With a cup of fresh FairTrade Arabica coffee in my right hand and a loaded smartphone with many, many New Year’s messages in my left hand, the path today once again leads to the screen, the computers behind it, the network and the Network Attached Storage, NAS.
And even after twenty years, there is still not a moment of hesitation or searching for a topic. Knowing full well that not every entry on every day will be a literary masterpiece. But still almost never at a loss to pick up on a topic that (from a personal point of view) is worth addressing. Occasionally just quoted, such as the updated terms of use and data protection regulations for the software in use. Perhaps a "no go" for a ’classic’ online portal. On these pages, however, it is more than just a stopgap on a day when nothing better could have been thought of. Even if it’s just that the readers (have to!) take note of the extensive set of rules with which they agree, have declared their agreement... or even a press release or a programme announcement that remains (as a "standing sentence" :-) even if the visit had to be cancelled and the whole thing is teased out as a "no show".
Yes, and there are also some other weaknesses that even after twenty years could not be (completely) eliminated: from the typos to the tapeworm sentences, which would have required a final edit. And, above all, the links to third party URLs that were once placed, but then ended up in ’nirvana’ after some time. In some cases, the underlying content has already been cashed (what a bad word) for a later historical-critical edition, in some cases also integrated with the tacit connivance of the broadcasters, publishers and/or authors. However, this problem will probably not really be solved in the future either.
But what the heck. And now comes a personal sentence: now that even the Suhrkamp publishing house in Berlin has removed Wolf Siegert from its list of authors for the work still produced in Frankfurt am Main, perhaps even a ’dead’ link should no longer be given so much attention...
So let’s stay in the here and now. Let’s be happy about what we have achieved and about every remaining day that we can continue to run this platform. And let us endeavour to tackle the tasks that have still not been solved or implemented in practice: This ranges from the recognition of tracking pixels at VG-Wort to a complete directory of all crawled contributions at the German National Library. The monthly summary of selected contributions in recent years should - finally - also be made available to readers in a newsletter. And with a next-gen version it should be possible to create cross-topic access to individual focal points.
However, since the whole thing is still based on a private-personal-partnership, it is not only important to note the do do’s that are still open, but also to expressly point out the effort required to keep the concept, which was designed a good twenty years ago, still ’alive’ - also in its graphic realisation - despite constantly renewing system updates, the obligation to become and remain receivable and readable on mobile devices, and, and, and ...
We would therefore like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to our partner and friend, who is constantly rising to these challenges and developing new solutions in an ongoing dialogue.
Klaus Meier has been developing and maintaining the German version of the CMS SPIP, which also "drives" daybyday.press, for 22 years.