300 comments in 24 hours.
nothing better than people word-fighting about writing tools...
-bowerbird
165 karma · joined March 21, 2013
hi. "bowerbird" is my poetry name, if you're wondering. as i am a poet, i consider it my job to tell the truth. and sometimes, it's unavoidable that the truth hurts... but i don't intend to hurt unnecessarily, or unfairly. so do please feel free to e-mail me, or even to call me -- at 310.980.9202 -- if you think i broke that pledge. if you find yourself in santa monica, i'll buy the beer.
nothing better than people word-fighting about writing tools...
-bowerbird
let alone all of the web-based markdown _editors._
but, for those of you who are trying to keep up with it, stackedit.io here is one of the better ones that's around.
i myself still like dillinger.io the best, but this one seems to be a full-on match for all important dimensions.
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
your website says "accounts coming soon". and i'm curious what that means. whatever it is, i should probably inform you that my app is javascript that works exclusively client-side, saving where you like, including your own site. (with a "last-resort" option to save on my site) and i will be encouraging people to _take_it_, for free (as in beer and speech), which means there might not be much money in this arena...
-bowerbird
1. the general idea:
> http://zenmagiclove.com/phrase-change-display.html
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5639728
*
2. an example:
> http://zenmagiclove.com/phrase-change-sample.html
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5648071
*
3. a demo with the gettysburg address:
> http://zenmagiclove.com/misc/gabal/gabal.html
> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6765685
*
i have working code, if github (or anyone else) is interested.
-bowerbird
b1. businesses have a need for collaborative writing
b2. businesses are mired in their ms-word mindset
b3. businesses will pay for a tool they need...
b4. ...unless they can get it for free from google
b5. i don't care about businesses; thus ends this list
*
w1. i care about writers, individuals exercising creativity
w2. writers don't write collaboratively; editors can suck it
w3. writers certainly won't pay for a collaborative tool
w4. it's highly doubtful writers will pay for any tool...
w5. ...but most especially if they can get it for free
w6. writers won't even _use_ an over-engineered tool
w7. writers want the tool to just get out of the darn way
w8. writers are quite happy with a empty field to write in
w7. editorially was over-engineered, and is penflip too
w8. draft-in started just right, but is now over-engineered
w9. writers don't trust storing their stuff "somewhere else"
w10. version-tracking is great, but not the be-all, end-all
w11. github? order-of-magnitude over-engineered for writers
*
c1. communication is pervasive (facetime, hangouts, twitter)
c2. collaboration doesn't need to be built into every tool
c3. to the extent it is needed, use stuff like sugarbox.io
c4. javascript writing tools will be beer- and speech-free
c5. i can point to a dozen, and release my own next week
c6. so nobody is gonna build a business on writing tools
c7. html is so old-fashioned, with http://strapdownjs.com
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
it's also simpler, more powerful, and actually _working._
meanwhile, posts like this seem to get lots of attention.
even though the person just created an account to post.
i don't get it. can someone give me a pointer or two?
-bowerbird
some songwriters do the music and the lyrics separately.
others do them simultaneously.
some writers treat the words and the formatting independently.
others want to do them at the same time.
however, the live preview is a necessity for people who are not yet comfortable with a light-markup system (like markdown).
and it's worth noting that the desire of writers to "have it look nice" was a big part of the driving force behind wysiwyg, and if we really want to elevate people from that dark pattern, we need to use a live preview to give them their satisfaction.
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
but eventually we'll get there. eventually. when? dunno. and the "when" question is really the important one, right?
and the only answer is "don't know".
the most important caveat, however, is that we might well go extinct before "eventually" ever comes. indeed, probably.
i guess we don't know, but i'd say extinct is not self-aware.
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
i believe you could make this stronger by reciting the benefits derived from voluntary fan support of artists.
even when phrased in the abstract, this position always sounds self-serving when it's made by artists themselves.
but i think that _you_ could -- and perhaps _should_ -- state the case, and have it seem entirely appropriate.
-bowerbird
although, to be honest, i also know of no free beer.
-bowerbird
one of the best things about the web is that nobody has to ask permission from anyone else to make their speech free.
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
this is gonna take some time to digest, but thank you, thank you so much, for doing something so outrageous...
-bowerbird
-bowerbird
did you really, truly, honestly believe that that comment was a roundabout drive-by on mentally-challenged people?
because frankly, that kind of uncomplimentary inference impugning someone else with unsavory motives is repugnant.
i came here to say a dirt-simple "no thanks" to the idea, without commenting on it, because its stupidity was simply too obvious to require any statement. but that doesn't mean i believe kevin rose is "stupid", because i certainly don't.
i can separate the idea from the person who suggested it.
and if somebody else calls it a "retarded" idea, which is simply another way of saying that it is a _stupid_ idea, then i don't think they're criticizing kevin rose either, let alone a class as _remote_ as the mentally-challenged.
retarded people can use lots of help. so give them some, instead of engaging other people in pointless semantics.
because you're _not_ helping, or making anyone "think"...
