Designer News
Where the design community meets.
↵
Site Design: Svbtle Redesign (svbtle.com)
over 9 years ago from KQ Dreger, Design at Patriot Software
Levi Figueira, over 9 years ago
About a year ago, I had had a Svbtle invite sitting on my inbox for a few months. I was considering a switch from my custom Jekyll blog to a platform with good "web" access (for editing). I was left deciding between Medium and Svbtle. I ended up picking Svbtle for a simple reason: identity. Medium presents the reader with a collection of loose papers, while Svbtle feels more like your own "book" (of sorts). I also really dislike Medium's URLs (nerd stuff I know) and I don't like how, with Medium, it feels like you're content is being clipped into someone else's "magazine".
I'm not sure I'll stick around Svbtle much longer. It lost its original exclusivity, which was obviously a factor in terms of "validation". I might actually end up going back to my own Jekyll and either find or write my own workflow for writing/editing my posts remotely… :)
Also, Svbtle's $6/month are completely optional (and just now introduced) and there are still no features that require the paid plan.
Jeff Smith, over 9 years ago
I like the analogy between book magazine vs. book, and agreed – their exclusivity was a big drive for using Svbtle in the first place.
Didn't know the $6 was optional. They're sign up form (https://svbtle.com/signup) reads differently – maybe forcing it on new customers?
KQ Dreger, over 9 years ago
I think it's only optional if you were an early user:
Also, interesting side-by-side comparison of the writing tools:
https://twitter.com/jeffpersonified/status/501396375913758720
Casey Britt, over 9 years ago
To be fair, Svbtle launched early 2012 I think while Medium launched late 2012. Svbtle had this writing view first I guess? Though I think it may have been inspired by some earlier wordpress plugin.
Mar 2012 http://dcurt.is/codename-svbtle
Interesting. Thanks for sharing Curtis' blog post – thought it was the other way around.
Mattan Ingram, over 9 years ago
Check out siteleaf.com it uses Jekyll logic but publishes through a nice web accessible CMS dashboard (with Markdown support and whatnot).
I'm currently working on moving my old Squarespace site over to it, but since your old site was built with Jekyll it should be a simple conversion.
The design looks fine, but I can't identify the value add svbtle provides over a comparable tool like Medium; Medium has a wider readership, comparable writing tools, and a more diverse ecosystem (mobile app), all for free compared to Svbtle's $6/month.