Querki goes into Beta
[tl;dr: Querki finally enters Beta today. I'd love to have people come try it out; drop me an email or comment here if you'd like to try it.]
Have you ever ridden the Superman coaster at Six Flags New England? (Which I gather has been renamed Bizarro.) The first time I tried it, I saw the sign out front, which said that the coaster was 208 feet high, and started with a 221-foot drop, and nervously figured that it had to be a typo. So we went on the ride, climbed up the first hill, got over the top, and realized (a) that the initial drop is *straight down*, and (b) it was straight down into a big black hole in the ground. No typo. So there was the OMGOMGOMGWe'reGonnaDieAhhhhh, followed by the exhiliration of shooting out the other side of the hole into the air.
That's kind of what the past six months have been like.
It's been just about three years since I tendered my resignation from Memento and said, "I need a personal project to work on", and exactly 30 months since I started coding. There have been a lot of ups, downs and learning experiences along the way. The past six months have been *nuts* -- it was six months ago tomorrow that we incorporated the company, and I've spent most of the time since then rewriting the UI to make it Not Suck. But today, it's time to shoot out the other side.
As of today, I'm officially declaring Querki to be open for Beta. I'm not going to claim that it's *done*, mind -- I've got a list of bugs to fix as long as my arm, and an absolutely enormous list of enhancements I want to make. But we're finally up to the point where I think the process of building a Space isn't half-bad, so it's time to get more people in to start using it for real.
I've just finished the first draft of Learning Querki, a short book that teaches how to use the system, with copious examples and illustrations. Impatient engineers may still want to use the much-shorter Querki Quickstart, but if you prefer to know what you're doing before you start kicking the tires, take a couple of hours to read Learning Querki. (And if you've been wondering what the heck I'm talking about, I recommend the page What is Querki?, at the beginning of Learning Querki.)
Today, I'll be upgrading all of the existing Invitees to Full User status, and inviting everyone who has previously asked to join. That's still only about 50 users, though, and I'd like, over the next few months, to get closer to 500. So if you'd be interested in using it, please comment here or send me an email or DM. (I will need an email address for the invitation.)
Folks with a little technical background should be able to jump right in. Those who don't, but who have interesting projects, please talk to me -- I'd be happy to help build a Space for you, as I have time available. While I'm going to be working on Scalability for the next few months, in the meantime I want to get folks using Querki for real, and telling me what works and what's broken.
Or in other words: now that the safety rails are mostly working, I'm looking for company on the roller-coaster. Please join me there, and welcome to Querki...
Have you ever ridden the Superman coaster at Six Flags New England? (Which I gather has been renamed Bizarro.) The first time I tried it, I saw the sign out front, which said that the coaster was 208 feet high, and started with a 221-foot drop, and nervously figured that it had to be a typo. So we went on the ride, climbed up the first hill, got over the top, and realized (a) that the initial drop is *straight down*, and (b) it was straight down into a big black hole in the ground. No typo. So there was the OMGOMGOMGWe'reGonnaDieAhhhhh, followed by the exhiliration of shooting out the other side of the hole into the air.
That's kind of what the past six months have been like.
It's been just about three years since I tendered my resignation from Memento and said, "I need a personal project to work on", and exactly 30 months since I started coding. There have been a lot of ups, downs and learning experiences along the way. The past six months have been *nuts* -- it was six months ago tomorrow that we incorporated the company, and I've spent most of the time since then rewriting the UI to make it Not Suck. But today, it's time to shoot out the other side.
As of today, I'm officially declaring Querki to be open for Beta. I'm not going to claim that it's *done*, mind -- I've got a list of bugs to fix as long as my arm, and an absolutely enormous list of enhancements I want to make. But we're finally up to the point where I think the process of building a Space isn't half-bad, so it's time to get more people in to start using it for real.
I've just finished the first draft of Learning Querki, a short book that teaches how to use the system, with copious examples and illustrations. Impatient engineers may still want to use the much-shorter Querki Quickstart, but if you prefer to know what you're doing before you start kicking the tires, take a couple of hours to read Learning Querki. (And if you've been wondering what the heck I'm talking about, I recommend the page What is Querki?, at the beginning of Learning Querki.)
Today, I'll be upgrading all of the existing Invitees to Full User status, and inviting everyone who has previously asked to join. That's still only about 50 users, though, and I'd like, over the next few months, to get closer to 500. So if you'd be interested in using it, please comment here or send me an email or DM. (I will need an email address for the invitation.)
Folks with a little technical background should be able to jump right in. Those who don't, but who have interesting projects, please talk to me -- I'd be happy to help build a Space for you, as I have time available. While I'm going to be working on Scalability for the next few months, in the meantime I want to get folks using Querki for real, and telling me what works and what's broken.
Or in other words: now that the safety rails are mostly working, I'm looking for company on the roller-coaster. Please join me there, and welcome to Querki...