I added my first line of SQL to the CMS library and I've managed to do some wrangling to primarily lean on Ecto for managing type conversion from raw DB results to maps. We can't use the basic repo load function because it leans on atom keys. If you've read the spec you'll now we are looking to avoid atom proliferation and as such a lot of parts of Ecto aren't really usable in our library. They'll be usable for people building with our library if they like it just introduces some potential problems if we do it. Finally we have code talking to the database implementation.

Latest and greatest in the Underjord

Another livestream on building the web crawler. We deal with bugs, race conditions and general make our crawler friendlier. And we use ETS in anger. Video is not on the site yet because I've been lagging a bit but you can find it on YouTube.

Another entry in the Teaching Elixir series where we cover Pattern Matching in a very ad hoc manner.

Another episode of Regular Programming hits next week. This week Beam Radio had Marlus Saraiva on and we discuss LiveView as if it was old and basic. Plain. Old. LiveView. No but seriously, LiveView is quite great and Surface is a super interesting library on top of it.

Livestream today

Today's livestream will be back to the OG schedule at 15.00 CEST / 09.00 AM Eastern on the YouTube channel. I'm having an american on so can't have it too early. My buddy Alex Koutmos of Beam Radio and Elixir tips fame is coming on to show me what is what when it comes to setting up his very impressive (and ambitious, silly man) PromEx library for providing observability via BEAM telemetry and going beyond Live Dashboard.

The Business

All my time is spoken for. So that's both good and bad. Things are going well so far. Feels a bit odd to be spinning up a small team, haven't worked that way in a while. Think it will be good.

Also have a the blogging thing in motion where I have a budget for sourcing blog posts on particular Elixir adoption topics. Looking forward to being more public about that work as things start getting published. If you know someone who has a blog/video channel or other medium and should be sharing their Elixir teaching/hiring/training/converting stories, point me at them or put us in touch. I still have some slots to fill. Paid content work.

I publish and they can subscribe

This is for my family
It began with my crew
It will end with my crew
- Family First, Looptroop

This idea won't leave me so I will show it to you and you can tell me if it speaks to you, if it resonates or if there is already something I should be using. I don't really care if it is a product, I don't care if there is scale there. I care if it  speaks to you as it does to me.

I don't use social networks to talk to my real life friends or family. It is all messaging. In groups and in individually. Facebook Messenger, Signal, Telegram, Discord, Slack, SMS. That's the current set. Too many. I at least cut Whatsapp. If I know you on Twitter odds are we'll start DM:ing when things get good.

These apps make it easy to send moments to each other. We had a child. I value being able to send moments of her growing up to family and friends. Sending video to my mom who cannot come visit right now is so very important. A cute picture, a moment of our life. Friends and family deserve to see my sweet/wild/weird daughter and they return it in kind.

I wouldn't put any of it on a social network. Not for privacy concerns really, though partially but much more personal concerns. I don't want Facebook commentary on my child, I don't want 200 acquaintances sending Likes on our gardening efforts. I want my loved ones to see. I want my friends to be able to follow our lives when  we are out of touch, out of reach. Or busy with life.

To me it makes absolute sense that the good conversations are moving into private groups, limited places, personal, vetted or paid. Constraints are often important for a good gathering, a good party, a good conversation. You don't go to an Elixir conference because you love talking about Python and the filtering function of interests and values is what turns a conference into a special place and moment. A space of shared enthusiasm, interests and endeavours.

Intentionally mixing your groups can be fun. Our wedding was very interesting in that way. Note, that event is a celebration. Everyone is on their best behaviour. This mix can suck in your day-to-day. I really don't want to see a childhood friend argue with my in-laws about the nuances of my dietary choices. It just doesn't spark joy.

Social media collapsed our contexts and made everything into lowest common engagement slurry. We are structuring new useful spaces, building on the ruins of failure. As a society does. Some of the public social media still has use but we are finding out what it is not for.

The problem for me is practical at this point. I want to share parts of our lives, the fun, the cute, the beautiful. Our gardening, our lives, our beautiful moments, our shitty weather and silly moods. I want to share it with family and friends. The people who I might call. The people I send messages to. But there are a fair number of them and they are spread across apps.

Every time I have a picture to share I go "okay, so who should get this" and I end up limiting myself to whatever is convenient. If you're not on Signal you are likely missing out because that has a decent share sheet.

I want to be able to publish to a single place and offer people to opt in to following along. Invite only. So me and my wife can take pictures, share them and our friends and family can check in, or be emailed/notified in some way they appreciate.

It's a website. With a fence around it. Just quick publishing for us and some sane channels for following for everyone we want in there. If that's a monthly digest for most but a Web Notification for my mother who wants the true realtime granchild-as-as-service experience I think both are reasonable to offer.

If someone wants to comment they can send us messages directly. Or we offer a comment form where only we see the comments. I'd even consider offering likes or similar reactions just because it alleviates feeling the need to write something. That stuff has a very different connotation in private conversation to me.

So a personal and private website, for broadcasting to an intentionally chosen small-scale group, that can take images, videos and text. Probably longer mixed posts too if need be. Keeping it simple. Is this a thing? I feel like it should be.

Are you also all in group chats and messages now? Are these patterns and changes true for you too? Do you feel a similar need?

Tell me your thoughts at lars@underjord.io or you can start a conversation on Twitter where I'm @lawik.

Thank you for reading, I appreciate your attention.

- Lars Wikman