There was also the much hated clone, Obtvse.[1]
[1]: https://github.com/natew/obtvse
In Is Svbtle Dead?natew
obtvse
Ruby2012–2015
natew / obtvse
obtvse
Deprecated: See natew/obtvse2
11Distinct people
14Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Deprecated: See natew/obtvse2
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year14 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2012-03-23 09:19:14 UTC to 2015-02-16 19:08:28 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 0 | 11 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Obtvse
A clean and simple markdown blog. Inspired by Svbtle.
Demo | Demo Admin
Username: username
Password: password
Installation
Obtvse uses some ruby 1.9 syntax, so please make sure your ruby -v shows at least 1.9, and please use 1.9 on your host as well!
If you are new to Rails development, check out guides for getting your development environment set up for Mac and Windows.
git clone git://github.com/natew/obtvse.git
cd obtvse
bundle install
rake db:migrate
Edit config/config.yml to set up your site information. To set up your admin username and password you will need to set your environment variables.
Start the local server:
rails s
Go to 0.0.0.0:3000, to administrate you go to /admin
For production, you will want to set your password in config.yml or with environment variables (preferred). On Heroku this is simply:
heroku config:add obtvse_login=<LOGIN> obtvse_password=<PASSWORD>
Or in your shell (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for example)
export obtvse_login=<LOGIN>
export obtvse_password=<PASSWORD>
Here's a quick guide for installing on Heroku.
TODO
Easy deployment
Draft preview and post save history
Lots of refactoring, cleanup and refinements
SCREENSHOTS
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
14 sources> I don't like Dustin Curtis as a person, based on prior history (i.e., American Airlines, presumption in his articles bordering on know-it-all after accomplishing little, and so on). You might find that the majority of the haters you're talking about feel the same
I'm guessing that pg's comment was at least partially in response to my own below[0], and you've exactly stated my issue with Curtis and the Svbtle network. There's nothing horribly wrong with the general concept behind Svbtle - perhaps it'll work, perhaps not. It's definitely legitimate enough that it's worth a shot.
But the way dcurtis went about it - the way he worded his initial post on Svbtle, his responses to the Svbtle theme being cloned, and so on, were very off-putting, to say the least. Moreover, the fact that he was so fixated on people copying the theme suggests tha
Read the rest
t he was placing value in the wrong things in Svbtle.
To use a newspaper analogy, is it the layout of the NYTimes that gives it prestige and distinguishes it from your average tabloid rag? Is it the font? Is it the type of paper they use, or the size of the paper? No, it's the content, and the people who create it.
By stirring up such an enormous shitstorm over some people copying the Svbtle theme and creating RoR[1] or WP[2] clones, dcurtis gave up his reputation (which is actually important for running something like Svbtle) in a futile attempt to preserve the uniqueness of the Svbtle theme (which isn't all that important). His best hope now is to spread Svbtle outside the tech community, to people who aren't familiar with him, and thus don't have any impression of him at all yet.
0: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5027577
1: https://github.com/NateW/obtvse
2: https://github.com/gravityonmars/wp-svbtle
See also: https://github.com/NateW/obtvse
Obvtse emerged from the initial backlash to Svbtle. The demo seems to be down but from what I can remember is has the same interface.
In Svbtle FundingI'm curious, how does this offering compare to https://github.com/natew/obtvse (which I assume you encountered in your research)? Or is this not a valid comparison?
In The open-source "svblte like" blogging platformObtvse did:
https://github.com/natew/obtvse/tree/refresh
http://cl.ly/image/0m3d3k230b47
It keeps position as you scroll and write.
In Ghost — rethinking WordPressIf anyone is interested, the "refresh" branch of Obtvse implemented this "live preview while editing split screen" that he mocked up.
https://github.com/natew/obtvse/tree/refresh
http://cl.ly/image/0m3d3k230b47
In Ghost — rethinking WordPressLooks like this is probably being used: https://github.com/NateW/obtvse
In WSJ Ignores 5 other Square co-foundersI think he's using Obtvse: https://github.com/NateW/obtvse
In How to bypass iTunes music previews protectionSad they didn't call it wp-obtvse.
https://github.com/NateW/obtvse
In [dead]Svbtle is invite-only, but there are some open source clones.
Obtvse - https://github.com/natew/obtvse
Simple - https://github.com/orf/simple
In Oh, the Places You'll GoAnd here's the obligatory clone: https://github.com/natew/obtvse
In Steve Ballmer's MicrosoftSEEKING WORK - Remote/Freelance
Looking to start freelancing again. I'm mainly a web developer and designer with lots of experience with Ruby on Rails, frontend design and development, SEO, and marketing. Have a Bachelors in CS.
Experience in web - Ruby, PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML/CSS, Node, some Python, Haskell, C
Server admin - Apache, nginx, Ubuntu, LAMP, Ruby stacks
++ Lots of SEO experience, Wordpress set up
Some work I've done (all work by me, design + development):
http://gamegum.com - Online flash game community
http://webuildappsforyou.com - App developers
http://2u.fm (work in progress music site)
http://bassdownload.com - Music magazine
http://vbseed.com - Forum skins
http://natewienert.com - Personal site
http://stonecactuswaterfalls.com - Wordpress themed
I'm the guy that made Obtvse...
http://github.com/natew/obtvse
Email
Read the rest
natewienert#gmail#com
Try this page until the site comes back up:
https://github.com/NateW/obtvse#readme
In Codename: Obtvse