pictures be automatically uploaded?
There is a chapter that I want to upload straightaway, and this solution can be a godsend solution for that purpose. Cut the chapter and drop it in the folder. 5 second work. I am amazed by the simplicity.
Media embedding is already possible using markdown. I plan to add a feature to embed media that you put inside Blot's folder.
Here's what I'm planning to add to Blot, roughly ordered by priority.
1. Comments
2. Support for other file formats. RTF will be the easiest to add next, then DOC and perhaps PDF. There are libraries which make this relatively straightforward but I need to evaluate them first.
3. Custom blog post URLs. More generally allow you to customize each post's metadata.
This looks cool, but I'm not a fan of this tagline: "Your current blogging platform is complicated, slow and badly designed. It makes blogging a chore."
I think you'd be better off to just drop the statement completely. The line below it reads, "Blot is the simplest way to blog." That's short, clear, and tells the visitor why he/she should be interested.
This looks interesting. Congratulations on your product launch.
There is something similar out there called calepin (1). It uses the python based pelican static web site generator.
Not sure what extra features your solution offers.
Looks cool! Simple to say the least, which is not easy to do!
But I'm worried about something. The credit card input on the payment page shows a lock even though the form is NOT submitted over HTTPS... that makes it look like you're blatantly lying to your customers. Am I missing something?
EDIT: I was missing something. While the HN post links to the HTTPS version, I somehow ended up on a non HTTPS version of the site at some point. Which seems to allow sending CC information over a non encrypted form.
Nice idea! I've been meaning to design something similar for myself but once I tried Jekyll I was sold! One tip - The responsive layout[0] makes the blog post very narrow and unreadable. Hiding the side menu might probably give more room to the content.
Great job! Does it support all of markdown? Can I use code blocks, and you'll use < pre > tags? Also, if I have multiple h1's (#) which do you use as the title?
My only feedback is charge per month, and more. I'd be willing to pay $4 a month without thinking twice.
How do you handle scale if you are hosting it? Are you load balanced? Highly available? Do you use a CDN?
Thank you! Blot does support all of markdown. You can indeed use code blocks!
The title is generated from the first H1 tag if there is one.
Scaling the site is honestly something I'm going to have to learn more about. I'll set up a load balancer before it becomes necessary. Currently a single EC2 instance seems to be working OK.
As for pricing, the price will only go up in future and perhaps I'll move to a monthly fee. I just wanted to get something set up quickly.
Let me know if I can help with infrastructure. I'm the founder of https://commando.io and can help you with server setup, management, and deployment. We also use nginx heavily and can assist optimizing it for serving your static content. Send me an e-mail, it is in my profile.
Given the amount of free-of-charge choices, I really fail to see why someone would want to pay anything more than a domain-name for a blog, professional or otherwise.
I saw your video intro also. I tried to do something similar using Flickr API and Javascript -- to create free Photographer Portfolio websites using Dropbox for my friend.
Then I abandoned the project few days after we went live because every few days, the site visitor would get a bandwidth exceeded error from Dropbox and the site would not render.
In this context, some questions for you
1) How do you account for Dropbox bandwidth usage exceeding? Esp. if I start using your service, and my post ends up on front page of HN?
2) How do we embed Media, ex: Images and Videos? Is there some convention that a blogger must follow in the markdown posts? Should the media be uploaded to some common folder (like how wordpress has wp-upload folder) or does it reside in a sub-folder?
3) URLs? How are urls handled? Do we have ability to over-ride it?
4) Archives (for SEO) ?
5) PermUrls (for social sharing) ?
6) Sitemaps to submit to google, yahoo etc (for increasing Traffic) ?
Sorry for all the questions, but I am really looking to use Dropbox for blogging and this seems like a great idea! Just trying to make sure some/all my needs are met.