Blogging from the Server Side

One of the barriers to blogging on a regular pace is the ever dreaded scourge of writer's block. One of our recurring goals is to help our readers overcome that with tools like the keyword tag cloud and the keyword strength meter. And rest assured we continue to work on new features that will aid the content author.

However, for those customers whose inertia seems insurmountable, there is a much more draconian solution, a tricked out simple text editor called Write or Die. The editor was plugged today on the personal productivity blog Lifehacker. It might well be one of the most extreme forms of timeboxing that I've ever seen!

To start using Write or Die, the user completes a form that specifies the following parameters:

number of words to be written
amount of time to be spent writing
severity of negative feedback

Once you've completed the form, the editor gives you a countdown clock and a word count to remind you of your progress. If you stop writing, the editor will use effects to remind you that you aren't keeping pace. You will see flashes of red in the page background, perhaps an annoying noise.

At it's most severe settings, it will start to delete words from your content from the end of the text going backwards. The only way to mollify this demanding master is to keep writing.

Fortunately, the editor comes with a Pause button in the event you have to stop writing. Moreover, it plays triumphant music when you achieve your writing goal within the allotted time, so it does offer some positive feedback.

I really hope they don't follow through on the "electric shock" feature, though. :-)