Built a new version of HN/Reddit

Hey everyone! I've been working on a side project called UpVote – a clean, fast social news aggregator focused on quality content and simplicity.

What it does:

Submit links or text posts

Vote on content (upvotes only, no downvotes)

Comment with nested threading

Dark mode with pure black OLED-friendly theme

Mobile-optimized with floating action button

Vote points system for engagement

Tech stack:

PHP 8.3 + SQLite (keeping it simple)

Vanilla CSS with CSS variables for theming

No frameworks – just clean, fast HTML/CSS/JS

Responsive design with 640px breakpoint

Design philosophy:

Flat design, no shadows or gradients

Solid colors only for performance

Instant theme switching with localStorage

Cross-browser compatible (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge)

Current status:

Fully functional with ~8 users and 26 posts in first 24 hours

38% creator ratio (users actually posting, not just lurking)

Moderation dashboard for community management

I'm particularly proud of the dark mode implementation – it loads instantly without flash and uses transparent post backgrounds for a modern look.

Looking for feedback on:

Overall UX/UI impressions

Any bugs or issues you spot

Feature suggestions

Demo: upvote.social

4 points | by upvotenow 16 hours ago

2 comments

  • jaggs 15 hours ago
    Yes, it looks nice. The only problem is it's entering a pretty crowded field, especially with the growing Fediverse options.
    [-]
    • upvotenow 14 hours ago
      Thank you very much for your lovely feedback, we understand the field is crowded however we push to keep everyone happy, we are implementing new features that are Suttle and support the site growth. We urge people to maybe try it for a couple of weeks and see what they think to things like user experience.
  • damnitbuilds 15 hours ago
    You got one Upvote here. Shame.

    I think the problem with HN and Reddit is that votes are based on a post agreeing with the voter's side of an argument, and not on a post containing supported facts relevant to the argument.

    It means those relevant facts are suppressed not encouraged, and means the whole discussion is not about finding out more about an argument, but finding out how many people in HN/Reddit support one or the other side of an argument. The former is interesting and should be useful to everyone. The latter is useful to almost no-one.

    [-]
    • upvotenow 14 hours ago
      I agree to some of that, however I think room could be built to change the way people use the Vote system. Our aim is to use it to showcase the best of the internet content first... what people are really enjoying, trending, looking at.

      We don't have a messed up algorithm that puts what we want Infront of people, it is done by our users through key engagement.