I need to get off WordPress. This seems like a fit, based on my research, with the possibility of importing earlier work. So, maybe I’ll publish my serials here? I guess we’ll see how things work out. Flag me if you have advice, thanks, have a nice day.

@EpsilonTime Welcome G. Thanks for checking out our corner of the internet. Consider this a flag. We put together a special page with tips for using Micro.blog, finding people to follow, and what makes it different from other blogging and social media services. welcome.micro.blog

There are a lot of writers here, so they may chime in with advice about publishing your work.

@EpsilonTime welcome! I’m also a WP refugee. I like it here. I also have a couple of blogs that I use Ghost (https://ghost.org/) for, because sometimes I want a little more privacy and it’s easy to put up a member-wall there.

@EpsilonTime Here's a little story you might find interesting: Why I'm writing faster. Spoiler: WordPress isn't the hero.

@EpsilonTime I moved from WordPress to Micro.blog recently, and I'm very pleased! I wasn't that long on Wordpress, and didn't do any automatic transfers - but feel free to ping me if you have questions, and I'll answer as best as I can.

(My best advice is to use something like or Ulysses to write in and publish from!)

@jean Thank you for the tips page! Funny enough, I'd already stumbled into the page when doing all my site research. It's useful. I will continue to stumble around though, I'm sure.

@larissaking Thank you for the input! I did stumble into Ghost during my searches, but the "professional publishers" angle meant I didn't look too deeply, since I really just publish my serials online. No plans to go deeper (other than the short stories that exist out there). Wall does sound handy though, might give it another look.

@Havn Thanks for the info! I don't plan on doing automatic transfers, this is basically external events forcing me to migrate away... but with a decade's worth of posts behind me, some of which I want to keep around. Not sure what it will look like if I import something that drastic. (Oh, I just tend to write in plain text documents. I'm weird.)

@EpsilonTime Oh, both those programs use .md files. So pretty plain texty! ☺️

I like Ulysses, because it's a nice place to write in general (on all Apple platforms), and I can publish directly to Micro.blog, including scheduled and with keywords. I can also have the files wherever I want, so I can access them in other programs when I want.

What do you write in now? If you already edit it something you like, that's fine of course! But I really dislike web editors myself, so wanted to say that you don't need to use that here. 😊

@EpsilonTime I agree that Ghost’s focus on “professional writers” is kind of gross. I decided to give it a try in spite of that, even though I have zero interest in being “professional.” It has its shortcomings (like everything does), but it seems okay so far

@EpsilonTime yes, I've found writing in markdown to be really straightforward

@Havn Actually had to look up ".md" (markdown?) because I'm so old school I still use .txt on my Mac laptop. I dislike web editors too, and also the cloud, I want files I don't need the internet to access. So I may be good. Do you know if all the old files just get the current date when I import?

@larissaking Fair enough then. Hope the blogging keeps working out for you, I'll bear the bad advertising in mind if life calms down enough to diversify.

@EpsilonTime Yeah, Markdown. It's the same as the text editor here in the timeline uses. So it's plain text with a bit of styling.

There are som variables, but these are the basics:

# Heading 1

## Heading 2

(etc.)

**Two asterisks around stuff for bold.**

_One asterisk or underscore around stuff for italics._

* Start a line with an asterisk like this (or a dash) to make lists.

[This is the visible text in hyperlinks](https://link.com)

> Start with this to make block quotes

I really like it, as it's quick to type, and easy to edit and transfer from program to program. And you never get that "Uhm, do I type bold or not now?", as you know where the double asterisks are. :) I've always liked styling and emphasis when I type, so .txt becomes a bit too rough for me, heh.

Do you know if all the old files just get the current date when I import?

I sadly don't know how you "import files" here. Here's what I did when I moved my stuff over with Ulysses:

1. I had the plain text files I wanted to publish on Micro.blog (from Wordpress) in a folder I chose.

2. I added that folder in Ulysses as an "external folder".

3. I clicked on the file (called "sheets" in Ulysses, as you can combine different files to one text - so you can move around chapters and stuff) I wanted to publish, and hit "Publish".

4. Then I could choose if I wanted it to go out now, or if I wanted to "Schedule". Then I chose to schedule, but the date I set was back in time (the original date).

This worked perfectly. 👍🏻 But there might be better, and less manual, ways to do it!

@EpsilonTime If you feel yourself falling, just tag @help or email help@micro.blog.

@Havn Thanks for the tips, probably something I should explore. Plain text doesn't italicize, so I tend to use all caps, sometimes remembering to change it later. ^^ As to importing, after reading up a bit more, I worked out how to simply upload my XML WP file. Fast and easy, though I'll need to fix some formatting.

@EpsilonTime Nice to hear the import wheelhouse well!

Even though it's not the app I use, I recommend starting with a trial for iA Writer! It works well with local files, can publish to Micro.blog (including micro posts), and had some really neat features specifically for writers. 🙂