Around this time last year, I released midnight.pub, an internet message-board that aims to be the virtual equivalent of a local pub: a place to unwind after a long day. The Midnight is a simple place, built with simple technologies and also with support for simple protocols such as the Web, but also Gemini and Gopher.
smol.pub builds upon Midnight's code and philosophy to provide a tiny service to keep a journal on the small net. If the Midnight is a bar, Smol Pub is a travel journal that's in your backpocket. Instead of using a pen, you write from a web UI or a CLI and your posts are all reachable via web, gemini and gopher. It comes with what you would expect: full support for custom domains (including auto generation of SSL certificate for the web), but also custom CSS themes and ability to export all posts. Not that it's a feature, but it's completely free of JavaScript, ads or tracking technology. I'm hoping it helps people discover what the small net is, and less technically-inclined people to give a home to their writings, and to discover that there's more to internet than the web.
Smol Pub is also a paid service. It's the first time I'm releasing something that has a price, and it feels strange. But just like Midnight, it's there to stay for the next 10 years, and that's the most sustainable way I found to guarantee it.
How can you help?
- What do you think of the homepage?
- What do you think of the price?
- What's unclear?
- Anything else?
Thanks for reading :)