I crumble a little inside when I see people mention cross-posting services that copy posts to Bluesky and Mastodon with a monthly subscription that is more than the cost of Micro.blog. But thatās all they do! Or you could use Micro.blog and get the same thing and a full-featured hosted blog. š¤Ŗ
@manton Iāve been playing with micro.blog. I like it and think itās a cool service! But as a cross-posting service one thing I think thatās lacking is that it doesnāt include attached media in the BlueSky/Mastodon post itself but instead in the linked post.
bsky.app/profile/jeffā¦
@manton It does copy photos, but not videos yet. Bluesky didnāt support video when we built this, but now that it does Iāll be adding support for it.
@manton You know why I donāt use Micro.blogās native cross-posting features. So maybe there are more people like me.
@manton I donāt understand it either. I am consistently contributing to disseminating that information. Did it again earlier today.
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vladcampos.com/2024/11/17/iā¦
@manton Sir, I bought a new domain, tried to change the setting to reflect my new domain with my Bluesky handle, but biked the whole blog somehow. I emailed for support already šš«
@manton I always want to reply ācheck out Micro.blog insteadā but Iām never sure if they would appreciate being told to use something else.
@manton Iāve had trouble signing into my account. Is it a 2FA issue? I get a code emailed to me from bluesky after trying to log in but thereās no place to put it and micro.blog shows an error. Thoughts?
@jade Yeah, I think most people probably wouldnāt appreciate being told what to use unless they are actively asking for suggestions. Sometimes a blurry line between being helpful and annoying. š
@tim.bueno.social Yes, for two-factor auth make sure you generate an app-specific password in Bluesky to use in Micro.blog. I need to document this somewhere.
@tim.bueno.social Yes, for two-factor auth make sure you generate an app-specific password in Bluesky to use in Micro.blog. I need to document this somewhere.
@manton What I like most about this type of service like micro.blog is that theyāre like private social media.
I hope it will be important direction in the future with increasing popularity.
@manton I think youāre basically faced with two problems.
I think not doing 2 has consistently lost some of the MB customer base and is why you fail to capture a broader audience as a crossposting machine. But Micro.blog is not purely that, so itās probably ok, provided youāre willing to compete on its other strengths.
@manton Itās been working great for me! Iāve mentioned Micro.blog to a couple of people for this. The only bug Iāve seen are images not showing up on Bluesky.
@jsonbecker Those are really good points that I forget sometimes, because I have no use for anything that doesnāt post to my blog too. A cross-posting machine is simpler but not the product I want to build. The marketing we do for this should reflect that somehow.
@collin Thanks! Photos should be working, so let me know if there continues to be a problem. One limitation is it assumes photos are in short posts, not full-length posts with titles. Titled posts are handled differently.
@jsonbecker If nothing, it at least shows that people are willing to pay extra for more control. Echofeed is $20/yr, and I can use category feeds to select which posts to crosspost.
āAlso, I would rather not have a linkback to my blog. Bluesky allows only 300 characters, but Threads and Mastodon allow 500. Now, Echofeed truncates the post instead of linking back in case I accidentally crosspost a 300+ character post.
But yup, I would rather have the native crossposting, but I also import Letterboxd and StatusLog (sports live-posting) to Micro.blog, which I donāt want to push to other networks.
But yeah, I understand this is @mantonās decision on how he wants Micro.blog to function, but then he canāt be surprised when others fill in the gaps to meet the demand that he is not willing to provide.
@pratik yup, I get it. The only one that I think is a bit odd and therefore truly unlikely is lack of link back, but thatās because I still donāt quite understand your version of pseudonymityā that would surely be a reason to not have your blog be your crossposting engine though.
I think itās fairly likely to have new posts have a selection for where to syndicate always visible one dayā Manton hereās that feedback way too often, and unlike some other forms of ābe more like socialā, this one gets very few people who actually object.
Category stuff also seems like it should happen, but I think that Micro.blogās architecture around building category feeds is just fiddly enough that I can see ways and reasons why it might not come without a major rework.
Itāll be interesting if Manton open sources Micro.blog core, which heās suggested could happen at some point. Iām not really a Rails/Ruby person, but I could see myself futzing with some things because I canāt help myself.
@jsonbecker Re: #1, I still follow a blogger Iāve followed for the past 15 years. She has a blog for long-form posts (was on Micro.blog for a short time but left) but is also very prolific on Mastodon and often does long threads instead of long posts on her blog. She has 7.5K followers. Recently, I asked her if she was concerned that most of her content was not on her blog. She laughed, shrugged it off, and said she may build an RSS bridge as a backup but is not overly concerned. Maybe thatās an attitude that most of us who are obsessed with POSSE donāt relate to.
@pratik I think Croissant is more of a competitor than Echofeed, which I think has some things going for it but is much much more like Micro.blog and unlikely to be all that attractive to someone who is willing to pay for a blog host.
Echofeed, I think, largely will outcompete Micro.blog for people who would never be willing to host their blog here. If you had any interest in hosting here, I think the number of folks who would want or need Echofeed over Micro.blogās features is small and probably not worth stressing over.
Itās the folks who would use something like Croissant as a casual user (and not someone who needs Buffer-style posting) who Manton should be afterā just like Croissant, but you donāt need to worry about ābacking upā your content archive some day because we save it every time you post for youā right here on your own website you control that can even be at your own domain.
@pratik I donāt really think that matters much to MB or should. Itās market is someone who wants a blog or cares about having a blog, at least partially. If someone has that ability and that option and decides they donāt care, this is 100% not for them and I think trying to cater to that audience would absolutely be out of scope for MB and just a different product altogether that does exist. If MBās goal was to have the largest possible customer base, that may matter, but itās not trying to have 10,000,000 users as its primary goal.
