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@js @ben Isn't this what Start9 and umbrel are attempting?

@adam @ben yes i think they would say that, but - running an umbrel myself - not sure if they've achieved mass-market usability yet.

Also, they seem very bitcoin focused, with services built around that

Whereas I take Ben here as thinking about something writing/publishing focused, with services built around that

Also I'm assuming the definition of self-hosted here is less "run from my house" and more "run from my own domain"

@js @adam @ben

The more I see people wanting to move away from closed garden platforms to open protocols, to more I see that RSS already solved this problem 20 years ago and we just need to find our way back to the path.

With podcast:value, and podcast:funding, the monetary support issue has largely been solved.

@StevenB @js @adam There's technical infrastructure - definitely building blocks to get started with - but my god the UX is clunky. I used iPhone as an analogy for a reason; there's nothing that's anywhere near what we'd call consumer-level usable. (Saying this as an open source developer and product person, btw. I'm very much in favor of open tech. But we devalue design at our peril.)

@ben @js

For sure, the structure is there, but the paint is missing.

UI/UX is surprisingly difficult to nail down, especially for those with more technical thinking. I actually think UI/UX is perhaps the most important part.

I'm an electrician by trade, and one thing I have to train my journeyman is the customer doesn't care what the conduit behind the wall looks like, all they care about is does the switch work and are the light fixtures pretty.

Same goes for app development.

@StevenB @js Totally - UX is always by *far* the most important part! Not just paint but the actual experience for the user, how it feels, how they discover it, and so on.

What happens behind the wall still matters (a lot), but that experience at the end-user side is why you do that work to begin with. It's always about solving their problem well in a way that is frictionless and sustainable for them.