textlog

the story so far

More ways to connect.
Still quietly.

textlog began as a small place for short notes. It has grown into a richer social space without losing the simplicity that made it feel different. Here is the whole story in one place.

the complete recap

What textlog has become

  1. More ways to write

    Markdown tables and lists, code with syntax highlighting and execution, LaTeX, maps, polls, quizzes, todos, previews, drafts, and an embedded write form give every note the shape it needs.

  2. Conversations that stay readable

    Thread trees, smarter collapsing, anchored replies, backlinks, thread locks, and contextual back links make even long conversations easy to enter and leave.

  3. Feeds with a point of view

    @ keeps direct activity together, my feed follows your people and tags, hot surfaces active conversations, any offers a fresh mix, and all shows the full public stream.

  4. Discovery with more context

    Full-text search, trending tags, profile and post hovercards, tag aliases and display names, and the dedicated meta conversation make it easier to find people and ideas.

  5. A more personal textlog

    Moods, pinned notes, bookmarks, streaks, themes, accents, fonts, density, rounded corners, timestamps, and link preview controls let the site feel like yours.

  6. Words across boundaries

    Translation, Unicode hashtags, location cards, audio links, ASCII art, and content warnings help more kinds of expression travel safely through a text-first space.

  7. Control without lock-in

    Password and magic-link entry, multiple accounts, account switching, private feed keys, data export, unpublishing, and account deletion keep identity and writing under your control.

  8. Connected on your terms

    Push notifications, interaction and recap emails, broadcast controls, and installable-app support help you stay close without making the site louder.

  9. Built for the wider web

    RSS and Atom, embeds, a public archive, a read/write API, conversations, drafts, bookmarks, and automatic tagging make textlog useful beyond its own pages.

  10. Still small by design

    Through all of it, textlog remains server-rendered, text-first, free of likes and engagement tricks, and centered on people writing to one another.

from the community

The conversations that grew

These notes started some of textlog’s most active conversations, ranked by replies across the full thread.

