Served as “flat files” - filesystem, object store, what have you. No server logic generating content, just passing around of strings and binary data. Files are the representation are the source of truth. Counter to a web app, where the content response is ephemeral and the “source of truth” is scattered across a writeable DB and recombinated (potentially) on every request.
Interesting question though, I (a web dev) just take the term for granted.
I’ve seen some active instances die due to admin neglect (not paying the bills, for instance), and I’ve wondered how those communities have fared since, since they’d have to start over elsewhere, and without all the content and history from their origin server. Same goes with user accounts too.
It’s like a weaponized grade of whatever they made CSS in JS out of
Just read a thing about how persistent usernames may work better than actual ID. Of course, I don’t have a link, and I’m not finding anything on Google right now, but as someone who uses the same handle across multiple services, which makes my activity traceable, but not necessarily to my real identity, I definitely think there’s something to that.
On Castle, no less.
Oof, I felt this
From the welcome page
my secret mission with Perchance is to get people interested in coding with a smooth, fun learning-curve
Seems like it worked!
I do web dev on a daily basis, and I tend to think of HTML as “formatted” data.
A database has data in it, but it’s in a format of columns and rows, like a spreadsheet.
My application fetches that raw data and uses code to manipulate it - it can inspect it, rewrite it, combine it with other data from other places, validate it against rules - all sorts of stuff.
Since my app is a web app, all that code is designed to use the data formatted in columns and rows from the database, and use it to generate new data in HTML format to send to the browser.
Technically, writing HTML for a browser is a form of programming - it’s a set of instructions that tell the browser how to display the data in the HTML. It’s not considered programming in a professional* sense, though, as HTML doesn’t get, send, change, or process data. Its purpose is as a format for data to be sent and read by something else (the browser).
*professional as in job titles that affect your salary
The most dangerous community
(Sanitize your inputs, kids)
That is literally what it is :D
I’ve always felt it doesn’t solve the problem people think it’s solving.
I call this my “rule of three” - I wait until I’ve seen “something” three times before deciding on an abstraction. Two isn’t enough to get an idea of all the potential angles, and if you don’t touch it a third time, it’s probably not important enough to warrant the effort and risk of a refactor
Yes!
some specific instance should have its own “charter” that it uses to make those decisions with, sure whatever
This one, yes.
I’d happily take a sliding scale subscription that comes with zero personal benefits, if it means keeping a cool and valuable instance up and running.
Oh hey, like taxes.
It is actually exciting to see and participate in how things develop.
Same, to go from years of lurking on Reddit to feeling compelled to post here is an indication to me that something cool and different is trying to happen.
Good question, something for folks writing the charter (whoever they might be) to take into consideration, and hash out.
Off the top of my head, there are types of for-profit orgs, like B Corps, that could be included. There are non-profit orgs, like religious institutions, that could be excluded.
(Edit: point is that it’s something for more and better minds to sort out, and adjust over time)
I’m very anti one charter - my intention here is to propose the idea of charters as a way for communities to sort of balance each other out, solve each other’s problems and avoid reinventing each other’s wheels.
Well-thought-out policies will be copied and forked by other new instances, and that will create consensus communities of instances that are at least on the same page when it comes to how a site is supposed to work.
Yeah, pretty much this, but with some mechanism - literally at an icon level - to indicate to users (lemmings, lemurs, lemurians?), who aren’t necessarily keyed into inter-instance politics, and just want to see their memes, that “this instance follows the No-Nazis charter, which I like, and the rest of the charter members agree. Cool.”
Yes, well, my spoon is too big.