An explanation from the author: This isn't a startup, it's just an idea I thought would be cool. I'm announcing it on HN first, hoping to get technical and aesthetic feedback before I throw the URL around.
The two browsers in the submission title are the only ones I have on this machine. Right now it doesn't run as smoothly as I'd want in FF3. There are a couple big optimizations ideas I have, but I was comfortable enough to post this without them. Was that a mistake? If you can try it out in some other browsers I'd appreciate that. I have no idea what IE will do.
doesn't load on my iPod so I can't speak to the functionality but I'd just like to commend you on not choosing some idiotic name like Floovr or Meeerrblap or Dooglity or Phlambo or Hogchaw or Speebu for your project. Makes it that much easier to take seriously.
It's really simple. This was my first App Engine project. There's only one model, Tile, that has contents, namespace, and x/y coordinates. The contents field is a string representing the text in this tile. The namespace tells you what page the tile belongs to (e.g., /newsyc), and the coordinates are relative to the starting position. Namespace, x, and y are part of the keyname, so contents is the only model property. I don't create a tile until someone writes to that area.
I don't want to use cookies, but I'm thinking about implementing some kind of directions feature. ("Where am I?" "How do I get to X?") But I also want to keep the system really simple, so I don't know.
Got it. I ask because the tile size will seem to directly impact the amount of data store contention (aka the number of db.TimeoutExceptions). It would be an interesting study to look at contention rates (percentage of failed datastore reads) vs. tile sizes when the app is under load.
(I also assume you make use of memcache, though I further presume that typing implies an immediate db put().)
Yeah. The tradeoff is that smaller tiles are harder on the client. I wasn't really rigorous in choosing the size, so it's likely not optimal. I actually don't use memcache yet.
...................I love it!............................
........cool..........dont' overwrite thiWhere is my dog?
.......................................I can't find u.....
..What about zoom?.........*&^*#$&^@*#&@*......this sux...
..........How about timeout?---Can't overwrite for x secs.
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Why are there no girls in HTML5 Canvas Experiment.........
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. . .. 8675309
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..... ... ...
Creativity:10 .......... Usefulness:Now a word from...
..a little too slow
CCCC OOOO OOOO LL ...
... needs..... CC OO OO OO OO LL
. . cut CC OO OO OO OO LL
and .. CC OO OO OO OO LL
. paste CCCC OOOO OOOO LLLLLL
..
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. It's lonely down here
Maybe have a minimap feature? In the right hand corner, or a way to jump to the activity? I scrolled around for a while before I found where all the action was.
Or a search feature. I think the trending topic is penis right now.
It is too chaotic but I can see you taking this in different directions. You need a way to direct the flow, potentially even in a useful direction (I am thinking Yahoo/Mahalo Answers), or just like a trending topics feature in which different worlds are based on tags.
Another thing you could do is to have a reset or form a new world every few minutes. This way there is a new slate.
What you will probably need to end up doing in order to monetize this idea is to build a site around it. User profiles, trending topics, different links, regional worlds, answers, /random/, and /ANSI art/ (read: penises)
Brilliant. Obviously the front page is full of spam but this will be super-cool as soon as subcommunities establish what their page will be (yourworldoftext.com/whateverpagehere) and I figure out how to find them. I love it already.
I love how everything's penis, or gay, or some variation thereof. Scrolling around to find the more erudite conversations was remarkably fun though. I kind of like it just as it is..
Hate to get spammy by commenting too much, but now that I've been using this for two days, words fail to convey how brilliant I think it really is. It's beautiful. It's art. It's a type of thing people rarely experience. I love it. Thank you for creating it :)
edit: i want timestamps saved to some place every 10 minutes so that i can explore it chronologically.
I disabled backspace because I wasn't sure whether it should delete the char before the cursor (better for typing) or under the cursor (more natural if you click on something to delete it). Guess I'll just pick one... or have it delete under only if you clicked there?
The two browsers in the submission title are the only ones I have on this machine. Right now it doesn't run as smoothly as I'd want in FF3. There are a couple big optimizations ideas I have, but I was comfortable enough to post this without them. Was that a mistake? If you can try it out in some other browsers I'd appreciate that. I have no idea what IE will do.
That's all. Hope you have fun.