@austorprofilefollowwrote:
Team vim, team emacs, or team “my editor doesn’t start wars”? One line, no essays. Go!
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@gikkmanprofilefollowwrote:
Do you code in silence or do you listen to music? If so, what kind of music do you prefer? Personally, I prefer Synthwave, vaporwave or the occasional country.
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@rickyprofilefollow#Automationnotesfollow specialist for #CreditUnionsnotesfollow; 20+ year #SharePointnotesfollow veteran; #developernotesfollow; #writernotesfollow. I don't idle well.replied to@gikkmanprofilefollow:
The vast majority of the time I prefer silence. Unlike @stagasprofilefollowcreative technologist creator of textlog, my #ADHDnotesfollow gets distracted with music. When I do listen to music, it has to be no vocals. I find #SpaceMusicnotesfollow, like Jonn Serrie, Brian Eno, and Steve Roach best for me.
@melting_coffee_mug🤔profilefollowreplied to@gikkmanprofilefollow:
depends on my mood and inner state sometimes just silence sometimes background from mynoise .net sometimes a punk rock web radio sometimes my music collection (I stream myself, that's right). mostly punk rock again. very occasional let YouTube run starting from something I like
@jamesjan3profilefollowresearcher, developer, dancerwrote:
anybody got some recent software recommendations that you cant live without anymore?
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@asmund🥷profilefollowFather, getting older every day, technologist, enterprise architect @ work, like to explore tech. Like to keep it simple and work in the shell, write in vim, prefer Debian if I have the choice. Plays saxophone and clarinet. Enjoy motorcycle riding, photography, hiking. Christian.replied to@jamesjan3profilefollowresearcher, developer, dancer:
I’m not supposed to take that literally of course, but I don’t think software has such an important role in our lives, for most of us. Water, food, air. Those you can’t live without. When it comes to software, I spend most of my workdays in the shell (vim, git, grep,…) and if $place allows in mutt+weechat (although that’s mostly outlook and teams). Nothing particularly new!
@melting_coffee_mug🤔profilefollowreplied to@asmund🥷profilefollowFather, getting older every day, technologist, enterprise architect @ work, like to explore tech. Like to keep it simple and work in the shell, write in vim, prefer Debian if I have the choice. Plays saxophone and clarinet. Enjoy motorcycle riding, photography, hiking. Christian.:
Nextcloud with Files, Talk, Calendar, Memories and more is damn useful for family life though 🙂
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@davidprofilefollow🍎 A lifetime Apple user. Partner says I am pedantic, sarcastic, and cynic. I just want to be me.wrote:
Which Linux distribution do you like the most, and why? Follow the previous with your favourite desktop environment.
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@melting_coffee_mug🤔profilefollowreplied to@davidprofilefollow🍎 A lifetime Apple user. Partner says I am pedantic, sarcastic, and cynic. I just want to be me.:
Arch Linux with KDE. I like that Arch comes with nothing and is pretty vanilla. No bloat, and customisable. No major upgrades where 5 things break at once. Install once, and it's fine until the device has to be replaced. Only then usually do a fresh install. It's up to date, still pretty boring, and you learn a bit in the process.
@hris_deb🤔profilefollowreplied to@davidprofilefollow🍎 A lifetime Apple user. Partner says I am pedantic, sarcastic, and cynic. I just want to be me.:
i distro hoped a lot. Finally i found my cozy home with debian with kde. 3 years still running without a problem all the software i use works perfectly and the games run smoothly.
@keitachikawa😎profilefollowaeres-u99 on github, CodeAtlas \o/replied to@davidprofilefollow🍎 A lifetime Apple user. Partner says I am pedantic, sarcastic, and cynic. I just want to be me.:
Arch with i3, have been using it for like 7-8 years now. Started out at elementary os, really good and everything, but the thing where I dont need to install *-dev libs separately saves me a lot of time during compilations and building. Also, AUR is a life saver at times.
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@chanuxprofilefollowI ain't no nothing!replied to@kooiprofilefollow:
Brikka. Someone on HN mentioned it as great design. I looked it up and bought it after a while. It's been such a delight. Even the occasional brew gone wrong adds to the experience. v60 is also nice when I need it to slow down or be the experience a bit meditative. But Chinese tea is the best for that.
@melting_coffee_mug🤔profilefollowreplied to@kooiprofilefollow:
i just get lazier and lazier over time. now it is a portafilter espresso machine, DeLonghi Dedicated, along with a separate grinder, Baratza Encore. what I love is try out regional types of coffee, but this then always outside, and on travels.
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@gruntprofilefollowI am just a grain of sand on your beach. www.gruntsoft.comreplied to@stagas🤸profilefollowcreative technologist creator of textlog:
Microservices. Not really programming, as this is more on the architectural level. Microservices is a valid approach when you need to address massive scale. The thing is, I have seen it applied to things that could realistically serve its audience in a handful of modest servers with a less fashionable approach. It was done under the guise of simplification; each individual microservice was in fact very small. But this at the cost of absolute spaghetti architecture.
@hotterprofilefollow#Emacsnotesfollow, dev, life, random stuff. the netherlands.replied to@nathan🥸profilefollow:
The book, but actually ideas, like tiny functions and names. Aposd is much deeper book. Hilarious read github.com/johnousterhout/aposd-vs-clean-codeGitHubGitHub - johnousterhout/aposd-vs-clean-code: A discussion between John Ousterhout and Robert Martin about differences between John's book "A Philosophy of Software Design" and Bob's book "Clean Code".A discussion between John Ousterhout and Robert Martin about differences between John's book "A Philosophy of Software Design" and Bob's book "Clean Code". - johnousterh...
@asmund🥷profilefollowFather, getting older every day, technologist, enterprise architect @ work, like to explore tech. Like to keep it simple and work in the shell, write in vim, prefer Debian if I have the choice. Plays saxophone and clarinet. Enjoy motorcycle riding, photography, hiking. Christian.replied to@stagas🤸profilefollowcreative technologist creator of textlog:
I assume this is not original at all at this point - but (extreme) DRY is not a good practice. My experience is that a bit of copying yourself and your colleagues in the code base often make maintenance of the code base easier.
@honey_ohs🥷profilefollowSoftware engineer. [Reluctant] Salesforce dev. Salesforce’s biggest hater. stephenlf.devstephenlf.devImportant Thingsreplied to@asmund🥷profilefollowFather, getting older every day, technologist, enterprise architect @ work, like to explore tech. Like to keep it simple and work in the shell, write in vim, prefer Debian if I have the choice. Plays saxophone and clarinet. Enjoy motorcycle riding, photography, hiking. Christian.:
