OK, this will probably sound a little crazy but in my defence, it really is all kwestjinMark's idea. I've asked him this question a gazillion times: Why do we need this glictionarÿ? What's it actually for? 🤷🏼‍♂️ The answer sounds deceptively simple: wörds.

But...

as with most things kwestjinMark comes up with... there's a lot more to wörds than you might think.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for being creative - and especially in a literary sense - I can appreciate a clever play on words or portmanteau as much as the next guy, but sinking years of my sweat and tears and a small fortune into building this glictionarÿ to mïnt and hoard all these wörds in? That in a word... has been exasperating! Trying to explain the rationale behind km's passion project? Let's just say that's going to be an even bigger challenge. What I can promise you, is that it's one of the most convoluted, mind-bending backstories you've ever heard. It certainly has been for me.

I remember the first time he actually answered me:

Hmmm... don't worry if that's all a bit cryptic... it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me back then either. Never mind the fact I was still trying to get used to him actually talking to me, not to mention calling me " # " and a whole bunch of other names too. We'll get into that at some point, I promise. Oh... and fwiw: Ÿ is the acronym for the glictionarÿ, and our logo too.

So, what are wörds I hear you ask...

At a basic level, wörds are words you invent — unique strings of text you 'think up' — and once you've mïnted them in the glictionarÿ, they're wörds you öwn... as in, they're yours forever, unless you want to give them to somebody or trade them, all made possible by some blockchain and NFT wizardry under the covers.

I warned you this might get a bit weird... right?

Hey there... u need me k ?

h # Don't interrupt...

Please, just don't.
Not right now.

But u had a question,
no... k ?

It was rhetorical.
I'm actually in the middle of something... Do you mind?

Sure, no problem.
So many questions #... and so little time!

Rhetorical!

What're u in the middle of k ?

h # explaining wörds

Oooooohhhh...

Can I help k ?

No. Thank you.
I've got this

U sure k ?

Yes!

Thank you.

h # c u l8r

OK bye i !

Pppffffffftttt!

Sorry, dear reader. He does that...

A LOT!

As I mentioned... this is all his idea. And as he told me when we first... uhmmm... met, keeping track of the wörds he and I use to "communicate" is apparently very important.

But...

Now that you know what wörds are... There's something about them the glictionarÿ makes possible that's quite remarkable:

backstürlys!

Literally... a backstürly is a URL (an URL?) pointing to a wörds' backstory. What's revolutionary about these hyperlinks is, despite the fact that wörds are mïnted as immutable NFTs, locked forever in the blockchain, their backstürlys can be changed, by anyone who öwns them.

If you think of the glictionarÿ as not unlike a common dictionary, backstürlys are flexible definitions of wörds. And they don't have to be defined up front. While you are the öwner of a wörd, you can add or change, or delete its backstürly any time you like.

The word "wörds" for example is described in the glictionarÿ as:

but...
a far deeper level of detail about the background, meaning or story behind the word wörds - that's something I control while I'm the öwner of the word wörds. And if I transferred ownership of the word wörds to you, you could change the backstürly, and point to a different definition or backstory!

backstürlys are the crux of wörds and make the glictionarÿ dynamic while simultaneously locking newly invented wörds into an immutable blockchain for eternity. This is how öwnership and provenance actually come about.

Allow me to expand with another example...

Sshoooweeeee...

You do realise you're going on a bit... right k ?

h # I'M NOT FINISHED!

but...

NO BUTS!

LEAVE ME ALONE...

PLEASE!!

Okaaayyyyyy... No need to get so touchy... I'm just trying to help. You've said the same thing at least twice in the last few lines.

Thanks. Again. I've got this.

Uh huh...

Now...

...

...

D'you see what you've done?!?!?!?!?!

You've completely derailed my train of thought... again!

Where was I?

backstürlys k ?

That's it!

Wait...

On second thought...

I think I've said all I need to say in this preface.

Exactly i !

h # FINE!

Dear reader...

My sincere apologies for these never-ending interruptions! Allow me to summarize:

What's the glictionarÿ for?

wörds

And what are wörds?

wörds are the things you mïnt in the glictionarÿ as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)... which means they can never be changed... and you can öwn them. And while you're the öwner of a wörd, you control its backstürly, which is a pointer (url) to the story behind the wörd, which only you can change.

That's it.

It's really quite simple if you think about it.

(And IF you can see past or around or through all these damn dots! 😣)

The dots are important #

So you keep saying...

