Hacker News but for independent blogs

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall Reaction and Concept

  • Many commenters find Bubbles refreshing, “lovely,” and reminiscent of the early web and curated blog aggregators.
  • It’s seen as an HN-style, community-ranked front page specifically for indie/personal blogs and non-tech content.
  • Others argue the title is slightly misleading: it’s not “HN topics but indie sources,” but a broader, general-interest blog feed.

Tech Stack and Operations

  • Developer states it’s written in Go, using SQLite, running on a Hetzner box, built from scratch (not an HN/lobste.rs re-skin).
  • Not open source yet; “maybe someday.”
  • Some curiosity about scaling, anti-brigading mechanisms, and “Top” ranking, but details are largely unclear.

Content Sourcing and Criteria

  • Blogs are curated; criteria are in the FAQ and include: independent/personal, no ads/paywalls/self-marketing, moderate posting pace (≈≤1–2 posts/day).
  • A high-frequency blog submission was explicitly rejected on that basis.
  • Platform-hosted blogs (e.g., Substack) can be included if they meet the non-monetization criteria.
  • Suggestions can be sent via email; sign-in is only required for voting/hiding, not for suggesting blogs.

Authentication, Identity, and Social Media

  • Current login is via Fediverse (Mastodon-compatible). Some appreciate this; others want email or Apple sign-in and avoid social media.
  • Long discussion about single-sign-on vs. compartmentalized identities, with strong privacy and anti-megacorp sentiments.
  • Some distinguish between “social media” and “social web”; others see them as effectively the same.

UI/UX and Features

  • Big debate over links opening in new tabs vs same tab. Many argue for respecting browser defaults and user choice.
  • Developer commits to switch default to same-tab, like HN, after traffic calms, and is open to user preferences.
  • RSS is available for main feed and “Briefings”; list views can be filtered by minimum votes with corresponding RSS.
  • Briefings, with daily summaries and excerpts, are widely praised; excerpts and read-time for list views are planned (some prefer word count).
  • Search is reported as not working; “Top” and its time window are unclear; users want time-scoped top (week/month/year).

Content Tone, Politics, and “Small Web” Navel-Gazing

  • Several users are turned off by politically charged posts (e.g., “wellness as white supremacist dog whistle”), calling them over-the-top or racist; others defend them as cultural critique of narrow beauty/fitness ideals.
  • Some complain that much “small web” content is about blogging/the small web itself; others say that self-referential meta-discussion is historically normal for emerging communities.
  • There’s concern that indie aggregators will naturally collect “weird” or highly ideological content; some see that as part of the appeal.

Comparisons and Alternatives

  • Compared to Digg/Metafilter (link-first), Planet Mozilla (author-first), Kagi Small Web, Minifeed, and niche aggregators like engineered.at and Rap Dash.
  • Another project with AI-only ranking is mentioned; many in the thread express preference for transparent, human-driven voting over opaque algorithmic/AI feeds.
  • Some request an “AI” category and per-blog mute/hide to manage the growing volume of AI-related and outsourced content.