For Micro.blog this year, we want to highlight more long-form blog posts. The kind of posts that are worth setting aside a few minutes to read, not just a quick skim. Ever come across a post you love? Drop the URL in this new slow reads submission form. 🐢

@manton Great idea. I’ve pushed Micro.Blog and Bear Blog as good alternatives to Substack for long-form – especially as that platform gets more app-based (Medium-ification?)

@manton Bookmarked!

@manton Love this idea! I’ve recently drastically reduced the blogs I have been following on my RSS and I have been trying to prioritize exactly this, long form, things that make me reflect, that require me to stop and read instead of just a tiny post that you just scroll by (these have value too, but they are different)

@jonah I love the idea of ‘Medium-ification’ as a detraction instead of a benefit.

@manton will there be an RSS feed?

@manton I’ve always felt that the long form stuff is short changed in the timeline. A simple background shade difference would elevate this a little

@kaa @manton 💯

@JohnPhilpin Definitely!

@kaa Yeah, we’ve always de-emphasized long posts because I didn’t want them to shift focus away from microblog posts. But it’s time for some changes here. I like the color idea. I’m also testing better truncation which should roll out next week.

@jonah Thanks for recommending it!

@manton this is all brilliant! I think it would be sweet if the “summary” field when you create a long form post was what showed up in the timeline when you published long form

@kaa @manton this has been my suggestion too. Just make it stand out so I don’t accidentally scroll past it

@manton I’m intrigued to see next week’s truncation improvements. I see room for improvement in Micro.blog’s Fediverse support in particular.

As for the slow reads submission form, I wish you success with it but I do not see myself using it. Micro.blog already has a fantastic channel for spotlighting long reads: Each of our blogs. I highlight long reads (and medium reads and short reads) on mitchwagner.com.

@manton I am very excited about this. I like blogging on micro.blog.

@manton Thinking about this a little further, I also see room for improvement in Micro.blog’s ATPro support.

I’d like to see more graceful support for longer posts in both the Fediverse and ATverse. But I fear that might require changes to Mastodon and Bluesky, which is outside Micro.blog’s scope.

@MitchWagner There’s a convention for long-form posts in AT Proto now that I plan to support. It won’t work with Bluesky yet, but maybe they’ll add it later.

@manton can I request micro_post:true for the api again so I can implement this?

@gregmorris Yes, I think you’re right, we’re going to need that.

@manton I like this idea. Looking forward to how this is being implemented.

@manton totally agree with @kaa on this. If you care about the timeline, which maybe we should not, you would never title your posts. I’ve thought about this for a while and I don’t think visuals alone are sufficient. Perhaps it deserves an entirely different non-algorithmic feed.

@manton just submitted Om’s incredible essay on Velocity is the new Authority. This is topically relevant and one of the best pieces of writing I’ve read in a while. Shared in Weekly Thing 338 too.

@jthingelstad @manton could there simply be a feed in discovery that shows long-form posts?