Questions and answers

Ten questions someone new to Porch Moth might ask. Each answer describes Porch Moth as it works today.

Porch Moth is mainly for a computer, through its browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, which has been sent to the Chrome Web Store and to Firefox Add-ons for review. There are steps for phones too, but that part is early: nothing has been tried on a real phone yet, so where an answer gives a step for your phone, a name may differ on yours.

What counts as a win?

Any one of these:

One win makes the day a win day. More wins on the same day do not make it more than one day.

“Open it anyway” never costs anything. It takes no win away and it ends no run. The pause page appearing counts neither for you nor against you, and the same goes for a one-minute wait you stop early.

What is a freeze?

A freeze covers one missed day, so that your run of days carries on. A missed day is a day that ended with no win in it. Porch Moth uses the freeze for you: there is nothing to do.

You start with two and never hold more than two. Both are back at the start of every Monday, which in Porch Moth is 4 in the morning. Nothing you do earns one.

A day that a freeze covers keeps your run where it was. It does not add a day to it.

If a day is missed with no freeze left, Porch Moth keeps your spot warm for it, once in any week. One win on the next day, any win at all, and the run carries on from where it was. A second day like that in the same week starts a new run. So does a missed day with no freeze left while your spot is already being kept warm, even if a new week has begun: a spot is kept warm once, not twice running.

A freeze is used only when there is a run to keep. With no run going, a missed day leaves your freezes as they are.

Today shows how many you hold, under “Freezes”.

Why did yesterday not count?

It may be for one of these reasons:

If the day was missed while you had a run going and a freeze in hand, the freeze covered it and the run carries on. If no freeze was left, your spot may have been kept warm, which happens once in any week and never twice running: one win today and the run carries on. Today says so on a card when that is where things stand.

If the run does start again, it starts at day 1, and nothing else changes. The weekly streak and the milestones are counted separately.

Today is never counted as missed while it is still going.

What is the weekly streak?

A count of weeks in a row with a win on four or more days. A week runs from Monday to Sunday.

It is counted apart from your run of days. A run that starts again does not touch it, which is what it is there for.

Once a run of days has started again, Today leads with your weeks, and the run of days goes into the small print.

With Quiet mode on (Settings), Today shows none of this: no run, no weeks, no freezes and no milestones. They are still counted, and all come back when you switch it off.

A week with fewer than four win days is passed over, and not counted against you, if it is:

Any other week with fewer than four starts the count again.

What are the numbers 3, 7, 14, 30, 66 and 100?

Milestones. Each is a count of days with a win in them: every such day since you began, not days in a row. Porch Moth calls them win days.

That count only goes up. A missed day, a freeze or a run that starts again takes nothing off it, and each milestone is reached once and kept. 100 is the last.

Each one comes with something new for Morris to wear. What he wears is yours to choose, under “Morris’s wardrobe” in Settings.

The 66 comes from research on how long a new habit takes to form. It is an average with a very wide range, and it is not a finish line.

About “66 days”

Why was I not paused?

One reason is built in: you had just been let in. After “Open it anyway”, the pause stands aside for that app for a set number of minutes: 15 unless you have changed it, under “The pause” in Settings.

If the pause page is opened for that app inside those minutes, it says “You’re inside your 15 minutes”, with your own number, and does not hold you. Nothing is logged. If an automation brings your pauses, its own cooldown should keep the page from opening at all.

“Changed my mind. I’m out” ends those minutes.

Otherwise:

Setup guide

How do I stop the pauses for a day?

Porch Moth has no switch for this. What brings the pause page up is in your browser or on your phone, not in Porch Moth, so that is where it stops:

For a shorter break, choose “Open it anyway” on the pause page. The pause then stands aside for that app for the minutes set under “The pause” in Settings. With the extension, it stands aside for YouTube and Instagram both, for the minutes set in the extension’s options.

