My very first memory is of the sun. Observing it for the first time. Seeing the light, feeling the heat and the energy emanating from it. It is what kept life going. All life. The sun. That’s what it is called though I couldn’t answer why. Why. The deathly question. The one that will always branch into more “why’s”. Because, it just is. The deathly answer. The one that will never sate you, though it feels like the right answer sometimes. Do we keep asking why because we are naïve? Do we keep asking why because we know, because matter itself knows that one day we will reach an answer? Or do we simply refuse to accept that there is no answer? Why should I, why should the atoms that I am made up of stop searching for the reason they are here and where they came from? There it is again. Why. I already hate that word, but I can’t help but use it. Even if I am not consciously searching for an answer, my every iota is shaking with the thought.

My second memory, not so long after my first, is of the star. One white speck that would appear in the empty canvas of nothing as the sun set. What is it made of? Is it another sun? It must be very large and far away if I do not feel its warmth. Or it is tiny and very close. How do I know? Asking questions is frustrating, but isn’t that all we do? I think so. We are curious, that is how we are made. I am a vessel, a thing made up of smaller things, tinier things, even more miniscule things, that have amazingly figured out how to work together to make a thing, a vessel , that is capable of asking the questions they want the answers too. It is them- for that is how I refer to this energy- it is they who are advanced, yet we, we take all the credit for it. You and I, we think we are the advanced organism. Maybe there are more organisms out there. Maybe the star is like our sun, and maybe, just maybe, there is something like me, or unlike me, staring at it asking all the same questions. There is no one who knows THE answer. The answer to a question we don’t even know how to ask. So how do we find it? This answer? We ask. And we think. And we let all the energy that is making us ask work together to find the answer. I have another question. Why is some of the energy part of me- what is making me contemplate and ask and some of it making the rock under me? I don’t use it. Is it helping me? If I am energy, and everything is energy, then why am I stuck here? Why can’t I interact with the energy up in the sun? past the sun? in the star…? Is it different energy? Does distance make it hard to communicate? Are there restrictions? There must be or the answer would have been found by now. Now. What a strange thought. What do I mean by now? I have been asking a lot of questions. Has this all happened at once? I was able to ask all those questions and now I can’t see how. Does everything happen as one simultaneous…-thing? I need a word. Something to describe it. Time. Time is one answer and a million questions. What is it? Am I just using it to explain how I have a first memory and how I’ve been able to keep asking questions? Am I going to be able to do this forever? Do I keep asking questions until I find an answer or do I run out of questions? Time must be real, else beginning and end would be the same. I would have found an answer before I asked a question. It all would have happened and been over and nothing would remain. But what is nothing? Can nothing truly exist? Must there be something, always? Why? Why. Why. Why. This is maddening. I feel like I want to stop. I feel…I feel?

Turpentine longing.

The caustic edition.

Gold-flecked.

Morning dreams of night, again

The stoop half-crazed with light

Thump, thump,

I hear you on the stairs

With your belt,

No coat.

My skin is twitchy Dad

My underwear is doubled up

Fear now huddles around the water source

Neanderthal style,

Hands, arms between legs

Squatting

Poking at the Zoe-less

I shifted in his clutch

A bit

So he could see my face

Reflected in his shiny military brogan

Time to make it rain, son.

Already they have emptied out the complaint box, Accepting no more submissions,

Choosing what they expect to eat, With so much care.

My rear is still sore from my youth

Ill brook no guff from you.

Greetings Fellow Writers and Readers;

We’re excited to announce a couple new features that we’ve just released as of moments ago, along with some exciting things coming soon. But first, some methodical musings on money and the state of web-based businesses.

Internet businesses, like all other businesses, require capital to run. There are server expenses, engineering expenses, legal expenses, marketing expenses, and many other expenses, too expansive to enumerate. Companies like Facebook and Twitter, which claim to be “forever free,” are not. While users may not have to pay for access to their services, somebody does have to pay the bills. In the case of Facebook, it is the advertisers who assume that responsibility. As such, the end users of Facebook are not its customers, the advertisers are. So rather than selling a service to users, Facebook sells its users’ data to advertisers. That business model has always seemed a bit disingenuous to us. While there is nobility in offering a service at no cash cost, it’s inaccurate to claim that it’s “free.” With that in mind, we decided early on to take a two-pronged approach with Prose, seeking the best of both worlds. For those of you who don’t want to pay for access to Prose, you don’t have to. Advertisers cover that cost for you. But for those of you can afford $6/month, who don’t want to see advertisements, we offer Prose Gold.

In our ideal world, all of you would subscribe to Gold. That would allow us to focus all of our effort on doing what we really care about doing - creating the best possible site for social writing and reading - rather than splitting our resources between building what you need and what advertisers need.

One criticism we’ve seen from time to time is that we only care about our Gold subscribers, or that we only care about making more money. This could not be farther from the truth. We care about words and stories, writers and readers, fiction and non-fiction, poetry and Prose.

With that in mind, our latest set of features is designed to add a bit more value to our Gold subscription service, both to sweeten the deal for existing subscribers and perhaps encourage a few more of you to consider subscribing.

New Feature: Fonts

We’ve added the option to change the font of your posts, and change your default “reading font.” When publishing a new post, Gold subscribers will see an option to select a font. This font will not display in feeds, but will display when the full post is opened. We’ve also added a new setting on the account settings (https://theprose.com/settings) page called “reading font.” This will change the default font of all posts to a font of your choosing. Give it a try, let us know what you think! If you have any favorite fonts you’d like to see added, please let us know in the comments below.

