Sinterance

This is similar in a lot of way way (different in profound ways, as well) to what I've been schemeing and dreaming and peeing around with. Because, no seriously, it frequently happens to me that my original idea was only slightly round the bend and just behind the vanguardians. Beat to the punch. Coyotes, come on. My strongest example. So, that's my gunnishy init reaction but then it comes on like a camaraderie. I'm not wacked or wacken off...too much. Hey, let's co-lab compay! [The pendejo swings like that, you know.] And then I settle down in the sandy wash bottom that runs dry and soft between.

From the F Train FAK:

I don't understand the structure.
Many people come back to Ftrain over a course of months of years before the structure makes sense, and then, they tell me, it suddenly makes perfect sense. The structure is an essential part of the site. So if you like the writing, but are put off by the structure, know that other people have felt your pain, but that sticking with it might reward you. Might.

Ftrain is a hierarchy. Any given page has one or more of parent, children, and sibling pages, and every page lives somewhere in the hierarchy.

The front page is the very top node of the hierarchy, and everything branches out from there.

On the front page are all the pages flagged for release on this day, or, if there are none, the most recent piece written.

If you use Mozilla, a recent Netscape, or Opera the wonderful "Site Navigation Bar" feature will also allow you to quickly race around Ftrain's hierarchy.

You can also navigate chronologically, by following the "Navigate by Time" links at the bottom of the page.

Ftrain is this complicated because it has over 1000 separate nodes, all of them connected to one another in some way, with something like 700,000 words between them, and all extensible. It was designed to make it possible to tell stories over time, so that a piece begun in one year could be resolved in the next, just like it happens in life, but with the added satisfaction of narrative completion.

I think the navigation is an okay, but imperfect compromise between the technical and the prosaic, and will continue to develop it.

What happened to Reader Services?
Reader Services was going to be a sort of mega-bookmarking tool for reading this site (and other sites with similar structures). The prototype worked okay, telling you what you've read, what you could read, and allowing you to keep and share notes on individual pages, but the system broke as the database ballooned to a ridiculous size. I am working a new version, but it needs to wait until I consolidate the system either around a Python/XSLT or Java/XSLT framework.

From another section, same thing:
Interactive Word Machine
Touch the robot.

Lord, I'm all about the machining of language.

Flucking L, this too! From the publisher's blurb of the kid's debut novel on Amazon now: "paradise of Williamsburg, Brooklyn." Good damn. It was developed serially on his site, too.

There's some uncannish parallels between a couple of freaknuts who like to finger homerow as much as they like anything.

Silimarities right down to the self-effacery:

Or perhaps I am full of shit. Honestly, I'm not expecting much out of myself at this point, and neither should you. Or expect the world; expect truth; and make do with what is delivered.

Exactly. My shit's totally shit.