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'''''<small>*See also: [[Ways People Discover OWOT]]</small>'''''
'''''<small>*See also: [[Ways People Discover OWOT]]</small>'''''


Sites similar to OWOT, namely in being infinite canvases editable by anyone(''or by being similar/related to OWOT in other ways'').
Sites similar to OWOT, namely in being infinite canvases editable by anyone(''or by simply being collaborative websites'').


Some of the items on this page were taken from the world [https://ourworldoftext.com/owot_type_websites /owot_type_websites].
Some of the items on this page were taken from [[AndreiXYZ]]'s world [https://ourworldoftext.com/owot_type_websites /owot_type_websites].


[[Mr.Guy]] is also working on compiling a larger list of sites similar to OWOT.
[[Mr.Guy]] is also working on compiling a larger list of sites similar to OWOT.


== Sister sites of OWOT(or "The Three Sites") ==
== Sister sites of OWOT(or "The Three Sites") ==
[[File:JRT three sites.png|thumb|382x382px|[[Symbols for Legacy Computing|SLC]] graphic of The Three Sites by [[JRT]]]]
Coined by [[Lemuria]] in [[Our World of News|''Our World of News'']], "The Three Sites" refer to a triad of infinite canvases that are labeled as sister websites of one another. Currently these are [[Your World of Text|YWOT]], [[Our World of Pixels|OWOP]], and [[Fp|FP's]] OWOT.
Coined by [[Lemuria]] in [[Our World of News|''Our World of News'']], "The Three Sites" refer to a triad of infinite canvases that are labeled as sister websites of one another. Currently these are YWOT, OWOP, and [[Fp|FP's]] OWOT.


Though prior to 2015, the "Three Sites" would have been YWOT, the original OWOT and Jotleaf, all of which were created by [[Andrew Badr]].
Though prior to 2015, the "Three Sites" would have been YWOT, the original OWOT and Jotleaf, all of which were created by [[Andrew Badr]].


Most of the following sites were advertised at one time on the Center Console of YWOT.
Most of the following sites were advertised at one time on the Center Console of YWOT.[[File:JRT three sites.png|thumb|382x382px|[[Symbols for Legacy Computing|SLC]] graphic of The Three Sites by [[JRT]]|center]]
 
=== Your World of Text ===
=== Your World of Text ===
{{main|Your World of Text}}
{{main|Your World of Text}}


Possibly the first infinite canvas on the internet.
Likely the first infinite canvas on the internet.


This is a black and white site that does not enable teleportation, instead encouraging users to manually explore the page and add their own content along the way.
This is a black and white site that does not enable teleportation, instead encouraging users to manually explore the page and add their own content along the way.


YWOT was created in 2009.
YWOT was created in 2009 and received a massive boost in popularity thanks to a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isEwaLUiLP4 2011 Vsauce promotion].<gallery mode="packed" heights="400">
File:1kImageBlack4k.jpg|YWOT Mainpage, 1000 coordinates on all sides
File:Spam central screenshot.png|Screenshot of YWOT's Spawn area
</gallery>


=== Our World of Pixels ===
=== Our World of Pixels ===
{{main|Our World of Pixels}}
{{main|Our World of Pixels}}


YWOT but with pixels.
YWOT but with pixels. Formerly known as Your World of Pixels<ref>[https://2s4.me/public/owop_screenshots/ 2s4.me/public/owop_screenshots/]</ref>.


Launched by [[Eldit]] in 2016, hosted by [[InfraRaven]].
Launched by [[Eldit]] in 2016, hosted by [[InfraRaven]].
[[File:Owop_july_2025.png|center|thumb|624x624px|A screenshot OWOP mainpage on July 26th, 2025, extends 10,000 pixels on all sides. Image posted by Kami on the OWOP Discord. ('''<u>''Full resolution:''</u>''' ''https://files.catbox.moe/lh50wj.png'')]]


=== Our World of Text ===
=== Our World of Text ===
Line 39: Line 41:


Like OWOP, the new OWOT is also hosted by InfraRaven.
Like OWOP, the new OWOT is also hosted by InfraRaven.
[[File:Mainpage_august_17_2024_to_1000.webp|center|thumb|709x709px|2024 [[Large OWOT screenshots|Mainpage snapshot]] by [[Realredtext-]], goes to 1000 coordinates on all sides]]


==== ''*Old OWOT'' ====
==== ''*Old OWOT'' ====
Line 79: Line 82:


== OWOT clones/instances ==
== OWOT clones/instances ==
{{main|Running from source}}
OWOT is [[NodeWorldOfText|open source]], meaning that many people have [[Running from source|created their own instances]] of the site, some with significant modification. See [[NodeWorldOfText#Currently active NWOTs|here]] for a list of current and historical OWOT instances.


OWOT is open source, meaning that many people have created their own instances of the site, some with significant modification.
=== My World of Text ===
[[File:Mwot home.png|thumb|278x278px|[https://web.myworldoftext.com/home The MWOT homepage]]]
Created by bmp7458 in October 2025. It was initially located at [http://mwot.mcsn.online:8080/ mwot.mcsn.online:8080/], but was later moved to [https://web.myworldoftext.com/ web.myworldoftext.com/].


=== Fern's Instance ===
On October 28th, 2025, MWOT briefly disabled pasting after a user wiped the entire canvas.
[[Fernsy|Fern]], a moderator of the [[OWOT Discord]], briefly ran her own instance of OWOT.


=== Catha'vi's Instance ===
bmp also created [https://piano.myworldoftext.com/ piano.myworldoftext.com], a clone of Multiplayer Piano, and [https://thread.myworldoftext.com/ thread.myworldoftext.com/], or My World of Thread.
[[File:Cathavi owot.png|thumb|379x379px|Concept art]]<blockquote>''"Idea: a site like owot where everyone can make words but:''


''each character supports graphics as well as characters so images can be pasted at a higher resolution''
As of late 2025, MWOT is the only active OWOT instance.
[[File:Mwot spawn.png|none|thumb|534x534px|MWOT Spawn on October 26th]]


''there are "world portals" (areas that sync from a target world to other worlds) the homepage is mainly made up of these world portals, with users who are registered for longer getting larger portals''
== Other text canvas sites ==
There exist several infinite text canvas sites on the internet, most of which were inspired by YWOT.


''the portals are arranged semantically (can be achieved using embeddings and t-sne reduction) meaning similar worlds will be close together''  
=== Written World ===
[[File:Written world editing animation.gif|thumb|283x283px|Written World's typing animation ported to OWOT using a script by [[FP]](''December 30th, 2021'')]]
[https://yourworldoftext.wiki/Written_World Written World] was a 2011 YWOT clone whose canvas used a real world street map for its background. In addition to basic YWOT features, users were able to change their text colors and the direction they typed in(''i.e. you could set it so that you typed downwards or backwards by default''). The creator also assigned animations to actions like typing and deleting, intending to encourage "constructive participation" by making edits feel more engaging. Other utilities included an "echoing" feature that was "analogous to upvoting" and allowed users to "add permanence" to content they thought was good.


''the general vibe of worlds will be less editable, with them acting more like myspace sites/tumblr blogs''
The site's main gimmick was that it took place on a real world street map generated using 250+ GBs of data from [https://planet.openstreetmap.org Planet OSM]. Each user spawned in at their IRL locations and could use the UI to see other players in their proximity. The purpose of the experiment was to "combine online chat with the pre-existing relationships that are inherent to real-world places," as seen in instances where players used text to mark up IRL locations and curved their messages around the contours of streets and geography. The whole canvas gave off a personal feeling as users explored, commented and drew on what is essentially a digital version of the city they lived in, all while interacting with others who inhabited the same area.


