The web was initially designed for writers. Styling, links, paragraphs, titles (at all levels). The ability to edit. No character limits. That's what we had to work with when we started blogging in the mid-late 90s. #
Then there was a big corner-turn in 2006. In an instant the web shrunk to almost nothing. No titles, no style, no links, 140 chars max. Enough to say "I'm waiting in line at the bank." Nothing wrong with that, but it isn't what I think of as writing. #
A couple of years ago, I decided to focus on writers once again. I started developing ideas of what the writer's web would look like if we used today's technology. #
Since the last time we looked, Markdown was invented. RSS feeds had become instant. Websockets replaced long polling. Servers got cheap! And SQL is fast and the tools are much better. We'll use all the best new technology. #
And we'll borrow the best ideas from twitter-like systems. Writing a new post should be as easy as writing a tweet, but with all the features writers need at-hand, easy to access. #
And best of all, it'll be open, for real, now -- not some day. Each component will be completely replaceable with simple APIs, and lots of example code. #
I'm going to use WordPress as my basic back-end technology because it is reliable and broadly deployed, but you don't have to. The great thing about the web is that it's already federated. Nothing to wait for. 😄#
We know how to do this. The only remaining question imho is whether we choose to.#
What does the writer's web mean to you? Write a blog post. Start now.#
Last update: Thursday March 13, 2025; 10:30 AM EDT.
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)