Nils š§®
@nilsw
You likely already have the answer within these ideas. What are they, and why do they suck?
Last idea I built was #appwatch : I tried to make an ASO tool for Chrome extensions, and then pivoted to Shopify Apps, but i got no success.
I find it harder to have original SaaS ideas now than 10 years ago when I started (also maybe I did not care much about competition)
I like Phangan, Phuket, Pai and Bangkok. Something for everyone.
How about commenting on trends? I love how Apple Health is now telling users about changes in their average heart/respiration rate, sleep quality, etc.
It would be cool if the WIP weekly summary could make note of changes in activity. That could be even more motivating to keep positive trends going.
- more todos completed
- stale todos (for project x) finally getting picked up
- less time between todos (or between start and completion)
- more detailed todos, more use of media, etc
All this data is already in PostgreSQL, so let's get crunching!
After 1373 days of streak (and nearly 4 years of travel), I got high with my friends at Bamboo Hut and forgot to log the day's events.
I actually did fixes on #kornwolf that day and took photos of a plant I bought for
#nils, but forgot to /done that night and only realized the next morning, when I saw @levelsio's update. It affected me more than I thought it would (and should?). Non-attachment, yada yada.
It's definitely discouraging me from starting another 4 year streak, but I agree that there is value in a hardcore contiguous challenge. Don't take it away! š„
I also agree with others that it could be fun to introduce a secondary system, just like Tweakers.net has karma points and 'Tweakotine': tweakers.net/plan/3058/het-twā¦
WIP could have different ways to gain (and lose) karma by using the website. Not just score and leaderboard, but also 'ranks' and badges based on your actions: lurking, todos, commenting and receiving likes, answering questions, creating new projects, launching, keeping your backlog clean (or not!)... everything could have an impact. Lot of possibilities for gamification. š§¬
Thank you for reminding me of this amazing song from the year 2000 šwww.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYsTā¦
That said, you have my full sympathy!
Hahaa can imagine. Lost a 100 day streak after getting drunk and checking my phone at 00:06... nasty hangover...
I felt invested in your streak, it was very impressive and fun to follow along. I felt a bit bummed out once you lost it even though I've never met you. I think that's the power of the 'hardcore' streak. It says something about a person. If there are all these exceptions and soft streaks it loses it's meaning.
Something like Tweakers karma could be a good addition if the community grows more. But there's about 100 (?) active members, so you already get a vibe of the activity of people.
Thanks for sharing š
One the one hand the streak is just a number in a database, but on the other hand it also represents all the hard you put in over the years and the consistency with which you did so.
So I think it makes a lot of sense that you grow an attachment to that number and so it hurts when you lose it.
I think those are the two sides to the metaphorical streak coin. It motivates you to keep going and the longer you keep going, the more invested you get, and so the power powerful that sense of commitment becomes.
But when you do eventually lose it, it has the opposite effect. It's really discouraging and based on anecdotal observations it seems like many members kinda start to tune out of WIP after that. It just seems like an insurmountable mountain to get back to that number.
That's why I'm considering alternatives to the current streak system. Not necessarily to replace it, but something to augment that hardcore easy-to-loose streak with something more forgiving.
A karma system is an interesting idea, but implementations always seem rather arbitrary to me. If completing a todo gives you +10 points, how much would a comment be? Etc.
But perhaps I'm overthinking it, and it's not about getting it exactly right. Just reward people for doing cool stuff in the community.
I'll give it some thought the coming weeks. I do like the idea of badges for concrete achievements. Getting the top streak. Losing your first streak. Adding your 5th project. Etc.
'Fitness šŖ' updates could go under 'Health ā„ļø', but it could also be its own category.
I think 'Food & Drinks š½' would likely be a popular category here, too.
'Misc š' would be a good general catch-all.
Maybe āvisible for everyone in their feedā?
Renaming 'product' to 'project' makes sense. Life is art and our #lives are a product of ourselves. I don't use Instagram, but I do enjoy using #nils as a colorful microjournal / blog.
The increase in microblogging and morning routines does seem to clutter the home feed of what once was just shippers and their actual products.
The feed is still digestible for now, but perhaps a future feature for WIP could be filtering preferences for types of products (projects!) to include. Existing project categories could be used here, and Life would be just another category.
Everyone, keep micro-ing! š
Yes, great points on all accounts.
I want to embrace people sharing life updates and other non-work projects. But I agree it would also be nice to filter them.
