Able
Web and SaaS
blogging platform
SHOW HN2019
248points
134comments
#140of 2,195 in 2019
Top 7%of 2019 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
15 positive, 22 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 13 critical, out of 52 comments about the project. Thread score +0.07.
Idea: 6 for, 6 againstDesign: 4 for, 2 againstPricing: 0 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clean layout, syntax highlighting, and Lighthouse score praised
From 3 comments
Able looks promising: Higher information density than Medium, syntax highlighting in code blocks, no big-ass modal interrupting when I just want to read a silly blog post.…
whsheet on HN100 on Lighthouse is something to be very proud of. I love this service.
nexuist on HNI like it, it's clean, simple and puts content first.
lnsp on HN
Welcome as competition to Medium
From 2 comments
I'm always glad to see competition in any space - especially anything that can keep the big boys (Medium!) in check. Kudos to you for giving this a shot! Although, while i wish…
mxuribe on HNFantastic to see Medium competition. I've been so frustrated with "let's make it official"-esque messages. Best of luck - I will be using you!
wingtales on HN
Objections
Doubts about sustainability of a free model and possible future paywalls
From 3 comments
Great. When medium started throwing up paywalls we stopped using it. Anyone want to guess when these guys put up their first paywall? I'll go with January 2021.
thedudeabides5 on HNI think folks might be more comfortable switching to this if they understood the business model (or philanthropic finding source). This platform will only have value if it scales…
gnicholas on HNYes, and in five years they'll start showing blocking modals too, after realising this isn't monetizable. And the never ending circle continues... Just self-host.
jariz on HN
Name and .bio TLD are hard to search and possibly risky
From 1 comment
three things: 1. its hard to search for you guys. your name is hard to SEO on. for example "medium kafka" gets you relevant search results. "able blog" doesnt even feature you in…
sandGorgon on HN
Lacks ActivityPub and decentralization support
From 1 comment
I'm always glad to see competition in any space - especially anything that can keep the big boys (Medium!) in check. Kudos to you for giving this a shot! Although, while i wish…
mxuribe on HN
Requests
RSS import and feeds
From 3 comments
RSS support is nice - even better would be if they were also exposed in the metadata [1] so that my feed extension can autodetect it. ``` <link rel="alternate"…
Vinnl on HNIs there an RSS feed or am I just blind?
moreorless on HNWhat functionality does Able provide for technical bloggers who want to do POSSE? Can users import draft articles from their site's RSS feed, for example? Also, have you given…
Porthos9K on HN
ActivityPub / POSSE support
From 2 comments
What functionality does Able provide for technical bloggers who want to do POSSE? Can users import draft articles from their site's RSS feed, for example? Also, have you given…
Porthos9K on HNI'm always glad to see competition in any space - especially anything that can keep the big boys (Medium!) in check. Kudos to you for giving this a shot! Although, while i wish…
mxuribe on HN
Custom domains
From 1 comment
Any plans to support custom domains?
krashidov on HN
Math formula support
From 1 comment
How about math formula support?
0-_-0 on HN
Questions
What is the business model and how are costs covered
From 1 comment
I think folks might be more comfortable switching to this if they understood the business model (or philanthropic finding source). This platform will only have value if it scales…
gnicholas on HN
How it differs from Dev.to
From 1 comment
Congrats for shipping! :) How's this different from Dev.to ?
cezarfloroiu on HN
Alternatives named
Self-hosted Ghost
From 2 comments
The very best alternative to Medium is self-hosted Ghost. https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost And if a person can't figure self-hosting out then the paid version of Ghost is the…
PatrolX on HNAlthough this seems great, use Ghost. The editing interface is unreal and the SEO/RSS/integrations are plentiful. You can customize it however you like, but there's some nice…
sdan on HN
Medium
From 2 comments
I'm always glad to see competition in any space - especially anything that can keep the big boys (Medium!) in check. Kudos to you for giving this a shot! Although, while i wish…
mxuribe on HNGreat. When medium started throwing up paywalls we stopped using it. Anyone want to guess when these guys put up their first paywall? I'll go with January 2021.
thedudeabides5 on HN
Dev.to
From 1 comment
Congrats for shipping! :) How's this different from Dev.to ?
cezarfloroiu on HN
Substack
From 1 comment
Is it me, or have there been an uptick in new writing platforms? Two that I can think of are substack and reading.supply. It'd be interesting to see an open source competitor to…
bhl on HN
WordPress
From 1 comment
Agree. Switching from wordpress to a static site generator has made it much harder to post for me. Sure I can use vim (or my editor of choice) but on wordpress I could post from…
greggman2 on HN