''(wip)"''
Written World's geopositioning feature was initially restricted to New York, but the developer had planned to expand it to a greater area.<ref>https://www.killscreen.com/leave-a-story-in-the-mysterious-ascii-world-of-new-york/</ref>


'''- [[MothCultLeader|Catha'vi]] on OWOT Discord'''</blockquote>Currently nonexistent, though Catha'vi has created a thread in the [[OWOT Discord|Discord]] for users to suggest features for the hypothetical ''World of Text'' site.
The site was created by Zack Shwartz as his [https://itp.nyu.edu/itp/ Interactive Telecommunications Program] thesis. Its central idea was previously conceived during a group project for [[wikipedia:Clay_Shirky|Clay Shirky's]] Designing Conversational Spaces class.
=== [[fox]]'s Instance ===
{{main|Jan soweli Asike#Custom OWOT client}}


=== My World of Text ===
Written World was shut down roughly one year after its launch, owing mostly to cost issues and the author's inexperience with programming.<ref>https://zachschwartz.com/work/writtenworld/</ref>
[[File:Mwot logo.png|thumb|238x238px|MWOT logo by [[JanTechPL]]]]
Created by bmp7458 in October 2025. It was initially located at [http://mwot.mcsn.online:8080/ mwot.mcsn.online:8080/], but was later moved to [https://web.myworldoftext.com/ web.myworldoftext.com/].
[[File:Mwot spawn.png|none|thumb|534x534px|MWOT Spawn on October 26th]]


== Other canvas sites related to OWOT ==
A similar concept can be found in [https://wplace.live/ wplace.live], a popular pixel canvas from 2025 that also takes place on a real world map.<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
Sites that are not considered sister websites of OWOT, but whose userbases have interacted with OWOT in the past.
File:Writtenworld.jpg
File:Writtenworld2.jpg
File:Writtenworld3.jpg
</gallery>


=== Walloftext.co ===
=== Walloftext.co ===
Line 124: Line 129:
</gallery>
</gallery>


=== Tixtels ===
=== Some World of Text ===
An infinite pixel canvas similar to [[Our World of Pixels|OWOP]].
In April of 2018, [[SuperOP535]] created Some World of Text(SWOT) from the [[NodeWorldOfText|OWOT source code]].  


Tixtels was created around 2018 by an OWOT user named [[SuperOP535]].
SWOT was located at [http://swot.glitch.me/ swot.glitch.me/] until its closure in February of 2023.


The site was located at [https://tixtels.glitch.me/ tixtels.glitch.me/] before closing down some time after May of 2024.
Among other things, the site allowed users to change the background colors of individual cells all the way back in 2018, roughly four years before the feature was added to OWOT. This was later removed for unknown reasons.


[[Goatway]], the [[OWOT Discord|Discord]] channel(''later a separate server'') which catalogues messages from OWOT's [[chat]], was named after a feature from Tixtels.
=== Ascii Collab ===
[[File:Tixtels 1.png|thumb|261x261px|Tixtels UI|none]]
Ascii collab is a lo-fi, art-centric text canvas founded by Martin Stewart in 2020.<ref>https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/ascii-collab-draw-ascii-art-together-on-an-infinite-canvas/6273</ref> The site's purpose, as its name suggests, is for users to collaborate on making original ASCII art; copy-pasted content is strongly disincentivized.
=== Some World of Text ===
In April of 2018, SuperOP535 created Some World of Text(SWOT) from the [[NodeWorldOfText|OWOT source code]].  


SWOT was located at [http://swot.glitch.me/ swot.glitch.me/] until its closure in February of 2023.
The site has a very ingenious way of preventing spam. Users can click on a button to highlight each user's edits in different colors, and if they click on a patch of text in this mode then all edits by that user is instantly hidden, but only on their end. Similarly, the site owner can use this feature to revert text for everybody.


Among other things, the site allowed users to change the background colors of individual cells all the way back in 2018, roughly four years before the feature was added to OWOT. This was later removed for unknown reasons.
Though Ascii Collab is mostly obscure, Martin Stewart has implemented various measures to encourage collaboration among its meager userbase. First off, users can choose to have the site notify them on email whenever a new edit is made. A [https://meetdown.app/group/10560/Ascii-Art-Appreciation-Association meet up service] was also created to facilitate ASCII art sessions, and several events were held throughout 2021.


The area around the center of Ascii Collab is surrounded by a large rectangular border. On February 2nd, 2021, all art within this region was stitched into a massive poster, which can be seen below. <gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Ascii collab .jpg
File:Ascii collab color.jpg
</gallery>
=== Textwall.cc ===
=== Textwall.cc ===
{{main|TextWall}}
{{main|TextWall}}


Textwall was a 2020 OWOT clone where rather than having distinct URLs, [[worlds]] were located at specific coordinates on the Mainpage. The canvas also technically wasn't infinite, and was limited to 100,000 coordinates on all sides.  
Textwall was a 2020 text canvas that was inspired by YWOT, though it ended up having many OWOT features such as text colors and instant teleportation. Rather than having distinct URLs, [[worlds]] were located at specific coordinates on the Mainpage. The canvas also technically wasn't infinite, and was limited to 100,000 coordinates on all sides.  


The site garnered a bad reputation for the sheer toxicity of its (predominantly underaged) userbase. However some Textwallers have since become well respected members of the OWOT community, with [[Lime.owot|Lime]] being the most notable example.
The site garnered a bad reputation for the sheer toxicity of its (predominantly underaged) userbase. However some Textwallers have since become well respected members of the OWOT community, with [[Lime.owot|Lime]] being the most notable example.


Textwall was permanently shut down sometime in 2024, though FP was able to implement a custom server for it and revive the site at tw.2s4.me. However it must be noted that this is an entirely new canvas without any content from the original Textwall.
Textwall was permanently shut down sometime in 2024, though FP was able to implement a custom server for it and revive the site at tw.2s4.me. However it must be noted that this is an entirely new canvas without any content from the original Textwall.
[[File:Textwall_ui.png|center|thumb|396x396px|TextWall's settings menu, color slider and [[chat]]]]


==== Duckgroup.xyz ====
=== Typetobuild.com(''3D YWOT'') ===
A multiplayer drawing site made by the creator of TextWall.  
Typetobuild.com, also known as Anchored, was a 3D text canvas by [https://github.com/SuperQGS/superqgs.github.io SuperQGS] where users could toggle their cursors to move horizontally or vertically. A later update made editing more intuitive by highlighting the layer of text you're on.
 
The canvas was infinite just like YWOT and OWOT but had a vertical height limit. It was very sparse in content due to limited advertisement, but one YWOT user did make a road all the way to Y:1000. There were also a number of simple three dimensional ASCII drawings, which SuperQGS stated to be an entirely new art form<ref>SuperQGS once considered reaching out to [[Meimei]] on her [https://www.deviantart.com/kiki-ascii Deviant Art page] in order to commission her to make 3D ASCII art in ''Anchored''.</ref>. ''Anchored'' was mostly identical to YWOT with the exception of the 3D aspect. It did not have teleportation or color, nor was pasting enabled to any capacity.
 
The beta for Anchored was released in April 2023 and taken offline later that same year, but the creator plans to revive it at some point in the future. In the meantime, you can find the source code [https://github.com/SuperQGS/superqgs.github.io/tree/master/Anchored here], or access incomplete versions of the site at [https://superqgs.github.io/Anchored/ superqgs.github.io/Anchored/] and [https://superqgs.github.io/client/ superqgs.github.io/client/]. SuperQGS returned to the project in December 2025 and plans to release it again sometime in 2026.
 
The developer discusses the inspiration behind typetobuild [https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4266&v=egDADIYE5r0&feature=youtu.be here]. He had previously created an ASCII survival game named ''The After'' with YWOT/OWOT style base building. A survival mode for Typetobuild was also planned, but it was cut after SuperQGS realized that it was "''a mistaken vision outside of [his] capabilities.''"
 
