Introducing the Stream

The stream is a personal feed of my thoughts on things I’m working on, interested in, or a random shower thought that might be worth putting some additional thought into. The stream is a form of expression, posting something spur of the moment, without the crowdedness of a social network like Twitter or Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, those places are great for comment and reply interactions. But I also need my own trail of what I’m writing and thinking about that’s not hammered by likes, comments, and other social features that I find distracting.

There’s something nice and calming about seeing half-formed thoughts and ideas on a screen that’s wholly yours. I wish there was more of this kind of web. I was drawn to Tumblr back in 2008 because you could Microblog before you had a Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Threads, or your variant of Fediverse website. Or even prior like posting your thoughts, fan-fiction, and other inspired writing on LiveJournal. Nowadays, that’s all we read from and post to. Or graduated to video like an algorithmic feed like TikTok. No shade for these companies vying for our limited attention. I think I’d rather take it slow and read some stranger’s beautifully designed blog that has little nuggets than an endless scrolling monstrosity that makes you wonder why you’ve spent hours on Reddit, but can’t recall much of what you did.

There’s more I want to add here, like better search capability, pagination, and an updated description of the stream. It’s designed minimally to emphasize the point that it’s not supposed to be too rich nor attention grabbing. And its flow is based on my writing, and no one else. Welcome to The Stream.

Kudos

Shoutouts are in order for some inspiration

• Linus Lee’s Stream
• The Verge author pages
• Andy Baio’s link roll
• Metafilter for their endless stream that I used to follow daily (as an alternative to a Reddit addiction)
  • As an aside, Metafilter wouldn’t be where it was without Slashdot