Show HN: Kraa – Writing App for Everything

(kraa.io)

113 points | by levmiseri 1 day ago

23 comments

  • steego 13 hours ago
    After watching a bunch of people use the live chat, I am not discouraged by live chat anymore.

    I actually think one can make it work, one simply needs to account for moderation and flooding upfront.

    The first feature you need is a way to instantly ignore people who are ruining the collective experience. I would think when a person is ignored by a certain threshold of people, their content should automatically be moderated.

    The second feature that’s needed is some sort of flood protection or detection. If a user is pasting or trying to flood the chat with characters, they should be instantly hidden and their content be subject to moderation. Being able to distinguish between copying and pasting on occasion and flooding goes a long way.

    • _thisdot 13 hours ago
      The recently sunsetted Reddit public chat was a good example. They were tied to a subreddit, so only people with some shared interest came together. And the moderators could set an entry barrier based on karma. And you stood to lose your reddit account if you misbehaved in a public chat
      • steego 12 hours ago
        I understand and appreciate Reddit’s approach.

        On the other hand, I think there might be a way to solve this problem for live anonymous chat in a way that doesn’t rely on threats of “punishment” or “banning”.

        I think most people looking at this problem don’t appreciate how much realtime information can be calculated from the event stream and how that information can be leveraged toward solving it in near realtime.

    • embedding-shape 13 hours ago
      > The first feature you need is a way to instantly ignore people who are ruining the collective experience. I

      Yeah, and we all know you're talking about Anon Pond Heron, lets be honest.

      • steego 12 hours ago
        I am.

        While I’m not the kind of person who races to test the most triggering racial slurs, I’m actually glad Anon Pond Heron did because I thought his behavior was informative, especially as you could watch him slowly type out the beginnings of a slur.

        I actually think these types of CRDTs can be enhanced with a handful of simple mechanisms to ensure a higher quality chat experience.

  • dmje 13 hours ago
    Intriguing.

    But - the first thing I want to know it "how much" and then shortly after that I want to know "can I run it myself".

    • tigroferoce 13 hours ago
      This should be the first and most important question anyone asks when trying a new product/service. If I don't understant the business model and how much I could be locked-in, I don't even bother wasting 1 minute on the product (I might tray that to get inspiration, but I probably wouldn't use that for anything serious).
      • embedding-shape 12 hours ago
        > If I don't understant the business model and how much I could be locked-in, I don't even bother wasting 1 minute on the product

        Personally I do it the other way around, first I try it out and see if it's useful, then I'd figure out if I'm willing to accept the tradeoffs of pricing/lock-in.

        If you do it the way you suggest, wouldn't that mean you can't actually understand if the business model is fine because of the benefits you get? Seems backwards to me.

        • quentindanjou 8 hours ago
          100% agree. Why even question the business model if that's not a product that I would use. First should be "Can I use it?"(meaning does it run on my devices etc.), then "Do I find it useful?" before anything else.
          • alsetmusic 4 hours ago
            If I know the price is something I'd be willing to pay for a thing that is useful, I evaluate as such. If I know that it's a price I'd never pay, I still want to see what it is and try it because I'm curious. Don't hide information from me.

            Example: enterprise licenses that are meant for a huge org rather than an individual let me know that I shouldn't get excited about a tool because it's not for me. Happens a lot because I'm very into networking and automation.

    • levmiseri 13 hours ago
      What you see now will always be free. In 2026 we will introduce a 'pro' tier that will increase storage space for media/images and additional advanced features.

      No self-hosting planned for now.

  • levmiseri 1 day ago
    Example of the real-real-time chat: https://kraa.io/hackernews
    • heliumtera 13 hours ago
      I couldn't see the value of this application until I went on this link and saw the euphoria. Whatever this means, there's certainly a place for unfiltered, unmoderated "anonymous" chat. This is promising, but I still don't understand why it always had to end in penis.

      Anyway, I liked this. Consider making sent messages as immutable, it's very distracting people editing old messages.

