Penflip

Hey Product Hunters! Just wanted to share Penflip, a project I've been working on for the past few months. Penflip is like GitHub for writing - you get version control, collaboration, and social features, but instead of for code, it's optimized for prose. On top of that, there's a distraction-free editor (woohoo markdown!) and one-click publishing. Happy to answer any questions. AMA!

@rrhoover - absolutely positively being my "own boss". Everyone fantasizes about not having a boss, but let me tell you - having a boss is so much easier. I've been working on Penflip full time since I quit my job. I have a background in both software engineering and design, so building it isn't a huge hurdle. But then there's everything else - marketing and user acquisition, customer support, responding to emails and staying active on social networks - that's a lot to juggle. I love all of that stuff, I really do, but it's tough to decide what to work on at any given moment. I wish I could spend all of my time on EACH one of those things, but I'm only one person, not five. So I'm often second guessing myself - "am I spending too much time answering emails today? Should I spend more time promoting this thing on reddit? What about all those bugs?" I'm thinking about making a schedule for myself in order to better divide my time. More structure might help.

@madebyloren - I love that. Many perceive entrepreneurship as a career for those seeking to get rich, and for some that's true, but in reality most true entrepreneurs just want freedom. Freedom to do what they love, work autonomously, and have financial freedom. Being that you're a one man startup, how do you prioritize? Have you tried outsourcing some of the tasks or created processes to streamline your workflow? P.S. I forgot to mention how much I LOVED your post about quitting (I can relate!). http://madebyloren.com/i-quit-my...

Hey @madebyloren, I've seen a good number of great writing tools as of late. Two that I use often are Draft and Hackpad, and I see how they're targeted for specific use cases but the line between those use cases seem to be getting thinner. Who do you think your user is and what is he/she using Penflip for?

Looks like Penflip is not being actively maintained, many users complaining and dropping subscriptions.

deadpooled

I liked using PenFlip for my public writing when the project was still alive. The concept of living documents with suggestiosn coming in from other users wa really great. Sort of like an open-for-suggestion Google Doc. Sadly, it is no longer functioning. Maybe it's time for its successor to take over?