#SilentSunday
WordPress, the new HyperCard?
Since I been trying out my.wordpress.net I’ve been thinking a lot about this.
Of course Alan has been there first: This is Not a Blog | wordpress as the new hypercard?
I spent a lot of time with HyperCard over the years1. Described as a “software erector set” and “programming for the rest of us” it was one of the inspirations for the web.
I used it for toys, tools and fun for pupils at school. I also made many utilities for myself. These did not need to be polished, just fit closely to my needs and tweak-able. For many years I used HC every day.
HyperCard could make mac application, but you could also run stacks (documents) in the application by itself.
Over the last few days I’ve been playing with my.wordpress.net which is a complete private WordPress in your browser. One of the limitations, at the moment, is that you get 1 instance per device/browser. I found that using Safari’s Add to Dock… feature, which gives you a single site application you can click and launch from the dock, allowed me to have several copies of WordPress that ran with a click. It began to feel a bit like HyperCard.
Like HyperCard you can edit the code while running. I mentioned here I was able to swap out the lyrics of the hello dolly plugin in a minute. Of course more complex things would need more skills, and php & javascript seem a lot more complex than HyperTalk to me.
The other thing HyperCard was great at was sharing ‘extensions’ external functions (XFCN) and commands (XCMD), similar to WordPress plugins.
At the moment My WordPress feels as it if useful for playing around, testing things quickly & safely and maybe making utilities for yourself.
I’ve already used it to explore a problem I didn’t understand, made a couple of test utilities and experimented with a them or two. This was much quicker than using the web.
I suspect that a ‘real’ single site generator app might give more options than Safari. One of the annoying things for me was that the open in New Tabs links in WordPress spawned windows all over the place. Switching from other apps became difficult. I got round that problem by asking claude.ai to create a simple plugin that switch all the links to same window. This now really reminds me of stacks.
Wondering
My WordPress makes it really easy to edit all of the WordPress files. That feels a little dangerous to me. I wonder if a better approach might be to have a wee plugin to add code when you need too. Sort of like functions.php in a child theme but theme independent. A system for JavaScript files could site in that plugin folder too? Both could be easily edited in the browser and keep me away from more risky files. I am pretty sure there are already plugins out there that do this.
Another application this reminds me of is TiddyWiki which I use to keep various notes. TiddyWikis are single html files. I have multiple wikis that run from the TiddlyDesktop: A custom desktop browser for TiddlyWiki 5 and TiddlyWiki Classic. I could imaging something similar for My WordPress.
Other things in the mix include:
- WordPress Playground which I’ve not used for more than a few minute, I am not sure what the differences between the playground and my wordpress are? It looks like my WordPress is for longer term ideas.
- Blueprints Blueprints are json files used to set up a WordPress Playground instance. I briefly tried Pootle Playground – WordPress Blueprint Configurator which easily produced a blueprint linked to playground and when opened started WordPress installed the themes and plugins I had added like magic. I think this would be a great way to share apps. Not sure if you can use it with My WordPress? yet?
- Playground has a setting to set up a multi-site. That might be interesting in My WordPress…
- Telex, Describe your idea. Telex will build a WordPress block or theme for you.
Finally:
Next up, we’re going to add peer-to-peer sync, version control integration, and cloud publishing so other people can access it.
WordPress Everywhere | Matt Mullenweg
Featured image Tinker Toys by Flood CC-BY-NC-ND
- My favourite piece of software, followed closely by SuperCard. ↩︎
Rather a blurry photo, but the first peacock butterfly of the year for me. Saw quite a few on the Greenside Reservoir track this afternoon. A warm day, bumble bees flying.
An afternoon walk round the Kilpatrick braes yesterday. Warm and sunny, occasionally clouding over.Egrets, Opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage, lesser celandine, the first primroses of 2026. 5 ravens flew low and fast overhead two pairs twisting together wings loud. A few stonechats on the Muir.
Claude, you are a cutie-pie! – by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Attwood records her conversation with Claude via John Naughton’s daily for Wednesday 18 March, 2026 | Memex 1.1
According the the BBC weather app for my location: Sunrise 06:26 Sunset 18:26
my.wordpress.net
Your Browser Becomes Your WordPress – WordPress News
With my.WordPress.net, WordPress runs entirely and persistently in your browser. There’s no sign-up, no hosting plan, and no domain decision standing between you and getting started.
