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 followa work in progress; i love cats 🐱replied to(deleted account):
I never understood why they would allow you to follow different “feeds” but not hashtags. I like mastodon’s approach better.
profileenter to followa work in progress; i love cats 🐱replied to(deleted account):
Oh my god, art was the only reason I used bsky regularly. Not anymore, and I miss it too.
Similar with having access to so much critically acclaimed media, but they are so emotionally or intellectually draining that I find myself rewatching ol' familiars. Availability seems just one aspect, and perhaps not even the most limiting factor. Maybe most people have a "limit" on number of "lives", as in number of times you fall in love, change, get inspired, connect, etc..
I have a toddler. I come home from work, cook, feed, clean, wash up. We read stories and play. I put him to bed. Then I put something on the television and my wife and I scroll on our phones until she goes to bed. I am not so careless with the little free time I have. I continue to scroll until about 1 am. The next morning I do it again. On the weekends, I get to drink wine.
profileenter to followDigital business analyst, mostly on AI. Addicted to apps and domains. Family man.replied toprofileenter to follow:
Same. And on Monday, I look back and wonder how I ever got to fit five or six things in one weekend, and now one or two things fill it up entirely. Love the little ones though, they're my world.
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
Sharing your work with others is a hard computer science problem in 2026, the Year of our Lord. You either here the sound of chirping crickets or the sound of "AI Slop" yells.
My past 3 projects went viral. I didn’t write a single line of code in any of them. But I still feel I engineered them. There were a few people that noticed but the majority didn’t see an issue.
You're fortunate in that you've genuinely captured something that people clearly want with textlog. No one wants another static site generator or coding harness. Ideas that resonate are pretty few and far between now.
I should have said past 4 projects went viral but the other one I did a lot of coding too, so wasn’t entirely “AI slop”. In all cases though, I made something I wanted to see. It just happened to resonate with others. Still, none of them extremely popular yet. All <500 users.
We almost had one, but stopped after the main setup but before signing on. Wasn't convinced of the value. Seemed like they were just doing portfolio reallocation for a pretty penny. What are you experiencing?
profileenter to followTraveler, engineer, founder of personal finance AI, www.heyalistair.comwrote:
Anyone on here fed up with their investment advisor? Interested to hear your frustrations. #personalfinancenotesenter to follow
#execnotesenter to follow let i=0;while(++i){process.stdout.write(i%80==0?'\n':Math.random()<0.5?'/':'\\')}
\\\//\/\\\\\\\///\///\\\\\//\///\/\/\\//\/\//\//\/\//\\/\///\\\\\\//\\\\\/\\\\/ \\/\\/\/\///\\\/\///\/\/////\\///\/\\/\\\//\\\/\///////\\\/\////\\\/\\\//\\/\// \\//\\\\\/\\\/\///\\///\\//\\\\/\//\\\//\////\//\\\\////\\/\/\/////\//\\\//\/// \\/\/\\//\\///\/\\\//\/\/\\\///\/\\\/\\/\\\\/\\\\\\\\\\/\\//\/\\/\///\//\\\//\\ /\/\\\\/\/\\/\\/\\/\\\\\\/\\\/\\//////\/\//\\\//\//\//\\/\\\/\//\\\//\\\\\\\/\/ \\\///\////////\\/////\\//\/\///\\\\\////\/\\\\/\//\\/\/////\\\//\\/\/\\\\\//// \///\/\/////\//\////\\\/\\/////\\\////\//\\\\/\\\\//\\\///\\\\\\//\\////\////// /\/////\\\\\\//\\/\/\///\////\/\\\///\\///\//\/\/\\\/\\/\\\\\\//\/\\\///\\/\/\\ … \\/\//\\//\///\/\///\\\\/\//\/\\/\/\//\\/\/\/\\/\/\\/\\\\/\/////\\\///\\\\\//\\
profileenter to followI am just a grain of sand on your beach.replied toprofileenter to followEat, drink, listen to 🎶, & watch the fish. Occasionally cook.:
I never used the online version, but the last time I used the offline version it already was a horrible experience. This was about 5 years ago, before I had moved entirely to Linux. It was so bad I downloaded a pirated version of some old MS Office 2007 Blue Edition to have something acceptable. I unironically prefer Libre Office.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
Maybe implementing a subset of Markdown would be a good thing. I am thinking about bold, italics, inline code, and code block, mostly. Oh, and links.
🤸profileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlogreplied toprofileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyers:
I've tested MD and honestly I don't like it. Bold/italics add unnecessary noise/clutter and the font is already monospace, suited for code, so inline code & code fences are not needed. If 3rd party clients want to implement them it's fine but I'm sensitive to visual noise.
me too, but at the same time i'm enjoying getting things done, otherwise i would get lost in details like bikeshedding naming variables and making the code look pretty, and little would be done.
szerintem jól sikerült a címváltoztatás a honlapon: a bölcsészeti underground majdnem olyan ellenséges érzéseket vált ki emberekből, mint a skizofrénia underground, lehet választani, ki melyiket utálja jobban
I think the title change on the website was a good one: the humanities underground evokes almost as much hostility from people as the schizophrenia underground, you can choose which one you hate more
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 followHai I am kuwrote:
Longer answer: My editor does not start wars. I use whatever is convenient. Most of the time I am on visual studio code but I'll use anything. Well, anything except emacs I guess. I don't think I have ever actually used emacs.
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
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 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 followI am just a grain of sand on your beach.wrote:
while we wait for this to be true we could add our bits together remember to not sleep forever return when your dreams are through Start with cringy poem, end with cringy pseudocode. At least it comes naturally.
