TinkerAtlas Turns One on July 6: What I've Been Building, and a Couple of Surprises
By MakerViking
Published
Updated
4 min read
Category: News & Updates
TinkerAtlas turns one year old on July 6, and there's a stream to mark it. Here's what I've been building lately, and why a couple of things stay secret.
<p class="mb 2" Hey makers,</p <p class="mb 2" On July 6th, TinkerAtlas turns one year old. One year since an empty database, and now a growing community of hundreds of makers sharing projects, posts, and the occasional heroic printer rescue.</p <p class="mb 2" I'm planning a stream that day to celebrate, and I've got a couple of surprises lined up for it. I'm not going to tell you what they are. That's the point of a surprise. What I will say is this: I'm working to have them ready to release on the day itself. If they're not quite there, I'll show them on stream anyway and release them shortly after. Either way, you'll see them first on July 6th.</p <p class="mb 2" So what have I actually been doing lately? A lot of it is the kind of work you never see, and I think that's exactly why it's worth writing about.</p <h2 class="font bold" The work you don't see</h2 <p class="mb 2" Most platform updates are about shiny new features. This one is mostly about the opposite: the invisible work that keeps a community platform trustworthy.</p <p class="mb 2" Over the past weeks I ran a full security review of TinkerAtlas, top to bottom. Access rules on the database were audited and tightened, every key and credential the platform uses was rotated, and the dependency stack was cleaned up until there wasn't a single known vulnerability left. None of this changes what you see when you log in. All of it changes what I can promise you about the things you trust us with: your account, your messages, your work.</p <p class="mb 2" I've done plenty of security reviews since TinkerAtlas launched, but new vulnerabilities in dependencies get found all the time. That's why this has to happen regularly, and it will stay a priority in year two.</p <h2 class="font bold" Fixing the quiet breakages</h2 <p class="mb 2" Here's an honest one. Running your own infrastructure means some things break silently, and you only find them if you go looking. I went looking.</p <p class="mb 2" The digest emails had quietly stopped going out. Some scheduled background jobs had been napping instead of working. Even <a target=" blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text blue 600 hover:text blue 800 dark:text blue 400 dark:hover:text blue 200 underline cursor pointer transition colors" href="http://www.tinkeratlas.com" www.tinkeratlas.com</a (with the www) had stopped resolving for people who typed it that way. All this was in relation to when we moved servers. All found, all fixed.</p <p class="mb 2" And because "found by accident" is not a strategy, TinkerAtlas now has a watchdog: an automated check that inspects the whole platform every five minutes, from the servers down to "did the emails actually send today?" If something goes quiet again, I'll know before you do. That's the standard I want for year two.</p <p class="mb 2" Of course, I can't catch every bug on a system like this as quickly as I'd like on my own. If you spot one, please use the bug report tool in the bottom right corner. It's the fastest way to make sure it gets fixed.</p <p class="mb 2" There's also a fix rolling out that makes sessions much more resilient, so the rare "session expired" hiccup sorts itself out instead of asking you to log in again at the worst possible moment.</p <h2 class="font bold" And yes, the fun stuff too</h2 <p class="mb 2" If you've followed the recent funding updates, you know MakerDraw and the streaming calendar have been sitting next up on the bench. They haven't just been sitting there. That's as much as I'll say, because everything else I'm saving for the stream.</p <h2 class="font bold" July 6th: put it in your calendar</h2 <p class="mb 2" One year. From zero to a living community that has kept this platform funded, online, and moving, month after month. That deserves more than a changelog, so here's the plan:</p <ul <li <p class="mb 2" <strong When:</strong July 6th, TinkerAtlas's first birthday. The exact time isn't set yet, but I'll post it as soon as I have it.</p </li <li <p class="mb 2" <strong What:</strong A look back at year one, a look ahead at year two, and those surprises.</p </li <li <p class="mb 2" <strong Where:</strong Live on Twitch, so make sure you're <a target=" blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text blue 600 hover:text blue 800 dark:text blue 400 dark:hover:text blue 200 underline cursor pointer transition colors" href="https://www.twitch.tv/makerviking" following</a .</p </li </ul <p class="mb 2" If TinkerAtlas has been useful to you this year, showing up for the stream is a great way to celebrate. Bringing a maker friend who hasn't found this place yet is an even better one.</p <p class="mb 2" Thank you for a genuinely great first year. See you on the 6th.</p <p class="mb 2" Thomas aka MakerViking</p
