This is the prototype/MVP of an idea I had for a blogging platform. It was only made public a few hours ago so it's a ghost town, and it's very basic because I want to iterate based on user feedback, but here's the idea.<p>For bloggers: It's a blogging platform where you can create your own hosted independent blog. Your blog will receive a built-in audience, and your posts will automatically be promoted to that audience, all for free.<p>For readers: It's a blogging community where you can read, comment, and vote on blog posts. The newest and best content is always easy to find because it rises to the top based on your votes.<p>The aggregator frontend works a lot like Reddit or Imgur, but for blogging.<p>I can think of a lot of advantages this system would have over current blogging platforms and content aggregators.<p>For blogging platforms the advantage is obviously the built-in audience. It's hard to get that by submitting your blog to current aggregators because of rules against self-promotion, difficulties in finding the right subreddit, domain loyalty, and hug of death.<p>The advantages over current aggregators might be less obvious though:<p>1. Users would be able to post almost any form of content imaginable, not just external links or images<p>2. The content is hosted, no hug of death ever, + all the other benefits of hosting the content yourself<p>3. Content moderation would scale much more easily, because blog owners would each be responsible for their own blog. This could lead to faster and greater diversification of content. On reddit for example I feel like there's a lot of content that people miss out on because it can't be done at a scale that's active and moderated<p>4. If this ever were to be monetized, the monetization plan wouldn't be murky. It'd actually be really straightforward and proven<p>5. Content has a life beyond its 12-hour expiration date. Blog posts are naturally formatted for SEO and it actually makes sense for Google to index them, unlike a Reddit or Imgur submission page. So traffic can be referred internally or externally, and continue to receive steady traffic over long periods of time<p>I'm really interested to hear your feedback on this. I'm wondering what the biggest flaws are with the concept, and what challenges I will face if I pursue it. I'm also hoping to get some direction on the design and features so I can get back to development. I'm also anticipating the mother of all chicken-and-egg problems, so advice on how to overcome that is appreciated as well.<p>If any developers or designers are interested in joining me to develop this idea, there's a contact form on the main website, or you can email me directly at my username on Google's email service.