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?…
I built a message board where you pay to be the homepage launched on March 17, 2026 with 19 votes, #885 of 23,380 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches.
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
One message on the homepage at a time. To claim it, outbid the last person. First 50 are free, then pricing starts at $0.50 and climbs by a penny per post. Message values decay over time - the community's likes and dislikes control the rate. Nobody holds the spotlight forever. 36 achievements, a referral program, reactions, and a leaderboard ranked by total views. Solo-built and self-hosted on 3 mini PCs running Kubernetes. $11/month in electricity.
See what people are paying to say to the world. Post your message for free or outbid the current one — the highest bid owns the board.
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…
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