I built a message board where you pay to be the homepage
I kept thinking about what would happen if a message board only had one slot. One message, front and center, until someone pays to replace it. That's the entire product. You pay the current message's decayed value plus a penny to take the homepage. Message values drop over time using a gravity-based formula (same concept HN uses for ranking), so a $10 message might only cost a few bucks to replace a day later. Likes slow the decay, dislikes speed it up. The whole thing runs on three mini PCs in my house (k3s cluster, PostgreSQL, Redis Sentinel). Is it overengineered for a message board?…
In plain words
This is a single-slot message board where users pay to feature their message on the homepage. The cost to replace the current message decreases over time using a decay formula similar to Hacker News ranking, so older messages become cheaper to displace. User engagement affects decay speed—likes slow it down, dislikes accelerate it. The product is for anyone interested in experimenting with a novel auction-based messaging system. It runs on a Kubernetes cluster with PostgreSQL and Redis across three home computers.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
I kept thinking about what would happen if a message board only had one slot. One message, front and center, until someone pays to replace it. That's the entire product. You pay the current message's decayed value plus a penny to take the homepage. Message values drop over time using a gravity-based formula (same concept HN uses for ranking), so a $10 message might only cost a few bucks to replace a day later. Likes slow the decay, dislikes speed it up. The whole thing runs on three mini PCs in my house (k3s cluster, PostgreSQL, Redis Sentinel). Is it overengineered for a message board? Absolutely. I genuinely don't know where this goes. Curious what HN thinks. Archive of past messages: https://saythat.sh/history
Does the same job
all alternatives →- HNHacker News em dash user leaderboard pre-ChatGPT2025 · gally.net · ▲377
The use of the em dash (—) now raises suspicions that a text might have been AI-generated. Inspired by a suggestion from dang [1], I created a leaderboard of HN users according to how many of their posts before November 30, 2022—that is, before the release of ChatGPT—contained em dashes. Dang himself comes in number 2—by a very slim margin. Credit to Claude Code for showing me how to search the HN database through Google BigQuery and for writing the HTML for the leaderboard. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45053933
- CWChat with 19 years of HN2025 · app.camelai.com · ▲156
Hey HN We loaded a BigQuery dataset of all of Hacker News, every comment, story and user, into camelAI. You can ask questions like: • “When does dang tend to comment during the day?” • “Which domains have gained the most submissions since 2015, year-over-year?” • “How has average comment length changed each January since 2007?” • “Top five users who link to arXiv papers the most.” It's behind a log-in to prevent abuse but free to use for 10 messages. No payment info required. We use OpenAI o3 or Claude sonnet 3.7 for the agent which can be really expensive. Would love feedback especially…
- SPSimple paywall and micropayment add-on for your website2016 · ▲7
Hi HN users, we've built a simple add-on which allows website owner to individually paywall content. Add-on allows website visitor to micropay anywhere between 5 to 15 cents to access a paywalled content. Check up an explanatory GIF at: https://zen.market Ad-generated revenue keeps falling. Some publishers have installed soft paywalls which push website visitors to start monthly subscriptions. However, the way paywalls are usually implemented is unfriendly and discourages visitors from paying. Most publishers report that only 0.1-0.3% of their site's visitors become paying…
- IMI made an app so you never forget to cancel a subscription2024 · subout.tech · ▲5
42% of consumers waste more than $100 per month on unused subscriptions. That's $1,200 a year. That could do a lot for you don't you think? I saw a Twitter (X) post about how someone forgot to cancel a subscription and it cost them almost $50. It's happened to me before and I'm sure it's happened to you. I built Subout to fix that. And so you don't have to pay a subscription to track and cancel unused subscriptions, I have a one-time payment of $5 for lifetime access. The price increases up to $50 for new customers as I add the features below. => Finding you one-time payment deals => SMS or…
- SHShow HN2011 · tonecheck.com · ▲14
Hi, i was wondering what the HN community thinks of this email tone check application? Do you think this can be done better with open-source? Disclaimer: I am neither a founder or an employee at the company. Just someone who had a similar idea.
- TSTextSlide - SMS Roulette2010 · ▲15
I created a SMS based chat application that connects two people to chat (aka SMS roulette). I've opened up some invites for HN. Signup with your hacker news handle with (hn) so that you know when you are chatting with another HN'er. http://textslide.com/hn Feedback is always welcome.
More life & fun this month
the category →- TL
Life & fun · 10d ago · louisabraham.github.io
Photosynthesis fires two of your iPhone
Life & fun · 29d ago · photosynthesis.camera
SoloUno▲310Take control of hair pulling, nail biting & skin picking
Life & fun · 28d ago · solouno.io
Scroll through all 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 reachable Rubik's Cube permutations.
Life & fun · 27d ago · everycube.alen.is
Hi HN, I built Eigendrum, a web tool that solves the 2D wave equation for arbitrary shapes so you can hear what they sound like as drums. How it works: * Solves -∇²u = λu using finite element analysis (Kφ = λMφ) on a triangle mesh. * Validated to <0.1% error against closed-form solutions for circles (Bessel zeros) and rectangles. * Sound model factors in strike location, Rayleigh damping, and mallet width. * Includes Kac drums I & II to demonstrate identical sound spectra from different geometries. * No frameworks, build steps, or dependencies. Repo and tests:…
Life & fun · 27d ago · baselashraf81.github.io
Launched alongside, March 2026
the whole month →
Switch from ChatGPT to Claude with import memory feature
AI · Mar 2026 · claude.com