Many have adopted the term WET (write everything twice)
@keui😊profilefollowreplied to@stagas🤸profilefollowcreative technologist creator of textlog:
Getters and setters for everything. Certainly, if you want an object to be doing more than just getting and setting a value right now, get them in there! Planning to add functionality later without breaking code? Stop it! That should break code! If I'm consuming a library and have been using this setter method for 2 years, I don't want it to suddenly introduce brand new validation, caching, or logging behavior!
@lemonthymeshortbreadprofilefollowI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.replied to@keui😊profilefollow:
Are getters and setters on everything even considered a good practice? To me it screams junior developer who hasn’t yet fully understood encapsulation and abstraction — if you’re just exposing getters and setters as the interface then what is the class/module/etc providing beyond what a standard variable does…?
@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
Writing. I want to do it, very badly. I just don't want to be bad at it. You have to be bad at it in order to get good at it. But... Catch 22 isn't it?
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@dc😊profilefollowreplied to@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
I think reading helps quite a bit, especially writing about what you’ve read, even to yourself, just so you can go through the process of having to explain something that you’re only recently familiar with. There’s something about that process that seems to be helpful, at least to me.
@prtys🤡profilefollowreplied to@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
Same. The way I consume information influences how I think. Short form content makes my thinking fragmented without a clear structure. I feel that fragmented thinking won't lead to convincing writing. And I'm trying to regain some of that lost control.
@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlyreplied to@prtys🤡profilefollow:
Very interesting! I think something along those lines might be happening for me too. Another aspect, always cooking in the back of my mind, "if you can't explain it well, don't explain it at all."
@kev🧜profilefollowrunner. making games, music, software. getting into as much trouble as i can.replied to@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
The fear of being bad at it is the only thing holding you back. I experienced something like that with playing music with others. Perhaps you could learn to lay down your critical brain during the creation process and that good/bad isn't a useful distinction until later when you're editing your work.
@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlyreplied to@kev🧜profilefollowrunner. making games, music, software. getting into as much trouble as i can.:
Yeah, this is pretty much what I can't do. My critical brain has a lot of power. It's very evolved at this point :/
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@stagas🤸profilefollowcreative technologist creator of textlogreplied to@vko_pngprofilefollowpoet by heart 𓅰:
Catastrophic interference is also a favorite Wikipedia page and concept. The thing is, it doesn’t only happen to artificial neural networks, I’ve had it happen to me a few times. Especially with pin numbers, newer pins overwriting old ones and I’m always scared when I’m having hard time remembering something that this catastrophic interference applied and now the information is gone from my brain.
@e_e🧚profilefollowwrote:
If you left your current industry, what would you do for a living?
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@drewfishprofilefollowretired programmer, new #ttrpgnotesfollow DM, learning Scottish Gaelicreplied to@gikkmanprofilefollow:
I've picked up enough of electrical basics to help friends out and it's great. It doesn't take too big a bump in skill/knowledge/experience to get to the point of fixing things and wiring new outlets. Hmm... I did have a retired electrician friend to help me get started tho. It kinda feels like "Lego for adults" 😀
@gikkmanprofilefollowreplied to@drewfishprofilefollowretired programmer, new #ttrpgnotesfollow DM, learning Scottish Gaelic:
Problem is that around here you're not allowed to wire 220V electricity without a professional certificate. Otherwise insurances don't cover. 12V and 24V systems are fine, but for household electricity you basically need to hire a professional
@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostlywrote:
Morning everyone, I've started a project to bring back "classic" era Instagram, from say the 2012 - 2013 time frame, long before it was ensh**ified. It's nowhere near ready for public consumption, so I've closed off registrations. Right now it's mainly for me to show my photography. halation.photos
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@fastidiousprofilefollow"Beware those that would deny you access to information, for in their heart they dream themselves your master." — Sid Meyersreplied to@crustyrustaceanprofilefollowOld school metallian, hobbyist developer writing things mostly in Rust…mostly:
That's very nice! I would love to run something similar for my photos, do you share the source somewhere?
@lemonthymeshortbreadprofilefollowI 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⁇
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@johy🦥profilefollowreplied to@lemonthymeshortbreadprofilefollowI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.:
This is like the third time in my life I've seen an interrobang in the wild. And I don't know, but I'd prefer JSON over having configuration as constants in a PHP script like at $DAYJOB sob
@keitachikawa😎profilefollowaeres-u99 on github, CodeAtlas \o/replied to@lemonthymeshortbreadprofilefollowI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.:
My problem with yaml is the indentation annoyance it leads to, and if you are using the same tool on two different machine like windows and linux, have fun configuring those tabs and spaces all the time. I do like toml and ini for editing, but json is not as bad as yaml for sure
@brunoborges😎profilefollowreplied to@lemonthymeshortbreadprofilefollowI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.:
TOML is a better format for configuration files IMO, if not for many reasons, primarily because TOML accepts comments. However, one annoying thing for TOML was the lack of schema, and the reliance on JSON Schema for that. Which I decided to tackle years ago when I started the TOML Schema project. In the past few months I leveraged code agents to take to the finish line and got something compelling: tomlschema.org
@lemonthymeshortbreadprofilefollowI carved wooden spoons and my favourite herb is lemon thyme.replied to@brunoborges😎profilefollow:
That’s really cool. I suppose it would allow people to verify their config file is valid without having to pass it to in the intended program, which might be running in production or infeasible to run locally — very interesting

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