[News] Writing Lessons Left-and-Right

Handmade folks,

I'm sorry for the slight delay in presenting the news (I knew I shouldn't have watched this first, in bed at night). Let's get started right away:

Handmade Lessons Underway

Last month I met regularly with our educators and peer reviewers to get the ball rolling on the lessons mentioned here. Meeting every other Sunday is proving effective, as it gives us good pacing while minimizing burnout all the while staying motivated. Each author provided an outline of their work, and a couple of us even have drafts already. However, the focus was on establishing a solid outline for us to work on for the rest of the year.

Speaking of peer reviewers, I don't think I mentioned our official ones last month: Anton Swifton, Vassvik, and Ginger Bill. I shall introduce them more fully later on, if I get their permission, since they are essential to our success as well.

Handmade Dev Landing Page

Currently, the Handmade Dev page redirects to Handmade Network. However, as we work on v2.0 on the site (which includes the wiki system and markdown support discussed last time), we also want to treat Handmade Dev as the initiative that created the network in the first place.

What would the landing page contain?

handmadedev.org would be able to discuss Handmade Network from the higher-level perspective of the team developing and expanding the website, as well as give access to things such as the Handmade Dev Show, outreach being done in real life, success stories, and the like. We expect the initial page to be implemented before the month ends, with regained access to the Handmade Dev Show and one new interview.

Whatever Happened to the Community Chat

Contrary to rumors that HMN will be dealing with two separate chat systems indefinitely (Discord and IRC), our original plans still hold. It is essential for us, the handmade dev team to keep our word once something is announced, or to otherwise explain any changes in the game plan and put it to some kind of community vote. Thankfully that hasn't had to happen yet, as things we have announced have come to pass as intended. Missing deadlines often, however, may just be as inevitable as I never want it to be! And we do apologize for that, as always.

When, then, shall we see updates on this front? I'll be formally meeting with the team sometime within this first week of April, where we can see where in the timeline we will readjust this development. However, education has taken absolute priority, and we hope that you bear with us as I focus primarily on instructive material, and thus the chat system remaining on hold.

Where are the lesson outlines then?

We're not publicly disclosing all the outlines, because what we want to release is completed material, not just an overview (it'd be like sharing the table of contents of a desirable book, and saying "you'll get the book in a few months time, I promise!"). If you'd like to be a peer reviewer however, I believe we could use one more, so send me a message on Twitter or at [email protected].

EDIT: Found one more reviewer! Thanks folks.

Looking at the current progress, I have a feeling next month we'll be able to release at least one of the lessons, so stay tuned!

Yours,
Abner