HTYP

HTYP is an online "directory of everything" and "technical manual for the universe" created by Woozle in 2005. It is on the web at htyp.org.

HTYP originally stood for "HyperTwin Yellow Pages", referring to its origin as part of the HypertWiki. (Several other "bacronym" interpretations are given on HTYP's "About" page.)

HTYP is free to use, requires no registration, and carries no advertising.

Purpose

I tend to do a lot of projects without really having a clearly verbalized understanding of why I think they're important, and that would seem to be the case for HTYP. The following is, therefore, not so much "the complete reason why I created HTYP" as it is a sort of attempt to work it out.

HTYP is a sort of combination village square bulletin board (the kind where you post notices and business cards), do-it-yourself Consumer Reports, user-written technical manual (every time I figure something out in Linux, I make notes in HTYP), and general practical how-to reference.

I wanted to create a place where people didn't need to worry so much about whether content was "appropriate" or "relevant". I wanted to be able to make notes on any topic without having to organize it into a presentable article first. I wanted to be able to collect and organize links on various topics. I wanted "yellow pages" which wasn't full of automatically-generated chaff and advertisements, and which anyone could update or correct.

You can perhaps get some idea of HTYP's purpose in life by reading how it is different from Wikipedia.

More on this topic as I work it out...

Revenue

I have often considered putting up some text ads, but I've decided long-term credibility is more important than trying to squeeze some short-term cash out of the site. If people will use the site, I (along with everyone else) can derive far more indirect benefit from it than the direct benefit I might get from advertising income.

Another revenue-generating possibility is to print merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) bearing HTYP's logo. I may do this at some point, when I have time.

Finally, there is the obvious option of simply accepting donations. I'm not sure if it makes sense to ask for donations when HTYP is not a non-profit (nobody can get a tax exemption), and I suspect that becoming a nonprofit might hinder HTYP's ability to speak freely. Further investigation is needed. Perhaps some people would be willing to donate without the tax incentive, for that matter.