The Plateau, 1999 to 2019
I once had a project called the Plateau. It launched in 1999, used the technology of the early 2000s, and was continuously maintained and developed until 2019. In essence, it was designed as a blend of a virtual learning environment, a gallery, and physical meetups. To achieve this, I wired together a wiki, a forum, a blog, a chat, and a CMS. In total, there were around 100 users and 20 meetups. Highlights included building a Bitcoin minerBitcoin (Wikipedia), setting up a self-hosted server, and the 2018 meetup with roughly 25 people.
The Areas and Their Purpose
The areas back then and what they were actually intended for:
- Blog = Improving self-reflection
- Wiki = Improving self-presentation
- Forum = Improving discussion
- Chat = Improving real-time communication
- CMS = Improving admin skills (every user had admin rights on my system)
- Physical meetups = Improving real-time interaction
The Idea and Its Problem
The idea was to connect people who would recognize themselves in the writings of others. The fundamental problems with this construct have not changed since: for every active user, there are 100 passive ones. And the ambition to improve oneself at all requires a certain ruthlessness—looking squarely at yourself, even when it hurts.
Why I Pulled the Plug
The reason for pulling the plug was the state of the underlying conditions in 2019. They were not suited to my goal. Essentially, two components were missing: AIs, and a way to “democratize” the Plateau—making its technology, which would finally run smoothly with the help of AI, available to other people for their own projects without hijacking their projects.
WordPress 7
On May 20, 2026, WordPress 7.0WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong” (wordpress.org) was released, bringing with it the theoretical possibility of integrating AIs. With the release of version 7.1WordPress 7.1 “Mary Lou” (wordpress.org) on August 19, 2026, the WP team added the final component that once made up the Plateau.
Over the past few months, with the help of AI, I have turned that theoretical possibility into reality. You can find more details on the mechanics behind the plugins under “Houseboats on the WordPress Lake.”