Before its shutdown, Typetobuild/Anchored linked to two subreddits at [https://www.reddit.com/r/typetobuild/ r/typetobuild/] and [https://www.reddit.com/r/Anchored/ r/Anchored/], along with a Discord server which has since been deleted.<gallery mode="packed" heights="120">
File:Typetobuild cursor.gif|How the 3D cursor works
File:Dfjkisfjksdfljsdlfjdsklfjsdkl.gif|A user rotating the 3D canvas(''Note: A script was used to increase the rendering distance'')
File:Typetobuild spawn regular zoom.webp|What Spawn looked like at regular zoom
File:Type to build slashes.jpg|SuperQGS on rendering the "/" character to better facilitate 3D ASCII art
File:Typetobuild highlight.png|Highlight feature
File:Anchored logo.png|Anchored/typetobuild's logo
File:Typetobuild concept color.webp|Typetobuild concept with colored text
File:Typetobuild concept background.webp|Survival mode concept with an image background
File:Typetobuild end.jpg|alt=|SuperQGS concerning the end of typetobuild.com
File:Typetobuild rain.png|Using debug to render rain effect on the [https://superqgs.github.io/Anchored/ alpha]
File:Typetobuild debug.png|[[Guest-1052]] messing with debug on the alpha
File:Typetobuild client.png|[https://superqgs.github.io/client/ superqgs.github.io/client/]
</gallery><gallery mode="packed" caption="The (cut) survival mode with a player character that users could guide around the canvas">
File:Typetobuild survival.jpg|SuperQGS on the planned survival mode
File:Typetobuild december 1 2025 1.webp|UI for moving the player character
File:Typetobuild december 1 2025 3.gif|Various icons representing interactable objects can be found throughout the map
File:Typetobuild december 1 2025 2.webp|The player character can interact with text, here it is seen standing on an ASCII ledge...
File:Typetobuild december 1 2025 4.gif|...and here it is seen falling through a hole in said ledge
</gallery>


Like OWOT, Duckgroup contained a number of subpages that can be accessed by adding words after the URL. Each page seemed to be limited to a small square which users can doodle on.
=== Inftext ===
An infinite text canvas by [https://www.caltrop.dev Sarah Caltrop] that was formerly located at <u>text.caltrop.dev</u>.
 
While it was active, the site drew the attentions of a few OWOT users, most notably [[Lemuria]].


The site was taken down sometime before 2022 because [[PinkiePie]]<ref>https://historyoftextwall.neocities.org/</ref> repeatedly spammed porn on it.
Inftext was shut down due to the death of its founder in October of 2023. The source code can still be found [https://github.com/Caltrop256/InfText here].[[File:Inftext 2.png|thumb|The only known screenshot of Inftext|center|478x478px]]
[[File:Art duckgroup xyz.png|none|thumb]]


=== TextBoard.fr ===
=== TextBoard.fr ===
Line 164: Line 201:
TextBoard.fr is currently shut down, though Aywen has said that it may be brought back every year as a seasonal event.
TextBoard.fr is currently shut down, though Aywen has said that it may be brought back every year as a seasonal event.


=== Inftext ===
=== Catha'vi's WOT concept ===
[[File:Inftext 2.png|thumb|Only known screenshot of Inftext]]
<blockquote>''Idea: a site like owot where everyone can make words but:''
An infinite text canvas by [https://www.caltrop.dev Sarah Caltrop] that was formerly located at <u>text.caltrop.dev</u>.
 
''each character supports graphics as well as characters so images can be pasted at a higher resolution''
 
''there are "world portals" (areas that sync from a target world to other worlds) the homepage is mainly made up of these world portals, with users who are registered for longer getting larger portals''
 
''the portals are arranged semantically (can be achieved using embeddings and t-sne reduction) meaning similar worlds will be close together''
 
''the general vibe of worlds will be less editable, with them acting more like myspace sites/tumblr blogs''
 
''(wip)''
 
'''— [[MothCultLeader|Catha'vi]] on the [[OWOT Discord]]'''</blockquote>Currently nonexistent, though Catha'vi has created a thread in the [[OWOT Discord|Discord]] for users to suggest features for the hypothetical World of Text site.<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Cathavi owot.png|Concept art(''April 21st, 2025'')
File:Cathavi wot test 1.png|Render test(''November 18th, 2025'')
File:Cathavi wot test 2.png
</gallery>


While it was active, the site drew the attentions of a few OWOT users, most notably [[Lemuria]].
=== 2w2t ===
[https://2w2t.org 2w2t]("''2writers2tiles''") is a YWOT clone created in September 2025. Its [https://github.com/xqyet/2w2t.frontend source code], along with [https://github.com/xqyet/2w2t.ASCII#teleport-script several basic scripts such as pasting and teleporting], can be found on Github.  


Inftext was shut down due to the death of its founder in October of 2023. The source code can still be found [https://github.com/Caltrop256/InfText here].
The site is described as "''a fast, minimalist infinite canvas with a focus on instant chunk (canvas) rendering, smooth panning, and multiplayer responsive real-time edits.''"


=== Our World of Vectors ===
Visually, 2w2t is mostly identical to YWOT with the exception of a few minor details. There is a dedicated night/day mode button at the top left corner of the screen. There is currently no menu or visible coordinate system. The cursor is black instead of yellow.
<blockquote>"''Messing with the SLC vectors for my PR gave me a random idea last night: Our World of Vectors, where you can draw lines (''and maybe curves? not sure how I'd do them tho) at virtually any point on screen (some rounding as to not make the DB infinitely large'') but it'd be a little too ambitious for me to make''"


'''- fox'''
Text colors are supported, but it seems that they can only be accessed via scripting.  <gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:2w2t 1.png|2w2t's [[Center Console]]
File:2w2t 2.png
</gallery>


'''March 15th, 2025'''</blockquote>A WIP sandbox by [[fox]] where users place lines(vectors) on an infinite canvas. <gallery heights="140" widths="250" mode="packed">
=== Textly ===
File:Owov 1.png
[https://textly-ygd6.onrender.com/ Textly] is an infinite text canvas created by [[Hello]] on November 11th, 2025.<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:Owov login.png
File:Textly colors.png|Color selection menu
File:Owov sketch.jpg
File:Textly chat.png|Chat(''Added November 12th'')
</gallery>
</gallery>


== Other text canvas sites ==
== (Infinite) pixel canvases ==
Infinite canvas sites whose existences are generally unknown within the OWOT community. Some of them have been shut down, while others are simply too obscure to garner much attention.
Most of these were inspired by r/place rather than Our World of Pixels, despite the latter site being one year older than the former.
 
=== r/place ===
[https://www.reddit.com/r/place/ /r/place] was the project that popularized the concept of pixel canvases. It set a trend for future pixel sites to impose a strict time limit on how often you can place pixels, which encourages users to band together in order to create any sizable drawings.
 
=== pxls.space ===
[https://pxls.space/ pxls.space] is a r/place clone whose canvas resets and changes shape every time it is completely filled. The timer for placing pixels is dynamic and changes depending on how many users are online.
 
=== pixelplace.io ===
[https://pixelplace.io/ pixelplace.io] is formatted similarly to pxls.space.
 
=== pixelcanvas.io ===
[https://pixelcanvas.io/ pixelcanvas.io] is an infinite pixel canvas with a 60 second timer for placing pixels. A world map was added to the canvas background following the massive success of [https://wplace.live/ Wplace] in late 2025.


Nevertheless, some of the following websites are significant for making great innovations to the infinite canvas format.
[[Name]] found OWOT from this site.


=== Written World ===
=== Tixtels ===
[[File:Written world editing animation.gif|thumb|283x283px|Written World's typing animation ported to OWOT using a script by [[FP]](''December 30th, 2021'')]]
An infinite pixel canvas similar to OWOP.
[https://yourworldoftext.wiki/Written_World Written World] was a 2011 YWOT clone whose canvas used a real world street map for its background. In addition to basic YWOT features, users were able to change their text colors and the direction they typed in(''i.e. you could set it so that you typed downwards or backwards by default''). The creator also assigned animations to actions like typing and deleting, intending to encourage "constructive participation" by making edits feel more engaging. Other utilities included an "echoing" feature that was "analogous to upvoting" and allowed users to "add permanence" to content they thought was good.


The site's main gimmick was that it took place on a real world street map generated using 250+ GBs of data from [https://planet.openstreetmap.org Planet OSM]. Each user spawned in at their IRL locations and could use the UI to see other players in their proximity. The purpose of the experiment was to "combine online chat with the pre-existing relationships that are inherent to real-world places," as seen in instances where players used text to mark up IRL locations and curved their messages around the contours of streets and geography. The whole canvas gave off a personal feeling as users explored, commented and drew on what is essentially a digital version of the city they lived in, all while interacting with others who inhabited the same area.  
Tixtels was created around 2018 by an OWOT user named [[SuperOP535]].


