alt.hn

2/28/2026 at 5:12:46 PM

Show HN: Tomoshibi – A writing app where your words fade by firelight

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 6:53:49 PM

I noticed a major problem. If I just keep writing in a single paragraph, the lines don't disappear. I was expecting it to automatically start fading the text once it reached 3-4 lines. As it is, I am afraid of adding new paragraphs because then I would 'lose' what I already wrote.

Edit: adding, it's also surprisingly... slow? I noticed some lag as I moved my mouse around. I don't know if it's because of the website or my browser (firefox) or my OS (Ubuntu) but I don't believe there's any reason for lag here so something should be fixed.

My autocorrect also didn't work. I did get the red squiggles on a misspelling but no suggestions on right click. Again, not sure if it's something wrong with the website or something with my setup (it works fine on other sites).

by Lvl999Noob

2/28/2026 at 7:21:51 PM

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

You're right about the fading — if you keep writing in one long block, lines stay. I write in short paragraphs myself, so I hadn't noticed. I'll think about how to handle this better.

On losing text: lines don't fade the moment you hit return. They wait until you start typing again. I found that fading on return alone left the screen empty at exactly the moment I needed to think.

The lag on Firefox/Ubuntu is something I'd like to look into — I haven't tested on that environment. The autocorrect issue is likely a browser limitation, but I'll see if there's a workaround.

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 6:44:58 PM

I must say, I find the experience curious to say the least. It prompted me to write something, and I immediately got frustrated that my text was gone, followed by a feeling of "well, it was ephemeral anyway" and then finding the reader mode and say "hmmm, does that take away from the experience?". In any case, I might come back to this every now and then, nice work.

by oscarcp

2/28/2026 at 7:06:40 PM

Thank you for trying it, and for staying long enough to find the reader mode.

The frustration at the start is real. It doesn't fully go away. But for me, it slowly became something else — a feeling of gently letting go of what I'd written.

I thought hard about the reader mode. For long-form writing, an app where you can never look back is just too limiting. In the end, I decided to keep both.

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 7:34:15 PM

Fun! I came up with a similar concept - except you can only type in one word at a time. It discourages self-editing while also not being as extreme as exploding text.

https://flow.voxos.ai/

by Falimonda

2/28/2026 at 7:48:39 PM

That's an interesting constraint. I also like that the blurred words stay visible — I can see how much I've written in real time. Thanks for sharing.

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 7:54:56 PM

ちなみに、日本語のバージョンでイタリック体の漢字と仮名があることに気づきましたが、それが普段ですか？僕は日本語が下手ですが、日本語でイタリック体の字があまり使われていないと聞いたことがあるだけです。でも、やはり実践にそうじゃないですか？

by BalinKing

2/28/2026 at 8:11:35 PM

You're right. Italic is rarely used in Japanese, and it seems the English styling was inadvertently applied to the Japanese text as well. I'll fix it right away.

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 7:44:33 PM

How do I save?

by livestories

2/28/2026 at 7:53:37 PM

Everything is saved automatically to your browser's local storage. To export as .txt, open the Read Back screen from the top right and tap the Share button. Note: the Read Back button only appears after you've written something.

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 7:05:48 PM

Is it just me or is it weird to promote a writing app with an obviously LLM-written post.

by exochrono

2/28/2026 at 7:31:33 PM

To clarify, I write the posts myself, carefully thinking through and refining the content. Since I'm Japanese and not a native English speaker, I use AI to assist with translation.

by hakumei

2/28/2026 at 7:17:47 PM

[dead]

by steppacodes