30
9 Comments

More indie hackers are relying on X, yet X is becoming more unreliable
IH+ Subscribers Only

X has experienced two major outages in 24 hours. Founders should take action to avoid platform risk.

Screenshot of Down Detector showing X having two outages in 24 hours.

While browsing X this afternoon, I got hit with the following message:

Something went wrong. Try reloading.

X was experiencing the second major outage in just 24 hours.

Why this happened is anyone's guess.

Many accounts on X speculated that the platform was being hit with massive cyberattacks. After all, Elon Musk himself had made the same claim a few weeks prior during a similar outage:

And this explanation is plausible. Musk has been making more enemies than friends with his policies at DOGE. And if people will vandalize his physical products โ€” like Teslas โ€” at scale, it stands to reason they'll also vandalize his digital products.

But to be honest, I'm not that concerned about Musk or politics. I'm concerned about indie hackers.

Platform risk

Increasingly over the years, indie hackers have migrated from their own blogs and newsletters to platforms like X. And for good reason:

The upsides of social media are numerous:

  • It's easier to get more social media followers than to get more email subscribers.

  • Social media posts can reach non-followers (through mechanisms like social sharing), whereas it's difficult for newsletter issues to reach non-subscribers

  • It just "feels" easier to post on social media, whereas people tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves when publishing blogs and newsletters

And yet?

We don't own our social media accounts. So the more we invest in them without diversifying our online presence, the more platform risk we face.

Earlier this month, for instance, superstar indie hacker John Rush lost all 70,000 of his followers on LinkedIn:

I'm aware I'm not the first person โ€” or even the thousandth โ€” to advise indie hackers to invest in their own blogs and email newsletters.

But in this moment of political, technological, and cultural instability, it seems as good a time as any to issue a reminder: Own as much of your audience as you can, instead of loaning it. Especially if your livelihood depends on it.

Photo of Channing Allen Channing Allen

Channing Allen is the co-founder of Indie Hackers, where he helps share the stories, business ideas, strategies, and revenue numbers from the founders of profitable online businesses. Originally started in 2016, Indie Hackers would go on to be acquired by Stripe in 2017. Then in 2023, Channing and his co-founder spun Indie Hackers out of Stripe to return to their roots as a truly indie business.

  1. 3

    Even more reason to move to platforms like Bluesky or Mastodon.

    1. 1

      what's the compared reach and user base there compared to X?

      1. 1

        Its significantly smaller at the moment. However, with the recent exodus of users from platform like X/Twitter, it has been growing faster. I think total user base for Bluesky right now is only ~30 million.

  2. 1

    Interesting insights. Thank you!

  3. 1

    Thanks for your sharing

  4. 1

    Great article! I very much agree with the last paragraph

  5. 1

    As someone who just opened up an X account to promote their business, this is incredibly scary to know. But the upside potential seems worth it!

  6. 1

    I think this is worth keeping in mind.

    To me, it is just one more piece on a growing pile of evidence that you should diversify as an indie builder, on all fronts, and especially which platforms you use for promotion.

    You never know when one will go down, or go away altogether.

  7. 1

    Thanks for sharing this. Super insightful!

Create a free account
to read this article.

Already have an account? Sign in.