Written World's geopositioning feature was initially restricted to New York, but the developer had planned to expand it to a greater area.<ref>https://www.killscreen.com/leave-a-story-in-the-mysterious-ascii-world-of-new-york/</ref>
The site was located at [https://tixtels.glitch.me/ tixtels.glitch.me/] before closing down some time after May of 2024.


The site was created by Zack Shwartz as his [https://itp.nyu.edu/itp/ Interactive Telecommunications Program] thesis. Its central idea was previously conceived during a group project for [[wikipedia:Clay_Shirky|Clay Shirky's]] Designing Conversational Spaces class.
[[Goatway]], the [[OWOT Discord|Discord]] channel(''later a separate server'') which catalogues messages from OWOT's [[chat]], was named after a feature from Tixtels.
[[File:Tixtels 1.png|thumb|261x261px|Tixtels UI|center]]


Written World was shut down roughly one year after its launch, owing mostly to cost issues and the author's inexperience with programming.<ref>https://zachschwartz.com/work/writtenworld/</ref>
=== Pixelex ===
An OWOP clone that [[FP]] was involved with.


A similar concept can be found in [https://wplace.live/ wplace.live], a popular pixel canvas from 2025 that also takes place on a real world map.<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
The site was launched at [http://pixelex.2s4.me/ pixelex.2s4.me/] on April 4th, 2022, though it has since been taken down.<blockquote>''Ok so, Pixelex is pixel game like OWOP''
File:Writtenworld.jpg
File:Writtenworld2.jpg
File:Writtenworld3.jpg
</gallery>


=== Ascii Collab ===
''But it'll have accounts, clans, specialized worlds, a lot of commands''
Ascii collab is a lo-fi, art-centric text canvas founded by Martin Stewart in 2020.<ref>https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/ascii-collab-draw-ascii-art-together-on-an-infinite-canvas/6273</ref> The site's purpose, as its name suggests, is for users to collaborate on making original ASCII art; copy-pasted content is strongly disincentivized.


The site has a very ingenious way of preventing spam. Users can click on a button to highlight each user's edits in different colors, and if they click on a patch of text in this mode then all edits by that user is instantly hidden, but only on their end. Similarly, the site owner can use this feature to revert text for everybody. 
''Command list:''


Though Ascii Collab is mostly obscure, Martin Stewart has implemented various measures to encourage collaboration among its meager userbase. First off, users can choose to have the site notify them on email whenever a new edit is made. A [https://meetdown.app/group/10560/Ascii-Art-Appreciation-Association meet up service] was also created to facilitate ASCII art sessions, and several events were held throughout 2021.
''Rank 0 (NONE):  No commands available.''


The area around the center of Ascii Collab is surrounded by a large rectangular border. On February 2nd, 2021, all art within this region was stitched into a massive poster, which can be seen below. <gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
''Rank 1 (GUEST): help, auth, tell, profile, warps, call''
File:Ascii collab .jpg
File:Ascii collab color.jpg
</gallery>[[File:Typetobuild cursor.gif|149x149px|thumb|3D cursor]]


=== Typetobuild.com(''3D YWOT'') ===
''Rank 2 (USER): help, tell, profile, setwarp, delwarp, warps, clan, shop, sethome, home, call''  
Typetobuild.com, also known as Anchored, was a 3D text canvas by [https://github.com/SuperQGS/superqgs.github.io SuperQGS] where users could toggle their cursors to move horizontally or vertically. A later update made editing more intuitive by highlighting the layer of text you're on.


The canvas was infinite just like YWOT and OWOT but had a vertical height limit. It was very sparse in content due to limited advertisement, but one YWOT user did make a road all the way to Y:1000. There were also a number of simple three dimensional ASCII drawings, which SuperQGS stated to be an entirely new art form<ref>SuperQGS once considered reaching out to [[Meimei]] on her [https://www.deviantart.com/kiki-ascii Deviant Art page] in order to commission her to make 3D ASCII art in ''Anchored''.</ref>. ''Anchored'' was mostly identical to YWOT with the exception of the 3D aspect. It did not have teleportation or color, nor was pasting enabled to any capacity.
''Rank 3 (MOD): help, tell, profile, setwarp, delwarp, warps, clan, shop, sethome, home, ban, mute, whois, tp, setrank, call''  


The beta for Anchored was released in April 2023 and taken offline later that same year, but the creator plans to revive it at some point in the future. In the meantime, you can find the source code [https://discord.com/channels/366609898164715520/814269977393233937/1296260084371951647 here].
''RANK 4 (ADMIN): help, tell, profile, setwarp, delwarp, warps, clan, shop, sethome, home, ban, mute, whois, tp, setrank, call, setcaptcha, setpquota, restrict, setmaxplayers, setspawn, setbalance, tphere  ''


The developer discusses the inspiration behind typetobuild [https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4266&v=egDADIYE5r0&feature=youtu.be here]. He had previously created an ASCII survival game named The After with YWOT/OWOT style base building, and intended to make a similar game set in typetobuild's 3D canvas.
''Everyone will have level, exp. Also he will be able to create 1 warp, using command /setwarp [name], and people will be able to /warp [name] and tp. like in minecraft. also same thing with /call you can tp to people if they allow that.  ''


Before its shutdown, Typetobuild/Anchored linked to two subreddits at [https://www.reddit.com/r/typetobuild/ r/typetobuild/] and [https://www.reddit.com/r/Anchored/ r/Anchored/], along with a Discord server which has since been deleted.<gallery mode="packed" heights="120">
''Also there will be clans with special prefix in chat, they'll also have own level, and bigger level it has, faster pquota you have. To create clan and upgrade it you need coins that you can earn by playing the game.  ''
File:Dfjkisfjksdfljsdlfjdsklfjsdkl.gif|A user rotating the 3D canvas(''Note: A script was used to increase the rendering distance'')
File:Typetobuild spawn regular zoom.webp|What Spawn looked like at regular zoom
File:Type to build slashes.jpg|SuperQGS on rendering the "/" character to better facilitate 3D ASCII art
File:Typetobuild highlight.png|Highlight feature
File:Typetobuild survival.jpg|SuperQGS on the planned survival mode
File:Typetobuild concept color.webp|Typetobuild concept with colored text
File:Typetobuild concept background.webp|Survival mode concept with an image background
File:Typetobuild end.jpg|SuperQGS concerning the end of typetobuild.com
</gallery>


=== 2w2t ===
''There will be main world, just normal world, countrysim world and /r/place world. Any user will be able to create 1-5 worlds idk yet, he will be admin of them, and will be able to give mod to other user account. In countrysim, every person will be able to create country, and people can't just grief it, they can only place pixels on external side if he's not invited to country members. There will be top of countries by size.''
[https://2w2t.org 2w2t]("''2writers2tiles''") is a YWOT clone created in September 2025. Its source code, along with several basic scripts such as pasting and teleporting, can be found [https://github.com/xqyet/2w2t.frontend on Github]. <gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:2w2t 1.png|2w2t's [[Center Console]]
File:2w2t 2.png
</gallery>


== (Infinite) pixel canvases ==
''I suggest to move cs to pixelex when it'll be done, cuz it'll be really fun! Also clans also will be able to create country, and all members of clan will be automatically invited to country  ''
Most of these were inspired by r/place rather than Our World of Pixels, despite the latter site being one year older than the former.


=== r/place ===
''Also in main world people will be able to protect their stuff and invite people to their protected area, but that's far from spawn  ''
[https://www.reddit.com/r/place/ /r/place] was the project that popularized the concept of pixel canvases. It set a trend for future pixel sites to impose a strict time limit on how often you can place pixels, which encourages users to band together in order to create any sizable drawings.


