Currents, one month (and 100 users) after launch: some reflections

It’s been a month since I published Currents. This is the first time I’ve genuinely committed to promoting one of my projects, and I’m pleasantly surprised to have reached 100 registered users. But even more than that, I’m happy about the many positive responses I’ve received.

One thing I’ve learned is how important it is to be consistent in publishing content about the project: looking at the trend in new user registrations, it’s immediately clear which days I posted something on Reddit or Bluesky. I still struggle to figure out how to promote Currents without coming across as an annoying spammer; so far I haven’t received any complaints about it, but I’m sure they’ll come, and I’ll use them to calibrate my approach.

Something else I discovered the hard way is that, even with very few users, moderation on a platform (especially one centered around images) is essential. I really didn’t expect to be dealing with adult content before even hitting 50 registrations. I’m already working on a basic moderation system so that users can choose to blur or hide certain types of images, including those that are likely AI-generated, a highly requested feature. I hope to ship this improvement very soon.

One feature that’s been particularly well received is the ability to add attribution to saved images, giving proper credit to the original author. I already have some ideas to improve this further, but I’d like to wait until I have a few more users and try to involve them in my thinking, so I can be sure I’m landing on conclusions that are actually appreciated.

I’d also love to create a blog, specific to Currents, where I can publish in-depth pieces on particular aspects of the project and how they evolve over time. I’d like to use a “native AT Protocol” blogging platform to support the ecosystem; pckt.blog is one I really like, the only downside is that it doesn’t support showing Bluesky thread replies as comments beneath articles, which is something I’d love to have.

This would also make the project more transparent, which I believe is the most significant differentiator from similar projects. Currents is open source and built on an open protocol: being open with users about every decision that concerns it, and about all the work that goes into it, feels like the natural consequence of that approach.

These first 100 users have been a small proof that there are people interested in using a project like Currents. The next milestone I’m setting for myself is 1,000 registrations: if I get there, I’d take it as a signal that this project could become something lasting, and I’d put in place a system to let users support it financially. That would be the only way to make it sustainable without resorting to advertising, which is the downfall of every social network and online platform. A success story I draw inspiration from is Are.na: they’re entirely funded by their users and have a dedicated page where, among other things, they share data on how many supporters they have and how they spend the money they receive.

It would already be a win to have enough supporters to cover the monthly cloud hosting costs… especially since right now it runs on a Mac mini at my place :)

Thanks for reading,

Matteo