The World in Prose

It may look like more of the same, but I promise you it isn’t. Writing with nothing but a terminal open is a joy; there’s something romantic and wistful about it. Nobody has asked for my email or knows my name. You get into the prose community with your SSH keys, and it serves up a simple front-end with no frills but, oh boy, it is enormously beautiful to someone who has no need to impress you or sell you anything.

I’ve spent more than a decade 15 years building modern interfaces so intuitive that, more often than not, I’ve reached a level of detail I’d have found insulting had I put myself in the shoes of the end user, who very possibly couldn’t care less.

Today I see the beauty of the basic, cleverly built. Hey, let’s not forget we’re talking about a blog here. It’s not rocket science.

Those of us in love with the Internet are living through mixed times. On one side, we’re immersed in automating information with Machine Learning and in the (lack of) control of money on the blockchain. On the other, Web 1.0 stopped existing a long time ago. Impure social networks flood our digital experience in an utter dystopia where the absurd reigns: led by ideological slogans, mud-wrestling entertainment for empty minds that pushes neo- and pseudo-ideologies with no depth at all, to fragment and silence anyone with something decent to say.

Prose is just a modest example, but it can be a useful weapon for anyone who enjoys the smell of the trenches. Something close to decentralisation, with a community of people who think, like my friend Dani, whom you’ll find at El Bestiario de Robledo. There’s also a Discover page where people can find you easily, although I warn you it’s the only taste of the social tavern you’ll get.

I hope these lines have whetted your appetite. If so, and you go for the red pill, let’s see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

On to prose

A few basic computing concepts are taken for granted if you want to climb aboard this trawler. If some of the jargon sounded like Greek to you (unless you speak Greek), here we go:

Getting started is really easy once the concepts above are clear. If they aren’t, I’d go over them before creating your account, or you could end up choking on that shot of tequila.

  1. Check that you already have an SSH key on your machine. Open a terminal and type this on Linux or macOS (if you’re on Windows, I trust your inner Sherlock Holmes to find the right commands):
    $ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

  2. If it doesn’t return a key, create one with:
    $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "user@domain.com"
    Follow the terminal’s instructions to finish and, if you’re on macOS, make sure you add your private key to the ssh agent like so:
    $ ssh-add --apple-use-keychain ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

  3. To create your account, just connect over SSH to the prose CMS:
    $ ssh new@prose.sh

  4. Pick a one-of-a-kind username. This isn’t Twitter: jamonserrano is probably still free. You’ll get to brag about your originality for the rest of your days.

  5. Create a .md post and copy-paste this (or don’t):

    # Hello, world!

My first steps on Prose, thanks to [hayder](https://hkg.prose.sh)

  6. Publish with:
    $ scp ~/blog-directory/*.md prose.sh:/

  7. The public URL lives under the subdomain of your greasy username, jamonserrano:
    https://jamonserrano.prose.sh

Hoping I’ve made you think about the use you might be making of the Internet, and having introduced you to a beautiful alternative to the social circus, see you soon!

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