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True Ownership

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:58:21 GMT

The core idea of the original Jottit that we built in 2007 was frictionless publishing. You could build your own site just by clicking a button. You didn't have to create an account and the UI was so simple you didn't have to think much about how it worked.

Frictionless publishing is still at the heart of Jottit today, although the idea of course is much less novel now.

When I decided to revive Jottit last year, I knew early on what I wanted to do differently this time: true data ownership.

The old Jottit allowed you to export your pages, so users were never stuck on the platform. But I wanted to take this much further and go for true ownership this time.

Export is of course a huge part of ownership, it means you're always free to move on. But true ownership is also being able to change anything about your site - pages, templates, styling.

So instead of storing pages in a database, I decided to store everything as files. This lets users export the full site source and easily put it on another platform (because we build on standards like Markdown, HTML, CSS).

Just as importantly, it lets users change anything about their sites. Not just pages, but everything that goes into building their site.

The radical simplicity of frictionless publishing coupled with this deep level of data ownership makes Jottit quite magical to use. You get the ease of a hosted platform with the freedom of running your own site.

An email from Aaron

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:58:19 GMT

Here's how Jottit originally got started.

In April 2007, Aaron Swartz sent me an email asking what I was up to. I told him I wasn't really up to any exciting projects and suggested that perhaps we build something together. Aaron was already busy on other projects, but was willing to offer his remaining bandwidth advising me.

He also had an idea. He called it createapage.com: you go to the site, there's a text box, you type stuff in, hit save, and you get a page at a random URL.

The radical simplicity instantly got me excited.

"The cognitive load is so tiny that you just go ahead and use it without even thinking about whether you should or not," Aaron wrote.

We built it and called it Jottit.

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 20:18:40 GMT

I beg to differ. The reason Mozilla replaced MSIE to the extent that it did is that Microsoft wasn’t doing anything about the malware that came in through their browser.

A mid-century modern treasure in the Berkeley Hills — 617 Grizzly Peak Boulevard

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:41:27 GMT

The home is both rooted in history and updated for contemporary living and sustainability.

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 08:26:35 GMT

If Jimmy Kimmel gets 15 million YouTube views (compared to 6.3 million TV viewers), why does he need ABC? https://apnews.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-returns-suspension-charlie-kirk-d6421f17ebef4735753495b4f4997c8f

Immigration Raids Backfiring in California

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 11:03:13 GMT

Nearly three-quarters of registered voters in the state — including roughly half of Republicans — said removing millions of undocumented immigrants from the workforce would hurt California’s economy, the latest Politico-Citrin Center poll found.

And roughly 80 percent of voters, including a majority of Republicans, said undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. illegally should remain in some fashion.

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:06:26 GMT

BloggerCon 2003: The Rule of Links.

Who is the only England bowler to take two Test hat-tricks? The Saturday quiz

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 09:46:13 GMT

From Calanais and Clava Cairns to Edward I and Vyacheslav Molotov, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which woman posed for, and exhibited with, the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?
2 Until 1914, the North Sea was commonly called what?
3 Which Shakespeare villain says, “I am a villain”?
4 On 29 April 2020, what briefly stretched 477 miles from Texas to Mississippi?
5 Flemish giant is a breed of which pet?
6 What musical movement was the NWOBHM?
7 Who is the only England bowler to take two Test hat-tricks?
8 Which animal rights charity was co-founded in 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk?
What links:
9 Judas Maccabeus; Charles Martel; Edward I; Vyacheslav Molotov?
10 Bingo; Capcom; Fido; Guido; Retro; Surgeon?
11 Shakespeare’s Vortigern; Thomas Rowley’s poems; Howard Hughes’s autobiography?
12 Calanais; Machrie Moor; Ring of Brodgar; Clava Cairns; Kilmartin Glen?
13 16.67 minutes; 27.78 hours; 11.57 days; 31.69 years?
14 Joe Calzaghe; Floyd Mayweather Jr; Natascha Ragosina; Oleksandr Usyk; Andre Ward?
15 M and N (8); A, I and W (4); C and O (3); K, S , T and V (2); D, F, G, H, L, P, R and U (1)?