to be really blunt, i don't think AP or ATP are the answer. #
and i also don't care so much about this style of conversation. and i loathe the character limits and the lack of style and links, and no titles, etc.#
it can't only be for wordpress. i love the potential of wordpress, i think even more than matt does, but it isn't enough.#
if it's going to be open and of the web it has to be simple and easy, and neither of them are.#
bonus for blog readers: i would add, since i ran out of characters on masto, that the great thing about the web is that you can have an idea and be using it the next day. you can't say imho that you're part of the web if you don't deliver that kind of ease of access. it's not enough to have the potential of being open, it has to be accessible. I have that ability these days, but people who use the AP and ATP systems are in tight little boxes with no easy way to try something out quickly. (i know because i've been hooking things up to them for a couple of years now, and so far it's just an added slog, everything is far more complex than it should be)#
maybe we'll get there through their api's, but i think at this point we know that won't happen.#
ps: the web is a miracle. but maybe it's too fucked up now to have the miracle be something we can all experience. #
pps: when i write on other systems i often leave out upper case, saving a little energy as i type. i find it more relaxing. #
I wrote this early this morning as a test post for my WordLand site. #
Happy to report that my linkblog routine is back to normal.#
I really shook things up there, and it probably wasn't a great time investment.#
I had been using a custom front-end to FeedLand, which has a built in blogging tool, that publishes to the database that FeedLand manages, and of course also publishes an RSS feed. It was debugged and works. But now I have a new editor, and I want to use it for this, because my reader knows how to view all kinds of stuff, and one of the things I wanted it to work well with are linkblog posts. So, do a quick addition of linkblog stuff to WordLand. #
Only thing is there is no such thing as a "quick addition" in a world built on CSS and HTML objects. Everything is a slog. #
It's also starting to feel usable. People imagine that you just design something and write the code and voila it's usable (if they even think about it that much). But only until you have the pieces put together can you see the things you forgot to consider, and now you have to decide whether to rip up the thing you built or try to iterate to where you need to go. A lot of times it would be easier to start over, but programmers always want to do that. I'm no exception. Once it's working somewhat the code becomes locked into how the pieces fit together. If somehow they need to fit together differently, given it's CSS and HTML you'd better scrap it and do it again or you'll go out of your mind adding the next layer of features. #
Honestly we were much better off before we tried to shoehorn an object model into a document format! Apps and documents are really different things you know.#
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! :-)