Things · Games and communities
Road Sign Math (2021)
Road Sign Math as a simple blog of the signs my family found from 2021 to 2025, at roadsignmath.thingelstad.com and from 2023 on Micro.blog at roadsignmath.xyz, with each sign’s math typeset by MathJax.
Just my signs.
- Status
- Retired Deliberately ended.
- Dates
- Started . Ended (Posted from 2021 to 2025)
- Where
- web.archive.org/web/20260909070315/www.roadsignmath.xyz/
- Topics
- Play The open web
- Latest evidence
- Latest commit, Jun 12, 2026
I let Road Sign Math’s first site go in 2016. In 2017 I started a Jekyll site for the signs, rsm.thingelstad.com, on a stock theme; it never went past the theme’s sample posts. In March 2021 a sign Tammy found near Phoenix gave Road Sign Math “a breath of new life” at roadsignmath.thingelstad.com (Weekly Thing 177), and that summer we found ten more on a Vermont road trip.
I registered roadsignmath.xyz in 2021, and in October 2023 I rebooted Road Sign Math a second time, as a simple blog on Micro.blog: “Just my signs. No scoring system or leaderboards.” New signs kept appearing, such as one in September 2025, the last of 16.
On October 30, 2026, the new roadsignmath.xyz replaced the blog, and its 16 signs became the first signs in the Road Sign Math iPhone app.
The build #
- The blog runs on Micro.blog, with one post per sign, its photo, and the math typeset with MathJax from TeX in the post.
- The 2021 posts keep their 2021 dates on Micro.blog, though their photos were uploaded there in 2023.
Micro.blog MathJax
Artifacts #
Files from the project itself, as they were kept.
The blog #
What was left of the blog when the new roadsignmath.xyz replaced it on October 30, 2026.
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The front page #
The blog’s front page on October 20, 2026, ten days before it was replaced, with its newest sign, the one Tyler found driving up I-35W, its math typeset under the post.
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Every post, as Micro.blog exported it #
All 16 posts from March 2021 to September 2025 as a JSON Feed, with each post’s words, its math in TeX, the name of its photo and its date. Thirteen are my signs, two are Tyler’s and one is Tammy’s, in six states.
Activity #
4 commits (2 with Claude, 2 by me), the first on Sep 4, 2017.
The latest weeks with activity
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Week of Jun 8, 2026 2 commits, all with Claude
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Week of Sep 4, 2017 2 commits, all by me
All activity, week by week. Who made each commit is from its author and co-author lines.
Sources and evidence #
Observed daily from GitHub, sitemaps, feeds, the Internet Archive, and Tinylytics. Evidence never sets a status.
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web.archive.org/web/20260909070315/www.roadsignmath.xyz/ archive
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weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/177/ reference
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www.thingelstad.com/2023/10/21/road-sign-math.html reference
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www.thingelstad.com/2025/09/01/it-always-makes-me-smile.html reference
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jthingelstad/rsm.thingelstad.com historical
- Repository created Sep 4, 2017 (a development record, not a launch date)
- HTML, SCSS, JavaScript
- Latest commit Jun 12, 2026; 0 commits on master between Jul 20, 2026 and Oct 18, 2026
- Observed Oct 18, 2026
Commits and publications per month, last twelve months.
Connections #
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Road Sign Math (2021) was succeeded by Road Sign Math (2026)
In October 2026 the 16 signs on the blog became the first signs in the Road Sign Math iPhone app, and the new roadsignmath.xyz replaced the blog. Source
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Road Sign Math (2005) was succeeded by Road Sign Math (2021)
Five years after I let roadsignmath.com go, a sign Tammy found near Phoenix brought the game back as a blog of just my family’s signs, with “Just my signs. No scoring system or leaderboards.” Source
History #
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launch
Road Sign Math reboots as an iPhone app
The third reboot makes Road Sign Math an iPhone app that is the whole game, and a new roadsignmath.xyz, the map of every sign, replaces the blog. Its first 16 signs are the blog’s. Source
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launch
Road Sign Math reboots as a blog
The second reboot returns it to a simple blog of my signs at roadsignmath.xyz. Source
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milestone
A breath of new life
A sign Tammy found near Phoenix revives Road Sign Math at roadsignmath.thingelstad.com. Source