=== pxls.space ===
''Also in shop, with coins you can buy like pquota boosters and other stuff (no donate, you can get coins by just playing the game)  And I also want to do events in game, art contests and other stuff  ''
[https://pxls.space/ pxls.space]


=== Your World of Pixels ===
''Current team: Me, unnick, anonygold, [[daydun]], temix''
A now deleted OWOP clone from 2016. You can find screenshots of it at [https://2s4.me/public/owop_screenshots/ 2s4.me/public/owop_screenshots/].
[[File:Your world of pixels.png|none|thumb|YWOP on November 10th, 2016]]


=== pixelplace.io ===
'''— Description of Pixelex by a deleted account in 2019'''</blockquote>
[https://pixelplace.io/ pixelplace.io]
[[File:Pixelex.png|center|thumb|469x469px|WIP Pixelex screenshot from October 2019]]


=== wplace.live ===
=== wplace.live ===
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{{hatnote|This page contains text from Lemuria's private wiki that he has willingly released.}}
{{hatnote|This page contains text from Lemuria's private wiki that he has willingly released.}}


[https://wplace.live/ Wplace] is a pixel art website created by Brazillian developer Murilo Matsubara, and launched on July 21, 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |title=People Are Using Wplace For Video Game-Related Protests |url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/people-are-using-wplace-for-video-game-related-protests/1100-6533993/ |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=GameSpot |language=en-US |archive-date=23 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250823224714/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/people-are-using-wplace-for-video-game-related-protests/1100-6533993/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Brazil Turns Itself Into A Metal Gear Shrine On Wplace |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/brazil-turns-itself-into-a-metal-gear-shrine-on-wplace/ar-AA1Kgxg6 |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=www.msn.com |archive-date=19 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250819031118/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/brazil-turns-itself-into-a-metal-gear-shrine-on-wplace/ar-AA1Kgxg6 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lemuria]] is one of the few OWOT users who also use Wplace. On the site, he has worked on numerous projects globally, such as multiple signs in {{wpd|Port Elizabeth}}, South Africa. Lemuria has considered starting a fan wiki for Wplace to document the occurences on the site, but has not found the time, or the computing resources to do so.
[https://wplace.live/ Wplace] is a pixel art website created by Brazillian developer Murilo Matsubara, and launched on July 21, 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |title=People Are Using Wplace For Video Game-Related Protests |url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/people-are-using-wplace-for-video-game-related-protests/1100-6533993/ |access-date=2025-08-25 |website=GameSpot |language=en-US |archive-date=23 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250823224714/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/people-are-using-wplace-for-video-game-related-protests/1100-6533993/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Brazil Turns Itself Into A Metal Gear Shrine On Wplace |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/brazil-turns-itself-into-a-metal-gear-shrine-on-wplace/ar-AA1Kgxg6 |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=www.msn.com |archive-date=19 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250819031118/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/brazil-turns-itself-into-a-metal-gear-shrine-on-wplace/ar-AA1Kgxg6 |url-status=live }}</ref> The site became massively popular in the months after its launch, making it the second most mainstream site on this page(''second to r/place'').
 
[[Lemuria]] is one of the few OWOT users who also use Wplace. On the site, he has worked on numerous projects globally, such as multiple signs in {{wpd|Port Elizabeth}}, South Africa. Lemuria has considered starting a fan wiki for Wplace to document the occurences on the site, but has not found the time, or the computing resources to do so.


Wplace uses the Mercator projection. Pixels are not intended to map cleanly onto specific coordinates. Wplace divides the world into a 2048×2048 grid, making for 4,194,304 tiles. These tiles are 1000×1000 pixels, giving a total of 4,194,304,000,000 pixels; over 4.1 trillion. Wplace's coordinate system assigns four coordinates to each pixel; tile X, tile Y, and within that tile, pixel X and pixel Y. The official interface displays these in the format "(Tl X: 597, Tl Y: 783, Px X: 43, Px Y: 408)", though Lemuria uses a shorter format, "597.43, 783.408" (tileX.pixelX, tileY.pixelY).
Wplace uses the Mercator projection. Pixels are not intended to map cleanly onto specific coordinates. Wplace divides the world into a 2048×2048 grid, making for 4,194,304 tiles. These tiles are 1000×1000 pixels, giving a total of 4,194,304,000,000 pixels; over 4.1 trillion. Wplace's coordinate system assigns four coordinates to each pixel; tile X, tile Y, and within that tile, pixel X and pixel Y. The official interface displays these in the format "(Tl X: 597, Tl Y: 783, Px X: 43, Px Y: 408)", though Lemuria uses a shorter format, "597.43, 783.408" (tileX.pixelX, tileY.pixelY).


The map is divided into [https://www.reddit.com/r/WplaceLive/comments/1o11a2y/the_map_of_the_world_according_to_wplace/ regions], which are 4000×4000 pixel squares. They are named after a nearby settlement with a number (such as "Port Elizabeth #5"). Region names do not always map cleanly; regions containing a city may be named after a completely different area. The naming convention for these regions is unknown, but with the sheer volume, it is likely auto-generated.
The map is divided into [https://www.reddit.com/r/WplaceLive/comments/1o11a2y/the_map_of_the_world_according_to_wplace/ regions], which are 4000×4000 pixel squares. They are named after a nearby settlement with a number (such as "Port Elizabeth #5"). Region names do not always map cleanly; regions containing a city may be named after a completely different area. The naming convention for these regions is unknown, but with the sheer volume, it is likely auto-generated.
== Miscellaneous canvas sites ==
Public canvas sites like Jotleaf, which contains features other than text or pixels.
=== Duckgroup.xyz ===
A multiplayer drawing site made by the creator of [[TextWall]].
Like OWOT, Duckgroup contained a number of subpages that can be accessed by adding words after the URL. Each page seemed to be limited to a small square which users can doodle on.
The site was taken down sometime before 2022 because [[PinkiePie]]<ref>https://historyoftextwall.neocities.org/</ref> repeatedly spammed porn on it.
[[File:Art duckgroup xyz.png|thumb|center]]
=== Our World of Vectors ===
<blockquote>''Messing with the SLC vectors for my PR gave me a random idea last night: Our World of Vectors, where you can draw lines (''and maybe curves? not sure how I'd do them tho) at virtually any point on screen (some rounding as to not make the DB infinitely large'') but it'd be a little too ambitious for me to make''
'''— fox on''' '''March 15th, 2025'''</blockquote>A WIP sandbox by [[fox]] where users place lines(vectors) on an infinite canvas. As of late 2025 the project has likely been abandoned.  <gallery heights="140" widths="250" mode="packed">
File:Owov 1.png
File:Owov login.png
File:Owov sketch.jpg
</gallery>


== Publicly editable text documents ==
== Publicly editable text documents ==
Line 296: Line 359:


=== Multiplayer Piano ===
=== Multiplayer Piano ===
wip
[http://multiplayerpiano.net multiplayerpiano.net] is a public sandbox site that allows you to play a virtual piano with other users. Like in OWOT, you can access "rooms" by adding to the URL(''Ex. [https://multiplayerpiano.net/forexample multiplayerpiano.net/forexample]'').


wip
Several OWOT users(''such as [[d9eoead]]'') have been active on MPP at some point.
 
[[File:Multiplayer piano.webp|center|thumb|537x537px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvoF1eBom0o A MPP session with many users active]]]
wip
 
wip
 
wip


=== Mudgolt ===
=== Mudgolt ===
wip
[https://mudgolt.com/explore/ mudgolt.com]
 
wip
 
wip
 
wip
 
wip


=== Cursors.io ===
=== Cursors.io ===
[http://cursors.io/ cursors.io] allowed you to view and interact with other users' cursors. It was taken offline at some point.


==== Cursors.me ====
==== Cursors.me ====
A copy of cursors.io.
A copy of cursors.io.


