Snipette - 🌱 Where are we now?

Dear Readers,

With the last pre-scheduled piece having gone out last week, Snipette article operations are officially closed. But before we go, we thought we'd send you a final update about what we're working on next. In Snipette style, of course!

George R. R. Martin, best known for his epic fantasy starting with A Game of Thrones, says there are two kinds of writers: architects and gardeners. "The architects plan everything ahead of time," he says, " like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the pipes are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have everything designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up."

He contrasts the architect style with that of gardeners, who "dig a hole, drop in a seed, and water it. They kind of know what seed it is; they know if they planted a fantasy seed or a mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant come up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have: they find out as it grows."

George considers himself much more gardener than architect, although of course all writers use a mix of both approaches.

For the past six years at Snipette, we've been following a primarily architectural style, and we're proud of it! If it wasn't for our commitment to publish one article a week without fail—and later, bring out a print edition every quarter—we don't think we'd have come as far as we have today. Every project me embarked upon, such as the special features, webinars, and live events, was announced well in advance with clear promises on what we would (or wouldn't) do.

However, times have changed. We are now entering the stages of our lives which, though structured, don't allow for other structured planning to happen on the side: there's always going to be an unexpected class or assignment to throw things out of kilter.

That said, none of us wanted Snipette to end—and each of us, individually, want to do what we can towards Snipette's twofold mission of creating engaging, thought-provoking content and empowering others to do the same. But this time because of all the uncertainty, we're going to be taking more of a gardener's approach.

Over the past ten weeks, some of us, editors and authors, have had ideas and plans for what we can work on next - some vague; some less so - which we'd like to share with you. Consider this not the revealing of a blueprint but the sowing of seeds: we'll scatter them, water them, and see which ones sprout.

With luck, you'll see at least one thriving sapling here before The Winds of Winter comes out.

In anticipation,

The Snipette Team

Here are the seeds we're sowing next, along with some links to check out! Not sure what to click? We recommend the Trench Dispatch newsletter and our YouTube channel.

a phenomenological investigation...

Besides working at Snipette, Sabyasachi has also been developing his own publication, The Trench Dispatch. While exploring a topic from various angles the way Snipette does, the Trench Dispatch takes an ever-so-slightly more formal approach. This doesn't mean reading through a dense literary text; it does mean finding quotable gates from philosophers and other personality of the past.

Phenomenology is a school of philosophy that investigates phenomena. It's about exploring the way anything work, but also takes into account how and why we perceive such phenomena the way we do.

There are already a few pieces published, and our intro wouldn't do them justice the may actually reading it would, so you can perceive it for yourself here: http://sabyasachisaikia.substack.com

a calendar-based social network...

At Snipette, we've been using a shared calendar to coordinate our dry scheduler. But, we realised, that's not all it coordinated. More than once, a calendar slot has told us about some new development or interesting event in someone's life even if they didn't have the time to tell us in person.

Because we're friends as much as teammates, we wanted to keep some aspect of that shared calendar alive so we'd continue to be aware of what was going on in each others lives—and we realised it would be useful for other people too, such as close friends who were graduating from a school or university and about to go their separate ways.

In a world where calendars mean workload and deadlines, Palendar aims to bring back the "life" in work-life balance. Compatible with existing calendars through CalDAV and other social network through Activity Pub, you'll be able to stay in touch with your close friends at the same time you fill out your schedule.

Speaking of social networks, Snipette officially has its own Fediverse server, compatible with social media platforms like Pixelfed, Calckey, Mastodon, and (soon) Instagram Threads and Tumblr. To connect, follow any of the editors who are on Snipetteville: https://snipetteville.in

a silly game meets art appreciation...

"Find the Invisible Cow" was supposed to be just a silly game to test out new web standards, but it ended up becoming a viral hit. You move your mouse over a blank screen, listening as the word "cow!" is yelled at you in an auditory version of a "hot or cold" treasure hunt.

But instead of a cow, what if your attention was drawn to the little easter-eggs and hidden details of an artwork—the kind that are put in by artists but often get missed? That's what we're planning to have in a  new game, inspired by "Find the Invisible Cow", called Locatte. Over the years, Snipette artists have included various details and hidden references in their illustrations. Through this new game, Badri and Dee hope to bring some of those details into the forefront.

Until that's ready, though, you'll have to be content finding a cow: https://findtheinvisiblecow.com

a publication with a podcast...

With Snipette no longer publishing, we need some place where we can publish our occasional pieces and invite other people to write. We need, as author Reva put it, a home for our brains.

That's the gap we aim to fill with Rantte, an idea that Badri and Rhea came up with when they realised they often feel the need to phone each other up and have a good rant about something. It's similar in spirit to Snipette, but hopefully low-effort enough that we can sustain it even with busier schedules.

And, instead of writing out a piece, we may edit it to publish as a podcast!

Rantte is not yet fully worked out, but until it is you can check out Reva's newsletter here: https://aarevaa.substack.com

...and a video channel!

What if Snipette article were narrated to you accompanied by stunning 4K visuals? That has now become a reality, thanks to Will Fahie, a long-time Snipette author who has now taken it upon himself to bring Snipette to the silicon screen!

The video articles are now up on our official YouTube channel (the same one where we livestreamed our webinars last year). Give them a watch, and subscribe if you haven't yet, at https://youtube.com/@snipettemag