andrewthebold

Hey! The project started in early February, so it's been around 2-1/2 months. The time was split ~50/50 between design and development.

Happy to elaborate if you have followup q's!

Thanks! Love that you looked at the source. I've been trying to build more accessible webpages lately, so I try to use semantic elements wherever.

One of the big problems with the gentle app today is that it's probably not very accessible, which is something I hope to address.

Yeah! Lots of potential in this idea. Right now it's a free-for-all, but limiting the number of things you can do in a given session might also incentivize more quality messages.

Other possibilities too. I'm trying to avoid gamification mechanics (like maintaining a request-reply ratio, like counts, etc), so that's a consideration.

It was built with the cross-platform framework Flutter, so an android version will be coming soon!

(I just don't have an android device to test with right now)

I agree with all your points!

One piece that will likely help minimize spammy users and multiple accounts is that at launch, it'll be a one-time purchase app.

I do have uncertainties overall, but I'm doing my best to keep the experience clean and safe. If the experience starts to veer towards being a toxic and uncontrollable mess, I'll be quick to shut it down.

Happy to talk more about this because I do see the abuse vectors, and don't take this lightly.

Edit: on your last paragraph, shadow bans are definitely on the table

Thank you! Happy to take feedback or suggestions if you have any.

Super intentional. I haven't quite gotten to the cuteness and customization in animal crossing though.

Also checkout the game "Kind Words", which was a big inspiration for this.

Thank you! If you have any, I'm happy to hear any feedback or critique

Thanks for the feedback! I was already planning on changing these buttons (especially to make the flag button more obvious), so I'll take this into account.

I'm curious: do you have thoughts on what a "reply" button's icon should look like?

I hear what you're saying. I'll say that the "compelling" I'm looking for is content that entices you to want to give some kindness. If it's not doing that, I'll work to make it better!

A feature I'm hoping to add in shortly is better scaffolding for better content, such as:

1. examples of good requests and responses 2. a brief tutorial that gives you a better sense of what's good/bad

Yeah! or /r/RandomKindness

Agreed! It's not a silver bullet or anything like that. More like a quiet place to go to if you're inclined.

I will say one of the "rules" you agree to when you first start is "I know I can’t fix other’s problems, but I can share kindness". I know that's not enough, so it'll be something to keep working on.

The landing page is custom designed! So using tools like paper and Figma, and then translating into a next.js site.

Moderation is based on two things:

1. A spam/bad word filter. It's pretty aggressive and inspired by a variety of OSS tools, but definitely could be better. 2. An easy reporting tool available for any user-generated content. It could be more prominent for requests, so that's something I'll fix shortly.

I hacked together a small dashboard to surface whatever's caught by those two things. For the beta test, it's been working pretty well.

Feel free to ask any followups!

That second part is probably sarcastic, but I agree with the potential moral hazards with this product. I hope it's evident that I've tried to design and monetize this in a way that isn't exploitative. Frankly, it's not a strong business position, but I'd rather lose money than introduce more harm into people lives.

I'm pretty happy with the planned approach of a one-time purchase because it helps sustain the product without ads .

I think I get what you're saying. I'll say that this product isn't really meant to substitute a community. In fact, I'd consider it a failure if Gentle overtook other sources of companionship in a person's life. My belief is that tech should augment rather than replace, if that makes sense.

Thank you! Do call out if anything seems nonintuitive or bad

Yep, that's the plan at the moment!

I'm trying to design this product so that it doesn't become a crutch for people, but rather a source of general kindness and compassion. So I think it'd need a lot more thought to figure out if professional support would fit. I'm also wary of providing "official" advice due to potential regulatory and moral issues. But I do see the potential, especially from a business perspective.

If you have any other thoughts or feedback on the app, I'm eager to listen~

Hey HN! Gentle is an app where you write requests about your worries and get (gentle) replies back from strangers. It’s cute, anonymous, and moderated.

I was inspired by:

* My disappointment in how most social media today incentivizes outrage over empathy.

* The growing trend of feel-good experiences like Kind Words, Animal Crossing, Slowly, and more.

I'm interested in getting more people testing it out. Eager to take feedback and/or talk about it. :)

Direct testflight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/tXMfOfOl

Maybe WorkFlowy? (https://workflowy.com/)

I think if anybody is interested in using this as a webfont, you should take a look at the file sizes of the typeface. They're about 100-200kb each, which adds up if you're using multiple font weights. It could be significant depending on the context of your app.

Apparently this is because the font has a lot of glyphs that may not exist in other optimized web fonts (relevant GitHub issue: https://github.com/rsms/inter/issues/53).

Checkout the samples page: https://rsms.me/inter/samples/

I didn't notice the navbar at the top at first too!

Looks like they have limited offline capability if you've already loaded up a file you want to work on [1].

[1] https://help.figma.com/faqs/offline-mode

I'm guessing the "evolved to make ... their servants" implies a human-like agency.

I haven't tried recent ones personally, but there are plugins that exist that let you export your whole site as static html files, such as:

- https://wordpress.org/plugins/static-html-output-plugin/

- https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/

Super cool! :)

Two notes:

- The Nuxt.js code sample is the exact same as the Vue.js one — unless that's intentional

- The button icons have `cursor: default;` on them which is kind of weird because the buttons are `cursor: pointer`. Perhaps keep it consistent?

You can post things on Product Hunt if you have an account that is a "contributor" [1]. When I did it, it meant fulfilling some easy requirements like upvoting items on the site for three days in a row.

[1] https://help.producthunt.com/posting/how-can-i-get-access-to...

Looks like the video got vertically squished?

Hi HN,

We made Supportive as a tool to help foster quality time with your partner and friends. It's a guided conversation, meaning there's a narrator that takes you through a talk with a partner, adding advice on relationships, meditation, and more. It's not always about not knowing what to talk about — sometimes, it's about creating the right space for it.

We've been working on this for six months now, and have been constantly surprised by how much this simple audio experience changes people's perceptions on friendship and love.

I thought Supportive was relevant to HN because a couple of days ago, a NYTimes article [1] was posted about how our relationships have dramatically changed over the past couple of decades. I feel like I've been seeing more and more articles on the subject, particularly with the recent/ongoing backlash towards social media.

I've been a lurker for a long time, but am excited to share something. Happy to take any questions, feedback, etc! :-)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17059237