mobile devices
Remember how people in the year 2000 used to say how crazy and ridiculous it was, the idea that Anyone Would Ever Run Photoshop in a Web Browser? I mean come on. Oops. One of my big bets with Discourse is that eventually, all computers will be tablets of varying
community moderation
One of my favorite insights on the subject of online community is from Tom Chick: Here is something I’ve never articulated because I thought, perhaps naively, it was understood: The priority for participating on this forum is not the quality of the content. I ultimately don’t care how
social media
What are the real world consequences to signing up for a Twitter or Facebook account through Tor and spewing hate toward other human beings? Facebook reviewed the comment I reported and found it doesn’t violate their Community Standards. – Rob Beschizza (@Beschizza) October 15, 2014 As far as I can
programming languages
Way back in 2007, before Stack Overflow was a glint in anyone’s eye, I called software development a collaborative game. And perhaps Stack Overflow was the natural outcome of that initial thought – recasting online software development discussion into a collaborative game where the only way to “win” is to
markdown
Let me open with an apology to John Gruber for my previous blog post. We’ve been working on the Standard Markdown project for about two years now. We invited John Gruber, the original creator of Markdown, to join the project via email in November 2012, but never heard back.
markdown
In 2009 I lamented the state of Markdown: Right now we have the worst of both worlds. Lack of leadership from the top, and a bunch of fragmented, poorly coordinated community efforts to advance Markdown, none of which are officially canon. This isn’t merely incovenient for anyone trying to
user experience
I’ve long believed that the design of your software has a profound impact on how users behave within your software. But there are two sides to this story: * Encouraging the “right” things by making those things intentionally easy to do. * Discouraging the “wrong” things by making those things intentionally
programming languages
Computer performance is a bit of a shell game. You’re always waiting for one of four things: * Disk * CPU * Memory * Network But which one? How long will you wait? And what will you do while you’re waiting? Did you see the movie “Her”? If not, you should. It’
gender diversity
(The title references Shanley Kane’s post by the same name. This post represents my views on what men can do.) It’s no secret that programming is an incredibly male dominated field. * Figures vary, but somewhere from 20% to 29% of currently working programmers are female. * Less than 12%
productivity
I’ve expressed my disillusionment with to-do lists before. But let’s try something simpler, a little experiment. What do you use to keep track of what you need to do? Hold it up, so I can see it. Humor me. Seriously! No no no, hold it closer, near the
social media
I find the Don’t Read The Comments movement kind of sad. In 2006 I said that a blog without comments is not a blog and I stand behind that statement. There have been brief periods where my own blog has been temporarily without comments, but they will always come
psychology
The Dan Ariely books, Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, profoundly influenced the way I design my massively multiplayer typing games. These books offer science in the small about human behavior, and stark insights into user behavior – and by that I mean our own behavior. All detectives are by