I've been wanting something like this for years. Of course it's not something Peter can, or even should spend his time on. But maybe there's a website guru here who wants to tackle something like this. With input from the community, of course.
It would be a website that lists KM macros. The macros could be broken into categories, and could be searched. And it would have the ability for people to "like" macros, so we could see how popular they are, or perhaps indicating how many people use each macro - something like that.
Maybe a section of "Must-have" macros.
It would be a website that someone could curate without having to rebuild the whole website.
The macros themselves would be hosted in their own thread here, although how the descriptions of each macro would get updated on the website is still to be determined.
And once it was up and running, I'd like to see a link to it pinned to the top on this forum so everyone knows where to look.
I'd like to have this website for multiple reasons. The obvious one is to make it easier for people to find a macro that might solve a problem they have, or discover productivity macros they never knew about.
But another reasons is for people like me, who write macros all the time and often publish them here. It would be nice to not bother writing something that someone else has already written. And of course it would be nice if people had an easy way to see what we've written.
I know this is a longshot. But if KM had a sort-of "npm" package list (not an installer, just a curated place to list macros), I think it could go a long way towards making KM even more popular.
I am in full agreement, but one big issue I see relates to the potential dangers of an uploaded "evil macro." It'd be really easy to include a nasty shell script (or AppleScript or Javascript) action inside a macro, and obfuscate it such that at first glance it's not obvious what it was going to do.
If the list isn't curated, that's a big concern. And if the list is curated, then someone's going to have to test every macro that's uploaded, or at least look through every action in every uploaded macro to insure that no such stuff is included. And they'd have to be fairly technically astute to pick up what might be going on in some obfuscated piece of Javascript.
I'm not sure any one person would volunteer to take on that role, but I similarly think hosting a non- curated list isn't the right solution either—the list will immediately lose credibility the first time it hosts a macro that does something even borderline "evil."
In an idealized world, the site would install the macro in a macOS virtual machine and run it, and then diagnose what happened with the macro and determine if it's safe to list or not ... hello, AI, I have a job for you when you're ready?
That would, BTW, be how I'd recommend any curator do the job: Rely on virtual machines isolated from the Mac to test the macros before OKing their addition to the list. Easy to test, easy to reset if things go wonky. But still, not a job I'd want to do :).
Yea, that's what I'd be afraid of. Macros posted here are either people wanting to share something they did to solve a problem, or people answering questions others have asked. But in either case, the exposure is only a few hours at the top of the recent posts lists, then it fades away.
But if there's a list where you could always find the macro with a simple search, or even see it on a most-upvoted list (which would be gamed), now you get the wackos.
And honestly, I don't think it'd be an issue for some amount of time—not until/unless the list got popular enough to attract such attention.
Unfortunately, solving it isn't as simple as saying "Any macros posted with script actions will be reviewed before being approved," because you can do quite a lot of not good stuff with the non-script actions, too.
Curating the list would actually be sort of fun and interesting .... but I think it would also be a huge time commitment :(.
Convenient how the quote tool broke at my ellipsis :).
Trust me, I've had the curation job for a public site listing tips and tricks, and while it was fun and interesting, it was also a huge time commitment. RIP, macosxhints.
Part of the problem is that it feels weird to list one's own macros there, given it's called Best Macro List. And I always—not correct, I know—associated that post as being Jim's best-of list. It also suffers from searchability, because the macros aren't categorized in any searchable manner, and that post is found with all other matching posts on the forum.
Dan's got the right idea for a structure, I think. And I do think it's a great idea, I just worry about the implications of someone posting a rogue macro if it's not a curated list.
it would soon deteriorate into an ill-organised mess with no consistency, quality, safety etc etc.
Here's an example of a nice collection of AppleScripts for KM. I call it "nice" because it's curated by someone who obviously cares a lot and has taken some considerable time and effort over it:
I can't improve on your idea @DanThomas but it doesn't sound like a part-time job to me
The scripts in the example I linked to are all at least 4 years old but they're still useful! Trouble is if changes to the macOS environment have made some of them unusable then that's where one aspect of curation comes into play I guess. I would imagine your JXA repository is likewise useful...
BTW I'm not suggesting that GitHub is the right vehicle to host your idea, but it's the content that is important, how it's presented, documented and maintained. Wiki anyone?
Just wanted to add that I thought about something similar early last year. I wanted to setup a Zoom call (once a month) and invite some of the willing gurus to explain their favorite techniques or take small request to build a macro! for someone! while explaining the details or thought processes of their method.
Years ago, I interviewed several different photographers a forum, called the Digital Wedding Forum. It was very helpful while the forum lasted. However, many were hesitant to give their trade secrets away. In the Keyboard Maestro Forum, folks share willingly…
I’m game if there is interest. I’m pretty sure my Zoom account can handle 50 or so users…
That's not something I'd be interested in doing. However, if someone were to come up with some questions, I wouldn't mind answering them in written form (on this forum).
That's probably 80% of the folks here. I would never pressure you to consider. You have been EXTREMELY helpful to everyone here and, really, you have done enough. However, it would be awesome with your skillset and background. You are a well respected member of this forum. Jedi Level.
