Sometimes I feel like I'm resting on my laurels.

The most-important thing that I've given to the world is almost-certainly Three Rings. Three Rings facilitates several volunteer-years of volunteer work every day. Over the last 23 years it's become so essential a service that several major charities - and innumerable smaller grassroots groups - can't conceive of how they functioned without it.

A distant second is probably FreeDeedPoll.org.uk, through which I've helped tens of thousands of people to change their name for free. Plus, through this I've learned enough about the law that I've been able to support people fighting discriminatory behaviour by high street banks, and trans kids whose parents don't support their identity, and dual-citizens standing up against illiberal laws in their 'other' countries, and divorcees whose estranged exes won't let them share their name with their children.

Everything else is a far-distant third. All the voluntary work, all the open-source, all the... everything... will probably never leave a mark so significant as, y'know, those two. (If any of this sounds like a humblebrag, I'm sorry: that's truly not my intention.)

What if I waste the second half of my adult life producing... nothing? At least: nothing of even remotely-comparable value? Have I "peaked"? Have I already done the most-good for the world that I ever will? Where will that leave me in five, ten, or twenty years?

Ultimately, the problem is that I might never be "enough" for my own standards. Possibly what I need isn't to "make more things", it's to "have more therapy"!

But for now: this is what weighs on me from time to time.

#note #threeRings #deedPoll #openSource #volunteering #depression

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2026/01/21/laurels/

On the morning of the Three RIngs Christmas party, I took an early walk to a nearby geocache, just outside the area where the roads are closed for the Warwick leg of HS2's construction.
Read more: https://danq.me/2026/01/17/dan-q-found-gc8ypvj-finn1/

#checkin #cacheLog #christmas #geocaching #threeRings

I'd promised the kids I'd dig up my (ten-year-old!) original HTC Vive VR gear and hook it up in the living room over Christmas. Roomscale VR, even running on decade-old kit, still rocks and is as immersive as ever!
Read more: https://danq.me/2026/01/02/roomscale-vr-still-rocks/

#article #game #games #geocaching #music #steam #technology #threeRings #videoGames #vr

Somebody just called me and quickly decided it was a wrong number. The signal was bad and I wasn't sure I'd heard them right, so I followed up by replying by text.

It turns out they asked Siri to call Three (the mobile network). Siri then presumably searched online, found Three Rings, managed to connect that to my mobile number, and called me.

If Siri's decided that I represent Three, this could work out even worse than that time Google shared my phone number.

#note #threeRings #telephone #telephones #mobiles #privacy #ai

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2025/10/14/27434/

👋 Re-#introduction, because the last one had gotten a little outdated. And long.

 ​ #Queer #polyamourous #geek. #Blogger since 1998, #IndieWeb fan since forever, #Fediverse citizen since 2018.

🇪🇺   European in exile living in West #Oxfordshire, #UnitedKingdom, with my partner @fleeblewidget, her husband @misterjta, two kids, and one #dog. Politically #environmentalist #socialist.

​  Software engineer with a focus on #security, #privacy, and #accessibility. Founded and #volunteer with #NonProfit #ThreeRings.

  When I've time for fun, I'm into #geohashing, #geocaching, #cycling, and performing #magic. Sometimes at the same time.

 He/him pronouns.

📹 Video content: me giving a 15-second summary of the above.

For the last few weeks, I've been getting frequent #ThreeRings tech support calls to my personal mobile number. We don't offer phone-based tech support, so this was a bit of a surprise, and although I don't mind the odd one, this seemed like a significant ramping-up.

So I asked one of them where they found my number, and they said it came up when they did a #Google search for "Three Rings login".

Turns out they were right. Google had the phone number I gave them... four years ago?... for identity verification. But then a few weeks ago they randomly started serving it to people who searched for Three Rings!

I was able to remove it from #GoogleBusinessProfile, where they admitted that they modified it, but I'm yet to receive any kind of explanation.

🔗 Full story: https://danq.me/2025/05/21/google-shared-my-phone-number/

#privacy #gdpr #pii

Embarrassingly, it took until 2018 before Three Rings implemented pronouns in a way I could be proud of (and it's only improved since then!). But it still gives me a smug satisfaction, every time I see some hateful shit mock respectful pronoun use, to think how my software would respond to them.

#note #pronouns #identity #threeRings #software #comic #memes

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2025/05/21/fuck-off/

Highlights of yesterday's Goodbye Nightline Association party in Manchester:

👨‍💻 Responded to Three Rings user query in real time by implementing new Directory property while at the event (pictured)
🤝 Met a handful of Nightliners past and present; swapped war stories of fights with students unions, battles for funding, etc. (also got some insights into how they're using various tech tools!)
✍️ Did hilariously awful job of drawing 'Condom Man', Aberystwyth Nightline's mascot circa 2000
🤞 Possibly recruited a couple of new Three Rings volunteers

Low points:

😢 It's a shame NLA's dying, but I'm optimistic that Nightlines will survive

#note #nightline #threeRings #volunteering #manchester #nostalgia

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2025/05/12/farewell-nla/

Oxford Station. Catching a train to Manchester for a get-together in memory of the Nightline Association, which will sadly be closing this year (although individual Nightlines will doubtless soldier on just as they did before the Association).

Carrying a big ol' bag of Three Rings swag to give to basically anybody who expresses even the slightest interest. 😅

Three Rings has been supporting Nightlines since before the Nightline Association and nowadays underpins voluntary work by hundreds of other charities including helplines like Samaritans and Childline. Feeling sad that the Nightline Association is going away and looking for a new and rewarding way to volunteer? Come chat to me!

#note #threeRings #nightline #volunteering #oxford #manchester #trains #transport #party

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2025/05/11/nla-goodbye/