

Distraction free writing and the simplest blogging platform in one - akos
http://throwww.com

======
colmmacc
I really like the design and look of throwww, and I don't mean to pick on it -
but every time I see these minimalist low-friction writing engines, I feel
like a very big thing is missing; facilitating editing, and encouraging a
greater purpose for text.

Something I'm reminded of every time I reach the bottom of a pg essay, or
every time I look back on the writing I'm most proud of, is that time was
taken to consider and craft the text. Crucially, the text - and its ideas -
was shared with others, feedback was gathered, and the text further refined.

Low-friction composition is important; it's a huge boost to have a simple
clean slate with which to begin. But often once that initial effort is over
with, good writing becomes a work of careful refinement. Here's some things I
haven't found in any platform that would be great;

1\. Full revision history. Every keystroke I've made, every tiny little edit
should be saved. Everything. In order. Everything. This is a small data
problem.

2\. Once I create some text, I'd like to be able to share it privately with my
trusted testers and feedbackers. They should be able to highlight text and
make notes in-place. If I trust them enough - or they are an actual nominated
human editor - they should be able to edit the text.

3\. Some guidelines for good clear writing are automatable. An editor could
tell me when a sentence is getting very long. An editor could detect obscure
or imprecise words and suggest alternatives. An editor could detect repetition
of mundane words or phrases. You get the idea ... the point is that real work
can be done here.

4\. It would be nice to be able to make margin notes, and to track goals. It
is common to sketch out in advance the purpose or goals of a text; the outline
and key points to be included. It'd be neat to be able to check them off as
progress is made.

Or in summary; it'd be nice to see a tool that took as its goal that writing
itself can be made more effective, rather than merely prettier.

~~~
keithpeter
" _1\. Full revision history. Every keystroke I've made, every tiny little
edit should be saved. Everything. In order. Everything. This is a small data
problem._ "

A 'replay' function would be good as well. I have a feeling that what I
_actually_ do when editing is different to what I like to _think_ I do. This
feeling is based on some screen videos I did a little time back.

------
sfard
Woah just happened to come across this! Thanks for sharing, akos.

I built (and am continuously working on) throwww. Let me know if you have any
questions. Also here's kind of a mission statement of sorts
<http://throwww.com/a/1>

~~~
ameen
I wrote a post last night and "saved it" so that I'll continue to work on it
later. Its non-existent now. So, drafts don't exist? What does the "save"
button do then?

~~~
6ren
Looks like you need to bookmark the url that is generated when you save. It's
probably still in your browser history (with the same title of as your post).

------
avolcano
Pretty minor detail, but got me thinking. I like that the site has a Markdown
video tag using the following form:

    
    
        |video|(http://youtube.com/watch?v=abc)	
    

Haven't seen that in any other Markdown implementations (always hate having to
copy the embed code in for Tumblr's half-assed version of it). Is it new to
Throwww or is it from another Markdown variation?

~~~
sfard
I added it in addition to markdown. It's a python package I found a while
back.

------
benrhughes
I really, really like the interface. I'd love to use it for my blog, but I'd
want a self hosting version. I've been burnt too many times by
hosted/proprietary writing platforms.

If you're not keen on self-hosting, I'd want: \- the ability to export to an
importable format (eg, wordpress's WXR). Exporting html/text is all well and
good, but I need to be able to migrate \- other stuff I'm sure you've thought
about, like custom domains, custom URLs (eg /this-is-the-post-title) etc \-
discoverability of other users/"blogs" on the network

Nice work though. I really like it.

~~~
sfard
Hey benrhughes, thanks for feedback. I put together this update on where
throwww is going. I think you'll like the direction :)

<http://throwww.com/a/45r>

~~~
benrhughes
Excellent, looks great.

------
ankit84
Why would someone publish his writings when the website does not even publish
Privacy Policy and Terms of Use?

* Who owns the content ?

* Are they going to keep there for lifetime?

* How would you make money and let us write? In future they can monetize on my content.

btw, let me admit, I created one for linkback <http://throwww.com/a/41k>

------
vjeux
Would be nice to randomize the url id so that you cannot see all the posts
that have ever been written just by doing +1 on the number.

Also, I usually stick to Wordpress because you can embed code. Any plans to
allow syntax highlighting?

Thanks!

~~~
sfard
A front-end dev friend of mind asked for code-embedding/syntax highlighting
too! I'd be happy to add it if I can come up with an elegant implementation.
Is there a "markdown" for code that you know of?

~~~
Shank
Github uses Pygments: <http://pygments.org/>

I don't know what language you're using, but here's a Ruby library for it:
<https://github.com/tmm1/pygments.rb>

Edit: Scrolled down and saw Django. Pygments is native to Python, so you might
be in luck if you want to use that.

~~~
sfard
Awesome, thanks. Will definitely add code support in coming days/weeks.

~~~
lighthazard
<http://alexgorbatchev.com/SyntaxHighlighter/> is a great place to start.

------
mediocregopher
This is great! I've been thinking about writing down some of my experiences
and thoughts lately, but didn't want to go with some full-blown blogging
platform. I considered just having a github repo where I would just push up my
*.md files, but this is even easier.

My only concern is my ability to get content back for archiving. Is there a
way we could export the articles to some simple format? Either markdown or
even just a plain text file?

~~~
sfard
Thanks! I made throwww for the exact same reason. Nothing quite fit my use
case.

As for your concern. A few users have requested a "download" feature to
archive their posts. The features I'm planning on adding in the short term
include

* "Download" support. Probably XML or RTF options.

* RSS

* "Discover" page with curated/voted posts. Kind of like user pages (e.g., throwww.com/u/sfard) except with content from several users

* subdomain user support (i.e., username.throwww.com)

* Potentially "groups"

------
akos
I shared my thoughts about some features I would love to see in the future:
<http://throwww.com/a/2r4> ;)

~~~
sfard
favorited.