Moved to [https://cursors.uvias.com/ cursors.uvias.com/].
Moved to [https://cursors.uvias.com/ cursors.uvias.com].


wip
=== Infinite Homepage ===
[https://infinitehomepage.com/ infinitehomepage.com] gives users an infinite amount of square textboxes which they can edit.


wip
Each user has a personal homepage of one million boxes which is located at a random point in the site. There is also an in-site currency named "rubies" which can be used to temporarily lock boxes.


wip
Boxes are arranged into eight columns with a theoretically endless amount of rows. Though like OWOT and TextWall, the site starts to break once you've gone beyond a certain point, as explained in the site's [https://infinitehomepage.com/about about] page:<blockquote>''After a certain point, boxes cease to be properly numbered and the rules change slightly. Boxes may still be locked and edited but the ordering becomes unstructured, if you edit a box then you might never see it again. You'll know when you're there as each box will show the word 'INFINITY' instead of a number. Be warned though, this section is a very long way down.''</blockquote>
[[File:Infinite homepage box montage.webp|center|thumb|563x563px|The "Box Montage" feature, which shows a minimap of the first 40,000 boxes(''Screenshot taken October 28th, 2025'') ]]
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150">
File:Ih 1.png|The top of Infinite Homepage, which is spammed with Marios as of October 2025
File:Ih 2.png|"Space," one of the many user created landmarks accessible via the sidebar
File:Ih 3.png|"Infinite Homepage Writes a Story"
File:Ih 4.png|"Rainbow Road"
</gallery>


wip
=== One Million Checkboxes ===
 
{{hatnote|See also: {{wpd-l|One Million Checkboxes}}}}
=== Infinite Homepage ===
wip
 
wip


wip
[https://onemillioncheckboxes.com/ One Million Checkboxes](OMCB) was a viral experimental site created by [https://eieio.games eieio] in 2024. It was a public sandbox consisting of one million checkboxes, where checking a box checked it for all users.


wip
The layout of checkboxes varied according to browser size, so as to prevent trolls from drawing obscene content using the boxes. But despite this restriction, several users managed to hide images in the site by treating it as a 1000x1000 checkbox canvas. Those same users also figured out a way to write text in the site's source code by strategically checking boxes to encode messages in binary.


=== One Million Checkboxes ===
The site was locked two weeks after its release. Its story is detailed in [https://x.com/itseieio/status/1829268247105138764 this Twitter thread].
[https://onemillioncheckboxes.com/ One Million Checkboxes](OMCB) is an experimental site created by [https://eieio.games eieio] in 2024. It is a public sandbox consisting of one million checkboxes. Checking a box checks it for all users.
 
The story of the site is detailed in [https://x.com/itseieio/status/1829268247105138764 this Twitter thread].


OMCB was followed by [https://onemillionchessboards.com/#3534,2356 One Million Chessboards].<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
OMCB was followed by [https://onemillionchessboards.com/#3534,2356 One Million Chessboards].<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:Omcb 3.webp
File:Omcb 3.webp
File:Omcb 1.png
File:Omcb 1.png|Hidden images became visible when the checkboxes were arranged in a 1000x1000 grid
File:Omcb 2.png
File:Omcb 2.png
</gallery>
</gallery>
Line 359: Line 411:
[[Mr.Guy]] once placed chalkboards in various social spaces as an experiment to replicate the OWOT canvas IRL.
[[Mr.Guy]] once placed chalkboards in various social spaces as an experiment to replicate the OWOT canvas IRL.
[[File:Spread kindness.jpg|center|thumb|738x738px]]
[[File:Spread kindness.jpg|center|thumb|738x738px]]
== Trivia ==
* Other websites that are heavily tied to OWOT, but that don't share in its collaborative nature, include [[Spooks]], [[Wokecat]] and [[Sleepycat]].


== References ==
== References ==

Latest revision as of 23:37, 1 December 2025

A list of YWOT clones from the now defunct Textwall
The logos for YWOT, OWOT and Textwall

*See also: Ways People Discover OWOT

Sites similar to OWOT, namely in being infinite canvases editable by anyone(or by simply being collaborative websites).

Some of the items on this page were taken from AndreiXYZ's world /owot_type_websites.

Mr.Guy is also working on compiling a larger list of sites similar to OWOT.

Sister sites of OWOT(or "The Three Sites")

Coined by Lemuria in Our World of News, "The Three Sites" refer to a triad of infinite canvases that are labeled as sister websites of one another. Currently these are YWOT, OWOP, and FP's OWOT.

Though prior to 2015, the "Three Sites" would have been YWOT, the original OWOT and Jotleaf, all of which were created by Andrew Badr.

Most of the following sites were advertised at one time on the Center Console of YWOT.

SLC graphic of The Three Sites by JRT

Your World of Text

Likely the first infinite canvas on the internet.

This is a black and white site that does not enable teleportation, instead encouraging users to manually explore the page and add their own content along the way.

YWOT was created in 2009 and received a massive boost in popularity thanks to a 2011 Vsauce promotion.

Our World of Pixels

YWOT but with pixels. Formerly known as Your World of Pixels[1].

Launched by Eldit in 2016, hosted by InfraRaven.

A screenshot OWOP mainpage on July 26th, 2025, extends 10,000 pixels on all sides. Image posted by Kami on the OWOP Discord. (Full resolution: https://files.catbox.moe/lh50wj.png)

Our World of Text

You are here.

The newer version of OWOT was launched by FP in 2017. It adds a variety of features to the base YWOT code, such as colors, a chatbox and teleportation.

Like OWOP, the new OWOT is also hosted by InfraRaven.

2024 Mainpage snapshot by Realredtext-, goes to 1000 coordinates on all sides

*Old OWOT

Created by Andrew Badr in 2010.

Largely identical to YWOT, except there were no rate limits.

Shut down in 2015 due to funding issues. Worlds from this version of OWOT can be found at Old Worlds.

Jotleaf's logo

*Jotleaf

Created by Andrew Badr in 2012.[2]

Jotleaf was an infinite canvas where, in addition to writing text, users could also add images, embed video/sound files and customize the background.[3]

The site was mostly focused on individual userpages, which users were encouraged to share like more conventional social media blogs.

The site was shut down in 2015 due to funding issues, but an example of a Jotleaf page can still be found at fornowband.org/.[4]

FP once attempted to create a site named Uvias Vector, which would have been a blend of Jotleaf and Discord Jamboard. The project did not go anywhere, however.

OWOT betas

Following the closure of the original OWOT in 2015, there were numerous attempts at reviving the canvas before the current site was born.

All of these failed for one reason or another, and in 2017 FP's project Node World of Text would formally receive the "ourworldoftext.com" domain.

OWOT clones/instances

OWOT is open source, meaning that many people have created their own instances of the site, some with significant modification. See here for a list of current and historical OWOT instances.

My World of Text

The MWOT homepage

Created by bmp7458 in October 2025. It was initially located at mwot.mcsn.online:8080/, but was later moved to web.myworldoftext.com/.

On October 28th, 2025, MWOT briefly disabled pasting after a user wiped the entire canvas.

bmp also created piano.myworldoftext.com, a clone of Multiplayer Piano, and thread.myworldoftext.com/, or My World of Thread.

As of late 2025, MWOT is the only active OWOT instance.

MWOT Spawn on October 26th

Other text canvas sites

There exist several infinite text canvas sites on the internet, most of which were inspired by YWOT.

Written World

Written World's typing animation ported to OWOT using a script by FP(December 30th, 2021)

Written World was a 2011 YWOT clone whose canvas used a real world street map for its background. In addition to basic YWOT features, users were able to change their text colors and the direction they typed in(i.e. you could set it so that you typed downwards or backwards by default). The creator also assigned animations to actions like typing and deleting, intending to encourage "constructive participation" by making edits feel more engaging. Other utilities included an "echoing" feature that was "analogous to upvoting" and allowed users to "add permanence" to content they thought was good.

The site's main gimmick was that it took place on a real world street map generated using 250+ GBs of data from Planet OSM. Each user spawned in at their IRL locations and could use the UI to see other players in their proximity. The purpose of the experiment was to "combine online chat with the pre-existing relationships that are inherent to real-world places," as seen in instances where players used text to mark up IRL locations and curved their messages around the contours of streets and geography. The whole canvas gave off a personal feeling as users explored, commented and drew on what is essentially a digital version of the city they lived in, all while interacting with others who inhabited the same area.

Written World's geopositioning feature was initially restricted to New York, but the developer had planned to expand it to a greater area.[5]

The site was created by Zack Shwartz as his Interactive Telecommunications Program thesis. Its central idea was previously conceived during a group project for Clay Shirky's Designing Conversational Spaces class.

Written World was shut down roughly one year after its launch, owing mostly to cost issues and the author's inexperience with programming.[6]

A similar concept can be found in wplace.live, a popular pixel canvas from 2025 that also takes place on a real world map.

Walloftext.co

Walloftext.co was created by Louis Stowasser in 2014. It is a site where users type in draggable textboxes instead of on the canvas itself.

