Fixed a pretty bad issue with our spam prevention system today. It was likely impacting people for roughly the last month. š
I thought the drop-off in daily new users (about 80%) was due to spammers slowing their usual onslaught, but it turns out it was mostly this issue. I'll be keeping a better eye on that in the future.
#writeas
Thoughts? Discuss...
Haven't talked much about this here, but I've been more seriously doing photography over the last couple months. I picked up my old film cameras, and started going to some photowalks around Brooklyn in the spring ā mostly ones put on by different camera stores and film labs.
Spent the last hour creating a very minimal desktop app for Write.as / Musing Studio customer support. Itās just a bare-bones browser that only loads our forum ā which is where all public and private support requests go right now.
My earliest thoughts today were about my digital work environment, and how itās basically just the browser, and how distracting that is as someone who always has 50-plus tabs open at any given moment.
I think itād be much nicer to, in the morning, click an icon on my desktop that opens my digital āoffice.ā Itād only show me exactly what I need to work. And at the end of the day, Iād simply close out of the app. Maybe this is a step toward that.
#digitalOffice #apps #dev #experiments
Thoughts? Discuss...
This week, I started to crack a little bit, mentally. I've let a lot of work slip recently, which I feel bad about. Feeling bad about not responding to emails and not making progress on code has led to me feeling even worse, until eventually I'm too paralyzed to do those things, even if I wanted to.
As this awareness in me came to a head yesterday, I finally spent some time writing last night. Opening my favorite notebook, I realized I hadn't actually done that in about a month. I started to write about what I've been seeing in myself, solidifying those light feelings that appear, but often go neglected for some stronger external stressor.
I had a shallow sleep last night, which is unusual for me. I kept waking up, feeling like barely any time has passed, and I was still just trying to fall asleep. After my dog woke me for an early breakfast, I laid in bed for a while, trying to train my mind onto something other than everything on my plate, all my to-dos and obligations. I tried to think only about what I would do first after getting up. I thought about how things had started to pile up in my apartment; about how I normally just get up, check my phone, and sit down at my computer, letting the metaverse sweep me away in whatever trouble is happening there.
I didn't want to do that today. So instead I picked up the apartment, washed last night's dishes, sorted through my junk mail. I put clothes away, cleared space on my desk, jotted down my perspective this morning.
There was a practice I started last November where I wouldn't start working until I did something completely unrelated, creative, etc. At some point I fell out of it, but I think I'll start that again. Here's today's entry toward that end. Now to start the day.
#routine
Thoughts? Discuss...
Had a nice weekend camping with writer friends and acquaintances on the north shore of Long Island. Iāve always enjoyed camping alone, for the solitude and communion with the wind and the trees and such. But itās also nice to be with people out in nature, enjoying all the space, playing in ways the city doesnāt afford. I didnāt do much writing or drawing like I planned to, but I shot a few pictures on the film camera, and enjoyed some privately epiphanous moments on the beach at 2am.
Thoughts? Discuss...
Had a great time hanging out in the Remark.as chat room today! Thanks to @tmo@write.as for making the suggestion and getting us all together.
This was also a chance to test out the custom-built chat room, and we definitely ran into a few problems with connectivity. We all managed to work around it, but Iād like to get us something much more stable.
Also, this little chat hour had us wondering why these sort of chat / real-time interactions arenāt more available elsewhere on the web. So Iām working on getting an IRC server up and running for now. That should make it easy for people to access on desktop and mobile, if theyāre comfortable with IRC, and Iāll add a web interface on Remark.as to make it easy for everyone else.
Iām choosing IRC because of its relative simplicity / fit for our use case, and the wide range of clients available. I think the only major downside is if people want to connect from multiple devices. If anyone has any thoughts, please feel free to share!
Thoughts? Discuss...
I can see some functionality of Read.as merging with Remark.as in time. Whereas I think we need a line between creating something and sharing / talking about it (e.g. Write.as vs. Remark.as), I think the line between reading something and talking about it should be a little thinner. So things like following blogs and bookmarking posts will be at home on Remark.as (playing off the blog bookmarking feature just added).
Thoughts? Discuss...
At my weekly writing group last night: a mental block.
Iāve been working on some poetry that Iād like to read publicly. It all revolves around the usual themes I write about, just presented more as a feeling than something literal. But Iāve had a lot of trouble getting out of writing literally. I think itās my habits ā all the written communication I do on a daily basis ā plus the fact that I rarely leave this mindset. I donāt read much fiction and creative writing these days, and I think Iām seeing how much I need to again.
Thoughts? Discuss...
Back to work today. As mentioned on the Support Status blog, I was out for most of last week ā a friend came to visit me in Brooklyn, and then I went back to Florida to close on my house. I stayed for a long weekend and spent most of the time with friends there.
This past month has been very busy and a little stressful as I worked on getting the house renovated and then sold from here. So Iām glad it sold quickly, and to be done with the process.
Now Iām getting caught up on support requests from the last week. Iām also looking to get more people involved with WriteFreely, as several people have recently mentioned they were concerned itās no longer maintained ā it is, itās just moving at a one-person pace š
Thoughts? Discuss...
Some brief thoughts around Twitter accepting Elon Muskās bid to buy it and take it private.
Whether worries about what happens next are founded or not, itās good to see Mastodon and the #fediverse getting some attention. We saw our little Mastodon-powered community grow a bit yesterday (as did many others), as this tweet got spread around:
Now, on those worries: while this could mean a billionaire owning Twitter, intelligent people have rightly pointed out that Twitter is already owned by the controlling presence of a corporate board. Maybe neither situation is the best thing for a āpublic squareā (thatās more of a shopping mall).
You might say weāve often just ignored this all along. Which, again, is why Iām glad that this is at least sparking a conversation around the question of Who really owns the platform?
Itās also got me thinking again about user ownership of Write.as. I think thatās the real, long-term answer to questions that come up when your social media platform goes up for sale. Mastodon / the fediverse provide a glimpse of great ideas outside the mainstream, like non-commercial, community hosting and self-governance. But outside of a particular implementation, on a Twitter-level scale, I think we need to prove a model for ownership and aligned financial incentives between platforms and the people on them.
Thoughts? Discuss...