I have written two long postings about my life as a blogger, as well as 16 new postings about 🇹🇭 Thailand, all written with my two favorite blogging systems by Dave Winer. My original plan was to let Dave see them first, but it can sometimes take a while to get his attention.
@Ron enjoyed the blogging autobiography thanks. I’ve had s couple of goes with 1999, on on Dave’s setup, one on my Pi, certainly interesting software.
@johnjohnston I'm really glad you read it, John, because you're a very skilled & experienced blogger, so I have a lot of interest in and respect for your opinion. Did you look over my new Thailand blog yet? Did you ever use Dave's MyWord Editor software? My next long piece will probably be about what I love so much about Dave's 1999 software. 🙏
@Ron thanks, I did read some of the Thailand blog. I’ll be back for more, the bum gun was new to me! I have used MyWord and liked it. I think I had it running on my Pi too. It would be hard for me to commit to a system with no real long term plan/support that I could not fix if it broke.
@johnjohnston I only have skills as a writer. I don't have any of your skills with software, so I have to rely on others. In this case I'm relying on (1) the fact that Dave published both tools as open source. I think that means anyone can read the code and if they are software experts, they could fix it, if needed. (2) Andy Sylvester is the software engineer I would be relying on. I think this is a much safer position than the one we are in with Manton. If Dave were to be struck down today by lightning, we could continue to use the software he gifted to us. OTOH heaven forbid, if Manton were to be struck down by lighting, I think that could be the end of micro.blog because he has not open sourced his software and in fact, he may be the only one who really knows how it works. That is too risky for me.
@Ron The longevity of software is always a worry. As far as micro.blog is concerned, my main enthusiasm is for the aggregation and social aspects. The way Manton has focused on allowing the connection of other sites if a great concept. I am happy with WordPress and believe it is big enough to last. It also has good export. Micro.blog is the best way of running an online community I've seen. If the members all have control and responsibility for their own data they could switch to or joint in with other services running on similar principles. My hope is that the technology, webmentions, aggregation and the like become easy enough for 10000 micro.blogs to blossom.
@johnjohnston Yes, Manton has created a very nice social community, especially if you're an Apple fan. But I have never actually backed up my messages (and don't know how to do it). AND as far as I know, there is no way to back up or even view my old replies, unless I save the URL myself each time I write one (which I mostly do), but even then it comes attached to all the other replies in the same thread! I have asked (more than once) how I can get a URL for just ONE reply (by me or anyone else) and Manton could or would not answer and agrees more work is needed, but it has not been done. So I don't own my replies on micro.blog. Manton owns them and controls them exclusively. Given that "Own Your Own Data" seems to be the mantra of the Indieweb, I am puzzled that this does not get addressed for months (years?) on end, while other fancy new features are released that don't interest me at all. But I suppose I am different from most, as I mostly use PC's and Android, plus I'm really old, compared to all other active users. I guess I'm lucky to still wake up in the mornings.
@Ron You can export your replies:
Replies and @-mentions - Micro.blog Help:
If you’re signed in to Micro.blog, you can export your replies here in JSON Feed format.
I do it once or twice a month so that I can search through them, or my Favorites—or both!—for things I remember vaguely talking about before.
@Ron It was “broken“ for the first third or so of this year for people who had large numbers of replies—it would always time out—so maybe he didn’t want to mention it until he knew it would work for you? (As an aside, I am writing a Help article that will make the various export options clear and locatable in one spot.)
@Ron The JSON file is plain-text and human-readable in the same way that HTML or RSS is human-readable—there’s the text, inside of various structures marking up the text, with certain characters encoded. Any program you have that can open plain-text files and has a find function will allow you to search the file.
This is what I do, simply keep it as an archive (replacing it periodically with a new download) and then search it, but if you wanted to make it more human-readable, I am sure there are tools out there that can turn a JSON Feed file into regular HTML or something.
@smokey Okay, I guess I need to develop a system. ("Is dis a system?") I seem to recall that Dave may have once said that a browser can open a json file. But of course I could easily be wrong!
It's a good thing you get that monthly stipend from Manton for doing tech support! Well earned!
Extra bonus for identifying the source of the quote above.
@Ron @ron (FWIW I am an apple user, but I don’t really talk much about Apple online). I hope at some point you will be able to post replies and these will be created on your own blog. At the moment I can, I think, post a reply from my blog and it will end up on micro.blog. I am usually tooo lazy to do it. This post is posted on my blog as a reply to your post on micro.blog…. The IndieWeb seems to me to be a work and exploration of possibilities in progress. Micro.blog seems the simplest way to get as much indieweb goodness as possible with the least effort? Like this:Like Loading...
@johnjohnston You wrote, "I don’t really talk much about Apple online."
Seeeeee, I knew there must be some reason I like you so much and respect you as a blogger. Definitely Indieweb is a work in process, as you say. When I first read the Indieweb website, it was incomprehensible to me, probably still is. Then I listened to Manton's interview of the Indieweb people and learned they were very much making it up along the way. It is a big plus point for me that Dave's blogging tools don't require much of any configuration. Just write in the editor and then hit publish or update to read. That's the kind of help I need and like! I'm definitely NOT a blogging software hobbyist. Of course he doesn't claim that his tools are Indieweb compliant either. I suppose one day, Google will come along and insist that every blog be Indieweb compliant, along with their HTTPS demands.
@w3bk3rn3l Ohhh, my (blush), thank you! Which blog did you look at? I wish I had your CW skills. I bet you can go a lot faster than 15-18!
@w3bk3rn3l Oh yes, my new Thailand blog is my pride & joy right now. I wrote it for three people who will be visiting us in Thailand in Oct/Nov. Thailand is soooo much fun to write about and to enjoy!
@Ron Yep, most browsers should open a json file, since that’s a fairly standard web filetype. In fact, it should normally display in your browser when you follow that link (I use a little script I constructed to just download mine, since loading a 7 MB text file in the browser is not always a great idea on an old Mac with limited RAM ;-) ). But when you save it, if your browser doesn’t suggest a filename extension, you should give it a .json (or .txt, depending on what other apps you may want to open it) extension to make re-opening it easier.