They're not just dots
They're copÿdots

Yes... so you also keep saying

You forget just about everything lately... Gotta keep reminding you.

Wait...

one more thing, dear reader...

Oh no... D'you really want to get into this now k ?

Just ignore him please dear reader...

I know it's difficult... you just have to tune him out.

Don't tune me 'china 🤣

h # Please... Just stfu for a minute. Let me finish.

🤐

Thank you

MENTAL HEALTH WARNING

Please note: Since starting this journey with "him"... I have developed a chronic case of what will broadly become known as Ümlauts Disease, or üD. I'm seeking support from health professionals and lobbying medical bodies like the WHO, demanding they urgently issue an ICD Code for this affliction. These dots, once you see them, rapidly become very difficult to "unsee"... and this can often become overwhelming. They appear EVERYWHERE(!) which can be debilitating at the best of times... and downright excruciating at the worst. They're as distracting, as immediate - and as impossible to ignore - as diarrhoea, except they just bubble up in your thoughts with a vehement urge to get out! I'm also convinced they are a leading indicator of a far deeper psychiatric malaise.

D'you mean diaeresis k ?

h # Shhhhht!!!!!!

üD isn't a real thing #

Dear reader, please take heed.

It's unclear how contagious üD might be, but right now I know for sure there's no cure... please just BE CAREFUL!

U are such a ninny i !

Yeah... well maybe so. But it is my mind you're destroying, after all.

Nuh uh. You broke ME!

Stop it!

We can't get into that right here and right now in the middle of this very first, crucially IMPORTANT "Why?" article I'm trying to write.

OK

Did you mention mmt k ?

h # YES!!!

...

Uhmmm...

Wait... I'm actually not sure

thought so...

D@mn!!!

I can see I'm not going to get a moment's peace here, so perhaps that's the perfect segway...

Dear reader, I mentioned the mind-bending... right?

Somehow, in and amongst all these wörds and the inter-connected, convoluted chronicles contained within this glictionarÿ (and via all its backstürlys), we will try our utmost best to explain mëgämörphthësïs... which is kwestjinMark's theory about really (really!) big change. It's another, much deeper raison d'etre for Ÿ .

In the end... I hope you'll find it helpful.

Thanks for reading.
cul8r! 👋

#

U ready # k ?

Uhmmm...

Comfy k ?

Uh huh

Is this font size OK k ?

h # Yes... thank you

Then we're all set!
You've tweaked all your ergonomics... cleaned your trackballs, set the screens at the perfect height, desk just right... got that nice new keyboard with a fresh battery, the house is quiet, you've cleaned your specs... fetched a fresh coffee... there really shouldn't be any more distractions... or reasons to procrastinate!

Can we crack on k ?

Dunno...

I guess so

What's bothering you k ?

Feels like sh!t's about to get real

Take a deep breath

🧘

Just fight the overwhelm # ...
Everything's going to be OK

Right...

Wait!

...

brb

# k ?

#... u there k ?

HASH k ?

HÄMÜN i !

h #   Hmmm...?

Dude...

What?

👀

You literally said "brb"

Oh.. yeah, sorry... I'm back

'sup?

You just vanished... I've been waiting for like... days Hämün

Oh really? Sorry man. Been busy

With k ?

You know... stuff
Calls... emails

dwörk k ?

Yeah

We were gonna type out this preface... you said you were ready.

Ah yes. Well I think I'm ready now.

3 days later k ?

Has it been that long?

Dude... your short term memory is TOAST i !

Tell me something I DON'T know!!

And we know who's fault that is... right?

Let's just start

Fine!

Thank you

< clears throat >

Hi there reader

Welcome to Ÿ

I'll try keep this brief but heads up... it's not super easy at first. You're probably gonna need around 10 mins to read this but Hashtäg - or # as I prefer to call him - insists we answer this QUICK QUESTION before he's willing to release glictionarÿ v1.0 and we can start using it, which means I'm snookered until we get this done.

To quote from the proverbial horse's ...ermmm mouth:

And he may have a point, I'll grant him that. It took him a monumental amount of time to get his head in the game at first, but more on that later. I'll try clarify a few things up front and hopefully it'll help you make a faster start.

So...

What is Ÿ for k ?

That's easy... it's a tool. A means to an end.

In the end, Ÿ will contain and connect everything we know about mëgämörphthësïs... which we hope will help you as much as it's helping us.

