Ben Gorman

Ben Gorman

Life's a garden. Dig it.

I'm thrilled to announce that Scipress is live and ready for Beta testing

I started building the platform back in June, 2023 (7 months ago). Since then, I've made 465 commits and closed 123 issues on GitHub, all single-handedly while also working part-time! That said, the platform stands on the shoulders of giants. I couldn't have built it without the help of:

  • Next.js team
  • Vercel team
  • Tailwind CSS team
  • Google Firebase team
  • Unified JS team
  • Monaco Editor team

In many respects, I simply glued a bunch of existing software components together. Of course, it's easy to glue the wrong pieces together or botch the glue job altogether 😉

Why?

If you're wondering why I built Scipress, it comes down to a few things..

  1. I wanted the ability to write and sell access to content. Sure, there are loads of platforms that fit this bill already, but none of them (that I'm aware of) work exactly the way I'd envision, and most of them are missing one or two curcial features that I need.

  2. It felt like a project I could execute on. I wouldn't have said this a year ago, but I finally crossed the threshold of JavaScript & webdev knowledge that I felt comfortable taking on the challenge.

  3. I built a similar platform (practiceprobs.com) a few years back, and it kept gaining traction and getting sales even though I hadn't written new content in over a year. Technically, Martin Donath (@Squidfunk), the creator of Material for MkDocs, built it. I just hacked it to support gated content and user payments (..and I wrote all the content).

Material for MkDocs is awesome. If you have the technical know-how to set it up and maintain it, I highly recommend it!

I need your help!

I'm still developing the platform, mostly cleaning up loose ends, but the clock in my head is ticking to find users. At this point, I need beta testers - people who don't mind finding and reporting bugs and providing feedback to shape the next iteration of the platform. If you're interested, let me know!