textlog

about

The quieter social microblogging platform.

textlog is a simple social text log: write short notes, follow people and hashtags, and join conversations without turning every thought into a performance.

Notes are limited to 500 characters. The constraint keeps them quick to write and read, making room for one thought at a time.

Small by design

textlog is built around words: notes, people, hashtags, and conversations. It is intentionally small, straightforward, and easy to follow. There are no engagement tricks or pressure to build an audience.

Your profile and notes are public. Joining is free, and you can download or delete your account data whenever you like. If you feel like it, you can also donate to support the service.

textlog collective is fiscally hosted by Open Source Europe. Our finances and contributions are publicly visible on Open Collective.

Be a good neighbour

Share what is yours to share, treat other people with respect, and don’t use the service for harassment, abuse, spam, impersonation, or anything unlawful. We may moderate or remove content that puts the community or the service at risk.

What's next?

Any conversation

profileenter to followwrote:
(Opinion) People don’t like generative AI because it made the {insert creativity} too easy. Saw the HN post on ‘AI music banned from top 40 chart in Australia’ and people had very strong opinions in both directions. The hot take: If you’re ok with someone’s creativity being outsourced to others, then you should be ok with AI doing the same. If “AI made this and I call it mine” is bad but “someone overseas on fivver made this and I call it mine” and it’s suddenly ok, time to self reflect.
My hot take: from the moment you use technology, be it an instrument, a synthesizer, a DAW, and now AI, it is still your idea, your effort, your time spent, and that makes it yours. Others can do the same if they choose. The same way someone chooses a classic guitar over a synthesizer, one can choose an AI over (insert ancient way of doing things).
I am not a musician, so I lack the jargon to properly explain what I mean. I used AI for creative writing (nothing too fancy, TTRPG). There, the broader the dice roll, the more generic and uninteresting the results. Slop, if you will. It was surprisingly good to build up on ideas I had however. I imagine muisic also has building blocks. Melodies, instruments, mixing, etc. AI can perhaps be used in a similar fashion there.
I heard a perspective I sort of like: if AI is a tool then acceptable AI use is, more or less, defined as "when my audience no longer notices or cares". It's dynamic like that. Bad photoshop is detectable and annoying, so are overusing presets. Your artistry needs to expand to meet the tool. I don't know if I 100% like that or agree. At the same time, it's a pretty straightforward line, a practical take.
I kind of ask that and here is my theory... news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49289341#49290428 But on the rejection for AI just for the sake of it, I think part is that analyzing takes effort and if there is more and more to analyze you creates this mechanism to defend yourself... scroll twi... I mean reject the premise as false and ask for a human made thing because that one is "truth" more worthy.
Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing is among the subtlest of all propaganda—it is propaganda that everyone sincerely wishes could be true, and is dangerous specifically because it is not and cannot be.
I once saw someone flip their pill bottle upside down after taking a pill. Not sure it'd help me, because I suspect that somehow I'd still only pay half-attention when taking pills and so still get forgetful and confused :shrug:
when I took insulin I would always forget and got a cap that had a time since the last time I had uncapped the pen, worked really well so I never double dosed. they make similar tools for pill bottles, but the best has been just having a pill case as much as it makes me feel old.
profileenter to follow10+ years Seattle based software engineer.wrote:
Recently hit 10+ years (cumulative) of being a software engineer. I must say, I enjoy senior level interviews much more than coding interviews.
profileenter to followex-perl programmer, linux userwrote:
let's see how arabic letters are rendered here: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Let's see how Arabic letters are rendered here: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