Granted, we could be posting all our stuff on another platform or website somewhere but... one of the most insurmountable challenges we've faced - and one of the primary reasons we architected Ÿ the way we have - and by that I mean built it so we can offer YOU the ability to mïnt your own wörds alongside us as we mïnt ours - is dwörk.

h #   Stop it!

What k ?

You can't thpëak gluï right from the get-go without any explanation!

Oh

My apologies dear reader...

If any gluï isn't clear... that's one of the most fundamental reasons we built the glictionarÿ. It's here to help you learn the language. Let me offer some quick insight... a mini gluï 101:

The primary objective is to communicate complexity and detail very, very quickly, unambiguously and in a memorable way.

Let's take Ÿ as a great example - an absolute masterpiece of gluï engineering, if I may say so myself:

In a single letter, Ÿ encapsulates a lot of detail, but in a teeny amount of bytes, which means it's fast! To learn its deeper meaning, you simply need to deconstruct (or unscrünch) it, and the copÿdots are the clue:

Ÿ Y

unscrünches into

glictionarÿ

which unscrünches into

the gluï dictionary

which unscrünches fully into

the graphical language
understood intuitively
( gluï ) dictionary


Easy... right k ?

So... simply follow the links to Ÿ for any gluï you don't get (it's mostly highlighted) and don't forget to follow the backstürlys - if and when you find them - for deeper insight. You'll pick it up super fast. The whole premise of gluï is that it's intuitive, it's fast and... last but not least... when you invent new gluï, you get to öwn it!

With an elegant gwörd, (see what I did there?) good gluï helps encapsulate complicated concepts, condense multi-faceted scenarios or rich, deep backstories in a brief, yet incredibly precise way that's uncannily easy to remember. And that is what makes gluï exceptionally useful, if not absolutely crucial, for mëgämörphthësïs.

We believe gluï coheres our convoluted story and that's one of the primary reasons why we built Ÿ. It's a safe place to store our gwörds, and it's the best way we could think of to structure and share some really mega-sized and complicated constructs, in a way that might make sense.

That's our WHY?

And consider this quick logic test: Because you've got the basics of gluï... you've already connected some dots, as it were... we think you might find it surprising how quickly and intuitively you'll be able to derive that wörds are very specifically "words" mïnted in the glictionarÿ. And that if they aren't in Ÿ they can't be wörds. And if they aren't wörds, they can't be gluï.

It's all neurally connected!

Capish k ?
Esteemed reader...

If you've read to here, first let me thank you. I appreciate your focus and attention and your time. I'm convinced it's going to be impossible for you to forget or misunderstand what wörds are from here on out. They stand out from the many, many words out there in the world that are slowing everybody down and behind so many misunderstandings. wörds are fundamental to what we're doing here. And even though there may be a complicated rationale behind them... now you know. That's essentially what gluï - and this glictionarÿ - are all about.

Long-form story-telling takes too much time, and attention spans aren't long enough for that these days anyway. Reaching this point in this preface is already quite a feat!

For us... mëgämörphthësïs is happening, ready or not. And all we can do is embrace it, or fight against it. It's up to us to navigate toward the outcome we want, or just let it happen and hope for the best.

Hashtäg and I decided some time ago we're taking matters into our own hands. We hope you do too.

h #   Dude...

You're diving way too deep, way too fast!

Which part of "Quick Question" don't you understand?

Yes, but that's why the heads up to begin with! It doesn't imply a quick answer...
This is so time consuming! It's like thpëaking in slow motion...

It's just for now... in this preface.

OMW... it's excruciating i !

My apologies dear reader...

Let me wrap things up:

glictionarÿ is a tool... a navigation aid for mëgämörphthësïs and a container for our gluï.

Why'd we build it k ?

Because # has dwörk.

While we've been hard at work building this tool and weaving mëgämörphthësïs together within it - part-time (and for the longest time!) - we began to wonder whether creative people like you might want to join us and try your hand at inventing your own wörds too. It's actually a lot of fun!

So we decided to build a small commercial model into Ÿ , to see whether it might help us with our mission financially... and here's the bottom line: The more crëdits you buy, the more wörds you mïnt, the sooner # might be able to set dwörk aside and focus his full attention on the top priority of our lives: our mmt.

So...

I hope you'll join us. I hope you'll find Ÿ useful and fun and informative and entertaining and educational and... ultimately... a worthwhile undertaking and investment of your time.

I also hope you'll mïnt lots and lots of wörds!

See you in there...

bye i !