State of the Box Address in Site Updates

My fellow Proseboxicans,

(apparently Proseboxican is not actually a word)

If you had suggested to me one year ago that I would, one year from then, have a successful website collecting most of Open Diary's remaining inhabitants as it shuts down for good, I would have chuckled and complimented you on your delightful imagination.

Then I would tell you that you've smoked enough cannabis for one evening.

Then you'd say, "But seriously... man.... what if two states that legalized weed meet for the Super Bowl..."

And I'd say, "No really. You've had enough. Put the joint down."

And yet, here we are.

What a ride.

I started building this site for my own benefit mainly. I wanted to learn a whole new technology stack, and what better way than to write a new website with it? I thought I might be able to attract a few friends and have fun with it for a while.

I never expected this.

But hey, I'll take it. :)

I'm not one for long-winded speeches, so I'll switch to bullets:

• Prosebox is very healthy and increasingly profitable. I don't see it going anywhere any time soon.

• There will definitely be a subscription option to get rid of the ads, if you so choose. I guess I have commitment issues - there's that part of me that rebels a little bit at the idea of an actual contractual obligation. But most of me welcomes it. I just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I introduce it. Right now Prosebox feels a bit like the wild west - no solid laws, no terms of use. But it's coming. Still working on figuring out the details.

• People have been asking about importing their old diaries here. I'm sure it will be an option at some point. I would use XML since that's the easiest thing to parse from a programming perspective. If you're really intent on using this feature and have the means... XML! Also, I'd probably put it in an archive table, separate from all the current stuff you write (14 years is a lot of baggage, after all...)

• People have also asked about exporting. That will definitely be an option at some point, though I couldn't say when at this point.

• Blocking will be coming soon. A lot of people mentioned IP blocking which complicates things a bit, so for now it will just be user blocking. But it will be bi-directional. If you block someone, you're blocked from seeing that person as well.

• Personalization will probably be a premium feature at some point. This would be limited personalization, like a nice background image on larger displays, but the actual text panels would remain the same. I'm a big fan of readability so that, in my opinion, comes first. People should be able to read stuff in a theme that they personally find comfortable. And to opt out of backgrounds if they so choose. It would be something like this, but perhaps with a little touch of transparency added to the main panels (I had this looking cooler at one point before I tweaked the layout).

• Backdating entries. Will add this soon.

• Editing/deleting comments within a limited window of time. Just enough time to catch mistakes. :)

And a lot of other stuff that I'm sure people will remind me of after I post this. :)