blockwriter

I am a writer of literary fiction first and foremost, and I never really understood the interest in tracking or reviewing books. I can see its usefulness for a certain segment of the market, but what I come to read is mostly the result of following the map of influences of the authors who inspire my writing. The quality of these works is thoroughly vetted by their centuries of survival. Little reviews do not seem like a useful mechanism for finding the best in contemporary literature either.

In any event, little reviews and social features are a much better way to develop a user base for your platform. Papertrail works fairly well as intended, and I use it extensively, but we found pretty early on that asking users to take extensive notes on books was too large a barrier of entry for people to cross and start producing the content the site needs to grow. My lead developer, who really functioned, perhaps a little too well, as cofounder, found a good job opportunity elsewhere, and I have not been able to replace him. Me and another developer are still working on it, but it looks to be on the road of another application that did not quite find a market.

My profile on Papertrail can be found below.

https://papertrail.biblish.com/russell

Comment · 2 years ago

Vercel after moving away from Docker containers running on AWS.

Comment · 2 years ago

I’ve been working on a note taking app specifically for literature where the idea is that small groups of writers will come across one another’s notes while they’re reading the same work. By responding to another user’s notes the original note taker then has the opportunity to revisit the note and also a book that they may have finished days, weeks, or months ago. It works alright, and I use it extensively, but as you might imagine taking notes on books is a pretty high hurdle for your average user to get over. I’m still hopeful I can find a small market.

Comment · 2 years ago

It would be great if you could find the machine that is closest to 2 or more different locations, like if I want to challenge several friends across the country to post our high scores in a group message, and we needed to know what the shortest drive each of us would need to take in order to play the same make and model machine. Maybe it’s in the app, or I missed it.

Comment · 2 years ago

Can you recommend any books on this subject specifically?

Comment · 2 years ago

I've been doing research into the high-rise housing projects in Chicago. One of the things I'm curious about when it comes to advocacy for more housing and to have that housing be accessible regardless of mental health or substance abuse issues is, does that not pretty much look like high-rise housing projects? If you want more diffuse housing that is accessible and also available regardless of other contributing factors, then it seems to me you would have to build this well outside of urban centers, as the land is too expensive, but then I doubt urban homeless would find satellite housing desirable.

Comment · 2 years ago

Maybe we should mandate that plastics are manufactured with an off taste, similar to the way gas has a sulfur smell added to it.

Comment · 2 years ago

Yeah, I wish not only self-publishing one’s own work, it also creating a small journal for publishing other writers was the first instinct of young writers, especially young writers of fiction, rather than seeking publication through more traditional outlets. I think small collectives of dedicated writer and self-publishers and self-producers is literature’s best hope for a new epoch of great writing.

Comment · 2 years ago

A reading habit, past a certain point, is self-propagating, in my experience. Based on conversation, explicit reference in other texts, and a general sixth-sense of what books to read next, I find that I rarely have a miscue. Abandoning a book that’s no good, or that you simply can’t get into for whatever reason, is a big part of making a self-propagating sense for reading highly reliable. I write a lot about what I read, and I think this further helps to direct my reading.

You can try writing a little testimonial when you start a book that would include your reasons for reading the book. When the book no longer seems to satisfy that rationale, it may be a good sign to abandon the book.

Comment · 2 years ago

Papertrail is a service for taking digital notes for books you read in print in a way that is accessible, sharable, and optionally public-facing. It operates a smidgen like a forum where each book is its own kind of subreddit. It does, though, require having the book in question and actually reading it in order to participate in and contribute to discussion, but that’s not always a bad thing.

https://papertrail.biblish.com

Comment · 2 years ago

I can’t understand this perspective. Why? What’s one guy being fired going to mean in the grand scheme of ai’s development?