The negative roadmap

Most products publish a roadmap. Here's the opposite: the list of what won't happen, and why.

• Accounts. An account is a persistent identity, therefore a reputation, therefore something at stake. The whole app is built so there isn't one.
• Direct messages. They turn a public place into a corridor. And a corridor with no moderation and no identity is a bad place to be.
• History. Not even seven days. Not even optional. Not even encrypted. It's the one line everything else depends on.
• Karma, streaks, badges. Those are retention mechanics, and retention isn't our problem.
• Advertising. It would require knowing who you are, which we don't and don't want to.

The list is mostly for internal use. Every new idea goes past it before going any further, and most stop there.

What's left possible amounts to very little: making the bench nicer, faster, clearer. Not bigger.