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Svbtle for Wordpress (gravityonmars.com)

93 points by ricardorauch ↗ HN
This is not the first post about Svbtle. It only tries to show how you can easily build the same product in WordPress. Go to GitHub to get this project.

THE INTERFACE

When I read about Svbtle just seemed to me to write great enter without stop from view. Having a list where these ideas “cooking” and another where the already published is just great. Only someone with experience doing great publications could accomplish this interface.

TECHNOLOGY BEHIND

Since I did not want to ignore the features already offered by WordPress and reinvent the wheel by creating a login system, writing (drafts and published), optimizations of queries, features that are not visible to the user’s eyes as the cache (WP Super Cache) , pushState (WP History.js) and minimize js and css files (BWP Minify).

36 comments

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pace
Incredible how Svbtle got popular and a creator who doesn't seem to be too happy about its evolution. Good read on that http://therain.posterous.com/dustin-curtis-single-mistake-wi...
delinka
While I agree with the premise of your posted link, the grammar starts falling apart later in the post. Seems to have some logical leaps there at the end as well. Just seems like the author is not a native English speaker I suppose.
vikvik
I am very confused. The author of the article writes that svbtle could have been the next tumblr. It's like saying my clean design html could have been the future facebook.

I think svbtle has a clean design and a good interface, nothign more.

If my instincts here are wrong, then I have to question my understanding and all the IT experience I have. I might be missing a big part of this svbtle and obtvse controversy.

[dead] vikvik
I am very confused. The author of the article writes that svbtle could have been the next tumblr. It's like saying my clean design html could have been the future facebook.

I think svbtle has a clean design and a good interface, nothign more.

If my instincts here are wrong, then I have to question my understanding and all the IT experience I have. I might be missing a big part of this svbtle and obtvse controversy.

j_c
Curtis' abilities surrounding marketing, PR and his brand has and will continue to drive this product. Not the technology.

Copycats can build the technology, but that's it. All the aspects of the product that have resulted it reaching the top of HackerNews are unfortunately a lot harder to reproduce.

MatthewPhillips
> All the aspects of the product that have resulted it reaching the top of HackerNews are unfortunately a lot harder to reproduce.

Events of the past week suggest the technology is the only part that anyone's really interested in.

ssharp
> Curtis' abilities surrounding marketing, PR and his brand has and will continue to drive this product. Not the technology.

I wasn't sure who Curtis was, so I looked him up. From his own sites, it wasn't apparent at all. I guess he is a superhero or villain, depending on which site of his you look at.

So why is his brand so strong?

nullflux
Because he does two things really well that build huge brands around specific people:

1. Acts like he knows everything and acts like a polarizing, arrogant ass

(I've never met him, so who knows if he actually is an arrogant ass. The majority of people I have met that act like that seem not to be IRL. It's often a persona.)

2. Consistently writes blog posts that cause a lot of controversy (e.g. get people fired, give more famous people you know a spotlight to write content for you, etc.)

I'm not bashing Curtis with the above, even though my tone seems pejorative. It's just true, and it's the same way most political talking heads and radio personalities work. Curtis is basically something like the Howard Stern of the YC set.

huggyface
All the aspects of the product that have resulted it reaching the top of HackerNews

What are those aspects?

Honestly, I'm not seeing it. I see this as a profound example of the cult of personality.

j_c
PR / Marketing / Brand — All aspects of the cult of a personality.
samstave
There is no cult of personality at play here. There has really been zero talk of Curtis the person as opposed to Svbtle the thing.
huggyface
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3742314

"Codename: Svbtle by Dustin Curtis"

Zero talk, when it's right in the title? Never have I seen such egregious inflation of a project because of the personality.

chc
Uh, that's the title of his own blog post. The ongoing discussion has not involved other people talking about Dustin Curtis much at all. (Which is a shame, I think, as he deserves the credit.)
huggyface
Uh, that's the title of his own blog post.

And few others could get away with that without being eviscerated as self-aggrandizers.

The ongoing discussion has not involved other people talking about Dustin Curtis much at all.

There is incredibly little that is compelling in what Curtis is pitching (in fact I find it all a bit laughably naive. His overarching goal seems to be to create the next The Verge or something? And some minor tweaks of blog authoring is going to make that happen?) It lit a certain niche of the web on fire because it was pitched by someone with a high PageRank, achieved via pretty pernicious tactics (the outrageous 3.5 inch bit being prime). Then everyone starts their clones and offshoots and discussions because they want a piece of the traffic attention.

I asked in my original comment in this post "What are those aspects [that resulted in it hitting the top of Hacker News]?" No one has answered. I have yet to see anyone describe why this deserves any attention at all.

jh3
So much publicity for Curtis over the last couple weeks.
samstave
Argh! I accidentally downvoted you when I meant to upvote you. Damn tiny arrows on the phone and no ability to reverse votes. My digital apologies.
antidaily
Yeah, maybe it should be a circle you hover your mouse over for a second.
jff
How do you hover the mouse pointer on a phone? :)
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samstave
I have always thought this about the iPhone (and smartphones in general)

When you put your finger to the screen, it should "bubble zoom" clickable links. and you could slide around to get the exact link you intend to.

Viewing pages with tiny clickables meant for the precision of the mouse is infuriating.

craigmccaskill
Chrome (currently available as a beta on ICS android devices) does this.
hdevalence2
Unfortunately, the implementation is, in my experience, not very good, because it's not consistent. Sometimes it shows up, and other times it doesn't, so you can't rely on it, and you have to make sure that you click perfectly every time in case it doesn't pop up. Which effectively negates the usefulness of the feature.
alanh
Try Opera’s mobile browsers. I believe they do essentially this (and have been for years). You can even install it to your iPhone. (And PPK of Quirksmode.org fame says you definitely should, because we devs tend to pretend the mobile world is mostly Webkit, but the reality is still a bit more diverse than that.)

(I see Chrome/Android gets a mention for doing this. It’s kind of funny: Chrome seems to get the credit for features Opera invented, over and over; on desktop: Tabs-on-top. Speed dial. Keyword search. Etc. Of course, I still really respect the Chrome team for being really smart about what features to steal to make a great UX, but Opera deserves love for being such a pioneer!)

jh3
Haha, no problem at all.
puppybeard
I like the look of it, and I like the idea behind it. It's not for me, but it's still nice.

I don't see how it's supposed to be a Panacea though. Are there people out there who have great difficulty blogging?

dpritchett
It's called writer's block and it's pretty much universal. The point is to streamline the content creation process so that there are no distractions between you and the work. Hopefully produce more and better work when you can really focus on the craft. Once a blog post gets to the "nearly finished" state then you can deal with the 5000 options WordPress offers around every post, such as tags and crosslinking old posts and formatting and url slugs and and and...
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rkudeshi
Is this a WordPress theme or a modification of the backend admin view?
nullflux
Doesn't this defeat the purpose of using such a system? It's like installing all of Windows 7 Ultimate just to run Notepad.
philip1209
Did anybody try this in a multiuser Wordpress install?
alanh
This is great — solves the big problem that would keep me, personally, from blogging on Svbtle, and a lesson I learned from my startup (see link): Basically, new blog platforms kinda suck due to a lack of features/interop/import/export/customizability. See: http://alanhogan.com/the-problem-with-new-blog-platforms for the story.
nhebb
Using the same name makes it sound like it's a product of Curtis'. At least Obtvse had the sense to use a different name.