Original Summary

So, I’ve been building this thing called DistractLock, and I’m at that awkward stage where it actually works, some real users are apparently using it, but I have almost no idea what those people think about it. My original idea was to build a proper desktop app for Windows, and eventually bring it to mobile too. I wanted something that would let me control exactly what I’m allowed to waste my time on, instead of just going “YouTube bad, block YouTube.” Because that never really worked for me. I might need YouTube to watch a tutorial, but I absolutely do not need to open it for one tutorial and somehow regain consciousness 40 minutes later watching Shorts. Same thing with Reddit. Reddit can be insanely useful if you’re searching for an answer to something. The front page, recommendations and endless scrolling... maybe not so much. So the basic idea became: what if I could keep the useful parts of websites and just murder the addictive parts? Right now DistractLock supports YouTube, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook. You can remove things like Shorts, Reels, feeds, recommendations, comments and other distracting parts without necessarily blocking the entire website. I also added normal full website blocking, scheduled/timed blocks, adult-content blocking, password protection for blocks and some other stuff. The longer-term idea is still much bigger than the extension. I want the Windows app to eventually provide a much stronger kind of blocking, where disabling a block isn’t just “click extension → turn it off → congratulations, your self-control lasted 14 seconds.” The desktop app would be harder to bypass and would eventually work together with the browser extension. So you could use DistractLock just as a Chrome extension if that’s all you need, or use the extension + desktop app if you want the nuclear option. I’d also like to keep adding more websites where you can selectively remove the addictive parts instead of blocking the entire thing. Basically I want it to be very granular: you decide what stays and what disappears. But building the full desktop version properly takes more time and resources, so I decided to start with the Chrome extension and see if anyone other than me actually wanted this. Apparently... some people do? I currently have 24 Chrome users. Since I first published it, Chrome’s dashboard says I’ve had around 178 installs and 34 uninstalls in total. Which honestly confuses me a little because 178 - 34 is definitely not 24, unless Google has invented some new branch of mathematics that I haven’t heard about. So I’m still trying to understand exactly what’s happening there, how Chrome counts active users, and especially where people are dropping off. I also technically made my first dollar. Yes. $1. Please hold your applause. I gave a friend a discount coupon because I wanted someone to test the paid flow... and he actually bought it. I’m about 70% sure he just felt sorry for me. So if this whole productivity software thing fail

  • 情报分类：商业与市场研究
  • 分类依据：内容涉及商业、投资或市场动态
  • 信息来源：Reddit · SideProject
  • 发布时间：2026/10/15 23:00:14