Dev Log: when map lines start behaving like roads
The TownSquare map is learning to treat connections as roads: curved, layered, ranked by importance, and routed around the landscape.
Read article →From the square
The Town Square Gazette
Notes on making websites feel inhabited.
Gazette Notice: the cartographers have at last learned what roads are
After a period of firm instruction, the TownSquare cartographers have stopped drawing ruler-straight accusations across forests and now produce maps with proper roads.
Read article →Turn your message board into a meetup invite
Your message board doesn't just have to hold static text. Post a date and time on it, and it becomes an invitation: everyone who reads it knows exactly when to come back and be in the square together.
Read article →The TownSquare Community Now Has a Town Hall
The TownSquare community now has a Town Hall: a place for longer discussions, feature requests, and sharing your own TownSquare with others. Unlike the fleeting conversations that happen in town squares themselves, the Town Hall is designed for ideas that grow over time.
Read article →Put your TownSquare in a livestream overlay
TownSquare Plus sites can copy a browser-source overlay URL from the admin Add-ons page, with transparent or solid-color backgrounds for livestream scenes.
Read article →One hundred towns on the map
TownSquare now has 100 verified sites on the map, nearly 330,000 messages exchanged, and a growing network of signposts linking one inhabited corner of the web to the next.
Read article →A tiny "who's here" counter for your pages
A lightweight "N people here" badge you can drop on any page. It links to your town square without loading the whole square.
Read article →A few small add-ons for your square
Optional extras for TownSquare Plus — hats, wandering cats, and Telegram pings when someone says hello.
Read article →Town Highlight #1: Low Sound
A visit to Low Sound, a personal blog by Toronto-based developer Omar. We talk about the early web, homelabs, cycling across Canada, game engine development, beloved pets, and why having a small corner of the internet still matters.
Read article →Welcome to The Town Square Gazette
A place for release notes, implementation details, and ideas about making the web feel inhabited.
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