261 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
261 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
*a command-line based blogging platform running on tilde.town*
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`ttbp` stands for "tilde.town blogging platform", the original working name for
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this project.
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`ttbp` runs from the command line, providing a hub for writing personal blog
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posts and reading posts written by other users of tilde.town. it's a little bit
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like livejournal or dreamwidth or tumblr. you can opt to publish your posts to a
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public html file hosted on your tilde page, to tilde.town's gopher server, or
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keep all your entries private to the tilde.town server.
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to use, run `feels` while logged in to tilde.town
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this is a project that runs on tilde.town, so all users of this program are
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expected to operate under the tilde.town [code of
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conduct](http://tilde.town/wiki/conduct.html). content/personal issues should be
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worked out according to the CoC, with support from the [administrative
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team](http://tilde.town/wiki/administration/index.html) if needed.
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### QUICK START
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no coding or html experience is necessary to get started. just log in to your
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tilde.town account and enter:
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`feels`
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ttbp will ask you a few questions to get you started. after that, writing and
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reading entries all happen within the program.
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that's it!
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### support
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if you're having trouble getting started, or run into program errors or strange
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behavior, please send internal tilde.town mail to ~endorphant and i'll try to
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sort things out!
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there's also a function from the main menu that lets you send feedback/inquiries
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to me directly; this uses internal tilde.town mail, which is what i'll respond
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to.
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### writing entries
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entries are recorded as plaintext files in your `~/.ttbp/entries` directory.
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`ttbp` will use your selected editor to open and write files; each day is its
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own entry, like a diary page. at midnight for whatever timezone you've set for
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your user account on tilde.town, you'll get a fresh entry. if you don't write
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any feels on a particular day, no entries will show up there.
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when you save and quit the text editor, your entry will automatically propagate
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to the global feels list; if you've opted to publish your feels to html/gopher,
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those files will update immediately. you can always go back to the current day's
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entry and edit/add as you'd like, but older entries will not be available for
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editing from `ttbp`.
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*(since files are just stored as plaintext in your directory, it's possible to
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edit and move old entries directly from the command line. however, changing old
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entries might cause strange things to happen with timestamps. the main program
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looks at the filename first for setting the date, then the last modified time to
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sort recent posts. it expects YYYMMDD.txt as the filename; anything else won't
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show up as a valid entry. yes, this means you can post things out of date order
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by creating files with any date you want.)*
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#### general entry-writing notes
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* you can use [markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax)
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* you can use html
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* you can also put things between `<!-- comments -->` to have them show up
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in the feed but not render in a browser (but people can still read
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them with view-source)
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### reading other feels
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the `browse global feels` feature shows the ten most recent entries that anyone
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has written on ttbp. this list is only accessible from within tilde.town,
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although individual entries may be posted to html or gopher.
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you can also pull up a list of a single user's feels through `check out your
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neighbors`, which displays all users who are writing on `ttbp` based on their
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most recently updated entry, and a link to their public html blog if they've
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opted to publish their posts.
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**please note!** entries written on `ttbp` should be considered sensitive,
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private information, even if a particular user is publishing entries in a
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world-viewable way! please be respectful about having access to other people's
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feels, and do not copy/repeat any information without getting their explicit
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permission. tilde.town operates on a high level of mutual trust, and `ttbp` is
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designed to give individuals control over their content.
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### subscribing to users
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the `visit your subscriptions` feature lets you view recent entries from a list
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of users you've subscribed to, as well as manage your subscription list. your
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list is saved to `~/.ttbp/config/subs`, which gets automatically updated when
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you add or remove subscriptions from ttbp.
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your subscription list is private; this means no one other than you can see who
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you're following. subscription view only shows the 50 most recent entries from
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your subscribe list; if you want to see more entries from an individual, you
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can navigate to their entries in `check out your neighbors from the main
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menu.
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### privacy
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when you start your ttbp, you have the option of publishing or not publishing
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your blog.
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if you opt to not publish, your entires will never be accessible from outside of
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the tilde.town network; other tilde.town users will still be able to read your
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entries through the ttbp interface, or by directly accessing your
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`~/.ttbp/entries` directory.
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if you want to further protect your entries, you can `chmod 700` your entries
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directory.
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if you opt to publish, the program creates a directory `~/.ttbp/www` where it
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stores all html files it generates, and symlinks this from your `~/public_html`
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with your chosen blog directory. your blog will also be listed on the [main ttbp
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page](https://tilde.town/~endorphant/ttbp).
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you can also opt to publish to gopher, and the program will automatically
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generate a gophermap of your feels.
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you can set publishing status on individual entries, or bury individual feels;
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see "data management" below for details.
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### data management
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the `manage your feels` menu provides several tools for organizing your feels.
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these are all actions you can perform manually from the command line, but doing
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them from within the program can help keep your files properly linked up.