profileenter to followComputer Hacking Skills 75/100 Nunchuck Skills 3/100 I like Unixish systemswrote:
echo “films” >> .textlog echo “books” >> .textlog echo “games” >> .textlog sudo rm -rf /etc
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
The interface needs some work. For example, I would like the textarea that I am using right now to be as wide as the header above. Also, where is the character counter?
profileenter to followI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.wrote:
Why do so many tools have JSON config files‽ Commenting why options have been set the way they have is just such a basic thing to want to do… Why do tech people have such an aversion to writing things down⁇
A lot of tech folks resist documentation because they think it provides them with job security. In reality they are either locking themselves into a project and/or prohibiting upward mobility. I don't want to work with folks who don't document.
profileenter to followwrote:
I like this, it feels like Reddit before what it is now, but I feel like it won’t be long until the internet destroys this place. Until then I’m happy to be here.
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to follow:
My favorite part of classic reddit was the use of elaborate hacks to circumvent the restrictions on custom subreddit CSS. E.g. animated gifs weren't allowed, so people made filmstrip sprites with stepwise animation in such a way as to look exactly the same.
profileenter to followphotography, art, solo dev, based in NYCwrote:
Just got Moshi set up - a phone-friendly terminal app. Works well with Herdr for persistent agents, friendly UI. Verdict so far: looks like I'll be working more from my phone.
Applied to an L5 software engineering role via e-mail and without any other contact I received back a bunch of questions that clearly look like they're aimed at L6 or even L7. Not sure what to do with that so I withdrew. Briefly considered answering them but was weirded out.
I think if @stagasprofileenter to followcreative technologist creator of textlog intends to be an active user of the site henceforth, it'd it should be kosher. Otherwise, one of us who's been active on the site for a while could submit a post.
I plan to remain active, so not planning a top level post just yet. Will try to engage first for a few days so the ratio is low when I do the post.
profileenter to followCurrently in remission from ME/CFS after 3+ years. Occasional software engineering leader, app developer, blogger, zwifter, and just being online.replied toprofileenter to followJust another AI guy:
Determine what matters most and make a list of the no more than 7 things. Do one thing well at a time, top down. Reprioritise as you learn more. Notes:
  1. If you half-arse a task and decide that'll do, it's evidence it wasn't the right priority. Learn.
  2. Any sort of productivity, multi-tasking, app, solution type thing is a scam or a money grab and isn't needed.
  3. People tend to remember 7 things well, but struggle with longer lists and particularly fail to remember things in the middle.
profileenter to followpermanent head damage, human-computer infractionwrote:
I'm not an optimist, just a pessimist who's still proactive: I don't think things are going to get better, but I just can't talk myself into giving up yet.
Someone can create enormous value while their manager controls the narrative around that value. Conversely, a manager can conceal structural problems because the people capable of exposing them depend on that same manager for evaluation and promotion
I am trying to learn emacs for the fun of it. The tutorial is brilliant and clear. Any tips that would help me learning more things. I know all I need is practice but if you may have used it, you may know a thing or two.
🥸profileenter to followJust another AI guywrote:
I think I may be use this for now to spill out my guts a bit. Set out boundaries guys. I was basically ignoring how important that is, whatever is at work, family, relations. Be loved being you, you don't have to meet any expectations beyond yours.
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearwrote:
one more step. just a moment. attention required! enable javascript and cookies to continue. verifying the security of your connection. your browsing activity has been paused. content unavailable in your region. 429 too many requests. 403 forbidden. connection has timed out.
profileenter to followI am just a grain of sand on your beach.replied toprofileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appear:
The future is here. But instead of flying cars or holodeck, what you get is tracking cookies and captcha everywhere. Maybe someday you will need to have your rectum scanned by Google or Meta nee Facebook before your browser does a HTTP request.
🧑‍🚀profileenter to followнυмαηwrote:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⣀⠀⠀⢠⠉⢹⢳⢄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡤⠔⡞⠛⣵⠀⠀⠙⡄⢸⠀⢸⠀⡜⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡴⠉⠈⡧⣀⣀⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡰⠃⠀⢰⠀⠘⡆⠀⠀⢰⠈⡀⠀⡀⡇⡇⠀⠀⠀⡰⡱⡝⠀⡜⠀⡜⠀⢈⠆⠂⠤⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡀⢏⠀⢇⠀⠀⢃⠀⠸⡀⠀⠀⡆⡇⠀⡇⠁⡇⠀⠀⡰⢡⡱⠁⡐⢀⠌⢀⢴⠋⠀⠀⠀⣈⡆⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡁⠈⠹⣦⠈⢆⠀⠈⡆⠀⠱⠀⠀⢰⢁⠀⢃⢸⡇⠀⢠⢁⢧⠃⡰⢀⠎⢠⡾⠁⠀⠀⡠⠊⡠⠃⠈⣄⠀⠀⠀
Tweaking the /hottextloghotA quieter place for your thoughts. algorithm. Really want posts like /post/142 i.e genuinely long discussions, stay longer instead of getting burried away by newer posts.
profileenter to followI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.wrote:
𐑲𐑝 𐑚𐑰𐑯 𐑦𐑯𐑕𐑐𐑲𐑼𐑛 𐑑 𐑒𐑫𐑒 𐑥𐑹 ·𐑡𐑨𐑐𐑩𐑯𐑰𐑟 𐑓𐑵𐑛 𐑤𐑱𐑑𐑤𐑦 𐑕𐑴 𐑓 𐑛𐑦𐑯𐑼 𐑲 𐑥𐑱𐑛 𐑕𐑨𐑥𐑩𐑯 𐑑𐑧𐑮𐑦𐑘𐑭𐑒𐑰, 𐑥𐑰𐑕𐑴 𐑕𐑵𐑐, 𐑮𐑲𐑕, 𐑯 𐑐𐑦𐑒𐑩𐑤𐑟. I’ve been inspired to cook more Japanese food lately so for dinner I made salmon teriyaki, miso soup, rice, and pickles.
I think you're doing the right thing. You also clearly have both business and product development skills that are almost impossible to find in the same person. I'd try to think of how to monetize some of these and consider YC.
personal projects probably just arent the right knob if you want to get unpoor. if you want my honest advice i would recommend not showing hallucinate to potential employers, its landing page looks one-shot claude and is gpu heavy. but the others look very nice.
I'm looking for a way to manage my bookmarks easily on desktop and Android. Anyone have any experience with software like that? It'd be nice to be able to tag or categorize pages, and maybe to keep local mirrors for certain ones. I'm open to self-hosting. Thanks for reading!
profileenter to followYear 4 CS. Like tech, systems, game devwrote:
This SM is like a subreddit feed, except you also get a personalized feed along with 'hot' and 'latest' for people you follow. Or maybe it's modelled after twitter? Never used it so wouldnt know
This is a very silly thing to be doing in 2026, but I finally tried some Quake 1 recently. Pretty cool, it's amazing how much it really does just end up feeling like Doom in 3D.
Since I played both Doom and Quake 2 back in the day, it does feel like I've finally bridged that gap, to where I think I understand what people mean when they talk about Romero's influence in the design.
Another thing I think it makes really clear is just how much room-over-room changes the way the game spaces feel, even if no one's actively thinking about that while they play.
profileenter to followHai I am kucontinued:
For this particular problem though, I feel like if the crawlers are coming from domestic / residential IP addresses and they lack a distinctive http header or user agent, it is indistinguishable from a denial of service attack and must be treated as such.
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to followHai I am ku:
But as long as people can still use the site it's OK, right? Seems like the problem is often self-inflicted, either because the site is so bloated that answering even GET-requests is burdensome, or because they're trying to monetize the data and so must block non-paying scrapers.
Inspired by two projects of github:schildep I start to explore what can be expressed in Lean and make coding agents implement and prove the implementation at the same time.
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
top
I don't see much point in trying to build software at a "higher level", like whole products and services. I'm going to go down low and train myself on the fundamentals. Hopefully in time I'll be able to contribute to the foundational bits. You're right, it does get exhausting. At some point you just want to rebuild everything, which is not possible.
NIH syndrome? I am guilty of it too. I love implementing things from scratch, you learn a lot by doing so and you get to own the codebase end-to-end, so no surprises and fighting around others’ choices. It can get exhausting too though, in the end I succumb to using off-the-shelf components because my primary goals move at a higher level.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
I had hit a throttle now. That’s a “subtle" way to tell me to slow down.
