Yeah, RSS is going to save me. I can’t keep up with my Micro.blog timeline and I know I missing so much. Fortunately, Vivaldi browser has a RSS reader (beta) and I’m going to start exerimenting with it by subscribing to blogs.
@bradenslen I’m with you. I don’t want to spend time tied to the timeline, and I know that I miss interesting conversations…and then when I do dive in I miss the original posts due to a conversation populated timeline (though ironically I came to this one via @pratik’s reply! 🤦🏼♂️).
@crossingthethreshold It used to be, that I could catch posts on Twitter, both from MB users and from elsewhere, but fewer are syndicating to Twitter now. I do pick up on original posts via conversations as well, but I have limited time so I just check in to MB only once a day and that just isn't enough.
Also, I'm playing with RSS readers for news too. I use Twitter for that a lot, but the day may come when I quit Twitter. cc. @pratik @amit
@bradenslen NetNewsWire can pull in Twitter, Reddit and YouTube as “feeds”. Worth a look if you’re considering other RSS readers.
@JohnPhilpin @amit Not hard exactly, just need to figure out how it would fit in with the default and if there are any unintended side effects.
@manton A checkbox/dropdown at the top of timeline which filters out replies should be a nice start. Something I attempted in micro.threads with the APIs. But baked in, you can make it a lot more simple and useful.
@amit Often I look through my timeline and maybe 80% is little replies like "hang in there!" "so true!" "sorry this happened to you" "(smiley face)" and so on, not even replies that tell me whether the original post is something I want to look up. For me this is the biggest downside of micro.blog.
@manton I also think it would be nice to have a feed with only titled posts. Many bloggers in the micro.blog community write great titled articles, essays, and notes but it's really hard to scroll through the busy timeline and spot such posts.
Related tangent: Just like micro.blog has dedicated Podcast and Photos categories in the Discover section, I think it's only fair to have one for articles too! I'm probably biased here, since nearly all my posts here are only longform content, but I think such discoverability could provide a great boost to people's more longer and more non-fleeting content. Thoughts?
@uncertainquark For what it’s worth I like that idea, but I also have a little OCD about titling my posts even when they’re short form. I’m trying to break myself of it, but sometimes I can’t help myself and I’ll go back and title short posts.
@uncertainquark @manton I’ll throw my hat in the ring and second this idea. And perhaps an option to not show replies in the timeline, as inevitably you’ll come across the original post anyway so long as you follow them.
@pimoore Ideal for me would be an option for just posts, with an "n replies" button below (like the "conversation" button we have now). But the original should appear on the timeline if I follow any of the repliers! Seeing replies to people I don't know is the main way I discover new voices on m.b.
@bradenslen I'm with those who'd appreciate an "original posts only" timeline, so long as I could still drill down to the conversation it started.
Downside: I've discovered a few people to follow by their thoughtful replies to someone I already followed.
@JMaxB @pimoore I don’t even need to know how many replies. Just an indication whether it has replies. I can then dig in and read the replies chronologically. So many of the replies on my regular timeline are for a handful of posts so it will save me a lot of swiping and then realizing, oh! This is for that same post.
@pratik I agree, I only want to know if there are replies. I'd like the post to show up on my timeline if (a) I follow the person who posted; (b) any of the replies are by people I follow. OK, we've fixed micro.blog!
@JMaxB But that’s how it is right now. Or there’s an option to make it so. Trouble is, as you follow more and more people, it gets replies-heavy.
@bradenslen I’ve requested a way to see only original posts for some time. I’ve seen a lot of reply floods the past week or two. I think client authors could provide it without backend support (?).
@pimoore @jmaxb I can even live with something more basic. Click on the conversation link to then go to that post page (Conversation view/timeline), like it does now. Just seeing original posts only sans replies would be a big plus. It can even be a separate tab like we have the Discover or Mentions.