The blogging platform Svbtle is opening up to everyone. For nearly two years now, Svbtle has garnered attention for its simple and beautiful blog designs, but membership has been quite exclusive, at times requiring interested members to actually apply for access. Svbtle creator Dustin Curtis says he originally limited the platform's users in order to both ensure that the site was primed with strong content and to test that the platform actually worked. Now that he's confident that both have been accomplished, he says it's finally time for Svbtle to open up.

Svbtle will certainly appeal to those looking for just a barebones blog: its layouts have a clean and distinct style, and Curtis says that this extends from the forward-facing blog all the way through Svbtle's backend and writing prompt. Its composition screen is built around drafts, with the layout meant to encourage users to jot down ideas as they arrive and slowly work those drafts into pieces worth publishing. That plays into Curtis' goal for Svbtle to house content a lot more meaningful than what's found on the average personal blog — a goal that may be harder to maintain now that it's been set free.

The platform will have plenty of competition from existing blogging platforms — but then, Svtble may not be hoping to draw straight from their crowd. The service's intent is perhaps most similar to Medium, a blogging platform that launched just months after Svbtle and also focuses on curating smart and engaging content from any writer who wishes to contribute. Medium has done fairly well by bringing strong content to the forefront and making good design available to everyone — the very formula that Svtble is working with. Svbtle may have fallen behind Medium in opening its platform up to everyone, but now it'll have a chance to catch up on content.