New Feature: Platinum

Platinum is a new tier of subscription, intended for our most enthusiastic Prose fans. It offers little more than Gold, other than a badge on your profile, but goes a long ways towards supporting the development and growth of Prose. If you’re currently subscribed to Gold and would like to upgrade, you can do so at https://theprose.com/settings/subscription.

Coming Soon: Dark Theme

We’re currently working on a new “Dark Theme” that will switch all the bright whites on Prose to a darker palette more suitable for nighttime reading. You may have seen similar features on YouTube or the mot recent update to macOS. This feature will be exclusive to Gold and Platinum subscribers.

Coming Soon: Center Justification

We used to allow you to center-justify content you wrote. We removed this during a big site overhaul and just haven’t had time to reinstate the feature. Rest assured, it’ll be back soon.

Coming Soon: Challenge Improvements

We want to drastically improve our challenge system by offering better ways to sort and find challenges, along with enhanced visibility for challenges with attached prizes. We also want to allow challenges with multiple entries.

Coming Soon: Challenge of the Month

November will mark the return of our “Challenge of the Month.” We’ll be offering $100 prizes each month for our favorite entry. We’ll also be submitting all outstanding entries to our publishing partners (we are talking to some very big players).

Improvement: Publishing Options

We’ve simplified the publishing options a bit, improving the UI and removing the distinction between “gold status” and “pricing strategy,” which we thought were a bit redundant.

Improvement: Author Browsing

We’ve added a couple new ways to browse authors at https://theprose.com/explore/people. The "Just Joined" category will display the newest folks to register on Prose. The "Need Followers" category will display people who've been writing a lot, but could use a few more followers. Consider giving them a look!

Bug Fix: Books

We found a bug that prevented new books from being created. That’s been fixed.

Feedback and Suggestions

We recognize it’s been a bit difficult or inconsistent for you to supply us with your feedback. Prose is for you, and we’re making it a priority to make sure we hear and reply to all of your feedback and suggestions. With that in mind, the best way to reach us is to email us at info@theprose.com. You can also publish a post with your feedback if you wish, but make sure to tag @A, @Z, and @Prose in the comments after you do so we don’t miss it. If you think it would be helpful, we can also create a dedicated feedback form where you can submit ideas. If you have any quick suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section on this post.

That’s it for now folks. We hope this sheds some light on what we’ve been working on and where we’re headed. Please let us know what you think!

Prose.

Do liars lie or simply exagerate

Is there a difference between a exageration and lies or are they somewhat similair

What are lies? Are they fake but true in the prespective of liars

Are liars people who believe in something they know is an exagerated truth

Could those people who are known as liars actually be telling a truth that none can see

Do lies count as sins when they could be truths

Who determinds if a lie is a lie or if a truth is a truth

Doesn't that power lie with the lairs or any human who can agree on certain terms

Isn't are whole society a lie like math and language

They are lies because they are not truths because we created them with no true basis

Does that mean everything we create with no solid background is a lie

Aren't we living lies since we have created a society of lies

Isn't society itself a lie because it is built off of nothing but lies so everything is a solid lie

When you know something is wrong yet still tell it because you want to believe it, is that a lie or a truth...

-------------------------------------------------Welcome-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------to----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------arguments --------------------------------------------

The world is a small place

when you’re occupying 

the same space—

that pseudo empty case

locked behind 

an ordinary face

arms blindly seeking 

a firm embrace

don’t reach inside 

to trace

the cosmic threads and lace

that hang up the stars 

at their very base

of a hesitant glance

in the vacuum—

where our eyes have danced

Good Afternoon Fellow Writers & Readers;

As you may have noticed (or will soon notice) the Prose web app has undergone a bit of a cosmetic update. Hopefully nothing will be too jarring. Our goal with this update, along with the obligatory under-the-hood performance enhancements, was to simplify. We wanted to simplify the user interface of the website, make navigation easier and more intuitive, and apply a more consistent design language across the entire site. Further, we wanted to make better use of space, both for desktop and mobile users.

Like any software update, this one will likely give rise to a bug or two. Please let us know if you encounter any bugs by commenting on this post, tagging us in comments, or shooting us an email. We hope you enjoy the update, and find the whole Prose experience just a little bit fresher.

Happy Writes.

Dear Writers and Readers,

We noticed some less-than-exemplary behavior on Prose today, which forced us to take action against some users. This is a gentle reminder that, while we try to remain as uncensored as possible, some forms of content are simply intolerable. Please note the following passage from our Terms of Service, under Prohibited Content:

Content that is unlawful, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, suggestive, harassing, threatening, abusive, inflammatory, fraudulent or otherwise objectionable, or invasive of privacy or publicity rights;

In today’s case, harassment was the keyword. We have taken steps to punish infringing users, and prevent future infringements. Note that we will not be adjudicating arguments, disagreements, or squabbles between users, unless we deem the language used to be grossly abusive or inflammatory.

1. We have added a report button to all posts. You’ll find the button in the lower-right options menu (indicated by an ellipsis icon) of every post. If you encounter a post that violates the Terms of Service, please report it.

2. We have instituted a temporary posting restriction policy against first-time offenders. If we find that you have been harassing folks, spamming, or posting any other sort of Prohibited Content, you will be prevented from posting, commenting, and sending messages for a minimum of three days. Repeat offenders will be permanently banned.

3. We have added an internal feature to remove offensive posts. Posts that violate our Terms of Service, or that provoke grossly abusive or toxic comment threads, will be marked as such and removed after 24 hours. During that period, commenting on such posts will be disabled.

Refer to Section 10 of our Terms of Service for all forms of Prohibited Content: https://theprose.com/p/legal/terms

Happy Writes,

The Prose Team