Say it short. That is the whole idea.
What it is
shottxt is a short-text social network. Every post is capped at 300 characters, so reading a timeline stays a matter of seconds rather than minutes.
How you sign in
Google is the only sign-in method. shottxt receives your name, email address and profile picture from Google — nothing else — and never sees your password.
Your ID
Google does not give us a username, so shottxt picks one from your name the first time you sign in. Change it whenever you like under Edit profile; your address becomes shottxt.com/your-id.
What makes it shottxt
A follow needs nobody's approval, so you can follow and unfollow as you please, and neither one sends a notification. Who you follow, what you have liked and what you have saved are yours alone to see. There is no block. The Explore page shows what has risen most over the last day.
Notifications
Four things reach you: a like, a reply, a repost, and a post that names you with @your-id. Nothing goes to your email, and the browser is never asked to push anything. Taking back a like or a repost takes its notification with it. Opening the page is what counts as reading it, so a notification is there for one visit and gone by the next — though you can dismiss one, or clear the lot, without waiting.
Asking a question
A post can carry a poll: two to four choices, running for anything from an hour to a week. You get one vote and it is final, and the tallies stay hidden until you have voted or the poll has closed — a poll you can watch before answering measures who looked last, not what people think.
Saying where
A post can carry a place: whatever you type, up to 30 characters. shottxt does not look it up, does not turn it into coordinates, and never asks your browser where you are — so a place is only ever as exact as you chose to be. Leave it off and nothing is recorded.
Deleting things
Deleting a post removes its replies, reposts, likes and any poll on it along with them. There is no archive and no undo.