@dfox so is devrant turned out to be what you thought/hoped it'd be when you first started it, or is it different than the initial idea?

Well then.. @dfox

I dont think @dfox ever imagined it turning into dev centric 9gag.

I want to know this too.

@matsaki95 I'm not 🙄 it's just that dfox is a much more catchy username to remember 😬 sorry @trogus ..

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Subscribing

Subscribed

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Yeah we need one @Photon156

Following

The absence of @dfox and @trogus is worrying

@Linux they are working on the subscribe feature lol

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Their absence is the answer 😂

Just in case @dfox or @trogus do reply

Subbie

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@dfox and @trogus may be sleepin

And muted their notifs lol @CozyPlanes

@matsaki95 it is one thirty am here and I'm not sleepin...

We sound like stalkers 😂

Also want to know

Sub plus ditto in the feature request for subscribe!

Whatever the answer is, I'm just happy it's a great place for devs to get together :)

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Lol they ain't gonna reply

@Duckman so negative.. maybe realist?

This is what happened to that poor lady who had her career ended while on flight and offline on her way to South Africa.

@mundo03
People tell me to be less pessimistic, 
but I 'm just trying real hard to be realistic. 

No but for real, sorry if it sounded negative.

Ok, just woke up! We had just come off a different project that wasn't getting any traction (a tinder for news) and so expectations massive success were pretty low, and I've been pleased with how far we've come.

I was concerned devRant would be a black hole of negativity of people whining and bitching and getting other people worked up too so trolls would be aplenty, but that hasn't been the case. Everyone is super friendly and supportive, which is awesome. My goal was explicitly to create a social network/community for developers, not just a place to rant, so the variety of content beyond rants is good in my book. Certainly a lot of memes, which doesn't bother me much as they are funny and upvoted, other than I wish there was more original content vs. getting swiped from other sites, but this is the internet, hard to say what is truly original.

Growth has been steady (we're around 30k registered) but not the hockey stick growth curve startups hope for. (cont)

We have experimented with different growth/acquisition strategies, but haven't quite found a cheap scalable strategy yet. We've been thinking through some SEO approaches that could help get more people discovering devRant without having to rely on paid or app/play store recommendations.

Ultimately we do want devRant to be sustainable and something we could focus full-time on, but right now it runs in the red, so finding ways to have a real business model have been top of mind as our server costs rise. Also with more money coming in we can invest in getting the word out more and grow the community faster. We know devs can be a little cheap (Collabs hasn't exactly been a hit) so we're thinking now about how to generate money indirectly, like with product/services developers pay for at a work, and hiring related revenue.

All in all, I've been very happy with how the community has turned out, and the overwhelming positivity of our Android reviews are encouraging. Thank you all!

@trogus Thanks for the elaborate response! What I like about devrant is that you can just ping a founder and get a proper response (not just marketing/helpdesk bullshit), or better yet, that still participate in the community.

My reason for commenting is about sustainability. I'm personally very on board with paying for what I use, and devrant is cool enough that I'd not mind contributing with a euro or maybe two a month (eg. I wouldn't for Facebook). I'll also be honest: it's personally not worth €4+ a month. But I don't think it should cost that much in upkeep, if a reasonable percentage donates, so that should be okay.

I just remembered, I can buy custom character skins or something right? (Can't check in a new tab or anything: mobile app.) I haven't bought anything because I never heard you weren't making enough money (and I don't care much for skins). If it's clear that it's necessary for people to pull their own hosting costs (plus some for those who won't), I probably would.

I would take different approach. Instead of making it compulsory, you can crowd fund it. That also give a bit of publicity.

If you're ever desperate for income I suppose you could make a "challenges" section that takes things off freelancer.com and when the ranter finishes the project the profits go to devRant 😂

@calmyourtities I like this idea :)
helping the community and enhancing your skills.

@calmyourtities better get ready to work for $5/h making Wordpress or other php modifications

@ what I would really like is a weekly challenge, maybe not code, but algorithms or puzzles or stuff

@jpichardo great idea! @dfox, @trogus, I'd like that very much too! 😀

@jpichardo I agree. Puzzles and algorithms would be fun.

We've talked about skill badges based on dev challenges that lead to recommended job listings. But challenges like you're talking about here sound more like Kaggle style sponsored challenges or sponsored virtual hackathons, both of which could be cool (and potentially lead to revenue)

@trogus looking forward to it

@trogus good to know, man! The financial aspect just made me buy some upgrades for my profile, so you get at least a few bucks from me ;)