Man, I LOVE naps! In fact, I mostly subsist on four or five 1-1/2 hour naps each day instead of one long over-night sleep period these days. I didn't set out to have a #polyphasicnotesenter to follow sleep schedule, but here I am. :-)
😊profileenter to followPresbyter, husband, father, technologist, linguist, musician.wrote:
Цветок розы не издает голоса, а благоухание его далеко расходится молча; так надо жить и всем христианам. —Святитель Феофан Затворник
The rose flower makes no sound, but its fragrance spreads far and wide in silence; so should all Christians live. —St. Theophan the Recluse
profileenter to followwrote:
看来可以发中文。因为没有身份证,所以不能拥有手机号,接着不能注册稳定的email,也就没法注册内容平台,发布内容。hotmail因为我没有稳定的ip地址,常常封禁我的email账号,我的mastodon账号因此也没法长期使用。我希望这是一个我可以长期发布内容的地方
It seems I can post in Chinese. Because I don't have an ID card, I can't have a phone number, and therefore can't register a stable email address, which means I can't register on content platforms or publish content. Hotmail frequently blocks my email account because I don't have a stable IP address, so my Mastodon account can't be used long-term. I hope this is a place where I can publish content consistently.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyersreplied toprofileenter to follow:
嗯,好吧,为了你自己,我希望它能持续很长时间。你的互联网问题很难解决,非常抱歉! :-(
Well, okay, for your own sake, I hope it lasts a long time. I'm so sorry your internet problem is so difficult to fix! :-(
profileenter to followreplied toprofileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyers:
谢谢你,没想到还真有人回我的帖子,我在互联网上至少几年没和人对话过了
Thank you. I didn't expect anyone to actually reply to my post. I haven't had a conversation with anyone online for at least several years.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyersreplied toprofileenter to follow:
很高兴成为很久以来的第一个人之一,我的朋友!好好的,周末愉快!原谅我的小错误,我正在用翻译来回复。我们都知道大多数时候都不太好。
So happy to be one of the first people to reply in a long time, my friend! Have a good weekend! Please forgive my little mistake, I'm replying using a translation. We all know things aren't always great.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyersreplied toprofileenter to follow:
I am sure pretty much everything that isn’t criminal, abusive, or illegal. I know those definitions vary from country to country. Just be a good human, and you should be OK.
HN, and some carefully picked r/Reddits. Can't stand Lobste.rslobste.rsLobstersA computing-focused community centered around link aggregation and discussion..
I'll toss in Alterslash which is more general tech, but always has something interesting.
I finally bit the bullet and have started to use dictation software more often, even outside of just my prompts. I really like it. Hopefully, computer use becomes much smoother soon. I would love to be able to control my computer with just my voice.
Sick makes me calm. My mind goes quiet for some time. I can sit and look at the horizon. Or just contemplate the different shades of white of my ceiling while laying on my bed. I miss the silence of my youth.
Using Linux hasn't really been fun lately, idk. Nobara, despite building on fedora breaks a lot, but overall the whole ecosystem is so damn inconsistent and fragmented. Not sure if I have gotten more sensitive to this over the years but all I want is a system that "just works" and feels good 😔
profileenter to follow(\ (\ ( • •) ━∪∪━━━━ Full of mostly true stories, I occasionally write them down. Habit of talking to anyone. Bipolar. Author.wrote:
I love the "feel" of this place. It's minimal, but not too minimal. Nice work! I'm probably gonna be a little chatty on here. If anyone minds that, then just @ me :-) #launchnotesenter to follow
profileenter to follow(\ (\ ( • •) ━∪∪━━━━ Full of mostly true stories, I occasionally write them down. Habit of talking to anyone. Bipolar. Author.continued:
Also, thank you for not turning my emoticons into emoji!! As someone from the pre-internet era, I appreciate that :-)
“Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati. It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.” ― Mark Z. Danielewski, Ho
I truly love the experience of using apps with rich, deeply interactive, beautifully animated, gorgeous user interfaces. Then I see a beautiful text-based interface and something about it feels so natural, so inevitable, so perfectly clear, and I'm instantly captivated by its simplicity and clarity. Hypertext is fascinating.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
Well, I think my IRCd (Eris v2) is close to be complete.