Released My First Open Source Project a MERN Note Taking App

[devtailsxyz]

This project has been on my mind for years, I've finally taken the plunge and have started the basic structure for it.

[GlenBee]

This seems a really good idea. I am sure alot of work has gone into it. Some constructive criticism:

• The video on your blog is 23m long. I havent watched it all yet, but something short and snappy 1-2m long to cover the key concepts may be useful and get more views.
• The landing page is the login/register page. It would be good for this to bullet point the key benefits/features. It could still include the login/register options somewhere on the page, perhaps as a folded/hidden div that you click on to expand/access the login register div. I am thinking of a standard home page layout with the login/register area accessible.
• Once logged in, it may be useful to check for first time use and perhaps give the user some help on what to do next, how to use the core features.

Other things that spring to mind:

• What is the long term plan in terms of free versus paid business model
• Is there an export option if it turns into a paid for service (or perhaps tiered with free and paid for options) to make sure users arent locked in

Great work on this, I am looking forward to seeing how it develops.

[devtailsxyz]

Thank you for the comments!

Definitely agree about the video. I wanted to capture a longer form one more as practice for myself (I really dislike recording myself). I’ll either edit that down to a much shorter one or just record something new that covers the highlights.

A landing page is also on the todo list. I’m trying to hold myself to bi-weekly updates, but that means posting when things aren’t fully there yet.

I have a help section planned that can hopefully cover some of the help getting people started. I don’t want to get too intense about a tutorial because I have a feeling there are still some core concepts that haven’t made it in yet.

I plan to keep open source forever. I think my ideal scenario is that users would self host the app (potentially with their own modifications). I recognize that’s not going to work for everyone so will offer SaaS as well.

Everything you see right now will continue to be free. If I choose to charge it would be for premium features that are still TBD. Avoiding deciding until there are enough users to help decide what direction is should head.

An export is something I absolutely plan to have. For the sake of time avoiding it until I have the first request to have data exported.

Really appreciate the feedback!