@manton What could it be that makes people think micro.blog is just for microblogging?
(Sorry to keep banging this drum.)
@manton All of my ideas can be summed up with: employ somebody who knows how to work on messaging, perception, etc. Wish I knew good workarounds for between now and whenever that is possible. š¬
FWIW a big hit with Leo in that video was the Reply box. This was one of the reasons I was excited by the reveal during Micro Camp; certain features can hit that sweet spot of āimpressiveā and āeasy to explain by showingā, and those features are prominent in effective marketing.
Even in that second paragraph, Iām being a little vague. A lot of marketing and such for MB is basically guess-work even for core users because, to be frank, a lot of important aspects arenāt clear ā and probably shouldnāt ever be public, I think, maybe, sort-of, depending on how you seem to want to run things. Only people who work with you closely, and have the relevant discussions to understand where you want things to go can actually create solutions to these problems.
@pratik @jsonbecker Thatās fine but I donāt think developers are building these tools because of limitations in Micro.blog. Echofeed is a unique case. Most of these tools are not based on feeds at all.
@jsonbecker Well, if things had gone differently on Nov.5th, I would have been comfortable relaxing my linkback concern. But now, absolutely not. Since Iām in control of my mb blog, Iāve locked it down, so unless you know it exists or really want to dig it up, you canāt. On Threads, Iāve many IRL friends and family following me (coz of the Instagram connection), and on Bluesky, Iām using a pseudonym.
Iām āIām trying to resist the chilling effect on my writing on my blog, so the friction at the time of posting perhaps is the only thing keeping me semi-private. Once Iām eligible for my U.S. citizenship in 1.75 years, I may rethink.
āThis may be a very specific and minority-based need, so I donāt expect either for Micro.blog to budge. Itās like software features that the majority of the users never think about how it may be dangerous for the minority. But I donāt have the technical chops yet to fiddle with my custom solution.
@pratik well mostly I just feel that your fears are completely valid, and, as a result, Iād personally be posting under a pseudonym and on a pseudonymous domain if I shared them. It feels really hard to accomplish what you want and maintain that firewall with so many ways to slip once your name is attached. Thatās allā I totally get your reasons and donāt deny them or feel theyāre invalid, I just feel like theyāre pretty tough to maintain along with real-name posting.
@jsonbecker And I agree re: matters much to Micro.blog. Itās an excellent blogging platform at a bargain price with just enough flexibility to customize. Itās not a social platform. It may seem like it is, but it also tries hard not to be. All of this is fine coz I donāt think Manton wants it to scale more than 10K active users.
@jsonbecker Yup, I get that. Maybe I shouldnāt have used my real name because crossposting wasnāt an option when I opened my MB account in 2017. In fact, I used a pseudonym for the first two weeks. But even with a pseudonym, I drop too many personal details on my blog.
@manton honestly, when I saw Croissant, I think you may have missed a trick (but itās never too late). I would heavily lean into the cross posting ability and then the blogging as cherry on top (I know it goes against you, but pivoting sometimes is a good thing).
@manton Thanks! Is Threads cross-posting down? Iāve successfully linked my account, but my recent post was only posted to Mastodon and Blueskyā¦
Itās a great service using open technologies and you canāt beat the community and support.
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@kaa Thanks. Thatās too much of a pivot, though. The goal is to get more people to blog, so it has to be the main thing. Everything else is in support of that.
@manton Doesnāt seem to be showing up. Hereās the post on Micro.blog and Bluesky. collin.micro.blog/2024/11/1ā¦ bsky.app/profile/cā¦
@collin Oh weird. I noticed the feed URL on the Sources page is actually wrong for your account. It must be something related to that, Iāll check. The path should be /feed.json if you want to remove and add it back.
@manton But what if they donāt want a blog? Is it possible to post on social media without it appearing on the open web, where thereās no control on who can see it?
@renevanbelzen Itās not a good fit for that. The goal is more blogs, so itās not the right product for private posts on social media.
@collin Iāve updated your feed URL, so ignore what I said about re-adding it. Hopefully that fixes it.
@tim.bueno.social Iām not aware of any Threads problems, although one user did report a delay of a few minutes. Lemme know if itās still not working! If there are authorization issues with Threads, it should report that, but you can also check Account ā View logs.
@tim.bueno.social Iām not aware of any Threads problems, although one user did report a delay of a few minutes. Lemme know if itās still not working! If there are authorization issues with Threads, it should report that, but you can also check Account ā View logs.
@manton I noticed the Mac app is no longer showing me post times relative to my time zone? It seems to be set to AST currently. Or, perhaps it always was and Iām just not observant!?
@manton I woke up this morning to see that they indeed went through, albeit 3 hours after I initially posted them. Iām chalking it up to a hiccup with Threads and not micro.blog at this point.
Thanks for the response!
@cdevroe If youāve changed time zones recently, try loading the web version. It should detect and update everywhere.
@pratik Very interesting, I may have to give Echofeed a look, I like your comment about it not linking back when you cross various threshholds.
@manton wasnāt there a thread about this a couple oā months ago even recall some suggestions for you? Including maybe losing the term āblogā on certain promotional aspects of the services you provide.
@manton if the goal is to get more people to blog how about a free starter tier thatās just that, a blog? Anything else on top is paid for, as it is now? It seems like plenty are already willing to pay for cross-posting elsewhere, so why not here, too?
āBtw, Iām perfectly happy with everything as it is (fwiw), and thanks for doing all of it!
@davidmarsden The problem with free is that too many spammers use it, creating a lot of extra work for us. Weāre going to experiment with a very low-cost plan. Iāll have more to share about this soon.
