It's Eric Woodward (dotcom)

A couple of website updates to announce:

• I added a bunch of custom (unofficial) cards I’ve made over the years for my personal paper-crack, Magic: the Gathering.
• I also added some custom Illuminati groups that I designed a few years ago.
• I added a new LinkList for Tabletop Role-Playing Game Resources.
• I expanded the blogroll to include more sites I like to read (plus some vlogs).
• I updated the tags throughout the site to be links.
• Finally, I fixed the JS on the client side, so that things like relative timestamps and reading time should work again.

While I was fixing the client code, I went and disabled my (already broken) concatentation and minification script, opting instead to serve up all 8(!) JS library files individually (and, thanks to HTTP/2, concurrently)

I mean, I’m using minification for the libraries I’m importing (I’m not a monster), but I don’t use it for the (small) bit of code that ties those libraries together and makes the site work. This way, anyone can see how (and why) the site works the way it does, as it should be, and all without the added complexity of generating source maps or similar unnecessary complications.

And for those minified libraries, I’ve provided a link to each library’s repo and added automated license info, so the LibreJS validator gives this site a ✅. #FreeSoftwareWin !

After hosting it here for the better part of a decade, I’ve decided to remove my RPG, Thur, from this site.

Thur was an RPG that I ran while I was in college, a custom system set on a world of my own design, full of all of the stuff that I thought was cool at the time (and still do, for the most part): Fremen, ninjas, Gunslingers, psychics, wizards, aliens, mutants, technomages, tears in the space-time continuum, a global economy (and shared culture) based on huge teleportation gates - all kinds of gonzo stuff.

I ran several adventures as 1-on-1 games with a former friend of mine, and ran a couple of sessions other friends, but eventually the demands of full-time work and parenting didn’t leave me with much RPG time, so I shelved it. I pulled it out about a decade ago when a friend was getting into Pathfinder. We played a couple of sessions, and that was when I published it here. However, since the rules were never really fully fleshed-out (and thanks to some bad writing on my part), the game fell kinda flat, and so was shelved again, where it’s remained since.

So, what changed? A few things.

As I said before, the rules were a hot mess, with the magic system in particular in shambles. Incomplete as it was, I probably should never have published it here in the first place.

Additionally, my thinking on rules has evolved over the years. I’m now much more interested in simpler systems that don’t systematize flavor (thus leaving more of room for roleplaying). I’m also more into tweaking existing rulesets over building entirely new ones, since it’s easier to introduce new players (and bring back old ones).

But honestly, the main reason I took it down is because I’m genuinely ashamed of some of what’s there. The version of me that wrote most of that was younger, dumber, and had a far-simpler (and naively incorrect) conception of the world at large. He was also far more casually racist, and for that, I am truly sorry.

So, I took it down.

It may come back, it may not. If it does, it’ll probably be in a very different format from what it was before, like an online zine for OSE (so others can play), but that won’t happen until after I’ve made it into something I can be proud of.

Greetings, and welcome the bi-annual tri-annual periodic relaunch of my website!

Yes, after a few years of neglect, I finally got around to updating it again.

Like the last few versions, it’s mostly a static site generated by Javascript. The biggest change with this iteration is the lack of a central library for doing all of the heavy-lifting. No more harp or gulp - instead, I’m using a hodge-podge of different, smaller libraries (like ejs and front-matter) which I string together via a series of fairly short js files, (mostly) all using modern async and await code to do things in the right order.

The end result is that it’s bad fast, taking the build time down from 10+ seconds to under 2 (although that may not be a fair comparison, as it doesn’t do everything the gulp version did… yet).

Some of the biggest changes under the hood:

• I replaced marked and commonmark.js with the better fit (for me) [markdown-it](https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it #readme ),
• I simplified many of my templates, purging a number of unneeded partials,
• I made each journal entry link to the two chronologically-nearest entires,
• I upgraded most of my config files to use json5 (the self-proclaimed “JSON for Humans”), and
• I added a now page (inspired by nownownow.com).

Once I get the source code cleaned up a bit more, I’ll post it in a public git repo.

I’ve got some more ideas for what to do next, like adding in-browser file editing, a homespun blogging engine, and expanded IndieWeb support (most likely via the IndieKit project) with an eye towards IndieAuth, MicroPub, and WebSub.

It’s all part of my (continuing) attempt to rest control back of my social-media-life from the corporate silos.

Along the way, I hope to grow the content-side of this web presence as well, so keep on the lookout for more new stuff, like:

• notes from my various RPG campaigns,
• homebrew for D&D and OSR games,
• my custom Magic cards,
• some hardware stuff I’ve been playing with,
• and a whole lot more!

Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by both this toot and my recent dabblings in the Fediverse, I just wanted to take a moment and collect some thoughts about what I would like to see next in the #SocialMedia / #web space.

• I like the idea of using a hub-and-spoke model, where each actual edge device (phone / tablet / etc.) connects to some kind of always-on server (either a cheap virtual machine or a home-based server), which would be run by a tech-enabling friend, like BBSes used to be.
• All content creation and such would occur on the edge device, probably via a progressive web app hosted on the hub (to enable #offline creating), and which would connect to its hub when convenient to upload any newly created content.
  • Here, “content” means basically anything that you can create on a social media site - text, photos, replies, whatnot.
• The content would be marked up with IndieWeb microformats-2 tags, enabling easy consumption / sharing.
• Since the content creation / editing would occur on the spoke devices, the hub would be used primarily for caching and speedy connectivity (to prevent issues with asymmetric connection speeds that would prevent direct sharing between the edge devices).
• The hub would collect incoming messages for the user and cache them until the user’s device can connect to the hub to pull them down into their edge device(s).
• The hub would also support webmentions (both in and out), webfinger, and any other useful protocols (ActivityPub, to enable more clients?).
• Ideally, each user of this kind of system would have a subdomain of their own (https://eric.example.com), which has their public info, profile pic, and public posts, and which could serve as a Web sign-in endpoint via the presence of an h-card (listing their OAuth2-compatible accounts).

I freely admit that this idea still has some issues, since it is both incredibly hand-wavy and would still require tech-smart gatekeepers to run the hubs, but eventually even that second issue could be mitigated somewhat by turning the software into a single-click install option for a Pi or similar device (or pre-installed on such a device, with a plug-and-play setup of some kind, or pre-built images for VPS hosting).

I’m open to thoughts / suggestions / comments.

Lately, there seems to have been a up-tick in the never-ending debate about the web, advertising, and content-blocking. While Apple’s recent introduction of content-blockers in iOS9 is the most proximate reason for this discussion, it isn’t a new battle, and has been raging for quite some time. The basic argument is that many sites rely on advertising revenue to cover not just their costs, but also to turn a profit. And these web-based companies are (justifiably) concerned that ad-blocking could reduce (or destroy) that revenue stream, which might force them to shutdown.

To which I say, “so what?”

I’m not trying to be mean, but the fact is that lots and lots of businesses are forced to close every year, and many (most?) of them close because they have what some might call a “flawed business model”. Like some others, I believe that’s exactly what the “web advertising” model is, because if it wasn’t, no one would be blocking the ads, there would be no heated discussion about it, and blog posts like this one would never exist. I mean, some may liken ad-blocking to stealing, but others see it for what it actually is - disruption.

Look, I’ve been online long enough to remember the early attempts at monetizing the web: first came the embedded banner ads, which paid-per-view, but were easily ignored by end users; then came the pop-up (and pop-under) ads, which were still pay-per-view, but which couldn’t be ignored (unless you turned them off, since they relied on JavaScript); then came embedded banners with a “pay-per-click” model, which didn’t work because nobody wanted to actually click the links. And as each one rose to prominence, there were always those crying for people to engage with their ads (“If you don’t click on one of my ads, I’ll be forced to shut my site down!”). But the web remains.

And that’s part of why I titled this the way I did. Even if the commercial web went away (which, let’s be honest, it probably won’t), it wouldn’t be the end of the world: many sites which rely on donations or subscriptions would remain, as would storefronts and sites that support physical things. Plus, there are still many sites which are run more-or-less as hobbies, paid for by the people who run them. And, despite what the anti-blockers would say, there are other successful revenue models out there.

So, if you are a blogger or news site who is concerned about how this change will affect your bottom line, you have my sympathy: not because I block your ads (which I do), but because you put your faith in a fundamentally flawed business model (and believe me, you aren’t the only one). If, however, you think I’m wrong, then I encourage you to take the next obvious step and start blocking (or Comic Sans-ing) users who run ad blockers. If your content is worth viewing ads for, then people who run blockers will turn them off just so they can see it. But be prepared for the horrifying truth: when people have to actually pay for something (either with their eyeballs and “unblock” buttons, or with cold-hard cash), your site may not be good/interesting/original enough to actually generate revenue. Again, you have my sympathy… but not my cooperation.

It has recently been asked what the web might have looked like if the ad-based model had never taken off. Since we can’t rewind the clock, we can’t know for sure what course history may have taken in that instance. But if we keep running ad-blockers long enough, we may yet find out.