Hi! We would like to finally announce the public beta of the Octothorpes protocol.
Octothorpes are hashtags and backlinks for independent websites, but they’re a lot more too. The Octothorpe protocol is a general, distributed network of pointers that can be implemented with just a few lines of standard HTML. We’re working towards a sytem that will let you link a community of websites through a Ring, sharing hashtags, backlinks, bookmarks, emoji, and your own custom statements with tools that nonexperts can easily add and use. We want to help connect the open web without sacrificing its openness.
or “wait I’ve been using this for a month already”
We were secretly open for business for Weird Web October. There’s some great stuff that got octothorped as part of that project. But now registration is turned back on and we have a Roadmap and we’re saying come one come all give this a shot. Hashtag your websites, make friends.
We’re calling it Project Ratbike. Some parts may fall off during use, but it should be safe – and fun. Click that link to learn more about the beta, or if you’re already familiar with Octothorpes, head over to register your domain.
Join the mailing list for updates on protocol development, or follow #octothorpe-news. We’re also on Mastodon and Bluesky.