    • alsetmusic 4 hours ago
      Timestamp overlaps with the edge of messages on Safari 18.6 on MacOS 14.8.2.
    • GaryBluto 12 hours ago
      Shows a lot of confidence in their own service when they link to their "main" chatroom on another live chat provider.
    • kylecazar 14 hours ago
      This went to hell fairly quickly
      • embedding-shape 13 hours ago
        Everyone learns some important lessons the first time they allow user-generated content on the public internet, particularly if you're brave enough to allow so without any login :) It's a rite of passage at this point I think, lucky OP :)
        • bonesss 12 hours ago
          I’m reminded, by the ascii art d’s, about a metric used in game dev where users can shape content, something to the effect of time to penis (TTP): defined as the time from tool availability to when users abuse said tool to craft dong.

          Supposedly it’s pretty quick.

      • input_sh 13 hours ago
        Really? IMO it went about as well as I expected given the audience.
  • katsura 4 hours ago
    On the home page the "News article" and the "Food recipe" samples point to the same page.
  • edu 9 hours ago
    This is intriguing, but honestly the first thought that came to my mind reading the home page was “jack of all trades, master of none”.

    Take it as constructive criticism, but I didn’t learn why should I try over my current tools of choice.

    In any case, best of lucks with it!

  • taco_emoji 11 hours ago
    i don't get it. if i need to write a document, i'll still use google docs. if i want to write a blogpost, i'll use a blog hosting platform. if I want a wiki, i'll use a wiki platform

    > It's not designed to be this or that

    well then why am i using it

  • imcritic 13 hours ago
    This is damn awesome!

    Edit: at first I thought it was too damn awesome, but then I noticed that my phone is overheating after just a few minutes watching the live chat.

    • linhns 9 hours ago
      Mine got laggy after refresh, however have to commend them for such slick UI
  • Otek 10 hours ago
    99% marketing 1% product Sorry…
    • levmiseri 7 hours ago
      I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to say with this. That we need marketing to succeed? Or that the product has too much marketing (where?) and low quality?
    • embedding-shape 10 hours ago
      Name one "writing app" that doesn't apply to? Still feel like you're being needlessly harsh, don't you remember writing your first text editor too? Most of us do it at one point or another.
      • taco_emoji 8 hours ago
        I don't think the OP was trying to write "My First Text Editor". This is a product we're meant to consume and should be critiqued as such.
  • heliumtera 13 hours ago
    Congrats! This was something I have not seen before. People loved it, apparently. Real time chat makes it so even with few users, there is so much happening. Unfortunately moderation could be a problem. Good luck with it. Gos bless you, my morning is a little bit happier now
  • ramon156 13 hours ago
    Without sounding negative, i see a lot of bells and whistles

    For UX it seems better to only show features when you need it. You're up against a physical notepad.

    Maybe I'm not the target audience

    • levmiseri 13 hours ago
      Could you please expand on this? Showing only the features you need is pretty much what we tried to do. Keeping the writing UI minimal and distraction-free.
  • embedding-shape 14 hours ago
    - Click "Start Writing"

    - Start typing, nothing happens

    - Editor apparently didn't focus, I try clicking anywhere on the page to give text editor focus

    - Editor doesn't focus when you click on it?

    For being an experience "all about writing", I sure don't understand how to get started? I click in the middle of the page, but nothing is focusing? Using Firefox 145.0.1.

    • levmiseri 12 hours ago
      This is embarrassing and a recent regression on the latest update. Thanks for the report, we will fix this.
    • previnder 11 hours ago
      Clicking on the line with the cursor worked for me.
      • embedding-shape 10 hours ago
        I mean yes, of course. The point is that the rest of the 99% of the document isn't clickable...
    • grvdrm 12 hours ago
      Using Safari (OSX). No problems.
      • embedding-shape 12 hours ago
        Sorry to be doubting, but are you sure?

        I got curious, and looked at the DOM, and seems the editor when empty is just one line of the full page, which if you click anywhere else (like what I did initially, in the middle of the page) the editor can't be focused. Are you sure you clicked in the middle of the page?

        Looks like this for me: https://i.imgur.com/DOdiN4o.png

        Unless you click that specific rectangle, the editor doesn't focus, isn't it the same in Safari?

  • bovermyer 6 hours ago
    My ideal writing experience is one where there is nothing in the way of writing.

    For me, that means as close to hand-writing a manuscript as possible, without the pain of extended hours of pressing hard with a pen or pencil.

    From there, I may want to share my writing, or not. If so, then I want the process of moving what I've written from the initial medium to online and publicly accessible to be as quick and painless as possible.

