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by raphlinus·9y ago·view on hn ↗
A) I'll toss out 1M because you asked for a number.

B) Because if I build out my full ambition, it would be better by most objective metrics (speed, features, integration with IDE-like capabilities) than all the free editors out there, and I think there is a real demand for a better editor.

I know what you mean about the struggle for traction. It is of course possible I'm massively mis-estimating the potential userbase.

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It is of course possible I'm massively mis-estimating the potential userbase.

That is largely irrelevant. Do you have a marketing plan? Because "build it and they will come" tends to work poorly.

If you have no marketing plan, your concerns about a sudden influx of 1M users is likely seriously exaggerated.

Does one need a marketing plan if it's not done for money?

While I'd never heard of xi-editor before now, I'm definitely among those who yearn for a "better" editor for (first off) MacOS... and I think there are many others, based on my totally unscientific assessment of the currently popular editors. I'm still on TextMate for a reason. :-)

So my point is, for certain things "build it and they will come" might work fine. If I ever find an editor I like enough to switch to then I will be singing its praises loudly on the Innernets.

I do a lot of blogging on topics where people need info. All the info I put out is available for free. The most popular page on one of my more heavily trafficked sites has around 40k page views.

A million users are unlikely to just magically know your free editor exists. Things do sometimes go viral, but that isn't the norm for how you get to a million users.

Maybe marketing isn't the best term. But, if the OP does not have some idea of how those million users will be attracted, this is probably not a thing they need to be fretting about.

Right, I didn't write clearly. After a couple months of pushing to a 1.0, I'd expect maybe a few thousand users (this seems reasonable to me because it's the number of github stars). That's enough though that I'd need to start worrying about the product rather than just the technology, but that could all be done part-time.

My estimate of a million users is what might happen after another year or two of building out the whole vision, and with organic growth from numerous sub-communities (for example, I'd expect Rust users to be quicker to adopt it because it's in Rust). At that point, it's clear that the project would need at least a full time person to be its maintainer. And I don't see how to sustain that.

Thanks for emphasizing the focus on marketing; it is indeed a knob I can turn.

Thanks for emphasizing the focus on marketing; it is indeed a knob I can turn.

I think my main point is that it is a knob that can be turned in either direction. It seems to actually be easier to dial it down if the attention you are getting is somehow problematic.

Best.