Pillowfort Retrospective 2026

[osteophage]

We're celebrating Pillowfort's anniversary this month, and since I've been there since 2018, I decided to put together a brief personal timeline of my experience with the site. Some of these things are specific to what I've been up to, but some of them are more general milestones for the site. How many of them do you remember?

I'm interested to see what other folks would choose to spotlight, so if you make your own timeline post, consider reblogging it to the Pillowfort Anniversary Festival. Alternatively, you can use enchantedsleeper's anniversary blanket box (prompt list) for some more general inspiration.

Crossposted to Pillowfort.

February 24, 2017 - I signed up for the Pillowfort invite waitlist. Back then invites were sent out in batch waves, and I ended up having to wait a good long while before I'd get mine.

May 24, 2017 - A little Reddit alternative called Imzy abruptly announced that it was shutting down, blindsiding users like me. This was my first experience with a social platform ceasing to exist entirely. Pillowfort still hadn't let me in yet.

February 4, 2018 - I finally got my Pillowfort invite as a part of Beta Wave 3 and created my account. Back then the place was so small and quiet, I remember seeing advice to follow every single account you came across in order to have a chance of your home feed ever moving at all.

May 10, 2018 - Pillowfort added the readmore feature, a big milestone for those of us who like writing long posts.

June 27, 2018 - Sar created the PillowfortDiscussions community. Later on, I'd be promoted to mod status there, but to me it'll always be Sar's creation.

July 23, 2018 - Cynosuresoul posted You Are Suggesting Foolery, a screenshot I've been using as a reaction image ever since.

September 11, 2018 - Erran started the conversation that would lead to the introduction of hitching posts.

December 3, 2018 - Tumblr announced a big change to its rules that drove off many of its users, some of which came to Pillowfort, resulting in the 2018 Reblog Debate. The 2018 Reblog Debate was nuts. This is the context that gave rise to my post In Defense of the Pillowfort Reblog System (2018), which I have since linked in essays about Tumblr (2019) and Twitter (2025).

December 5, 2019 - As a spinoff of PillowfortDiscussions, I created the WebDiscussions community.

Jan 19, 2020 - The March Meta Matters Challenge was launched on Dreamwidth and Pillowfort, which is a big part of what helped get me back into writing essays for fun.

August 13, 2021 - Alessnox asked for help with creating a Wikipedia page for Pillowfort.

December 15, 2021 - Pillowfort announced the first ever avatar frame (the snowflake frame) as a reward for the 2021 Holiday Funding Drive. In response, I suggested adding an avatar frame made out of bones.

October 1, 2022 - A bone avatar frame was granted to us for meeting the goal during the Autumn Funding Drive.

August 25, 2024 - enchantedsleeper announced Small Web September, which is what prompted me to create my personal site, Coyote's Link Hub, on September 1st of that year. Since then I've also encouraged other folks like J (anacedragon) and Corvus (commander_corvus) to make personal sites of their own.

Comments

[witchpoetdreamer]

The more I hear about Pillowfort, the more I want to join, it seems like such a great place besides DW!

[jasleh]

it is very nice! PF is my main social media currently

[witchpoetdreamer]

That's good to know!

[osteophage]

Now's a great time to join! If Dreamwidth isn't to slow for you then I expect you might like Pillowfort as well.

[witchpoetdreamer]

You've actually convinced me to take the step, I'm on it now XD

[osteophage]

Cool! Let me know if you need any help finding your way around the place. I recommend checking out the Pillowfort101 community for tips and answers to questions.

[witchpoetdreamer]

Will do! And yes, I've followed that community!

[zavodilaterrarium]

Can't quite remember if it was because of you/the general hitching post discussion, but it inspired me to make archive posts of 'substantial' comments I've made (basically ones that I'd want to refer back to later, or that I'd not want to accidentally repeat the contents of to that person/group again). It's just for my sake since it's all private rn, though I am considering making a public version with all the locked and sensitive posts excluded.

[osteophage]

That sounds like a great idea!

[asuraid]

woa, that's actually awesome to see your own history with pillowfort like that!!! makes me wish i kept better track of stuff on my social medias/the big shifts, but considering how a lot of it is also tied into how pillowfort has grown over the years, it is a really cool retrospective, and makes sense why your frame is the bone one bahaha. that's awesome as hell, thanks for sharing :D

[osteophage]

Thank you! (And sorry I apparently neglected to reply to this.) It's never too late to start keeping track of things more closely. Give it a few years and I bet you could write a good retrospective too.