Write.as Development @writeas_dev@abunchtell.com

I'm working on an integration with another blogging platform (which one? it's a surprise) that has me thinking about improving the #WriteFreely install process.

I'd like to get it down to one command (instead of the 2-4 it takes now). And if it could do things like set up a systemd service, that'd be awesome.

#wfdev

[#writeasdev] uncertainquark opened writeas-gtk #24: No possiblity of having a clean file on app start https://github.com/writeas/writeas-gtk/issues/24

Almost finished with the store / Extend Write.as. Spent almost 16 hours on it today wrestling with Stripe, setting it up so users can have multiple subscriptions.

Now the tricky part is letting people go to the "Extra Blog" subscription first, without Casual or Pro, while letting them later subscribe to those plans (it already works the other way around). Tomorrow will be for testing all these different scenarios. Time for bed

Not everything in the store will have a fee -- especially smaller optional items.

But the first item for sale will be an additional blog for your account, for $12 per blog per year.

This will be available to everyone, even if you're not already a Casual or Pro user.

Like Write.as Labs, this'll also serve as a way to quickly release, test, and refine new chunks of functionality before releasing them to the world as add-ons you can install on your own #WriteFreely instance.

Today I'm working on the upcoming Write.as store. With this, I'll be able to start working on some features people have requested that will work better as add-ons than part of the core product.

Finished up that "featured blogs" page (https://writefreely.org/createdwith) and yes, I ended up building out a new service for grabbing website screenshots 😆 Called it https://Capture.as.

Not sure if I'll open that up to everyone yet. It works great for Write.as blogs, but results are mixed on other sites. If I can improve that, I'll launch it as a paid service.

While looking to grab screenshots for the blogs we'll feature on writefreely.org (https://discuss.write.as/t/want-your-blog-instance-featured/354) I remembered I already built a tool for @htmlhouse that'd help with this, called siteshot:

https://github.com/writeas/siteshot

...and now I've gone down the rabbit hole of potentially launching a little screenshot-capturing service.

[#wfdev] New task - T563: Instance-level stylesheet https://writefreely.org/tasks/563

Okay, deployed! Everything seems to be running smoothly.

You can see the new flow (especially if you're logged out) by going to this page: https://write.as/start -- that's where the process starts for most new users now.

Ended up being a ton of work for this new user onboarding flow -- it's tied up in everything. But I think it'll be a huge improvement. Once it's deployed, I'll be keeping an eye out for user feedback and seeing if people run into snags.

[#wfdev] mrvdb opened #78: Add touch icons https://github.com/writeas/writefreely/pull/78

#WriteFreely

[#wfdev] mrvdb opened #77: Apple icon files missing https://github.com/writeas/writefreely/issues/77

#WriteFreely

We grow, but relatively slowly and steadily.

So at this point we see tens of thousands of visits every day across our platform, but only a very small percentage actually turn into customers.

If we can increase that percentage *just a bit* through some small changes to the site, we soon cement our status as a permanent publishing platform on the web. And then I can keep doing this for decades to come, as I've always hoped to.

Another unsaid thing here is that all our growth is completely organic, and has been for... over 2 years? Or all of our existence?

In addition to not displaying ads, we don't do any advertising, or buy users, or anything like that. We spread purely through word-of-mouth and by building a good product -- and with that, we still grow every single month.

The free plan isn't going anywhere, but I'd like to try steering more people to the paid plans, for a few reasons.

Of course, more paying customers means we're profitable / sustainable much sooner. But more importantly for everyone, the platform is most useful on the paid plans (especially Pro). People who never go past the free tier miss out on everything we offer, and may think Write.as is less useful than it actually is.

I haven't given the sign up process a lot of attention, especially lately. It was made out of necessity, and really isn't the smoothest, especially for anyone interested in a paid plan.

Today I'm fixing that so that each plan has a dedicated sign up flow, explains what you get for your money, and is less work overall to sign up for a paid tier.

[#wfdev] carbontwelve opened #76: Scheduled posts available via federation https://github.com/writeas/writefreely/issues/76

#WriteFreely

@ploum @matt Yep! Great progress so far :) Got the basic export done, with styles, automatic cover generation, some metadata, table of contents. Will polish it all up once I get series built in.

[#wfdev] New task - T562: ePub export https://phabricator.write.as/T562