My WordPress is an interesting development. It allows you to have a totally private WordPress site in your browser. You could use this to test, develop or just play around with WordPress. It also looks like it could be used for developing an app just for yourself, or perhaps to export & share. There are a couple (via plugins) than can easily be installed, including an RSS ‘reader’. Everything is stored in the browser, limited to 100mb. I was surprised as I thought local storage was much smaller than that? I wonder where it is stored.
There seems to be ways to back up or transfer to a live site.
The obvious frustration might be if you make something useful it will be only on one device/browser but that might be balanced by the privacy.
It only takes a few seconds to set up the site and it feels fast.
It seems to emulates MySQL using SQLite
Looks like I have access to all the files. I tested this by adding a shortcode to the functions.php and it just worked!
I could also edit the Hello Dolly plugin, replacing the lyrics with the ones from Subterranean Homesick
Blues.
RSS
One of the Apps you can install is an RSS reader. This is the Friends plugin. I have briefly tried this before, but I think this is an opportunity to give it good test. I easily added a feed or tow. It did not work with scripting.com, I presume due to it being severed via http not https?
AI
Another suggested ‘apps’ is AI which allows you to connect to an AI if you have a key. I do not pay for any AI so do not have a key. By chance I installed Ollama yesterday, a local AI, I am not sure what I am doing just following Miguel Guhlin’s notes.
I spent quite a lot of time messing about with this and failing, I think because Safari is so uptight about mixed content. I did get it working in Firefox, but running into this problem means I can’t do anything yet.
So I think I’ll leave the AI assistant alone for the moment and play with other things.
Other Things & Thinks
I am slowly thinking about how I could use this in a useful, or fun way.
- Trying things out that I do not want to risk on a ‘real’ site and don’t want to set up a whole WordPress for.
- Learning, especially quick tests & tries, themes, snippets, css etc.
- ‘Apps’ that look interesting, but I don’t want to be public.
- AI integration with WordPress. I’ve been experimenting with Telex a bit, wondering it will be incorporated in this.
I am sure there are more. The limits, at the moment, seem to be one site per device/browser. For little things this could be easily worked around using the offer:
Want multiple Playgrounds? Open temporary instances that reset on refresh.
More…
According to Matt Mullenweg there is a lot more in the works
my.wordpress.net has soft-launched.
Next up, we’re going to add peer-to-peer sync, version control integration, and cloud publishing so other people can access it.
and
Today, everyone gets a phone number and email when they grow up. That will expand in the future, everyone will have a domain and a WordPress. A part of the internet that you own.
Read: The Cut Up by Louise Welsh ★★★★ 📚
Cat slipped off her jacket. Her arms were decorated with tattoos not yet dense enough to be considered sleeves but numerous enough to declare commitment. She saw me clocking them and gave me a want-to-make-something-of-it stare.
Another crime novel about Rilke, an auctioneer, Glaswegian & nice take on the compromised but conscience driven hero in the criminal borderlands. The novel chases along at a great rate. Especially enjoyed the Glasgow setting. Lots of places I know.
Read: The Spy and The Traitor by Ben Macintyre ★★★★ 📚
On the morning of 4 July, a dishevelled couple in tattered clothes could be seen lounging aimlessly at the end of Victoria Road, Coulsdon, in the South London suburbs. One was Simon Brown, of P5, MI6's head of Soviet bloc operations; the other was Veronica Price, the architect of Gordievsky's escape plan. A Home Counties creature from her pearls to her twinset, Price was not suited to this sort of subterfuge. 'I've borrowed the char's hat,' she announced, as they climbed into their disguises.
I've not read much spy fiction but this true story of a KGB man who betrayed Russia & helped cool Cold War tensions only to be first caught & then escape from the USSR to Britain was quite a trip.
A nice walk round the Ardmore peninsula yesterday, quite windy, low clouds & dull. I’ve updated the script that makes the photo & map grids to show the gpx track as well as the picture positions, pleased with that.