https://wildhq.org/ Wild HQ's instincts on creating useful, humane, independent software. en-AU https://wildhq.org/00/ https://wildhq.org/00/ Most things we make begin with somebody saying, “I wish this existed.” So we make it, use it, and fuss over it until it feels worth sharing. https://wildhq.org/01/ https://wildhq.org/01/ Software gets mushy when every decision ends in “it depends.” https://wildhq.org/02/ https://wildhq.org/02/ Not every decision will surrender to a test or a spreadsheet. Sometimes the type is wrong, the joke falls flat, or the whole thing feels a bit cheap even when… https://wildhq.org/03/ https://wildhq.org/03/ Some ideas win because they're sensible. Others win because somebody says them out loud and the whole room starts grinning. We have time for both. https://wildhq.org/04/ https://wildhq.org/04/ Modern software can be exhausting. It wants your email, your contacts, permission to buzz your pocket, a completed profile, three invited friends, and a… https://wildhq.org/05/ https://wildhq.org/05/ We hope you like our software. We don't want it lodged in the part of your brain that makes you check the fridge again even though you know nothing new is in… https://wildhq.org/06/ https://wildhq.org/06/ Making somebody's phone buzz is the digital version of tapping them on the shoulder. It should feel just intrusive enough that we think twice before doing it. https://wildhq.org/07/ https://wildhq.org/07/ No fake urgency, countdown discounts, hidden exits, or nagging dressed up as helpful advice. “No thanks” shouldn't be pale grey mouseprint while “YES, TRANSFORM… https://wildhq.org/08/ https://wildhq.org/08/ We can't leak, lose, sell, or misuse information we never collected. https://wildhq.org/09/ https://wildhq.org/09/ You're a person using something we made, not an “audience segment” waiting to be packaged up and sold. https://wildhq.org/10/ https://wildhq.org/10/ An ad doesn't have to be a stranger barging into the room. In an artist community, it might be an artist showing their work. In a marketplace, it might help you… https://wildhq.org/11/ https://wildhq.org/11/ If somebody publishes something, give it a real address. Let people link to it, subscribe to it, and read it without creating an account or installing an app. https://wildhq.org/12/ https://wildhq.org/12/ You might use something we make for twenty years. You might find something better next Tuesday. Fair enough. https://wildhq.org/13/ https://wildhq.org/13/ If we publish a stream of things, we'll give it RSS and JSON Feed. These are small, sturdy bits of the web that let you follow along however you like. https://wildhq.org/14/ https://wildhq.org/14/ An API with a velvet rope isn't permissionless. https://wildhq.org/15/ https://wildhq.org/15/ Make it beautiful. Make it hideous. Load twelve fonts and tile a glittering GIF from 2007 across the background. https://wildhq.org/16/ https://wildhq.org/16/ Recommendations are handy. So are rankings and clever algorithms. They become a problem when they quietly take over and leave no way back to the simple thing… https://wildhq.org/17/ https://wildhq.org/17/ A community isn't set dressing for a company. The people who spend their time there end up owning a piece of the place, whether or not the paperwork says so. https://wildhq.org/18/ https://wildhq.org/18/ Not everything needs to masquerade as an app. https://wildhq.org/19/ https://wildhq.org/19/ Somewhere along the way, the web decided every computer should behave like the same medium-sized rectangle. https://wildhq.org/20/ https://wildhq.org/20/ Your keyboard has shortcuts. Your mouse has more than one button. Your browser can open tabs and windows, remember history, download files, print pages, and do… https://wildhq.org/21/ https://wildhq.org/21/ The industry gets a new favourite framework with reassuring regularity. We don't have to rebuild everything each time it does. https://wildhq.org/22/ https://wildhq.org/22/ There is a kind of code that makes its author feel brilliant and everybody else feel tired. https://wildhq.org/23/ https://wildhq.org/23/ Sometimes a rough thing in somebody's hands teaches us more in an afternoon than another month spent discussing the polished imaginary version. https://wildhq.org/24/ https://wildhq.org/24/ Keeping old behaviour is often kind. Sometimes it's just expensive procrastination. https://wildhq.org/25/ https://wildhq.org/25/ Unsupported things don't need to vanish into a hole. https://wildhq.org/26/ https://wildhq.org/26/ We intend to keep what we make alive for a long time. Intentions aren't magic, though, and one day Wild may no longer be able to run something. https://wildhq.org/27/ https://wildhq.org/27/ We don't measure ambition by the number of people in the team photo. https://wildhq.org/28/ https://wildhq.org/28/ Wild isn't for sale. Please don't make us sit through the deck. https://wildhq.org/29/ https://wildhq.org/29/ Hiring somebody and then spying on them is a peculiar way to show confidence in your hiring. https://wildhq.org/30/ https://wildhq.org/30/ Coordinating people, clearing obstacles, making decisions, and keeping an eye on the horizon are all real work. They aren't admission to a more important… https://wildhq.org/31/ https://wildhq.org/31/ Founders aren't automatically right. Neither are managers, leads, or the person who spoke first and sounded extremely certain. https://wildhq.org/32/ https://wildhq.org/32/ When one person makes a good-faith mistake, the rest of us don't get to stand at a safe distance and point. https://wildhq.org/33/ https://wildhq.org/33/ Apparently a tidy paragraph now requires a chain of custody. This one's a bit long. Keep your pitchforks down. https://wildhq.org/34/ https://wildhq.org/34/ We mean what we say here. We also reserve the right to read it later, wince, and change it.