Initial release: Thoughtstream.me

Finally, after far too long (and a whole lot of cryptic posts on Mastodon), I’ve finally released my little side project; ThoughtStream.me.

I started this back in September (and even got a new laptop so I could write it), and naively thought I’d be done by mid October. Little did i know how long it would take! But we’re here now, and I thought I’d write up a little blog about it, where the idea came from, and maybe what’s next.

What is ThoughtStream.me?

Earlier in the year, I found myself wishing I could just “stream” my thoughts onto something like Mastodon or Bluesky, but without worrying about other people reading them. So I asked around and to my surprise I couldn’t find anything like it. I tried using Obsidian, which I use for all of my notes, but found it just wasn’t quite right. The “conscience stream” style of writing just wasn’t quite the right fit. It felt awkward and messy.

So decided that if it didn’t exist, I should probably put those years of programming experience into building something for myself!

But what is it?

Essentially, ThoughtStream.me allows a user to create small notes, that are then displayed in a timeline.

But why would this be useful?

Well, for example, I have it open during meetings to add little comments about interesting things that come up. I also find it an excellent way to keep me present in the meeting, as it keeps my hands busy.

I also keep a daily “stream”, where I just stream thoughts as I have them into it. I find this incredibly useful when writing complex code or trying to debug something difficult. Essentially treating it a little like a rubber duck.

What’s Next?

I’ve got a load of ideas for the project, which include:

• Ability to download thought streams as markdown files
• Better searching and tagging
• Linking between thought streams
• “Enter key” submission which can be toggled via user settings

This is very much the first iteration of the idea. It’s been a very long time since I last wrote any amount of code “for fun”, and I’m somewhat proud of actually getting this out there and released!

So please sign up and take a look, then share whatever feedback you have with me!