Walloftext.co presented itself as a site for note-taking and brainstorming, intending to forgo YWOT and OWOT's constant drama. I don't know how the developer went about trying to do this but it clearly didn't work.

Most of its worlds(including /main) are still rather empty.

*See also /the-making-of-wall-of-text-d95f63dada2d.

Some World of Text

In April of 2018, SuperOP535 created Some World of Text(SWOT) from the OWOT source code.

SWOT was located at swot.glitch.me/ until its closure in February of 2023.

Among other things, the site allowed users to change the background colors of individual cells all the way back in 2018, roughly four years before the feature was added to OWOT. This was later removed for unknown reasons.

Ascii Collab

Ascii collab is a lo-fi, art-centric text canvas founded by Martin Stewart in 2020.[7] The site's purpose, as its name suggests, is for users to collaborate on making original ASCII art; copy-pasted content is strongly disincentivized.

The site has a very ingenious way of preventing spam. Users can click on a button to highlight each user's edits in different colors, and if they click on a patch of text in this mode then all edits by that user is instantly hidden, but only on their end. Similarly, the site owner can use this feature to revert text for everybody.

Though Ascii Collab is mostly obscure, Martin Stewart has implemented various measures to encourage collaboration among its meager userbase. First off, users can choose to have the site notify them on email whenever a new edit is made. A meet up service was also created to facilitate ASCII art sessions, and several events were held throughout 2021.

The area around the center of Ascii Collab is surrounded by a large rectangular border. On February 2nd, 2021, all art within this region was stitched into a massive poster, which can be seen below.

Textwall.cc

Textwall was a 2020 text canvas that was inspired by YWOT, though it ended up having many OWOT features such as text colors and instant teleportation. Rather than having distinct URLs, worlds were located at specific coordinates on the Mainpage. The canvas also technically wasn't infinite, and was limited to 100,000 coordinates on all sides.

The site garnered a bad reputation for the sheer toxicity of its (predominantly underaged) userbase. However some Textwallers have since become well respected members of the OWOT community, with Lime being the most notable example.

Textwall was permanently shut down sometime in 2024, though FP was able to implement a custom server for it and revive the site at tw.2s4.me. However it must be noted that this is an entirely new canvas without any content from the original Textwall.

TextWall's settings menu, color slider and chat

Typetobuild.com(3D YWOT)

Typetobuild.com, also known as Anchored, was a 3D text canvas by SuperQGS where users could toggle their cursors to move horizontally or vertically. A later update made editing more intuitive by highlighting the layer of text you're on.

The canvas was infinite just like YWOT and OWOT but had a vertical height limit. It was very sparse in content due to limited advertisement, but one YWOT user did make a road all the way to Y:1000. There were also a number of simple three dimensional ASCII drawings, which SuperQGS stated to be an entirely new art form[8]. Anchored was mostly identical to YWOT with the exception of the 3D aspect. It did not have teleportation or color, nor was pasting enabled to any capacity.

The beta for Anchored was released in April 2023 and taken offline later that same year, but the creator plans to revive it at some point in the future. In the meantime, you can find the source code here, or access incomplete versions of the site at superqgs.github.io/Anchored/ and superqgs.github.io/client/. SuperQGS returned to the project in December 2025 and plans to release it again sometime in 2026.

The developer discusses the inspiration behind typetobuild here. He had previously created an ASCII survival game named The After with YWOT/OWOT style base building. A survival mode for Typetobuild was also planned, but it was cut after SuperQGS realized that it was "a mistaken vision outside of [his] capabilities."

Before its shutdown, Typetobuild/Anchored linked to two subreddits at r/typetobuild/ and r/Anchored/, along with a Discord server which has since been deleted.

Inftext

An infinite text canvas by Sarah Caltrop that was formerly located at text.caltrop.dev.

While it was active, the site drew the attentions of a few OWOT users, most notably Lemuria.

Inftext was shut down due to the death of its founder in October of 2023. The source code can still be found here.

The only known screenshot of Inftext

TextBoard.fr

TextBoard.fr was a recreation of Your World of Text that was launched by French Youtuber Aywen as a social experiment. He made several videos about the site in December of 2024, prompting a massive incursion of French users primarily into YWOT, though some activity had also spilled into OWOT. The effect of this was that YWOT's spawn temporarily became a bilingual environment, and there was an increase in scripting in both WOT sites as Aywen's tech-inclined audience began to experiment with the text canvases. FP in particular was amazed at just how fast their scripts progressed.

TextBoard.fr is currently shut down, though Aywen has said that it may be brought back every year as a seasonal event.

Catha'vi's WOT concept

Idea: a site like owot where everyone can make words but:

each character supports graphics as well as characters so images can be pasted at a higher resolution

there are "world portals" (areas that sync from a target world to other worlds) the homepage is mainly made up of these world portals, with users who are registered for longer getting larger portals

the portals are arranged semantically (can be achieved using embeddings and t-sne reduction) meaning similar worlds will be close together

the general vibe of worlds will be less editable, with them acting more like myspace sites/tumblr blogs

(wip)

Catha'vi on the OWOT Discord

Currently nonexistent, though Catha'vi has created a thread in the Discord for users to suggest features for the hypothetical World of Text site.

2w2t

2w2t("2writers2tiles") is a YWOT clone created in September 2025. Its source code, along with several basic scripts such as pasting and teleporting, can be found on Github.

The site is described as "a fast, minimalist infinite canvas with a focus on instant chunk (canvas) rendering, smooth panning, and multiplayer responsive real-time edits."

Visually, 2w2t is mostly identical to YWOT with the exception of a few minor details. There is a dedicated night/day mode button at the top left corner of the screen. There is currently no menu or visible coordinate system. The cursor is black instead of yellow.

Text colors are supported, but it seems that they can only be accessed via scripting.

Textly

Textly is an infinite text canvas created by Hello on November 11th, 2025.

(Infinite) pixel canvases

Most of these were inspired by r/place rather than Our World of Pixels, despite the latter site being one year older than the former.

r/place

/r/place was the project that popularized the concept of pixel canvases. It set a trend for future pixel sites to impose a strict time limit on how often you can place pixels, which encourages users to band together in order to create any sizable drawings.

pxls.space

pxls.space is a r/place clone whose canvas resets and changes shape every time it is completely filled. The timer for placing pixels is dynamic and changes depending on how many users are online.

pixelplace.io

pixelplace.io is formatted similarly to pxls.space.

pixelcanvas.io

pixelcanvas.io is an infinite pixel canvas with a 60 second timer for placing pixels. A world map was added to the canvas background following the massive success of Wplace in late 2025.

Name found OWOT from this site.

Tixtels

An infinite pixel canvas similar to OWOP.

Tixtels was created around 2018 by an OWOT user named SuperOP535.

The site was located at tixtels.glitch.me/ before closing down some time after May of 2024.

Goatway, the Discord channel(later a separate server) which catalogues messages from OWOT's chat, was named after a feature from Tixtels.

Tixtels UI

Pixelex

An OWOP clone that FP was involved with.

The site was launched at pixelex.2s4.me/ on April 4th, 2022, though it has since been taken down.

Ok so, Pixelex is pixel game like OWOP

But it'll have accounts, clans, specialized worlds, a lot of commands

Command list:

Rank 0 (NONE):  No commands available.

Rank 1 (GUEST): help, auth, tell, profile, warps, call

Rank 2 (USER): help, tell, profile, setwarp, delwarp, warps, clan, shop, sethome, home, call

Rank 3 (MOD): help, tell, profile, setwarp, delwarp, warps, clan, shop, sethome, home, ban, mute, whois, tp, setrank, call

RANK 4 (ADMIN): help, tell, profile, setwarp, delwarp, warps, clan, shop, sethome, home, ban, mute, whois, tp, setrank, call, setcaptcha, setpquota, restrict, setmaxplayers, setspawn, setbalance, tphere  

Everyone will have level, exp. Also he will be able to create 1 warp, using command /setwarp [name], and people will be able to /warp [name] and tp. like in minecraft. also same thing with /call you can tp to people if they allow that.  

Also there will be clans with special prefix in chat, they'll also have own level, and bigger level it has, faster pquota you have. To create clan and upgrade it you need coins that you can earn by playing the game.  

