A lot of dev planning today, thinking about the next two WriteFreely releases. As I mentioned on @dev@musing.studio, the goal is to basically bring WF into parity with Write.as, including support for photos, which is a long-request feature.
I’m excited for these next updates, as they’ll really move the product forward and give more people access to everything we’ve built here. You can see what’s next for WF (and beyond) on our project tracker.
#WriteFreely #WriteFreelyDev #dev
Thoughts? Discuss...
Just finished up a brand new integration with sub.club, and here it is in action! Paid subscribers can read on for more.
I’ve been much more organized and focused over the last several weeks. Trying to stay on top of emails and forum posts; got the latest WriteFreely release out this weekend; supported the launch of the Social Web Foundation; working on a new Write.as integration; and finishing up another Write.as change, also announcing this week.
It’s nice to feel on top of things again, and I’m excited for what’s coming down the line for the rest of the year. Maybe oddly, fall and winter feel like the best time to buckle down and work.
#WriteFreely #Writeas #life
Thoughts? Discuss...
Updating some servers today that haven’t been touched in a while. This includes getting our Phabricator issue tracker back online after a bad upgrade knocked it out. I’m also trying to migrate our Musing Studio instance of Mastodon onto our current domain. So far so good, but we’ll see how the rest goes.
Earlier, I did more cleanup from last month’s fraud attacks. We took a big financial hit from that last month, so I’m tightening things up personally to weather it all.
It’s been rainy in New York all week, but outside of some dampened plans, I’ve enjoyed it. Yesterday it was a beautiful 68°F outside, so I took a walk around the neighborhood and sat outside for a beer near the park, watching the people go by. It felt like fall, and got me excited for the coming season.
I’ve fallen behind on a lot of work and life things, but overall this week has been pretty productive. I’ll feel much more at peace once I take care of (most) everything.
Thoughts? Discuss...
Had some coffee this morning and implemented a proof-of-concept search for Write.as. Still would need persistence, indexing multiple blogs, and the whole UI — but I showed it was possible, at least.
If I end up finishing this feature, I imagine it working on both individual blogs and across Read Write.as. The goal would be to make it easier to find old posts (especially while composing new ones or going through archives), and to help people find writers they’re interested in on Read Write.as.
We’ll see if it comes to fruition in the future. For now, back to daily emails and so on.
#search #writeas #writeasdev #today
Thoughts? Discuss...
This month, we’ve seen waves of attacks by (what appear to be) bots testing stolen credit card numbers on the service. It started around the 4th, which we were able to stop relatively easy. The attackers gave up for a bit, then picked it up again this past Sunday with new tactics that caused some intermittent downtime.
Dealing with this has occupied most of my week, as we close / open registrations, and keep up with the attackers’ shifting tactics. But with the work I’ll be finishing up this weekend, the service should be much more resilient towards these types of attacks.
Thoughts? Discuss...
Some priorities for new Write.as development at the moment:
Better fediverse integration. It’s time to make the platform more social, and of course we’ll do it with ActivityPub. ”Likes” you get from the fediverse show up on Write.as now (I still need to announce this), and replies will be next.
Importing posts. Other publishing platforms are doing some bad things right now, and I see many people looking for alternatives like Write.as. We’ll start with importing from Substack, then move on to support for other platforms.
Draft posts. Writers have had to work around the shortcomings of Anonymous posts here (called “Drafts” on WriteFreely) for too long, so it’s time to implement true drafts, with the ability to see posts and schedule them before finally publishing. This will also support migration from other platforms, and retain any imported drafts.
#fediverse #ActivityPub #WriteAs #WriteFreely #writeasdev
Thoughts? Discuss...
Looking for apartments today; stressful. I have to meet requirements, I have to gather documents, I have to schedule and run around to viewings. Thought about moving to the city but I want to stay in the neighborhood — I like the people here. Really I just need to be by the train.
Last night I wrote with the writing group — I hadn't been in three weeks. The brief spring weather last week turned back into winter, and there was a fire out back, which I helped keep lit.
Tonight is our monthly open mic. Last time I read a story about a hike; this month I'll just listen. It's always good inspiration.
#today
Thoughts? Discuss...
I haven’t written here lately, for no one particular reason, but I’d like to start it up again.
I’ve been keeping busy — still meeting with friends every week to write, still going on photowalks, still taking an occasional day off to do nothing in particular. I’m in a relationship now; I’ve started working on some art projects with friends; I’m more focused with Write.as; I’ve gone out of the country twice in the past few months, and out of the city a handful of times.
It’s cold here and there’s still snow on the ground, which makes me happy. These days I’m not pursuing happiness as much as realizing all the things I have in my life that make me happy, from this city to the people around me.
Will write more soon.
Thoughts? Discuss...
Deployed a caching layer for Write.as blogs that are on a subdomain (custom or *.writeas.com), like this one. This should vastly speed things up for these sites, and eliminate a ton of load on the database.
So far things look good, but I want to make extra sure we're still good with the fediverse before deploying it more widely. If you see any weirdness with this post, let me know @matt@writing.exchange.
Thoughts? Discuss...
