Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other
Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other
将你的网站变成一个人们可以偶遇彼此的地方
A few weeks ago, I added a silly, funny experiment on this website. I talked about it on this blog post. It was a tiny Town Square at the bottom of every page. 几周前，我在这个网站上增加了一个既傻气又有趣的实验。我曾在博客文章中提到过它。那是在每个页面底部的一个微型“城镇广场”（Town Square）。
When you visit the site, you’ll see a small strip populated by stick figures. Each figure represents another visitor currently browsing the website. You can see what page people are reading, walk around and send messages. For example, you could see someone reading the same article as you and start a discussion about it. 当你访问该网站时，你会看到一个布满火柴人的小长条。每一个火柴人都代表着当前正在浏览网站的另一位访客。你可以看到人们正在阅读什么页面，四处走动并发送消息。例如，你可以看到有人正在阅读和你一样的文章，并就此展开讨论。
The goal wasn’t to build another social network. It was to bring back a small feeling that the web used to have: the sense that there are actual people on the other side of the screen. 我的目标并不是要建立另一个社交网络，而是为了找回互联网曾经拥有的一种微小感觉：即屏幕另一端确实存在着活生生的人。
Town Square is intentionally tiny and forgetful. There are no accounts, no profiles, no follower counts, no permanent chat history. Messages exist only while people are there to read them. “城镇广场”被刻意设计得非常微小且“健忘”。这里没有账户、没有个人资料、没有粉丝数，也没有永久的聊天记录。消息只在有人阅读时才会存在。
After several people asked me how they could add this to their own websites, I decided to open source it and provide a public server, so anyone can easily integrate Town Square into their site with no self-hosting required. I hope it encourages a few more websites to feel like places instead of pages. 在几个人问我如何将此功能添加到他们自己的网站后，我决定将其开源并提供一个公共服务器，这样任何人都可以轻松地将“城镇广场”集成到自己的网站中，而无需自行托管。我希望这能鼓励更多的网站感觉像是一个“场所”，而不仅仅是静态的“页面”。
If you would like to host it yourself, fork it or contribute with the project, the repo is https://github.com/cauenapier/TownSquare/ 如果你想自行托管、分叉（fork）或为该项目做出贡献，代码仓库地址为：https://github.com/cauenapier/TownSquare/
If you don’t want to (or don’t know how to) host it yourself, you can register your website on Town Square. 如果你不想（或不知道如何）自行托管，你可以在“城镇广场”上注册你的网站。
I have a lot of ideas for what I could do next. It has been a fun, relaxing, small project so far. Like adding more props for the characters to interact and improving overall user experience on the chat feature. 对于下一步该做什么，我有很多想法。到目前为止，这是一个有趣、轻松的小项目。比如为角色增加更多可互动的道具，以及改善聊天功能的整体用户体验。
But I’m also very excited about the idea of implementing the functionality to connect your TownSquare with another website, like a neighbour. You would walk to the edge of the site and transport to the neighbour website, creating a network of townsquares. Like a Webring. 但我同样对实现“将你的城镇广场与另一个网站连接起来”的功能感到非常兴奋，就像邻居一样。你可以走到网站的边缘，然后传送到邻近的网站，从而创建一个城镇广场网络。就像 Webring（网站环）一样。
If you like the idea and have requests, changes, or ideas for what Town Square could become, send me an email. I’d genuinely love to hear from you. 如果你喜欢这个想法，并且对“城镇广场”的未来发展有任何请求、修改建议或想法，请给我发邮件。我真心希望能听到你的声音。