Thinking what categories we should have. Most obvious would be "personal" and "work". Some others would be "health" and "hobby". Anything else that comes to mind?
'Fitness šŖ' updates could go under 'Health ā„ļø', but it could also be its own category.
I think 'Food & Drinks š½' would likely be a popular category here, too.
'Misc š' would be a good general catch-all.
Maybe āvisible for everyone in their feedā?
650 cc is great, never too lackluster like some 250-300-500 cc bikes. Power is manageable, but hard to get bored of. You definitely won't outgrow that bike.
Kawasaki Ninja is a sports bike. Instead of sitting upright, you're all the way forward, with feet behind. Not ideal around town or for rides longer than 1h.
I ride a Monster 821 now, but I'm still a big fan of the naked Honda CB650 - especially 2019 model or later. Elegant, comfortable and fantastic 4-cylinder.
Here in Asia, Honda wins for servicing & parts availability, etc. Way better than Ducati. Apart from personal taste, there are other practical factors that should guide your decision when buying a bike.
But yeah, once you're comfortable riding a manual bike, you can't go wrong with SV650 (or CB650!).
I never understood why people should first buy an anemic 250-300 cc bike, unless they're coming from a bicycle or scooter. 650 cc is a great medium.
I just saw the email and felt like reading an April's Fools joke. Even as a software engineer who loves throwing away code or simplifying existing systems with abstractions, I think this a giant mistake.
The uncompleted state of a to-do is what makes it a todo. Being able to follow a 'roadmap' like that also adds flavor to in-progress products, which (initially) WIP was all about (before increasingly becoming a 'just-in-time' lifestyle blog).
I loved the /todo command to jot down ideas & tasks on-the-go, in a more 'micro' fashion than creating a GitHub issue on a private repo (more friction; no public visibility or accountability). The burndown chart was also a nice touch.
Eliminating todos in favor of 'posts' (status updates) brings the platform awkwardly close to X/Twitter, albeit with a smaller (but less toxic) community, fewer features, no monetization for creators, and so on. Product differentiation is lost.
Personally, I don't see the point in replicating Twitter for a specific niche (makers). It renders WIP a high-priced mini Twitter with hashtags & pages for projects (formerly 'products'), possibly better served better by separate Twitter accounts, or a free (self-hosted) microblog with theming, etc.
This 'RFC' was made 6 hours ago, but now todos already got nuked. Long before WIP users in different timezones even had a chance to give feedback, which I find hardly reconcilable with 'curious to get your views'.
As promised I received a ZIP with my 200+ pending todos (and their attachments), but I'm not happy with diluting WIP's unique identity (to become Twitter?), nor the way this change was rolled out.
Thank you for your honest feedback ā¤ļø
A few hours after writing the post I took another look at the usage data and the added code complexity. I realized two things:
Although itās unfortunate for the very few people who did use it, I donāt think itās fair for the whole community to bear those costs in terms of slower product development.
Considering all that, I chose to move forward immediately rather than wait for additional community input. The usage data said it all.
I have the tendency to overthink these types of changes rather than bravely move forward and make progress. This was me trying to do better, but it actually may have been wise to hold off and give you and the couple of other users who use this feature to share their perspective.
My apologies I didnāt do that.
With regards to todos setting WIP apart, I agree. I LOVE that people share the actual things they have done rather than random posts. Thatās the reason for WIPās existence.
I made the Twitter reference as an admiration to the simplicity of their product. I think we can learn a lot from that, but that doesnāt mean we need to become exactly like it.
When I say we can merge todos/posts/comments into the same record type thatās more of a comment on technical implementation, than UX or product. For example right now I have implemented comments twice, once for posts and once for comments. Same with notifications and a few other things. The more code they can share the simpler the codebase, the faster we can add other features people are asking for like better privacy controls, a nicer API for third-party integrations, etc.
Hopefully that addresses your concerns about the future of WIP.
With regards to the pending todos functionality, I havenāt actually deleted them from the database and I am in no rush to do so. The email was intentionally written a bit āalarmyā so people who care would take action sooner than later.
The changes I made to remove the functionality can be reverted relatively easily. But for reasons shared above I still think the right decision is to remove it, even if I didnāt plan and communicate it properly.
Given your 200+ pending todos, I understand your frustration. If thereās anything I can do to help move you these to a new platform Iād love to help. I can export them in any format. Personally I use Telegramās āSaved Messagesā feature for this and it works very well.