A Restatement of Aims
Yes, I realize that this post will probably turn more than a handful of people away from this site. Or trigger the sending of a bunch of cranky emails. Or both. Or something else. So be it.
Over the almost four years The Plain Text Project has been in existence, I’ve received a number of emails from people who don’t seem to understand the aims of this site. Even though said aims are stated on the front and About pages …
So, I figured that the start of a new year is the perfect time to restate the aims of The Plain Text Project.
This site isn’t meant to cater to everyone.
It’s not meant to be a comprehensive reference of all things plain text.
It’s definitely not meant to be a place where I preach to the plain text choir.
The Plain Text Project is a curated guide. As a curated guide, it conforms to the tastes and opinions and ideas of its curator.
The site’s goal is to introduce ways of working and living in plain text. And, I hope, to encourage you to explore what plain text can do for you.
The Plain Text Project is an attempt to prove that you don’t need finely-honed technical skills or need to live at the command line to work in plain text. It’s an attempt to demonstrate that you don’t need complex tools or workflows to use plain text effectively.
The main audience for this site isn’t the software developer/coder or DevOps or sysadmin crowd. For the most part, I’m not in a position to cater to them and what they want to learn. That said, some of those folks might be able to pick up something new by reading this site. regardless, I’m always grateful for the opportunity to teach and share.
As I state on the front page, I believe that:
Plain text isn’t just for the geek or the techie. Plain text isn’t just for the academic or hardcore productivity hacker. Plain text is for anyone.
I’ve strayed a bit from that audience over the last couple of years. But 2020 is the year I circle back to the original aim of this site. That means:
- Putting even more focus on plain text for the person with few, if any, technical chops.
- Not looking at the types of tools and services that The Plain Text Project’s main audience will probably never use.
- Only occasionally embracing my inner geek by looking at:
- Command line applications, if only because I believe that the command line (like plain text) can be for everyone, even non techies. All you need are the right tools.
- More complex tools and workflows.
Thanks for reading.