Holiday mode, in Settings, is for something else. It parks your run: while it is on, a day with no win is not counted as missed. It does not stop the pause page appearing. A win still counts on holiday, and the mode stays on until you switch it off.

Where is my data, and who can see it?

In this browser, on this device. Porch Moth has no accounts, no server or analytics of its own, and no third-party requests.

Cloudflare, which hosts these pages, sees ordinary page requests, as the host of any website does: which page was loaded, the time, and your device’s internet address. So the host’s records could show when a pause or a check-in was opened, but not for which app: the app’s tag in the pause page’s address comes after a “#”, which a browser does not send to a host. The host never receives your log, your notes, your check-ins or your settings. The person who runs Porch Moth can see Cloudflare’s reports on the site’s visits, mostly totals, such as how many requests and visitors it had.

Anyone who uses this browser can open Porch Moth and see what is in it. Each browser profile keeps its own copy, and anyone using the same profile sees the same one. So on a shared computer, keep Porch Moth in a browser profile of your own.

“Hide notes”, under “Your data” in Settings, keeps notes you have typed covered until you open them. It is there against a glance. It is not a lock.

Porch Moth on a computer and Porch Moth on a phone are separate copies, and share nothing.

What Porch Moth stores, and where

How do I move to a new computer or phone?

  1. On the old one, open Settings, find “Your data” and choose “Export data”. That makes a backup file. Where a phone offers its share sheet, you choose where the file goes; otherwise it is saved to the device. It holds everything Porch Moth keeps, your notes included, so send it somewhere private.
  2. On the new one, open Porch Moth in the browser you will use it in. On the first set-up screen, choose “Been here before? Restore a backup”. The same link is on the pause page after “I’m out”, and on the evening check-in, for as long as that browser has not been set up.
  3. Choose the backup file, then “Restore this backup”. Your history and settings come back, and anything already logged on the new one is kept.
  4. Set up again what brings the pause, with the setup guide: on a computer, the extension (it starts with porchmoth.com; a copy of your own needs its address under Settings); on a phone, the Home Screen icons or the automations. They are in the browser or on the phone, not in Porch Moth, and a backup does not carry them.

The old one keeps its copy until you delete it there. Settings shows how long ago the last backup was made, so you can tell whether a file is recent.

If Porch Moth is already set up on the new one, the field is called “Import data”, under “Your data” in Settings. It asks whether to merge the file with what is there or to replace everything.

The share sheet has not been tried on a real phone. Where it is offered, “Download the file instead” is beside it.

How do I take Porch Moth off my computer or phone?

There is more than one place to clear, and Porch Moth can reach only its own. Take them in this order:

  1. The desktop extension. Remove it on the browser’s own extensions page. In Firefox, if you loaded it as a temporary add-on, it also goes when Firefox closes. Left in place, it goes on opening the pause page, and a new log starts from there.
  2. Icons, shortcuts and automations. These are on your phone, not in Porch Moth, and Porch Moth cannot remove them. Take the icons off the Home Screen, and delete the automations and shortcuts in the Shortcuts app, or the macros in MacroDroid. Left in place, they go on opening the pause page, and a new log starts from there. If you built the iPhone automation, it also kept one small file, the time of your last “Let me in”: in the Files app, open the Shortcuts folder (in iCloud Drive if that is on, otherwise under On My iPhone) and delete the folder called Porch Moth. It holds that one file, allow.txt, and nothing else.
  3. What Porch Moth stored. In Settings, under “Your data”, choose “Delete everything” and confirm. That removes Porch Moth’s log, settings and memory from this browser. There is no undo, and Porch Moth holds no other copy. If you used Porch Moth in more than one browser, each has a copy of its own to delete.
  4. Backup files. A file you exported stays where you put it until you delete it yourself.
  5. The browser’s own history. It still lists the pause pages you opened, each with the short tag for the app in its address. With the desktop extension, it lists the address of the Short or Reel you were heading for as well. Porch Moth can neither see that history nor clear it. Your browser can.

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