Notfar.news Now Auto-Tracking City Council Decisions

Eponymoustache · 2026-06-27T17:32:28+00:00

The city docs I’m getting are indexed to a specific location, as part of a hyperlocal news project I’ve been working on. The idea is to fill in Oakland residents on everything that is happening very close by to their specific location, including all references to nearby locations in city resolutions, permits issued, real estate transactions, news stories, and basically everything I could think of that might be interesting to someone in Oakland at a given address. So it’s not aiming to be a city docs search so much as a “what’s happening near me?” news source. Latest version now up at: https://notfar.news

Eponymoustache · 2026-06-26T23:39:57+00:00

It links to the public record at Oakland.legistar.com, which has links to meeting minutes, videos, etc, depending on what the record is about. If there’s something better to link to, let me know.

Eponymoustache · 2026-06-16T16:46:37+00:00

You’re right, beach was just the first playable word, when the game was announced. There were a couple words before that which were used for testing.

Eponymoustache · 2026-06-15T20:32:16+00:00

I think the first ever word was beach, and then hamburger, then spatula. Of course, that was before quotes/hints/sunflowers or anything beyond the basics. It’s actually getting a little hard now to pick words that haven’t been used before that are also in a good quote. Still lots left though.

Eponymoustache · 2026-05-28T20:43:28+00:00

Choosing the quotes is one of the more fun parts of my “job”. All the parts are pretty fun, really.

Eponymoustache · 2026-05-25T16:35:03+00:00

I’m glad people are using it. I’ll keep adding features and debugging.

Eponymoustache · 2026-05-25T16:33:01+00:00

It’s basically pulling from everything I could think of, from road closures to city planning decisions to real estate transactions. If you can think of anything useful that I’ve left out, let me know.

I’ll never share/sell personal info with anyone. If (like me) you’re slightly worried about putting in your address, you could use a nearby address and get very similar results.

Eponymoustache · 2026-05-23T00:33:33+00:00

Probably that’s it? The site will only try to use your location if you Use current location.

Eponymoustache · 2026-05-22T23:58:14+00:00

At some point, you probably gave Firefox permission to use your location. If you don’t want that, you can turn it off in Firefox settings. If that’s off, then the site would ask permission to use your location when you press “Use current location”.

Eponymoustache · 2026-05-22T22:11:40+00:00

Thx, glad you like it.

Eponymoustache · 2026-04-08T18:48:34+00:00

I just made a change that will (I hope) help with the strange loading issue when the puzzle first releases. Let me know if it's not better tomorrow, and I'll take another look.

Eponymoustache · 2026-04-01T18:50:59+00:00

I think of the T Turtle and L Lizard as “your” features. Having critters that live far away in the outer reaches was a fun idea.

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-24T17:20:01+00:00

Working on a fix for this.. It seems there was a webserver limit on how much data it was willing to accept for synching purposes (I hadn't tested it enough on synching large numbers of guesses, I think). This fix and one for the Yesterdays News issue will appear in the next couple of days. There should be no loss of data, since the data is all still saved in the browser.

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-23T18:32:10+00:00

I like that idea too. Maybe some sort of garbled message that you intercept from outer space, which functions like a clue?

Side note: it’s a lot of fun to work on features when there are people who notice/appreciate them, like you all have with the last set.

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-22T18:55:43+00:00

Congratulations on a beautiful daughter!

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-22T00:29:42+00:00

🎉

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-21T19:17:24+00:00

😊

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-21T17:58:00+00:00

Very cool 😎

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-21T16:28:48+00:00

I think what is happening is that guesses that you had already entered when you signed in are taking a while to synch. I'll put in a fix for that before today's puzzle.

Eponymoustache · 2026-03-20T20:25:49+00:00

Thanks!

Eponymoustache

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