More Thoughts on Micro.blog and Timelines microblog.pratikmhatre.com
@pratik I'm going to follow your example and spread my wings a bit via Mastodon I think and embrace the fediverse/cross platform following a bit more.
It gives you enough to do in terms of tinkering without letting you vanish down the rabbit hole so you forget to actually write on your blog.
This is a really, really important point when it comes to just writing vs tweaking knobs. I think Micro.Blog gets this element right.
@pratik personally, I'm sometimes tempted to go more often on Mastodon and work from there but the ability of doing that from a single point, i.e., Micro.blog, is the best of both worlds.
@pratik I'm really hoping to come back to curating Discover, but just don't have the bandwidth now due to not just the new job but also health stuff with myself and my family. I think community work beyond Discover will be beyond my capacity. My hope when I come back is to update at least daily or every other day on weekdays.
@pratik I think the best way to be unhappy in the current world is assume choosing one thing means not choosing another. 95% of frustration I see seems to come from that idea— one app, one service, one place, that gives me everything I want as a user and nothing I don’t.
The way to happiness is using whatever whenever based on what you want at that time.
@KimberlyHirsh what does it take to be on duty for this? What if a new curator was named each month? I can volunteer for one month. cc @pratik @manton
@jsonbecker The corollary is to not get frustrated with the developer’s priorities and decisions. I did, and am over at Bear, but nothing is about my wants. Bear is good, but Micro Blog has some great features.
@Ddanielson it’s ok to have preferences. It’s not ok to assume you have a right to have those preferences met exactly anywhere you go.
@numericcitizen @KimberlyHirsh @pratik We always imagined that we'd have a small team of curators that could come and go as time allowed. Unfortunately I don't really have the bandwidth to make that happen either right now... I'd love to prioritize it for later this year, after we get a few more bug fixes and app updates wrapped up.
@numericcitizen It's mostly about reading literally Every. Single. Post. and deciding whether to feature it. It's not time-consuming (it can be done in 30 minutes to an hour each day) but because you are seeing everything everyone has to say, it is not without an emotional impact. I think when I can spare more time for M.b, working with Manton to figure out how to make a team-based approach work will be a priority.
@pratik @KimberlyHirsh @Manton
Most of the frustrations about the lack of updates are on the community and timeline front, and in fact, the blogging platform has received quite a few solid updates recently.
Great post, and this is exactly how I feel about Micro.blog lately. It's a great, easy to use microblogging platform and hosting provider and I love all the new features, but I miss the community feel of the first years. I'm checking the Discover section a lot less than before. That said, I still think the Discover and Timeline features of Micro.blog are some of its most valuable propositions compared to other platforms. Perhaps more voluntary involvement of the community could help revive the Discover section? For instance: I would love to be able to suggest posts from my personal timeline (and my time zone..!) to the curator(s). Knowing that a blog post may have gotten a little more attention because of another community member’s suggestion (while also making the curator’s life a bit easier) sounds like a win for everyone to me🙂.
@KimberlyHirsh how does one see everything? Is that publicly accessible? I’ve always wanted to see “the firehouse” because I find it difficult to find new people to follow.
@ArnoldHoogerwerf @pratik @KimberlyHirsh @Manton To pick up on that - a very private 'thumbs up' function visible only to the admins and not even to the poster could help the community 'suggest' a post for the Discover section. So perhaps, not even a Thumbs Up but a Magnifying Glass or something.
@JohnPhilpin I didn't even remember that setting. Feel like that view should be a link on the Discover page. By default I would only want my timeline to be people I follow, otherwise, what's the point of following?
@JohnPhilpin after trying it: it means "show all posts and replies from people you follow" not "all posts made across the system". What's confusing you is the 2nd entry doesn't use an Oxford comma, "only people I'm following" only modifies "replies" and not "show posts".
@manton @numericcitizen @KimberlyHirsh I get it. It's not an easy job and you want to do a good job rather than half-ass it. Building a community at scale is one of the hardest things on the web, and you need resources, people, and intentional and persistent action. It may not be possible for a small outfit to pull off. So yes, I hope you figure it out soon.
@jsonbecker Agree, and I came to that realization about Micro.blog after years of expecting it to solve all problems. Also, to not invest too much emotion into something that's a business for most.
@DaveyCraney @ArnoldHoogerwerf the social aspects of blogging are extremely difficult to get right. At the core, it just may be a question of not having enough resources more than intent. Right now, the fediverse makes it possible to branch out and establish your community while still owning the content on your blog. It need not be exclude Micro.blog but doesn't have to remain restricted to Micro.blog either.
@Miraz @ArnoldHoogerwerf @pratik @KimberlyHirsh @Manton In theory, that's a good idea, but in practice, that's actually what killed the filter blog I had created. By letting the control of curation to people, the value of being on Discover was degraded. Also, some people "suggested" many posts and, more often, every post they wrote, and some people suggested none. And often, we wanted to hear more from the latter group than the former group. But there are ways to improve on it, I think, and worth trying out.
@pratik I think 98% of it is people underestimate how large a community has to be to find "their" community online. Think about how many people you're friends with from your metro area. The other 2% is people forgetting that virtually all the things they're against adding to MB due to the "virality" aspect or "performance" aspect are the things that make discovery and surfacing "quality" significantly easier.
Community with blogs necessarily places the burden on ourselves.
@pratik Micro Blog is - IMHO - the least community like community of any space i belong to for the various reasons - and I am ok with that - because that’s not why I am here. Said it before said it again - the value for me is that it aggregates all things 'John' AND syndicates to all things 'John'. Everything else is icing. MicroBlog has a long way to go to make a real community and design decisions being made suggests that 'community' isn't what is being built.
@briandigital It's not currently accessible. @manton can speak to this better than I can't but I think a sort of reverse-curator who is specifically looking for community code of conduct violations and could hide them from an everything-timeline might be able to meet this need.