I'm Dan Q. I've spent the last 25+ years creating and writing on the Internet.
I work at Automattic and volunteer with Three Rings. I live with my partner, her husband, two kids and a dog. I can sometimes be found out geo*ing, cycling, or performing magic.
I believe in open source, open relationships, and opening doors to marginalised groups.
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WordPress to ClassicPress
A few weeks ago I switched this blog to ClassicPress, a fork of WordPress. Here's a deep dive into how (and why) I did it, as well as a look into what my experience so-far has been with this (mostly-)cut-down version of the world's most popular CMS. Read more →
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Cleaved
What's got nine working fingers and shouldn't be allowed to own a meat cleaver? This guy! 👉🩸😥 Read more →
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Monday Punday
For almost a year I've been slowly working my way through the archives of Monday Punday, a webcomic which challenges the reader to solve picture-based pun puzzles. Give it a go! Read more →
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INSULTS.COM
As a kid, I enjoyed a 1983 program that dynamically generated insults. So I found a copy of it, reverse-engineered it, and reimplemented it in Perchance. Who wants to be insulted? Read more →
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The Continuum
Inspired by Geneveive Raine's "The Continuum", I turned all of my blog post's featured images into a stripy picture. Read more →
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BBC News RSS... your way!
It turns out my filtered BBC News RSS feeds are more-popular than I thought, so I've launched a new site with all of them (plus all the source code to produce them) in a variety of editions. Read more →
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Blog Questions Challenge
I must be the last blogger on Earth left to do Ava/Kev's 'Blog Questions Challenge'. Let's get to it. Read more →
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God's Adviser
When I was a young child I took part in a school nativity play, and was so insistent about picking holes in the theological inconsistencies implied by the script that I had to be expelled from the classroom. Here's how it went down. Read more →
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Sabbatical Lesson #2: Burnout
The second lesson I took from my sabbatical was that it's possible to risk burnout (and therefore, it's important to be aware of and ready to counteract it) even when you're not working (in the conventional sense). Fortunately, my coach is on hand to help. Read more →
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More articles →
(articles are traditional long-form blog posts) -
Reply to Blogging for traffic not design
Andy Hawthorne criticised a new website owner for not using a popular CMS, arguing that this would necessarily impact their SEO and so invalidate the point of their website (that point being, Andy presupposes, to attract views). I dispute... almost every single part of that argument. Read more →
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Get Ready with Me: Techfluencer Edition
WordPress.com's YouTube channel just shared an influencer 'get ready with me'-style video but featuring a techfluencer. It's... weird? But funny? Read more →
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A lunchtime dog walk was made especially delightful by the growing warmth of the approaching British springtime. It’s really bright and pretty out, this afternoon! × Read more →
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Large companies find HTML & CSS frustrating “at scale” because the web is a fundamentally anti-capitalist mashup art experiment, designed to give consumers all the power.
- Mia, 2019
This is what I needed to be reminded, today. Read more → -
Queers make the world a safer place
Cat shares the experience of his friend who semi-independently discovered that queer-friendly online spaces are an antidote to patriarchal toxic masculinity. Because duh. A delightful tale. Read more →
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Bloomberg's Terms
Chris Messina remarked about the insane terms and conditions that Bloomberg.com require you to agree to in order to read a news article, effectively signing away your rights. Except... I don't see the dialog: I just see the articles. I haven't given consent, and they can't conceivably prove to the contrary... 😈 Read more →
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Found GC2F23P A Road Anarchy - A40 Eastbound to Oxford
No logs here since… 2023!? Mindboggling.The geopup and I were out running some errands this damp afternoon and figured we’d take a walk near here. Spotting the cache on our radar we took a short diversion to find this cache, which despite not having a visitor yet this year nor for the entirety of last […] Read more →
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The sustain pedal broke on our upright piano.
Normally the insides of the piano are a terrifying place that only our tuner gets to look at. A scary realm whose mysteries I cannot begin to comprehend.
But I was feeling very brave, so I popped it open, found this troublesome hinge, and bodged a fix. It sounds great.
I feel accomplished. -
Reply to Ed Catmull on Change
Matt talked about change, and mentioned the history of WordPress. I weighed-in, talking about my (positive) experience of open source in an environment of change, and contrasting it to fighting with Squiz CMS at the Bodleian! Read more →
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I have A Plan for today. Step #2 involves a deep-dive into Algolia search indexing, ranking, and priority, to understand how one might optimise for a diverse and complex dataset.
So obviously step #1 involves a big ol' coffee and a sugary breakfast. Here we go... -
The 55 Words you Can't Say in Faster Payments
Step aside, George Carlin! Sam Easterby-Smith wants to share with the world the 55 words you can't say in a UK faster payments reference. Read more →
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"I'm only asking for basic respect." - Dr. Beth Upton, in the face of a hostile courtroom, media, and world.
Her fucking bravery is amazing. 💖 -
After “fixing” BBC News’ RSS feeds I noticed that I was seeing less news (and, somehow, stressing less over everything happening in the USA). Turns out that in switching myself to my new system I’d subscribed to the UK edition, whereas previously I’d been on the Full edition. I’ve corrected it now in my RSS […] Read more →
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UK’s secret Apple iCloud backdoor order is a global emergency, say critics
The UK seems to be strongarming Apple to weaken the security of its consumer products, which is fucking stupid. Weakened and backdoored encryption in mainstream products doesn't help catch smart criminals. But it does help smart criminals to catch regular folks. Read more →
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Don’t Bishops normally get to retain their regular name? This BBC News headline makes it sound like we’re gonna end up with Bishop McBishopface! × Read more →
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More posts →
(of all kinds:
articles, 
checkins, 
notes, 
reposts...)