-bowerbird
that seemed really sleazy to me.
i mean, they could have just went and made a donation, instead of pimping out the just-inflamed memory of fans, and -- considering the money that franchise has made -- it would've been no sweat off their coke-filled noses.
and the fans _still_ would've went out and bought it...
or they could've said "we're gonna lower the price of this d.v.d. by 10 bucks, so you can give 10 dollars to his charity, under your name, so you get the feel-good."
but no, they had to tie their donation to your purchase.
offensive, big-time.
and, compared to _that_ recent example, the act of apple in putting up a simple photograph, in tribute, seems quite innocent, and maybe even downright honest.
-bowerbird
and i certainly don't want to do the work of figuring how to sidestep incompatibilities that _are_ present.
even if the distastefulness of _that_ was half as bad, i would still rather make my users "wait" for that 37k.
again, that's _me._ not telling anyone else how to do it.
-bowerbird
i'd say 87% of the pages on the web have graphics whose importance is sketchy, and whose total size dwarfs 37k.
and since i almost always do _something_ which has been found to show cross-browser inconsistencies, the peace that jquery gives _me_ is well worth those paltry 37k...
that's me. other people might be different. but that's me.
-bowerbird
but i've become a very good button-pusher.
-bowerbird
"when will these kids learn to avoid the superlative?"
"oh shit, how did this kid get inside my head?"
"oh, i see: this ain't a kid; it's a canadian."
"hey, what's this strapdown thing?"
"oh shit, another kid inside my head. oh dear."
"oh, i see: also not a kid; a twitter engineer."
"well, ok, that makes sense too."
"gonna have to look up these two on twitter..."
-bowerbird
it's definitely going to be _way_ too late...
and when awareness hits like a ton of bricks?
humans don't act or think too well in a panic.
-bowerbird
we've only known about this migration spot since 1975, but even in that evolutionarily-brief time, we saw as many as an estimated _billion_ butterflies yearly, every november.
but the number has been falling.
last year had the lowest total we've known -- 60 million.
this year? 3 million. even toward the end of the month.
it's almost impossible to pretend that's not significant.
the insects we cannot see so readily, or track so easily, are probably suffering the same kinds of collapses, but we just don't know. we just plain do not know. it's sad.
-bowerbird
"looks like a pile of shit" implies "make it look better" as the "constructive way the creator can improve upon it".
and if that's still too vague, then "find something that looks better, and then copy it" is a very good beginning.
since the intent here seems to be to offer an annotation capability, i'd suggest "medium.com" as a thing to emulate.
but since this developer, in one of the f.a.q., indicates a familiarity with medium already, that'd be unnecessary.
but i can go farther, if you like. try these on for size:
1. don't overlap the pictures; it defeats the purpose.
2. eliminate the project gutenberg legalese. it's ugly.
3. the headings should be formatted as headings.
4. give the paragraphs some decent formatting.
5. the all-uppercase words are supposed to be italicized.
6. improve the formatting of the text-annotations.
7. give incoming users an explanation of the purpose.
all of those should have been very obvious, and thus completely unnecessary, as well, but you asked for it.
-bowerbird
so yes, i'm saying that almost everyone, including even "experts in the field", has drastically underestimated both problem severity and shortness of the time-frame.
and extinction is just part of the problem. because the extinction of apex predators means that other species in the food-chain get overpopulated, causing more problems, then undergoing crash/boom cycles, thereby upsetting the delicate balanced ecosystem on which we depend so much.
(not that it was "delicate" before, it wasn't, but once we've thrown it so far out of whack, it'll be very hard to achieve the delicate touch needed to restore balance, especially as we'll lack time, desire, and frame of mind. we'll just wildly swing, from one to the other extreme.)
and that's just out with the big-enough-to-see animals. dynamics in the virus-world, with the now-acknowledged looming uselessness of antibiotics, will be even worse. and that will impact human life much more squarely than an extinction of the lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
this crap will happen sooner than we believed, and will snowball much more rapidly than we thought, plus there will be all kinds of ugly "surprises" in store for us.
for instance, how long do you think the bees will last? and when they're gone, what happens to our food supplies? how long will we remain civilized when food grows short? and just how long do you think we can live with no food?
i was being conservative when i said "10-20 years", since people would think i am nuts if i said "7-11 years", but -- once the shit starts to hit the fan -- the time-frame will not be best measured by _decades_, but by _months_.
mark my words.
i hope i'm wrong. i really really really hope i'm wrong.
but that's my prediction.
-bowerbird