I need to get off WordPress. This seems like a fit, based on my research, with the possibility of importing earlier work. So, maybe Iāll publish my serials here? I guess weāll 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! Iām 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 itās 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.
@writingslowly Wow, that's not just interesting, it's very similar to my situation. I also started on WordPress a decade ago, and mostly I simply write in text then paste into whatever pushes the words out. Formatting links back and forth for reader convenience. Not sure if this will be faster, but less tedious, maybe?
@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! āŗļø
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. š
@EpsilonTime I agree that Ghostās focus on āprofessional writersā is kind of gross. I decided to give it a try in spite of that, even though I have zero interest in being āprofessional.ā It has its shortcomings (like everything does), but it seems okay so far
@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:
I had the plain text files I wanted to publish on Micro.blog (from Wordpress) in a folder I chose.
I added that folder in Ulysses as an "external folder".
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".
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. šš» But there might be better, and less manual, ways to do it!
@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. š