No Features November

November, 2025

This was a very productive month, but you wouldn't know it if you logged into Dorsal.

For one, this is because almost everything is still gated from the general public. Even if that weren't the case, however, end users wouldn't see all of the work going into the Kubernetes cluster.

I've been working with K8s for many years now, but without ever really digging much into it - just whatever was required to make my application live. Building out what is effectively an IDP, but for strangers on the internet... that requires a much better familiarity with its features.

All that is to say, it's been a month of "behind the scenes" progress, and I'm actually very pleased with it.

Markdown Blog

While not being ready for public consumption, the Markdown Blog service, which I mentioned last month, is undergoing internal testing via this blog.

My intention is to have a free Markdown Blog hosting service that serves end-user's content at blog.dorsal.site/<user-id>/<blog-id>.

As is typical with this sort of thing, a paid option will be available to support a custom domain, optional removal of the "Powered by Dorsal" link in the footer, and possibly some custom asset filepaths.

For now, the blog service will continue to host this dev log blog as I build-out its functionality.

Speaking of paid options...

Polar.sh

I have signed up for Polar.sh. This was a decision based primarily around using a Merchant of Record because I'm based in little ol' Canada, which is not the biggest online market in the world.

As such, I'd like to offer Dorsal to markets in other countries, and I'd prefer for the international taxes to be largely offloaded to a third party - at least for the time being. I over-contributed to my RRSP once time, and that was enough CRA paperwork for me...

As far as implementation goes, I'm still ironing out the details of payment/product structure.

I had been drawn to "metered" options, such as charging a small amount for each API call as a way of managing usage, but I don't think I'm going to go that route. While I liked that it offered potential savings by only paying for what you used, I also found it became confusing.

Ultimately, my goal is to make the product and payment structures easy to understand, transparent, and user-friendly. This includes the ability to know your month cost ahead-of-time, not getting a surprise bill due to unexpectedly-high usage.

As such, my billing will likely be a combination of:

I'd like everything that's available with a subscription to be purchasable independently as well, which is where the "add-ons" or "upgrades" come in. The subscription would just provide a collection of optional features out-of-the box at a reduced, combined price. It may also lift or eliminate any rate-limits that I've implemented, which is my current preference to a metered usage billing strategy.

Returning to Polar.sh, one thing that I like about it so far is that it is very easy to add discounts.

I'm thinking of using discounts based on the stage of the feature. For example, a Beta feature could have a BETA discount, knocking x% off the price, and an Alpha feature could have an ALPHA discount, knocking x+y% off the price.

This way, everything maintains the same list price, but early-adopters can benefit from a reduced cost, as compensation for any lack of polish.

For now, though, these are all just ideas in my head. I need to have working features before asking anyone for money.

Into the Holidays

As I look ahead into December, I can reflect on how much longer everything takes than I had imagined.

Yes, there is feature creep... yes, there are life events... yes, I am trying to work at a sustainable pace...

But I can't help but reflect on the charm of my naivety from one year ago, thinking that I could have a product "live" by February of this year. That time has come and gone, and now I'm looking ahead to another February.

All that being said, I have no regrets about how Dorsal is progressing. I'm tackling it in a way that is appropriate to my goals and phase of life. I'm enjoying the process, learning a ton, following my curiousity, and building something that I really am proud of.

Were I single and broke, this would surely have been live months ago. Fortunately, I am happily married and gainfully employed. It would be inappropriate for me to wish for more progress, as that would suggest allocating my time and capacity to other things less, and I'm content with the balance that I'm currently striking.

I've mentally assigned myself 3 years to get Dorsal to the point of being a real project, pulling in some worthwhile income. That requires pacing myself.

One day, I hope that Dorsal will be something truly special, but today is not that day. For now, it is just a little dream that my wife knows about.

As I go into the holidays, I will keep that dream alive, but I will also keep balance.

Happy holidays