Feel free to type anywhere

The linked page goes to one particular world: msernst which allows you to enter coordinates to scroll to (as well as drop links to those coordinates).

Looks like you can create your own text world or explore others.

Can this be used for useful collaboration?

s-phi-nl• 16 years ago

Are they using Etherpad technology?

someone_here• 16 years ago

It would be interesting to make each cell writable only once (including spaces).

vyrotek• 16 years ago

Wouldn't we end up with a giant wordsearch? You could even encode secret messages by skipping spaces for each letter of a word.

Then once you have this huge wordsearch, you sell printed poster versions.

pigbucket• 16 years ago

In the beginning was the word, says John. It probably looked something like this.

darius• 16 years ago

My first reaction was wtf but after playing with it for a minute I must say it's fun.

curio• 16 years ago

and just like chatroulette or most anonymous forums, the tone quickly deteriorates to the level of graffiti in a public bathroom stall.

ramchip2• 16 years ago

most anonymous forums

Some of the non-/b/ areas of 4chan are surprising. Look at /jp/: there are people programming games and animations, people translating visual novels from Japanese. They even spawned a group project to make a visual novel from scratch: http://katawa-shoujo.com/

I think anonymous forums can work as long they share a strong common interest.

tomsaffell• 16 years ago

Is it an infinite plane, or a sphere?

omaranto• 16 years ago

A sphere sounds quite unlikely. Maybe a torus, though.

IgorPartola• 16 years ago

http://www.yourworldoftext.com/home/ says it's a plane.

shortformblog• 16 years ago

This has been around a while, actually. I remember posting about it a year ago.

moultano• 16 years ago

Wonderful Idea.

ja272• 16 years ago

Multiplayer notepad!

zck• 16 years ago

Previously, a submission from the creator: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=742268

bdr3• 16 years ago

That's actually the first place I announced it. Wasn't sure if it was solid yet, but the traffic came so I had to roll with it. It somehow hopped straight from HN to 4chan and out from there.

Judson• 16 years ago

Haha, reminds me of the writing on a run-down gas station bathroom stall.

Why am I addicted?

edkennedy2• 16 years ago

Spent 30 minutes scrolling to the side following the trail that promised infinite treasures. After a endless track following footprints through the whitespace desert, behold, an oasis of poetry and song. It was like Columbus landing in the new world.

snikeris• 16 years ago

Which side?

_flag• 16 years ago

I made something like this awhile ago, it's not as nicely done though: http://wall.bot.nu/ (wait till the red cursor scrolls all the way to the bottom)

moolave2• 16 years ago

As cliche as it sounds, I definitely see an ad-based revenue stream coming here.

igravious• 16 years ago

Oh no, another land rush for a name space yet again. Missed the domain name rush. Ditto the Twitter rush. And now this - Q: what's your worldoftext handle that you're homesteading for $8.99 a year? A: http://www.yourworldoftext.com/all_the_good_names_were_gone

nirmal• 16 years ago

How would you implement the UI for browsing search results in this system? Maybe draw some inspiration from map searching UIs.

mumrah• 16 years ago

Anyone have any info on the tech behind this? Is this a node.js demo or something?

slig• 16 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=742268

bdr3• 16 years ago

It was on App Engine, but now it's just a plain Django site. Updates are polled every second, which probably isn't how I'd make it now, but it's help up well.

hackermom• 16 years ago

This is the ASCII version of the infamous Drawball(.com).

BoppreH2• 16 years ago

But doesn't take two minutes to load a page.

ComputerGuru2• 16 years ago

My god, how immature are the inhabitants of the web? I was on the site for 2 seconds and was literally quite depressed at what I saw. Why can something like this not exist except with kiddies turning it into an expletive-filled hate and anger textbox?

hughw• 16 years ago

Srsly? You're surprised?

ComputerGuru2• 16 years ago

It's not surprise. Just sadness at the incredible potential that isn't.

MikeCapone2• 16 years ago

Context matters. Many people who wrote gibberish or stupid things there might otherwise be quite intelligent and productive. Maybe not, but I'm just saying that you can't read too much into this.

makmanalp• 16 years ago

http://www.yourworldoftext.com/ -> The center is polluted but the unimaginative hordes haven't realized that you can drag the screen. The areas around remain untouched and astounding.

EDIT upon looking more: I retract that. The companion cube song is oddly intact though.

PebblesRox• 16 years ago

That's cause I just fixed it : ) I found two versions and added a third! It's been stuck in my head ever since I got portal a few weeks ago.

ramchip2• 16 years ago

Coming back from work, mentally drained, with a glass of tea next to the computer. You check HN and stumble on a place where you can write whatever you want. A graffiti corner on the internet. What do you write?

It's just appeasing to some people to stop respecting rules and decorum for a minute. No higher meaning to it. There's some more serious stuff too, but honestly, when I want to read something intellectually stimulating, I don't go to 4chan /b/ or to the textbox where anonymous people write whatever.

moolave2• 16 years ago

It would be nice too if we can doodle like doing so at a whiteboard.

samratjp• 16 years ago

I wish I could start playing Pac-man over this text.

ryanwanger• 16 years ago

I just had a fun little therapy session with someone on there. It was my first glimmer of hope as to the value of chatroulette (the concept of it anyway).

dkasper• 16 years ago

Someone needs to write a bot to counteract that 2pac bot.

ja272• 16 years ago

I spent about an hour last night, while watching TV, helping keep a 2pac-free zone clear. Can't understand why.

I also played tic-tac-toe for a while, which somehow became at least 3 player with someone playing z's as well as X and O.

BoppreH2• 16 years ago

Ah, world of text. Last year I started a journey in the /jp world.

Two full days (some 20 hours) scrolling north, leaving messages and drawings along the way. I have met other people in only one occasion, the rest of the time I was alone with the messages and drawings left by other adventurers.

Energy surges made their toll one time or two, but I still managed to get to x0y2000. I felt enlightened. It was the most spiritual thing I've ever experienced.

Its minimalist approach and absolute freedom makes it one of the best "games" I've played. I strongly recommend trying it at least once.

And if you ever scroll north in http://www.yourworldoftext.com/jp, look for the messages from The Bard ♫ ;)

Feel free to type anywhere

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