Another day, another new WordPress editor.
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Another day, another new WordPress editor. Introducing PootleWriter!
A few weeks ago, @davew was telling us about WordLand, “a focused and fast editor for writers who use WordPress”.
Today Jamie Marsland introduces another editor, PootleWriter. I like the look of it! I’m looking forward to seeing the code opened up so we can look under the hood. I’m especially curious to see how all the data (including application passwords I believe) is stored locally. It could be interesting to run the app locally as an offline document editor.
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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@dpknauss Yep, I agree we could have both options.
I don’t know if Gravatar is a good alternative to WordPress.com as a login system, though. As you mentioned, Gravatar and WordPress.com are ultimately the same thing ; it’s a different brand but the same logging system in practice.
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Why not offer both options? Access WordLand.social and any connected sites with or without WordPress.com and Jetpack.
And what about Gravatar as the gateway to federated WordPress and the whole Fediverse/open web?
Technically a Gravatar account also comes with a WordPress.com account, “but it does not require you to have a WordPress site, or use any other services from WordPress.com or Automattic.”
The optics of independence are better and more manageable with the Gravatar brand — even better if the .com requirement is minimized and clarified.
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Are you familiar with WordLand? I’ve mentioned it on this blog a few times: it’s a WordPress editor, designed for writers.
@davew built WordLand using the WordPress.com REST API, thus making the app available to everyone with a WordPress.com account. Once you’re logged in, you can pick any WordPress site connected to your account. It can be a WordPress.com site. It can also be a site hosted on another platform but using the Jetpack plugin to allow it to communicate with WordPress.com.
It works really well. It allows you to log in only once, to manage and publish on multiple sites from a central editor dashboard. This was one of the ideas behind the WordPress.com REST API when it was first built.
Of course, this means the WordLand app is only available to folks with a WordPress.com account, and using a site that’s either hosted on WordPress.com or where they’re able to install plugins like Jetpack.
If WordLand were to drop that requirement, it would be immediately usable by more people. It would open it to authors on sites where they don’t have permissions to install plugins, for example.
In this post, Dave outlined his idea for making WordLand available for self-hosted WordPress sites.
I’ve thought a bit about what that switch would mean in practice. I thought I’d share my first ideas here, for you Dave to consider as you start working on this project.
In my mind there are a few things to consider to get WordLand to work with self-hosted WordPress sites.
Mapping endpoint requirementsSelf-hosted sites ship with a REST API and endpoints, listed here.
Those endpoints allow viewing, publishing and editing posts, which is the base of what WordLand does. They also allow listing and editing categories, uploading media,…A first step may be to map the WordPress.com API endpoints used by WordLand with their equivalents on self-hosted sites.
The REST API docs will be a big help there. I am thinking you may have all WordLand needs with the endpoints available on all self-hosted WordPress sites today.As part of that mapping project, you’ll see that the expected schema is different for the 2 APIs. Although similar, there are differences. You’ll find the biggest differences may be in how categories are handled for example, since they are different from site to site. That’s something worth mapping as well, since it will mean making changes to the app accordingly.
AuthenticationOnce you have the endpoints figured out, you’ll need to tackle what’s probably going to be the hardest part: authentication.
With self-hosted sites, there is no centralized way to handle authentication. Folks will need to authenticate for each site where they want to publish. Application passwords are probably the best approach to take. They are available for all self-hosted sites and don’t require site owners to install anything. You’ll need to build a flow where site owners start by providing a site URL instead of clicking a log in button. That site URL, when passed to WordLand, allows the app to hit the REST API for that site, get the authentication URL, and redirect the site owner there so they can log in and go through the flow to create an application password and then come back to WordLand with that password.
A WordLand.social account for everyone?
They’ll need to repeat that for every new site they want to use with WordLand.Another alternative may be to first offer every WordLand user an option to log in to an account created with WordLand. The different connections and authentication information for one or more sites would be stored in that account. It would allow WordLand.social to keep working like it does today, as a central platform from which you can publish to multiple sites.
And the extraKeep in mind that Jetpack and WordPress.com also provide more than just the REST API endpoint and the authentication layers. They also provide other features you rely on in WordLand, like markdown support.
That’s all what comes to mind at first. Hopefully it helps you get started!
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Another recap for this new year. This time, I looked at the board games we played last year.
The big winner last year was Lost Cities, which we played 15 times. It remains a fun little game for couples, and we’ve enjoyed playing it, often 2 quick games before to go to bed to end the day.
Number 2 was Splendor. We’ve owned that game for more than 10 years at this point, and just like Lost Cities it’s the perfect game for 2, after a long day. Of note, this year I finally won a few games (my wife is a Splendor expert 🙂 ).
Andor: The Family Game was the highlight of the year for the kids and enjoyed by adults as well. The kids also played a lot of Cheating Moth. They like the fun of cheating.:) I suspect it will remain a 2026 favorite for our kids, although it may be dethroned by Coyote, which they find super fun (me too!).
We haven’t tried too many new games in 2025, and instead spent too much time watching TV shows. I’m hoping we can change that in 2026. if you have suggestions of things to try, let me know!
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@RakowskiBartosz Thank you, I’ll check those out, add some to my reading list for 2026!
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@jeremy yeah, I know what you're describing. Some authors end up overcomplicating everything to a point where it's difficult to follow and ignoring it would make reader skip most of the content.
Here's a list I shared recently:
https://hachyderm.io/@RakowskiBartosz/115856042913939875
I remember reading a series where the plot was emphasized and levels and numbers appeared very infrequently. If I manage to remember which one it was, I'll let you know.
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@RakowskiBartosz I think I’ll need to read more before I can form a good opinion. It’s certainly refreshing, and I enjoy the style. But I find it gets repetitive quite quickly. Once the protagonist has understood how the game-like elements work and has used them a bit, the author needs to introduce new mechanics to keep the book(s) interesting.
Dungeon Crawler Carl did this well with new mechanics on each level, and some really good character development. We see Carl grow, and we also get to know a slew of side-characters that are just as important to the main plot.
He Who Fights with Monsters attempted to do something with its rank system, but I don’t think it’s enough to keep the story interesting over time. It doesn’t help that its main character isn’t written to be as endearing as Carl. 🙂
I’m curious how other books in the genre tackle that challenge. If you have recommendations for future reads, let me know!
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@jeremy I've read those books in 2025, amongst others, but I've liked most of the ones you recommend 👍
What do you think about progression fantasy or litrpg, in general?
