A Library, Not a Feed

Most places that publish people's writing are built around a feed: an endless stream, ordered to keep the reader scrolling, with a count beside everything. Paramsat is built around a library instead, and the difference shows in what it leaves out.

There is no feed. A Lab's page lists its projects and its most recent work, and stops. Nothing is pushed at the reader; they arrive with a question and go looking.

Nothing is counted. No page shows likes, followers or views. A count turns into a target, and work is thereby tainted since one becomes concerned with metrics and how his work can optimize that.

Search finds; it does not recommend. It searches the project you are in, or every project if you ask, and orders the results by how well they match what you typed. It never decides on its own what you should read next.

What this makes room for is work that is meant to be kept: documentation that is revised rather than replaced, design notes still worth reading a year later, and replies written with the same care as the work they answer, because each reply is an artifact of its own.