Three months ago, on IndieRails episode 38, I told my friend Jess that I thought old-school forums were due for a comeback, and I made a commitment to him that I would ship an MVP of my own take on forums by November 1.
I'd been sitting on some notes and sketches for a forum app for a few years actually, but I sensed a vibe shift around communication tools toward the end of last year that made me think the timing might finally be right. After some encouragement and prodding from my friend Jesper earlier in the summer, I decided conditions were good enough to take a run at this.
Timing is a hard thing, both with markets and trends, and with margin in life and energy and passion level. It seemed like forums might be having a moment, and I was also feeling restless and anxious to build something new. I couldn't really take time off from my client work, but I thought I could carve out 5-10 hours a week for 3 months, and that ought to be enough for something meaningful.
Fast forward to now, just a couple hours away from November 1. Here's where I'm at by the numbers:
There are still many improvements to make and features to build, but I'm happy with what I've been able to accomplish in the timeframe. I've learned a lot. But maybe the biggest thing is, I know I won't go back to building things in private again. If I want to make things for others (and I do), I'm going to be sharing about it along the way.
Thanks for following along! If you reached out with advice or encouragement, thank you–it's meant a ton to me.
Liminal is here. Hope to see you around! 👋
Congrats on the launch! Been great following your journey. Impressed by what I'm seeing so far :) Amazing work, @jeremysmithco 👏
What is this sweet markdown editor that I'm writing in? 😃
Thanks @jespr, I really appreciate all your encouragement along the way! 😊
What is this sweet markdown editor that I'm writing in?
Ah yes! So that is one of the GitHub JS packages I'm using in the app: https://github.com/github/markdown-toolbar-element
The others are:
https://github.com/github/session-resume
https://github.com/github/text-expander-element
I was surprised to stumble onto these libraries, and I'm planning to do some writeups about how I'm using these with Turbo/Stimulus at some point!
Hiiiiiiii,
Congrats on the launch @jeremysmithco!! Can't wait to see where things end up!!
That was a lot of work to get done in 3 short months, you should be proud!
I was surprised to stumble onto these libraries, and I'm planning to do some writeups about how I'm using these with Turbo/Stimulus at some point!
Very interested in that @jeremysmithco :)
Hey, thanks so much @bramjetten and @afomera! Really appreciate it! 😊
BTW, I just spotted a bug with avatar aspect ratio...this would not be the first time I messed up an ActiveStorage variant transformation. 🤦♂️ Will fix that shortly!
Ahhh, that's better. 😌 I swear, I can't keep those resize_to_* variant transformations straight!
Hey, thanks @bjessbrown! 😊 Really glad I had you as a shipping accountability partner!
Hey, thanks @mike! That means a lot. :) It was definitely a challenge to figure out how to use the time constraint to flesh out as much of the vision as possible, at a quality level I could live with. I'm sure the next month will be a lot more polish work, but I think I'm mostly happy with the result.
Clean!
I love the fact that you just have an H3 in the field's toolbar.
Great work @jeremysmithco
Hey, thanks @pascallaliberte! 😊
Yeah, H3's feel like the right size to have in a post body. Although I will say, looking at it again now, I think maybe the font size is a touch large. Might drop that down a bit...
Hey, thanks @fractaledmind! Awesome, I'm glad to hear the mobile experience is feeling decent! 🙏
Loving the markdown editor.
Thanks @pkayokay! :) I have a few more improvements to make on it:
Looks great on mobile!
Ah, great to hear, thanks @JoshAntBrown!
Congrats Jeremy! Very polished.
Much appreciated, @geetfun! 😊
I want to try this markdown editor too!
Love it! @jeremysmithco well done, sir!
Ha, thanks @zackgilbert! And glad you could road test the Markdown formatting. 😄
Thank you also very much for being open about it and sharing your challenges and decisions!
@lucianghinda Thanks! This is probably my biggest lesson through the project -- I will never go back to building in private for anything I want to share with others. ❤️
Wild that it’s only been three months. Great work 💪
Thanks @andrea! I know, I'm a little baffled that it went that quick, and that I was able to log that many hours since August...but that probably explains why I feel so tired! 😅😂
Congrats on the launch, great platform you built!
Thanks @jclarke, that means a lot! 😁
Congrats on the launch @jeremysmithco ! This is really inspiring to any of us trying to achieve a similar thing!
Love the idea behind Liminal, looking forward to seeing it evolve! 🚀
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