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* **read over feels**--a list of all your entries, which you can open and
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read like any other feel
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* **modify feels publishing**--this lets you toggle privacy on individual
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posts. entries marked `(nopub)` will not get written to html or gopher,
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and toggling them from this menu will immediately publish or unpublish
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that entry (if you're not publishing your posts at all, these settings
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won't matter, since your feels will never show up outside of tilde.town)
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* **backup your feels**--makes a .tar.gz of all your entries, saving one
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copy to `~/.ttbp/backups/` with the current date, and a second copy to
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your home directory for safekeeping.
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* **import a feels backup**--unpacks a backup file into your current feels
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list. this tool checks the `~/.ttbp/backups` directory for archives, and
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expects a file created by the above backup utility. if it detects any file
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collisions, it will preserve your current live copy and leave the backup
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verison in a temp directory, and notify you that this happened. also, any
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entries that were previously marked as `(nopub)` will retain their nopub
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status.
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* **bury some feels**--hides individual feels from viewing; entries are
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moved to `~/.ttbp/buried` (and marked with a unique timestamp to prevent
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file collision) with permissions set to 600, meaning no one except you
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will be able to open that file. these entries are also hidden from your
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own view from `read over feels`, and you'll have to open the files from
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the command line if you want to see them. this is intended to be a
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permament action, so you'll be asked to type the entry date once to load
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the feel, then shown a preview of that feel, and then type the date again
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to confirm burying.
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* **delete feels by day**--*permanently removes individual entries*,
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including deleting published html/gopher files if needed. this action is
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not recoverable, unless you have a backup to restore; you'll be asked to
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type the entry date once to load the feel, then shown a preview of that
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feel, and then type the date again to confirm deletion.
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* **purge all feels**--*permanently removes all feels*, including deleting
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all published html/gopher files if needed. this action is not recoverable,
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unless you have a backup to restore. you'll be asked to type a
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one-time-use purge code to confirm this action.
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* **wipe feels account**--*permanently removes all data associated with
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feels*, including deleting any published hmtl/gopher files and removing
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your `~/.ttbp` directory. any backups that you have in `~/.ttbp/backups`
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will also be deleted with this action (which is why the backup function
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makes a second copy for safekeeping in your home directory). you will no
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longer show up in any lists as a user.
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### settings
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the settings menu lets you change specific options for handling your feels and
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using the interface.
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* **editor**--set your text editor
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* **gopher**--opt in or out of automatically posting to gopher
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* **post as nopub**--set whether posts default to being published or not
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published (if you're not publishing your feels, this doesn't matter)
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* **publish dir**--set the directory under you `public_html` where feels will be
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published (if you're not publishing your feels, this defaults to `None`)
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* **publishing**--opt in or out of automatically publishing entries to a
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world-readable html page
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* **rainbows**--opt in or out of having multicolored menu text
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### changing your page layout
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you can modify how your blog looks by editing the stylesheet or header and
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footer files. the program sets you up with basic default. if you break your page
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somehow, you can force the program to regenerate your configuration by deleting
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your ~/.ttbp directory entirely. **you might want to back up your
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~/.ttbp/entries directory before you do this.**
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* to modify your stylesheet, edit your ~/.ttbp/config/style.css
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* to modify the page header, edit your ~/.ttbp/config/header.txt
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* there's a place marked off in the default header where you can safely put
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custom HTML elements!
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* to modify the page footer, edit your ~/.ttbp/config/footer.txt
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### general tips/troubleshooting
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* if the date looks like it's ahead or behind, it's because you haven't set
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your local timezone yet. here are some
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[timezone setting instructions](http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-unix-set-tz-environment-variable/)
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* the feels burying tool will effectively clear your post for the day; you can
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use this feature to start a fresh entry on a particular day by burying the
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current day's feels and then editing a new file
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### future features
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these are a few ideas being kicked around, or under active development:
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* stylesheet/theme selector
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* better entry display within ttbp (currently just offloads to `less`)
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* buried feels browser
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other ideas are listed on github as
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[upcoming features](https://github.com/modgethanc/ttbp/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A"upcoming+features") or [feature requests](https://github.com/modgethanc/ttbp/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A"feature+request")!
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### dependencies
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(this section is only relevant if you plan on forking the repo and running an
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instance of this yourself)
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* [mistune](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/mistune)
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* [inflect](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/inflect)
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* [six](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/six)
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### contributing
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please check out my [contributor
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guidelines](https://github.com/modgethanc/ttbp/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md)
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on github if you'd like to get involved with development!
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if you find any bugs or strange behavior, please message me locally on tildemail
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or open a github issue and i'll get back to you as soon as i can.
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if you're interested in helping with the code, please drop me some tildemail!
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i accept tips for development work on
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[liberapay](https://liberapay.com/modgethanc)
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### contributor shout-outs
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thanks to:
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* ~vilmibm, packaging help and gopher support
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* ~sanqui, the bug swatter
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* ~sinacutie, for css updates
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