There will be main world, just normal world, countrysim world and /r/place world. Any user will be able to create 1-5 worlds idk yet, he will be admin of them, and will be able to give mod to other user account. In countrysim, every person will be able to create country, and people can't just grief it, they can only place pixels on external side if he's not invited to country members. There will be top of countries by size.

I suggest to move cs to pixelex when it'll be done, cuz it'll be really fun! Also clans also will be able to create country, and all members of clan will be automatically invited to country  

Also in main world people will be able to protect their stuff and invite people to their protected area, but that's far from spawn  

Also in shop, with coins you can buy like pquota boosters and other stuff (no donate, you can get coins by just playing the game)  And I also want to do events in game, art contests and other stuff  

Current team: Me, unnick, anonygold, daydun, temix

— Description of Pixelex by a deleted account in 2019

WIP Pixelex screenshot from October 2019

wplace.live

Wplace is a pixel art website created by Brazillian developer Murilo Matsubara, and launched on July 21, 2025.[9][10] The site became massively popular in the months after its launch, making it the second most mainstream site on this page(second to r/place).

Lemuria is one of the few OWOT users who also use Wplace. On the site, he has worked on numerous projects globally, such as multiple signs in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Lemuria has considered starting a fan wiki for Wplace to document the occurences on the site, but has not found the time, or the computing resources to do so.

Wplace uses the Mercator projection. Pixels are not intended to map cleanly onto specific coordinates. Wplace divides the world into a 2048×2048 grid, making for 4,194,304 tiles. These tiles are 1000×1000 pixels, giving a total of 4,194,304,000,000 pixels; over 4.1 trillion. Wplace's coordinate system assigns four coordinates to each pixel; tile X, tile Y, and within that tile, pixel X and pixel Y. The official interface displays these in the format "(Tl X: 597, Tl Y: 783, Px X: 43, Px Y: 408)", though Lemuria uses a shorter format, "597.43, 783.408" (tileX.pixelX, tileY.pixelY).

The map is divided into regions, which are 4000×4000 pixel squares. They are named after a nearby settlement with a number (such as "Port Elizabeth #5"). Region names do not always map cleanly; regions containing a city may be named after a completely different area. The naming convention for these regions is unknown, but with the sheer volume, it is likely auto-generated.

Miscellaneous canvas sites

Public canvas sites like Jotleaf, which contains features other than text or pixels.

Duckgroup.xyz

A multiplayer drawing site made by the creator of TextWall.

Like OWOT, Duckgroup contained a number of subpages that can be accessed by adding words after the URL. Each page seemed to be limited to a small square which users can doodle on.

The site was taken down sometime before 2022 because PinkiePie[11] repeatedly spammed porn on it.

Our World of Vectors

Messing with the SLC vectors for my PR gave me a random idea last night: Our World of Vectors, where you can draw lines (and maybe curves? not sure how I'd do them tho) at virtually any point on screen (some rounding as to not make the DB infinitely large) but it'd be a little too ambitious for me to make — fox on March 15th, 2025

A WIP sandbox by fox where users place lines(vectors) on an infinite canvas. As of late 2025 the project has likely been abandoned.

Publicly editable text documents

Edit The Text

The website where Fern and Tap20 discovered OWOT.

Edit the Text(ETT) was an experimental, public text editor created by the Huang Twins. While it wasn't a canvas in the same way as OWOT, the fact that it could be edited by anyone gave rise to much of the same anarchic behavior that is found in the World of Text sites.

Fern recounts on the Discord how entire factions of trolls would wage war on the site's many pages, with there even being a cult-like organization in their midst. One of the most popular tactics was to overload pages with so many edits that they could no longer be loaded properly.

In the absence of any moderators, admins, or even rate limits, the ravages of trolls and griefers had to be counteracted by the efforts of individual users. Fern recalls participating in a full-on arms race to create scripts that could save and restore pages from spam scripts.

In addition to fighting spam, Fern was also part of the "Wordet" faction which had pages on both OWOT(no longer exists) and walloftext.co.

ETT was taken down in 2018[12] because the creators didn't want people to use it as a platform for storing their data.[13][14]

A revival has since been created at tikolu.net/edit/.

Garyc Textfield

garyc.me/textfield/ is similar to ETT, but supports a much smaller amount of text.

Other sandboxes that have minor similarities to OWOT

The following websites have all been occasionally mentioned on OWOT.

Multiplayer Piano, Infinite Homepage and Cursors.io all share some of their userbases with OWOT, with several users finding OWOT from those sites.

Multiplayer Piano

multiplayerpiano.net is a public sandbox site that allows you to play a virtual piano with other users. Like in OWOT, you can access "rooms" by adding to the URL(Ex. multiplayerpiano.net/forexample).

Several OWOT users(such as d9eoead) have been active on MPP at some point.

A MPP session with many users active

Mudgolt

mudgolt.com

Cursors.io

cursors.io allowed you to view and interact with other users' cursors. It was taken offline at some point.

Cursors.me

A copy of cursors.io.

Moved to cursors.uvias.com.

Infinite Homepage

infinitehomepage.com gives users an infinite amount of square textboxes which they can edit.

Each user has a personal homepage of one million boxes which is located at a random point in the site. There is also an in-site currency named "rubies" which can be used to temporarily lock boxes.

Boxes are arranged into eight columns with a theoretically endless amount of rows. Though like OWOT and TextWall, the site starts to break once you've gone beyond a certain point, as explained in the site's about page:

After a certain point, boxes cease to be properly numbered and the rules change slightly. Boxes may still be locked and edited but the ordering becomes unstructured, if you edit a box then you might never see it again. You'll know when you're there as each box will show the word 'INFINITY' instead of a number. Be warned though, this section is a very long way down.

The "Box Montage" feature, which shows a minimap of the first 40,000 boxes(Screenshot taken October 28th, 2025)

One Million Checkboxes

One Million Checkboxes(OMCB) was a viral experimental site created by eieio in 2024. It was a public sandbox consisting of one million checkboxes, where checking a box checked it for all users.

The layout of checkboxes varied according to browser size, so as to prevent trolls from drawing obscene content using the boxes. But despite this restriction, several users managed to hide images in the site by treating it as a 1000x1000 checkbox canvas. Those same users also figured out a way to write text in the site's source code by strategically checking boxes to encode messages in binary.

The site was locked two weeks after its release. Its story is detailed in this Twitter thread.

OMCB was followed by One Million Chessboards.

Bonus: Mr.Guy's Chalkboard

To continue my study into the public canvas concept, I've purchased three small chalkboards and a box of chalk. I'm going to mount the chalkboards in public places and leave chalk with them and check back periodically to see what happens.

Not technically infinite.

Not technically a site either.

Mr.Guy once placed chalkboards in various social spaces as an experiment to replicate the OWOT canvas IRL.

Trivia

  • Other websites that are heavily tied to OWOT, but that don't share in its collaborative nature, include Spooks, Wokecat and Sleepycat.

References

  1. 2s4.me/public/owop_screenshots/
  2. https://x.com/Jotleaf/status/248562106557952000
  3. https://www.facebook.com/jotleaf/posts/pfbid0PSeeFBcZoK6MdKgimip8H5ZQTEkF3u3odefprUDbKhEVj8Gwqhre4mxBtZjnwDZBl
  4. https://x.com/Jotleaf/status/662345164279689216
  5. https://www.killscreen.com/leave-a-story-in-the-mysterious-ascii-world-of-new-york/
  6. https://zachschwartz.com/work/writtenworld/
  7. https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/ascii-collab-draw-ascii-art-together-on-an-infinite-canvas/6273
  8. SuperQGS once considered reaching out to Meimei on her Deviant Art page in order to commission her to make 3D ASCII art in Anchored.
  9. "People Are Using Wplace For Video Game-Related Protests". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 23 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-25.
  10. "Brazil Turns Itself Into A Metal Gear Shrine On Wplace". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2025. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
  11. https://historyoftextwall.neocities.org/
  12. https://ett.fandom.com/wiki/Edit_the_Text
  13. "Edit the Text - About".
  14. Huang, Michael (2019-01-25). "I don't wanna be responsible for keeping people's text safe". Retrieved 2025-10-04.