Checkin 5: What Paperize Won't (Patreon)

I've been head-down working, reading, and thinking about Paperize; about how to reach as many people as possible, with as little overhead as possible. How to expose:

• the most-awesome features
• to the most people
• at the least price

And I think I've got it figured out. So I'm coming up for air to share it with my patrons.

I'm going to express the solution in terms of what's NOT there.

Paperize won't:

1. ...have a database.

What! No database?!?!? Where will all the data get stored???

Simple: bring your own data! Instead of phoning home to a central store where all users store all their data together (and I have to protect it), just hook up your Google Drive or Dropbox or what-have-you. I trust those companies' technical teams MUCH more than I trust myself!

2. ...have logins.

We use logins to give ourselves permission to access our data in a central store. Without the central store, I no longer need to know how to identify and authorize you to your data. You can already do that yourself with whatever account you choose. Paperize just has to expose the hooks to those services.

3. ...have a server at all.

If there's no databases and no logins, why do we need a server at all?

There's an old, apocryphal quote in computer programming that goes something like this:

"no code is faster than no code"

That is to say that the fastest code in the world will never be faster than not executing any code at all. Obviously!

Similarly, I've come to the conclusion that the easiest and fastest way to scale a server is not to have a server at all. Turns out this is what the cool kids are doing out there already, check out serverless architectures, noBackend, and the IndieWeb to learn more.

4. ...take payments.

Without servers and databases (and maintenance and security and salaries), there's not a whole lot I have to pay for (just DNS, static file serving, and my time, to be exact.) If I don't need to pay for anything, why would I charge for anything?

This turns out to make things even easier because payments are a beast in themselves, even if I use another service. As you know, I've already got Patreon set up for people to support me directly, as a creator. This keeps the project itself free of the common pitfalls of late-stage capitalism and corporatism, while I can still get compensated for my time.

5. ...have advertisements.

Same thing as before: if it isn't bleeding money, it doesn't have to make money. It's an open secret that advertising is building and destroying the web, simultaneously. I feel very fortunate that we may be able to sidestep this debacle entirely (and perhaps argue against it one day.)

All this said, I do have plans to allow patrons so "sponsor" Paperize via Patreon, which may result in some logos appearing in the documentation or on the app itself. I don't find this offensive in the same way as dropping advertising widgets all over the site and allowing an ad network to track people and advertise all kinds of things I didn't sign off on first.

Speaking of...

6. ...track its users.

I've given everything else up, why not go full-tilt? I've removed Google Analytics, and I'm not going to add any other tracking pixels. Your usage and data are yours. Maybe I'll figure out a way to ask for it when it is useful to both of us, but I think it is a bit vile to track everything and hope it is useful one day.

If you were to analyze your web traffic while using Paperize, it should only communicate with paperize.io (to download or refresh the app code) and whatever services you decide to use (Google, Dropbox, etc.)

Is this possible?

I don't know, but I think so!

It's so different from how most of the web has been built, certainly all of the web that I have personally built. I think it has promise, and when paired with Patreon it potentially represents a shift in how we can build tools for each other, not corporate interests. (I'm looking at you, Equifax...)