I once had an inconspicuous WeChat public account that I painstakingly managed for several years, accumulating seven thousand subscribers.
However, as time passed and the atmosphere for speech in mainland China deteriorated, I voluntarily gave up on that public account, gradually ceasing my writing, my heart turning to ashes.
Recently, on a whim, I found myself wanting to write again. Besides WeChat public accounts, I considered other channels for writing. But Substack didn't appeal to me.
So, I explored some open-source solutions and came across something called listmonk in Golang. I checked out its source code and gave it a try, but still didn't like it. Therefore, I decided to write one myself, and thus Quail.ink was born.
Principles
Quail.ink will adhere to the following principles:
- Open-source: Although Quail.ink will offer a SaaS for convenience, I encourage everyone to self-host and set up their own Quail.ink instance. Additionally, the development and commercial plans for Quail.ink will be kept public.
- Privacy protection: Quail.ink will never track any user data, including the actions of authors and readers. Quail.ink will not integrate any third-party OAuth logins (such as Twitter, Google). If integration with third-party services is necessary, we will choose those that are privacy-friendly.
- Data transparency: In principle, all data that can be displayed in Quail.ink is public and verifiable. Quail.ink will never store users' private data.
- Data freedom: Quail.ink supports the full export of user data. Quail.ink will not offer a web version of a rich text editor in the short term but will provide plugins and APIs to write articles in your favorite local editor, such as Obsidian or VSCode, and then publish and push them through Quail.ink. The API will always remain open.
- Economic freedom: The paid part of Quail will support legal currency but will also be cryptocurrency-friendly.
- No ads: The SaaS version of Quail.ink will never have ads.
- Your place, your rules: Without your permission, Quail.ink will not display or recommend other authors' content on your territory, including push emails, Post pages, list pages, etc.
Upcoming Development Plan
Now, the functionality of Quail.ink is still lacking, and here is its near-term development plan:
Publishing, Pushing, and Content Management
The goal is to support at least one complete publishing process.
My idea is to directly submit content from Obsidian to Quail and then push it out, which can be done with an Obsidian plugin.
- Believe it or not, this has already been completed. This article was published using the Quail.ink Obsidian plugin.
- Next, I will provide an API to allow other developers to develop editor plugins, such as for VSCode, Vim, etc.
It will also support pushing to Telegram Channels, but WeChat public accounts might be put on hold for now since I don't use them, so it's not a priority.
The web version will provide basic features like pinning and deleting/unpublishing, as well as built-in content licensing agreements, allowing authors to choose their licensing agreements.
Content Display
Quail also aims to optimize the article reading experience to the utmost. Plans include making the site static to maximize access speed. Speaking of which, there's also a plan to better support code block presentations. It's like telepathy; exactly what I had in mind.
AI
For example, considering the development of built-in digital avatars, AI Summarize, and automatic multi-language translation features.
However, AI writing assistants are not in the development plan, as they would deprive humans of the joy of creation, making creation dull and soulless.
Others
Quail.ink intends to open registrations and logins for the SaaS version, initially inviting some friends to use it.
At the same time, comprehensive API documentation will be written.
Once all these tasks are completed, the source code will be made public. The current consideration is to use the AGPLv3 license, but if you have better suggestions, I would be very happy to hear them.
Longer-term Plans
Custom domains are a must. Paid support should also be friendly towards cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
As for decentralization, that needs more thought. Perhaps a way to enable communication between all Quail instances must be found. But first, it must be proven that doing so is economically and functionally reasonable.
Maybe there's value in this, but I haven't figured out exactly what that value is, nor how to manifest the value of this content. Certainly, it won't be in the form of nonsensical NFTs like those from Mirror.xyz that
even dogs wouldn't buy.
Reinventing the wheel is a programmer's duty.
However, some programmers love to create the perfect wheel but forget in which direction the car should go, thus creating a merry-go-round that only spins in place.
Then they switch careers to become amusement park tycoons and make a fortune.
