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by Anton Zuiker Saturday, April 9, 2016

A few posts in, and I'm really liking the 1999 blogging tool that Dave Winer is developing. 

I'll use this post to make a few notes about using 1999.

Notes

  • I'm glad I was able to get the 1999 (nodestorage) server installed on my Webfaction account. I'm a poet, so to speak, so getting anything to work on the backend of my web hosting account makes me feel good.
  • I like the ability to add an image to the top right of the post. Having an image adds a visual flavor to the page.
  • Not having a title field visible at the start of composing a post is different, but I think I'm going to like it. The empty post field at the top of 1999 is inviting, and will free me up to make smaller posts that don't need titles. I've wanted to use my Radio3 linkblog more like this. Will I still need a linkblog if I use 1999 daily? Something to think about.
  • I'll think I'll add some padding below each bullet item ... well, bullets on the item's page look great, but it's the bullets on the blog home page that are too close for my comfort. And paragraph text after bullets seem to have tighter linespacing.
  • The medium editor is nice. I like highlighting words so the editor pops up. Fun.

This is a test to see if push updates are working. Hmm, not yet. Dave says websockets is configured, so maybe I'm just not being patient enough. Once I click the Update button, I'll switch over to Safari and see if these extra words show up. Here goes. Nope. I wonder if watching the item's page works differently. Here goes. Yes! That's it. Push updates are working on the item page, but not the blog home page. And now 1999 has been updated so the home page should reflect push updates. Let's see if it works for me. Bingo!

Simple

There's much to be said for simplifying the blog experience, and the blog display. I think that's what Dave has done. I know I have (or will have) the ability to change formatting and styling, but I like that the writing place in the editor is so simple, and the display of the home page is not gussied up by too many styles and image options.

What I'm trying to say is that this tool is making it simple for me to blog again.

  • Another feature that depends on the websockets interface is the reply mechanism. If this reply doesn't show up when I press Return that means something isn't working. But if it does, that means the WS updates are working. Here goes!

    • I have to say -- it worked! :-)

      • Even emojis work. :sunglasses:

    • Cool. Thanks for testing and confirming. I wasn't seeing my post updates, but I'll test and reply to the 1999-server group.