Ask HN: Where do you publish projects?

15 points by alibova 3 years ago | 14 comments

I've written up a few projects for the Twilio blog (https://www.twilio.com/blog/author/acohen) but the majority of my projects aren't Twilio related, is there something like that (not just a personal blog) for random fun side projects? I usually make a combination of hardware and software (programmable robot for toddlers, automatic reader bee for baby, etc.)

k82a 3 years ago |

Agree on a blog and self-hosting it. I do the same and has been very satisfying. Static site via Netlify and static site generator like Hugo works very well. Make sure archive.org can find it so that your pages are preserved. Self host so that noone does a bait and switch on you like Medium, or shuts you down when they're doing a pivot. The internet needs more quality content that is written because people find it interesting and want to share with the world. Build it without the cruft, trackers, newsletter popups, etc that bog down the modern web.

It's refreshing when you find these interesting websites and articles, and it's also encouraging to know you're part of the solution when you build them.

is0tope 3 years ago |

I would say for side projects, your best bet is just to make a blog and talk about them, that's what I do anyway [1]. The projects themselves can live wherever, such as a VPS etc. For blog posts these days there are IMO two choices to make:

1. Self publish, I.e. Host the blog yourself. There are many options but I personally go with Hugo/Netlify which uses git and markdown as my "backend" and has the upside of basically being free.

2. Use a publishing service such as Medium or Substack. This is easier, but you have less control over your content that you would self publishing.

Irrespective of this, getting people to read anything you write is the hardest part. You need to share your content, talk to people etc, it takes time.

[1] https://machow.ski

james-skemp 3 years ago |

I'll second host your own. There's a number of others recommending Hugo, but Gitlab Pages would likely be enough to start with.

https://gohugo.io/hosting-and-deployment/hosting-on-gitlab/

james-skemp 3 years ago | |

Too late to edit, but thought of another option: https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook

Gitlab Pages + mdBook works well for more documentation or book-like sites. I could easily this working for certain types of project sites.

zzo38computer 3 years ago |

I host projects on my own computer, usually using Fossil. I also mirror them on Chisel, too. (I do not use git, and I do not have an account on GitHub.)

I sometimes mention them on IRC and other stuff (and I have my own NNTP server), but would want to have some better way too. I would hope that others (who are interested in these kind of things) can join too, in order to help with this projects too, and to learn about them, possibly someone else can make something (and/or learning) too.

I also mentioned them before on Hacker News too, but had hardly gotten any response from that.

Bostonian 3 years ago |

You can create GitHub projects and list relevant topics, such as "robotics", in the About section so that topic searchers will find them. Then you can write about and link to the projects on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other places.

jraph 3 years ago |

The French-speaking world has https://linuxfr.org which is about Linux and free software in general (and not just Linux). It's fine to write about hacking / fun side projects (especially if they are open source). The kind of stuff you list would probably be liked there.

I do tend to post there. I have been doing this while I procrastinate to start my own blog (self hosted).

gus_massa 3 years ago |

Both projects look interesting. (I can find only 2.) They have some technical stuff combined with photos/graphics that is good to get traction here.

Have you posted them here? My recommendation is to not post both at once. Wait a week or something between them. Also, add a comment explaining you are the author and you are going to answer questions (assuming you will).

alibova 3 years ago | |

Sorry, I was probably not clear, I have some that are on the Twilio blog but I'm wondering where to publish the projects/write ups that are not Twilio related. Currently they are in google docs but they have pics so don't think HN would be the right way to do it.

gus_massa 3 years ago | | |

I think your text is clear enough, sorry for hijacking the tread. Both look like good submissions, anyway.

About publishing, there are a few free options like WordPress or BlogSpot, or more modern options like Medium. https://www.google.com/search?q=WordPress+or+BlogSpot+altern...

dusted 3 years ago |

I use my website, but post to twitter or HN or hackaday, I also host source on github for increased discoverability.. I don't know if sf.net is still relevant, I don't think my latest projects are on there, but it used to be very helpful in getting my stuff out and discovered.

strzibny 3 years ago |

If you want to have a project's page, then Indie Hackers.

I have a page like this for my book: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/deployment-from-scratch

cassidoo 3 years ago |

Usually dev.to is where I write about them, but I do kind of want to make my own self-hosted one.

dmitrygr 3 years ago |

My website, where else?

Is this a trick question?