TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Ask HN: passing the torch on userscripts.org

71 pointsby anotherjessealmost 15 years ago
I'm unable to find the time/energy to give to userscripts.org lately. My startup is currently focused on building Nebula &#38; Nova, and I cannot see finding time to devote to the site I spent 5 years building/running.<p>The site has been in "maintenance mode" since starting Nebula, but it deserves more.<p>The site is still very active (Google Analytics for last month): * 2,474,330 Visits * 9,532,743 Pageviews<p>The site is quantified: http://www.quantcast.com/userscripts.org<p>But it needs someone who can do the right thing for the community.<p>There will be technical issues scaling (rails 2.3, postgres, git). Legal issues (dealing with DMCA takedown notices/people who don't like scripts that "fix" their site). Community issues (the site lacks a nice directory and community aspects).<p>Companies or individuals are welcome but I need to know your intentions with the site going forward :)<p>Private inquiries to anotherjesse (at) gmail.com

13 comments

user24almost 15 years ago
seriously? It's a massively popular resource. The number 1 destination for greasemonkey users. There's real value there. I am a little shocked that you're ready to turn it over to someone else.<p>Obviously I know nothing about you or your situation - your startup may well be the next big thing. It just seems to me that you've got a big thing in userscripts.org already.
评论 #1575297 未加载
saurikalmost 15 years ago
Woah. I am totally going to be contacting you about this. (For those who don't recognize the name, I'm the guy who runs the distribution system for software and other hacks on jailbroken iPhones, Cydia.) I have absolutely no fear of DMCA issues regarding this and believe strongly in post-facto program modification, and already manage a large community surrounding this. I even spend a lot of time dealing with system and site scaling (we get a lot more traffic than that in Cydia). Expect an e-mail from me shortly! ;P
ScottWhighamalmost 15 years ago
OMG I love you and I didn't even know it. Congrats on Nebula's and UserScripts' success. You have made my internets much more enjoyable.<p>FWIW I'm with user24: life is long and you'll have many years to regret the sale/dispensing of UserScripts if you ask me. It's very hard to acquire a user base like you have.
评论 #1575328 未加载
qufighterover 14 years ago
I'd gladly work on any number of these types of issues.<p>Freedom to customize an interface and add features that are missing is something I feel quite passionately about. The web is suppose to be about freedom and setting people free from being forced to use repeatedly anything that feels unsatisfactory. With user-scripting one is no longer a slave to the interface that's presented. Anything that is so insecure or incomplete in and of itself deserves to be exposed, and the person who does so deserves credit. If anything scripting only serves the greater good, that anyone would get angry about their own site's problems and try to force a take-down as if they can't control their own server is truly unacceptable from any of the parties that would enforce this policy of fighting those that are informing them.<p>Working with rails would be great. I've got some postgress and scaling experience.
joelhausalmost 15 years ago
Hopefully you can post the results of your sale here and anything you learn along the way...good luck!<p>For a point of reference, I just remembered a similar, but much smaller site called Snipplr recently sold at auction; you can see the results here:<p><a href="http://flippa.com/auctions/94283/Snipplr-com-PR5--500000-visits--17000-Registered-Users" rel="nofollow">http://flippa.com/auctions/94283/Snipplr-com-PR5--500000-vis...</a>
sizzlemctwizzleover 14 years ago
I definitely think you should consider re-opensourcing the site. I'd learn ruby just so I could help improve it and I'm sure there are many others who use the site that would also like to help. You or someone you found would still need to run the admin side and deploy updates, but I think it would help lighten the load.
评论 #1699500 未加载
评论 #1699261 未加载
jeronealmost 15 years ago
That's really said news. I was very active in the beginning, but I too have moved on. It's that I haven't learned any rails (yet), otherwise I'm interested. Maybe you can make it more an community afford, opening the site up for multiple active people.
DTrejoalmost 15 years ago
Nebula looks awesome. I say this as someone who has a slice of what it is like inside a government IT department. Is Nebula going to expand outside of NASA as well?
评论 #1575307 未加载
loumfalmost 15 years ago
You should enter the RedGate challenge. It isn't 100% up their alley, but if your user-base is primarily IT and Devs, it might be.
moeffjualmost 15 years ago
Heh, I still remember the first notice (not DMCA, just German law) that made me drop the domain :)<p>Good luck!
joshualmost 15 years ago
URL for nova/nebula?
评论 #1576352 未加载
markemarkover 14 years ago
userscripts.org now doesn't work at all<p>you either get %00 internal server error or please wait message
markemarkover 14 years ago
userscripts.org has now stopped working<p>either get 500 internal server error, or please wait message