Appreciation for Drummer

[dcoletta]

I really like Drummer. Here are some reasons why:

• One-button publish.
• Outlines reflect the way my brain works.
• The stack is built out of simple off the shelf things that I understand.
• It's a fun opportunity to mess around with the web and JavaScript again after being away from it for a bit.
• Every once in a while I make a totally random guess how to do something and it Just Works™. Today's example: "I bet that if inlineImage is for images then inlineVideo is for videos."
• I have been a secret Dave Winer fan for more than two decades. His blog and daringfireball are the two blogs I consistently read. I was there when it was an email newsletter. I was there for the "bing!" post where the word "podcasting" was coined. Always wanted to get to know him a little better and now I finally get my wish!

I don't write code any more but when I did it was always shitty software! with bugs! :)

[am1t]

@dcoletta I entirely agree, David. I don't remember the last time a system for writing freed me of so much unnecessary posting overhead. The workflow here is absolutely simple. Kudos to Dave!

@scripting I wanted more people to try out Drummer and got queries regarding even basic concepts of Outlines. So, I attempted to summarize and capture the getting started process for people like me who are new to outline and outliners. I wanted to put the information, drawing parallels to the usual method people use to blog.

[scripting]

Thanks guys. I'm glad you're here and helping people learn about the product.

I know that people have a hard time grasping the idea that writing and publishing could be this fluid.

This was the way I blogged before Manila, Blogger, Movable Type, Radio, Tumblr, Wordpress, etc.

It's been a long road of compromising -- but in 2017 I decided no more compromises. I'm going to do it the way I think it should be done. If this works, they'll have a nice blog outliner in WordPress very soon. Maybe my friend Matt will let me do it for them. ;-)

The other thing to note is that blogging is just the beginning. I chose that as the place to start because it's a real application people know about. But the real sparks start flying when we're all keeping outlines, like my Change Notes outline, so we can work together with much more insiight into what other people are doing. We used this kind of tool when we built Radio UserLand in 2000 and 2001, and the results were fantastic.

And there's even more beyond that, ideas that were lost in the 1980s if you can believe that.

As long as there are smart thoughtful people around playing with this stuff, we can do it. ;-)

[scripting]

Some comments on @am1t's post --

1. about.opml is not a special file. You could call it anything, it doesn't even have to be edited in Drummer.

2. You're absolutely right about the division between Drummer and Old School. In a way this is all about OPML, having a standard way to describe the structures, and then building tools that do stuff with OPML files. Either author them (Drummer) or render them (Old School). I want there to be lots of both.

3. This came up earlier with @dcoletta -- DrummerCMS doesn't connect to Twitter for identity. You just send it a REST request to build a blog with the user's name as the param. It knows how to turn that into a URL for your blog.opml file. That's all that there is in the connection between Drummer and DrummerCMS.

Am1t you are definitely both a NBB (natural born blogger) and a NBO (natural born outliner). I am both those things too. But I want to warn you -- most people are not either of those things. So most people it seems 1. won't blog and 2. if they do will do it the hard way. But -- there an answer -- eye candy. People love graphics. Stay tuned....

[scripting]

A demo of the connection between Drummer and DrummerCMS --

http://drummercms.scripting.com/build?blog=cluelessnewbie

Obviously you don't have cluelessnewbie's twitter credentials. ;-)

[am1t]

1. about.opml is not a special file. You could call it anything, it doesn't even have to be edited in Drummer.

Fixed it. I missed the point that you can name the about.opml anything. I've corrected that now across the post.

3. This came up earlier with @dcoletta -- DrummerCMS doesn't connect to Twitter for identity. You just send it a REST request to build a blog with the user's name as the param. It knows how to turn that into a URL for your blog.opml file. That's all that there is in the connection between Drummer and DrummerCMS.

Interesting. The first thing I noticed when I hit Drummer without logging in was that it asks for signing on to Twitter to access the outlines. So, I put that point in accordingly. It is good to know how Drummer and DrummerCMS connect, though.

Am1t you are definitely both a NBB (natural born blogger) and a NBO (natural born outliner). I am both those things too. But I want to warn you -- most people are not either of those things. So most people it seems 1. won't blog and 2. if they do will do it the hard way. But -- there an answer -- eye candy. People love graphics. Stay tuned....

True. And exciting :-)