------
temiri
Wow, very handsome. I like it--I was just wondering what platform I could use
to share thoughts that are a bit longer than a tweet but maybe don't merit a
full blog post with all the bells and whistles.

My only gripe is that when I clicked on my profile it said, "This guy hasn't
written anything yet." which was slightly off-putting as I am not actually a
"guy."

~~~
sfard
Wow, I just realized how androcentric that is. I just changed it.

~~~
temiri
Cool, thanks!

------
xSwag
If you're interested in these new blogging services, check out Medium[1] which
is built by the same guy who build Blogger, and Feathers[2] which is also in
the "distraction free blogging" space. I like this trend of minimalism and
clean layouts but I do not like the same idea being repeated over and over
again without good execution (How do I view posts? Where is the post index?
Where is the submit button? Where is the privacy policy and ToS? How will you
attain user engagement with such an app? Who owns the content?). More
importantly, what does your application offer that other applications in this
space do not?

[1]<http://medium.com/>

[2]<http://feathe.rs/>

~~~
avolcano
Considering that both of those are in private betas, I can't say either is
really relevant to someone wanting to use a service right now. Kudos to sfard
for actually launching something.

~~~
sfard
avolcano, your comment makes me so happy. Nothing wrong with other blog
platforms. I wont bash them. I'm just building throwww as something that I
hope has value for people.

------
boomlinde
Seems to me like a web browser is the last place you'd be able to pull off
distraction-free anything.

~~~
dkasper
you could use one of the various strategies for disabling access to
distracting websites (hosts file, rescuetime, et al) while you were using this
if it's really an issue. I think "distraction-free" was referring to the fact
that the interface doesn't distract you with a bunch of bells and whistles
though.

------
mrtbld
I like it.

But I was a bit surprised to see a commenting system in it. This isn't what I
expected after having read "Why I Made Throwww" [1]. A blog-like commenting
system is not what I would associate with simplicity, nor "the purity of just
a message".

Also, a little idea for easy improvement (IMHO): display the length of the
text, i.e. the number of words and/or the time to read (e.g. based on a naive
average of 250 words per minute [2]).

    
    
      [1] http://throwww.com/a/1
      [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_%28process%29#Reading_rate

------
laacz
What I always check first for these tools, is support of partial unicode. And
almost always I am faced with total ignorance of such. It's 21st century,
guys.

Post: <http://throwww.com/a/3nr>

Screenshot (Chrome, win64):
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/laacz/8357406754/in/photostream...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/laacz/8357406754/in/photostream/lightbox/)

------
sfard
Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback. Based on what I've been hearing lately,
I wrote a small article about throwww's direction. <http://throwww.com/a/45r>

Comment if you want anything you don't see. Not promising it'll get built, but
it might be something I haven't considered.

Thanks again.

------
seanMeverett
Looks great!

The problem with all blogging platforms though is that we always focus on
making the writing experience better rather than making the audience
experience better.

Give me this simplicity, plus a built in way for me to get eyeballs and I'm
all yours!

------
cowsaysoink
Very cool, this could be what svbtle should have been.

If you implement the things like trending and subdomain user blogs (with
things like domain hosting add-ons in the future) I could see it being a very
useful blogging alternative.

Nice work.

~~~
sfard
Thanks, here's where throwww is going. You might like.
<http://throwww.com/a/45r>

------
cheeaun
Looks very clean. I wonder how do I upload images? Or is this only for pure
text blogging?

~~~
Hemospectrum
There are a handful of very popular sites for uploading _and hotlinking_
relatively small (under 2MB) images. Right now, imgur.com is probably the
best-known.

~~~
cheeaun
I think it would be better if the site handles all that for me. Having to
switch to another site for uploading images is kinda 'distracting' to me.

~~~
sfard
Agreed. Throwww was never originally supposed to have image support, but it
seems pretty needed now. I'll add to to-do

------
hartator
Pretty awesome, I love the simplicity.

Curiosity. What have you used technically?

~~~
sfard
Thanks. Django + Postgres + Javascript.

------
duck
Very sweet interface and love the look. What is the market for these type of
services though? Who uses them and why? I can't seem to think of a lot of use
cases personally and hardly ever see anything linked from one.

------
zeynalov
Add full-screen button for complete distraction-freeness. And there are some
server errors, not sure why <http://throwww.com/a/337>

------
nicholalexander
love the user page and writing experience.

quick thoughts:

formatting would be a distraction

include "media box" (music/img/url/vimeo)

would be nice to get lost inside of throwww following threads, authors,
subjects... or else make twitter serve as the navigation through different
"throwww's"

maybe instead of downloading the posts, they "evaporate" within... 2 days?
temporality is cool and goes along with the name.

------
akhilrex
I used this tool only to share my comments

<http://throwww.com/a/3h8>

------
pseingatl
OK, I give up. I don't see any save button. I don't see any way to post. Lost
one test file already.

~~~
usaphp
Scroll down my friend.

------
baby
I don't like the textarea field, if I write too much it scrolls and hide what
I previously wrote.

------
Diamons
Personally, I found the lack of an interface he most distracting part. It just
didn't feel right.

------
pgsch
everyone can delete other people's posts? (in anonymous mode)

~~~
sfard
No... only your own.

~~~
milesokeefe
If you guess someone else's url and they haven't logged in, you can in some
cases delete their post.

------
drudru11
yet another paper plane logo :-)

