Building zelo.news: First Steps and Early Challenges

Since announcing zelo.news, I’ve been deep in implementation mode, wiring up all the core nostr functionality that makes the platform actually work.

So far, the basics are in place:

• Reactions and likes

• Zaps

• Long-form content support

• Markdown rendering

On top of that, I’ve added some quality-of-life features that make reading and exploring smoother:

• Time-to-read estimates for every article

• An article progress slider so you always know how far you’ve read

• A following feed to keep up with your favorite writers

• Bookmarks for saving articles to revisit later

• A search bar that lets you find users, articles, npubs, naddrs, #tags, NIP-05 identifiers, and more

• Trending tags and a “latest in …” component to surface new content around topics you care about

The Challenges#

As with any early-stage project, a few challenges have already popped up:

• OpenGraph for better SEO and shareability:

  Since zelo.news is built as a client-side app, getting proper OpenGraph metadata to render cleanly across social platforms is tricky.

• Markdown Editor:

  The Markdown Editor needs some attention. Currently, editing is not working and writing (or pasting) in the current Editor is not ideal.

• Rendering HTML and Markdown together:

  This is a missing piece at the moment. Some nostr notes and articles mix both formats, so supporting them gracefully is on my list.

• Highlights in the Markdown component:

  I’d love to add article highlights to zelo.news. But right now, the Markdown rendering component makes this difficult. It’ll take a bit more experimentation to find the right approach.

Every day, zelo.news feels a little more real, not just as a reader-friendly Nostr app, but as a space for open, shareable long-form writing that actually feels good to use.

More updates coming soon. 🚀