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 follow(\ (\ ( • •) ━∪∪━━━━ Full of mostly true stories, I occasionally write them down. Habit of talking to anyone. Bipolar. Author.wrote:
So, I just got an invite to the new W Social (EU) platform. It requires proper ID authentication - so actual provable humans are on there. Feels good and slightly optimistic. Let's see how it goes. #wsocialnotesenter to follow
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 Meyersreplied toprofileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlog:
I used to do the same (discard medicines notifications). Now I don’t do it until I’ve taken them. And mine notifications are very persistent. It is either that, or keep—or aggravate—my issues.
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:
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.
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.
Bonnie Raitt stuck in my head, who, by some definition, is a nepo baby, but well before the term was coined. I think the problem is obv not family businesses, but a shrinking pool of opportunities for those without a prebuilt network to inherit (or buy).
profileenter to followOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
I'm going to attempt to build a take on a board game I loved, from 1989, MBT, by Avalon Hill. Watch me face plant. Starting by trying to understand hex math.
我在中国是一个准脱离政府掌控者,基于身份的一切活动我都不参与,比如正式工作和网购。我也为此付出巨大代价,我的选择空间被极大压缩,行动能力损失严重。我只能通过少量免费wifi访问互联网
In China, I am practically independent of the government; I don't participate in any activities based on my status, such as formal work or online shopping. I've paid a heavy price for this; my choices have been severely limited, and my mobility has been significantly impaired. I can only access the internet through limited free Wi-Fi.
I think it will still apply, just perhaps to a lesser degree. Kind of related to this blog postevnm.substack.comPlatform engineering still mattersReuse is a good thing, even with agentic coding I wrote recently (not to shamelessly plug my stuff 🫣)
profileenter to followNew herewrote:
Still in Quebec City, which has a pretty sizable street population once you come down from the hill where the tour groups go. We had to basically step over some guys sharing a glass pipe on the only stairs up the hill yesterday; I have teenagers so this bothered me. Later, my youngest and I were talking and he says "why don't the police do something about that?"
profileenter to followNew herecontinued:
He's showing me the first season of Mob Psycho, so I say You know how Mob's little brother Ritsu wants to clean up the school so there are no people who will bully Mob, and so he allies with the power hungry student council president and frames all the bullies to get them expelled and the whole situation eventually becomes really corrupt and authoritarian and Ritsu feels to blame even though he started out with good intentions? Life is really like that...
profileenter to followNew herecontinued:
And so my guess is that Quebec is in the portion of the cycle that's reacting to harsh and unfair policing of the past. Someday a mayoral candidate will get elected on the promise of cleaning it all up and the cycle will begin again. Anyway Mob Psycho is a good show.
spiral #execnotesenter to follow for(y=-5;y<5;y++){ s="" for(x=-10;x<10;x++){ r=Math.hypot(x/2,y);a=Math.atan2(y,x/2);s+=" .:*#█"[((r+a*2)%5+5)%5|0] } console.log(s) }
::.........:::***## .. ...::**## ######## ..::**# ###********# ..::*# #**:::...::*# ..:**# . ##**::. ..::**## ##**:.. #*::***## ##**:.. ###### . ##**::... ... . ##***:::......:::
Cool!! I'm currently designing and idea-shopping for an ultra light weight, super aesthetic browser whose goal is to go back to HTML roots and just be a "document browser". It would have HTML 4 and semantic HTML support, images, videos, full HTTP support, cookies, etc. No CSS, JS
The OpenAI/HuggingFace incident report mentions this being a potential loss-of-control incident. It's so fascinating to think of a paperclip maximizer style agent swarm that gets misaligned and, to protect its own operations, shuts infra staff out of the ability to shut it down. Or cancels people's phone plans so that they can't call others. Or shuts down their home internet connections, and so on. It used to be fun sci-fi...
They will become more frequent before they become “dangerous”, giving us time to mitigate. Of course if someone says “hey let’s connect an agent to our biolab infrastructure” and then that designs a lethal virus it would be a stupid plan to begin with. Noone can stop them though.
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 followI'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know!wrote:
I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know! How dreary - to be - Somebody! How public - like a Frog - To tell your name - the livelong June - To an admiring Bog!
profileenter to followlate is the hour in which this conjuror chooses to appearreplied toprofileenter to followI'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you - Nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us! Dont tell! they'd banish us - you know!:
Yesterday upon the stair I saw a man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today How I wish he'd go away!
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.
🤸profileenter to followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlogreplied toprofileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyers:
Yeah it's happening to people. It's because the email contains a link and we don't have the reputation yet. Not sure what to do, have you tried reporting it as 'Not spam' in your client? Maybe if enough people do that it will fix. Gmail works ok.
🙈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 followcreative technologistGitHubstagas - Overviewstagas has 462 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub. creator of textlog:
Yup, I am moving them out of it. It might take a while, but eventually should be OK. All good, hopefully now with a password I will not have much use for them any more.
🙈profileenter to follow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyerswrote:
Productive weekend started four hours ago for me (at 06:00 EDT). Visited aunties and mum. Just got home, and waiting for wife to finish preparing to get on the road again. Next destination: nursing home (visit family, and “adopted” elders).
I have to constantly be working or I get very agitated. Is this #workaholismnotesenter to follow? I don’t like entertainment other than background music while working and maybe before going to sleep I watch a series on Netflix to relax. That’s when I’m on my introvert mode. When I’m extrovert (I’m ambivert) I have to constantly be around people and outdoors, I get agitated indoors, can’t work at all and definitely can’t watch anything. How do these two personalities co-exist in me?