Over the years I’ve written quite a bit. I’ve long wanted to gather it all up and archive it in one place. Maybe do some light editing and correcting along the way. Before now, I’ve never really settled on a good way to do this. Now I think I have. I’ve been noodling away at something and I’m happy with where it’s going.
But I need some help. I want to collect lots of articles and posts from different places, make sure they’re all presentable, and add them. There’s no rush, I want to just mosey along and do it bit by bit, like a bit of gardening. But I would really like someone to help out with collecting the essays and bringing them into a suitable state.
I can’t say it’d be my priority before I finish up editing Thig (which could be some 2-3 weeks), Bhante, but I should be able to devote some time to it & have a lot more time as I’m done with Thig. If someone else can go at it full throttle right now, it’s cool but I’d love to help out with it at a pace.
Cool! Yes, my essays on here would be a big part of it. But you’ve also got your own things going on, so well, see how you go. let me know if you want to take it further.
I’d like to see a compilation of your vast array of knowledge, concerning the senses (Diane Ackerman), metta, spiritual bypassing, and your wide array of literature (Greek myth, jatakas, and the like). You have a knack for expounding upon the feely side of things and it would be nice to see how all of these concepts tie in for a practical approach. I find that these ideas color the sanitized view of vipassana with a directed worldview of life through the feeeling process.
Sorry, this wasn’t a practical response. Much metta Bhante
I actually started this once to collect all your linguistic essays, then I realised for a comprehensive archive it’d also have to dig deep into your replies (generally found in your own threads but there’s quite a bit of your replies that’re scattered around). My focal point was Pāli, but I also kept random stuff there as you can see (the line is hard to draw!).
Because it’d take so much time, I’d postponed scouring your entire forums posts to a later leisurely time. So as @Westbury08’s said, it’d be a treasure to work on it all. Depending on how thorough a work we’re talking about, what you need precisely, etc. I can give a better commitment plan (especially if there’s no opportunities to work on OCBS commentaries project).
(Also since we’re here, this would be my nudge to you for Bilara access as I’ll be ready to put it up there soon!)
Well that’s very kind, but not really what I am thinking of. In my mind, I’m looking forward to the next few years where I’ll continue to go through all the suttas and research them in historical context. No idea what that will stir up!
Yes, that’s a thing. But I think it’s best to just start. There’s no timeframe. And the stuff on this forum will remain here. So I’d really want to just start with the more substantial or interesting things and go bit by bit. In some case we might want to edit the essays or add things from the comments. And part of the project would be to retain the links to the original URL, so the discussion is still at hand.
I tried downloading my user data from Discourse. It works, but what results is an unwieldy CSV file. Not sure how usable it is.
I don’t think we’re allowed to download other users’ data on Discourse, Bhante. Would you mind sending me the CSV file and I’ll try to see what can be made of it?
The idea is that there is a single folder with a bunch of HTML files, some CSS, and that’s it. Oh, some images and fonts. But that’s really it! Maybe put the different things in different folders, so:
html
css
images
fonts
Then host it on Github, with a Github URL (which is likely to last longer than anything paid for). Folks can download it all as a .zip if they want or just view online.
One HTML file is the home page. It acts as a navigation, with either:
lists of essays in categories, or
links to “subsites”, where the content is separate and self-contained.
Everything is just hand-coded in HTML. We can do some elementary things like generate lists of links from file names or whatever, but nothing in the site itself is dynamic.
The main sources of writings are:
Santipada — includes my main “books” and various other things.
Sujato’s blog — various articles, some of which might be worth keeping
Discuss and Discover — various articles, mostly on Pali and related topics.
Lokanta website — this has several articles, which I have already collected so this is done.
Elsewhere?
The articles will need to be put in HTML, and that’s about it.
When preparing the articles:
Use consistent semantic HTML.
Include a link to to the original URL, especially if there is an attached discussion.
review the content to make sure it is still current (eg. if I have changed my mind on some point of Pali)
If possible, proofread for style (I often write posts quickly and the prose can be pretty rough!)
The main thing that’s hard to do statically online is search. People could use site: maybe, or else do it offline. But I wonder of there’s a truly static site search, a JS library that searches text files without having to index them?
If you are thinking of creating a “blog” on Github Pages containing all your writings, then I can certainly help you, but I suspect you already know how to do that. However, if you need additional assistance and some guidance on how to set one up, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You already know I have published several templates exactly for that purpose - I can certainly create a special template just for you featuring your design preferences. My recommendation for a framework is Astro but if you really want React/NextJS I can probably help with that too. For other frameworks you’ll need to ask someone else I am afraid. I know you like Python, but my knowledge of Python is so rudimentary I actually use AI to help me write Python programs
You could also create a “Second Brain” or “Zettelkasten” type website that cross links all your ideas. I’ve heard a lot of people use Obsidian and then convert that to a website. I’ve been thinking of creating a Zettlekasten of all my thoughts and ideas on the Buddha’s teachings myself.
You could also be interested in a system described here called “Molecular Notes”:
Hope this helps. You know my email, so feel free to reach out. I would personally love to see a collection of all your writings.
Excellent, that’s really what I need. Basically I just want a bunch of HTML files, everything else is easy.
Thanks so much, but all this is way overengineered. My plan is literally to make a folder with HTML files and some CSS to make it readable, that’s it. No framework, no programming, nothing but a bunch of static files.
I won’t even be using a static site generator, just write all the navigation and links by hand.
I have a copy locally, it may be better to use this than the Santi source. they are probably identical, but I may have made some corrections over the years, not much, but I think I have fixed up a typo or two. In any case, I’ll let you know if there’s anything there that I can use, but I expect I’ll be able to just use my local files. I don’t have them with me when i travel, so i plan to do that when i return to Sydney.
