alt.hn

4/23/2025 at 7:36:41 PM

Show HN: Nowrite.fun – If you stop typing, your text disappears

 https://nowrite.fun

by vseplet

4/23/2025 at 8:49:44 PM

I haven’t tried it yet but it is an interesting idea for an app. My initial thoughts are: if I have something that seems to be important or significant that I wrote down near the start of my note, I would probably type gibberish or nonsense if I wanted to prevent it from being erased. Is there some way to ameliorate this situation where I would end up padding the note with fluff? My guess is to just make the timer shorter. Or maybe have some “checkpoint” for a longer timer.

Also, when it comes to handwriting, is there a way to support this input? I’ll say that a lot of left-handed writers have the opposite issue when writing with ink on paper. If they write too fast, most of them will end up smudging what they just wrote. This is not an issue on electronic writing devices of course.

by layman51

4/23/2025 at 9:31:47 PM

Same, and I could also see myself compulsively using Ctrl+A Ctrl+C to get it on my clipboard just in case. I already do this in webforms (like on HN) because of so many years of losing my text.

I like this idea but I think it would be great if the text went into a recycle bin instead of fully gone. At least for me that would still accomplish the desired result, but I wouldn't live in fear of losing some important point because I took too long proofreading or something.

by freedomben

4/23/2025 at 9:35:05 PM

Thanks for the feedback, I'll think about how to implement this beautifully in the near future!

by vseplet

4/23/2025 at 11:45:05 PM

Offer a pay service to recover stuff that was lost

by nashashmi

4/24/2025 at 2:15:35 AM

Do you think this will be fair?

by vseplet

4/24/2025 at 3:34:04 AM

It will remain a form of remediation to lost work. OTOH you will end up keeping lots of works of garbage value with no end date. That could be unfair.

by nashashmi

4/23/2025 at 9:33:54 PM

Maybe I didn't understand you, but on the sides of the timer there are buttons + and -, you can choose a time convenient for you

by vseplet

4/23/2025 at 8:57:56 PM

Beyond writer's block, this helped me lock in. I often take long thinking pauses and get lost in mental rabbit holes, which wastes time and reduces my productivity.

I would appreciate a version with slightly lower risk. As it stands, I don't think I could use this current version for anything beyond your intended use case of short, paragraph-long blurbs.

by skeptrune

4/23/2025 at 9:22:24 PM

Thank you very much for the feedback! I think that all people are different and the time of going into darkness should be adjustable

by vseplet

4/24/2025 at 2:43:48 AM

I can’t use it on mobile looks like which is annoying as we’ve had touch screen phones for almost 20yrs now, the good thing is at least I care enough im annoyed I can’t use it. I’d imagine you’ll get a lot more sharing if mobile works

by votick

4/24/2025 at 3:03:27 AM

I will definitely support mobile today/tomorrow but I am sure it is almost useless for mobile phones

by vseplet

4/23/2025 at 7:41:12 PM

I've seen similar tools before. This seems like it fades out a bit too quickly.

by codazoda

4/23/2025 at 7:42:26 PM

I think I can increase time

by vseplet

4/23/2025 at 9:44:08 PM

I’ve increased the time before failure — now writing will be a bit easier, and losing a bit harder.

Huge thanks for all your feedback!

by vseplet

4/23/2025 at 10:44:16 PM

kind of off putting to have to wait and go through all the dialogue screens when you just want to start typing

by purplecats

4/23/2025 at 11:49:44 PM

Yes, we need to do a quick restart!

by vseplet

4/24/2025 at 12:20:21 PM

I imagined this as a multiplayer writing experience.

by xtiansimon