Show HN: Today I Learned XYZ

1 point

3 years ago

Today I Learned XYZ is a website where users can document the interesting things they learn, either from hobbies or jobs. Users can also read and vote on the submissions of other users, based on how interesting and useful the submission is. To stay updated on the findings of the most interesting users, RSS feeds are available.

Why I built this

I built Today I Learned XYZ to learn more about full stack web development, as well as infrastructure and software engineering in general. However, I wanted whatever software I made to be useful, with a more specific purpose than just a generic blogging platform. Before starting the project, I saw this post on Hacker News: What To Blog About [1]. I found particularly interesting the section about Today I Learned style blog posts, in which the author writes about new findings that interest them. The TIL format is mostly for the benefit of the author, as the subject can be something that has already been covered in other blogs. All that matters was that the author learned something new and wants to share about it, for the benefit of others. I thought this would be a refreshing change of pace from social networking sites where users are constantly trying to make the most popular content.

You can view the source code for this project on GitHub [2] and I wrote instructions for self hosting.

Any feedback is appreciated, either on the implementation or the premise of the site!

[1] https://simonwillison.net/2022/Nov/6/what-to-blog-about/ [2] https://github.com/cuppajoe123/Today-I-Learned-App

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