    If not, then... I just want it to be a file. Something I can save, archive, move, or whatever, like any other file.

    It sounds like, given my context, Kraa is not designed for me.

    I am interested in hearing from people who feel like Kraa solves a problem for them. I'd like to understand the difference in creative environment!

    • levmiseri 5 hours ago
      From what you have written, it actually sounds like Kraa 'might' be for you.

      > I want the process of moving what I've written from the initial medium to online and publicly accessible to be as quick and painless as possible. With Kraa this is a matter of one click.

      > If not, then... I just want it to be a file. Something I can save, archive, move, or whatever, like any other file. And this is more nuanced, but Kraa isn't using any proprietary file system. You can export your leaves to .md any time. Though it's not the same as e.g. Obsidian where it is literally a local file.

    • dbtc 5 hours ago
      > without the pain of extended hours of pressing hard with a pen or pencil.

      Excuse me, do you have a minute to talk about fountain pens?

      I recommend a Lamy Safari or Pilot Kakuno to start. If the nib is good, no pressure at all is required to write. You have to retrain to relax your hand and arm if you're used to ballpoints and graphite. High quality paper is not required but it can make a big difference too.

      As far as digital, .txt will always have a special place in my hard drive. As long as a tool has a way to export into plaintext, I am not opposed to using it.

  • jbenner-radham 9 hours ago
    Pretty neat, good job! It doesn't seem to support Setext headings though unfortunately.
  • dwa3592 13 hours ago
    Beautiful. Is it E2E encrypted?
    • embedding-shape 13 hours ago
      Does it matter? They'll surely wouldn't implement a local/client-first E2E encryption, so in the end they'll be holding the keys anyways.

      If you want something private, don't put it on other people's platforms, it's very simple.

      • bilekas 11 hours ago
        > Does it matter? They'll surely wouldn't implement a local/client-first E2E encryption, so in the end they'll be holding the keys anyways

        Yes it matters, there are use cases if not only for privacy focus people. Why would the hold the keys? I actually have found a good example of one that I am working to verify.

        • embedding-shape 10 hours ago
          Because currently they have search and they do user-to-user messaging, good luck implementing that over the web in a reliable and scalable way with E2E encryption.
    • bilekas 11 hours ago
      I was looking for this too. shared one that was client side encrypted. No realtime chat though. SecuriNote.com
    • levmiseri 13 hours ago
      No, it is not. But that's high on the list of things we're focusing on.
  • wiz21c 12 hours ago
    The Food Recipe example link doesn't go to a food recipe :-(
  • desireco42 9 hours ago
    I love it. What little I tried it. First homepage is actually clear and obvious.

    I was thinking of similar markdown editing experience, so I am happy you did this so I don't have to.

    Name is a little bit weird, what is this supposed to mean?

    • levmiseri 9 hours ago
      Thanks! The whole app is raven-themed. "Kraa" is the sound a raven makes in many languages and is a reasonably short name. It's not anyhow deeper than that.
      • richardliutl 1 hour ago
        Is it a reference to "The Raven Scholar" as well? (A great novel!)
  • qntmfred 11 hours ago
    nice work. i'm curious, what's the architecture for authorization?
  • _kidlike 12 hours ago
    self hosting when?
  • zho756 7 hours ago
    [dead]
  • ksterne 13 hours ago
    [dead]
  • sjapps 12 hours ago
    [dead]
  • vinclou 10 hours ago
    Apparently, Notion, Obsidian, Google Docs, Word, Notes, Reminders, Evernote, Bear, Typora, iA Writer, Ulysses, Standard Notes, Simplenote, Roam, LogSeq, Craft, Vim, Emacs and the hundreds other editors launched this week alone just weren't doing it. They were too cluttered. Too focused. Too specific in their use cases. Not online. Too offline.
    • BrokenCogs 10 hours ago
      Building an editor is a rite of passage for the serial procrastinator
    • Apocryphon 7 hours ago
      This comment is unfair to this specific product, but it does highlight how saturated this category is.
    • embedding-shape 10 hours ago
      Can't believe you missed notepad.exe(v1).
      • w10-1 10 hours ago
        VSCode, IntelliJ, Eclipse...
        • edu 9 hours ago
          Ed
    • ordinaryradical 9 hours ago
      This comment is clever but adds literally nothing to the discussion. It had no spirit of curiosity, just contempt.