Hey everyone! I've been working on a side project called UpVote – a clean, fast social news aggregator focused on quality content and simplicity.
What it does:
Submit links or text posts
Vote on content (upvotes only, no downvotes)
Comment with nested threading
Dark mode with pure black OLED-friendly theme
Mobile-optimized with floating action button
Vote points system for engagement
Tech stack:
PHP 8.3 + SQLite (keeping it simple)
Vanilla CSS with CSS variables for theming
No frameworks – just clean, fast HTML/CSS/JS
Responsive design with 640px breakpoint
Design philosophy:
Flat design, no shadows or gradients
Solid colors only for performance
Instant theme switching with localStorage
Cross-browser compatible (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge)
Current status:
Fully functional with ~8 users and 26 posts in first 24 hours
38% creator ratio (users actually posting, not just lurking)
Moderation dashboard for community management
I'm particularly proud of the dark mode implementation – it loads instantly without flash and uses transparent post backgrounds for a modern look.
Looking for feedback on:
Overall UX/UI impressions
Any bugs or issues you spot
Feature suggestions
Demo: upvote.social
I think the problem with HN and Reddit is that votes are based on a post agreeing with the voter's side of an argument, and not on a post containing supported facts relevant to the argument.
It means those relevant facts are suppressed not encouraged, and means the whole discussion is not about finding out more about an argument, but finding out how many people in HN/Reddit support one or the other side of an argument. The former is interesting and should be useful to everyone. The latter is useful to almost no-one.