Fellow microbloggers – what’s the best way to post to Micro.blog in an anti-social way? There are times I’m going to want to post but not want to get distracted by the timeline and such.

@justindirose I think it'd be best to gather what you want to share and then set a timer for when scrolling through the timeline. I've barely used the microblog yet myself. I struggle with adhd and get distracted quite easily so I find that pacing and mindfulness helps!

@justindirose quill linked here should be a good option.

@justindirose If you’re on a Mac, @danielpunkass’s MarsEdit is awesome blogging software and is completely compatible.

@justindirose what do you mean by antisocial way?

@PurposefulWarrior111 good thought for sure! Long term I wouldn't trust myself to abide by it though 

@toddgrotenhuis I saw that and will check it out. Thanks!

@Bruce I am on Mac part of the time anyway Thanks for the recommendation!

@prologic There are times I want to post to micro.blog like a blog versus a social network. So basically a minimal posting mechanism for those times.

@justindirose isn’t there an API though? I’m sure there are numerous clients that can be used just to post new blog posts right? Or am I missing something 😁

@prologic There sure is but I haven't had the time to dig in so I'm fishing for recommendations. :)

@justindirose 😁 Ahh I see ! I can’t provide any at the moment but I’ll be looking to do something similar myself fairly soon 🤜

@justindirose Drafts would be good for this (or MarsEdit for a Mac only option). There may be other options, but Drafts would be great from a distraction-free perspective. Write out your thoughts and use an action to send to Micro.blog.

@justindirose There’s a list of applications in Help, and we also maintin a different, more “solutions”-oriented list in the wiki, which is where you’ll find things like Drafts actions, Shortcuts, and command-line tools that people have written to provide solutions for their various workflows. // @prologic

@justindirose I get that anti-social feeling pretty regularly. I’m with you on that. M.b is a great blogging system and sometimes I want to post something that I don’t want anyone to comment on. It’s a tension in the system, and you’re not alone in feeling it.

@chet @justindirose There is no way to prevent someone from replying/commenting, right?

@pratik @justindirose The only way currently is if you remove your feed in your account settings. Your m.b hosted blog still posts fine, but you lose access to seeing your posts in your own timeline. You have to check/verify in the web interface or on your blog itself. I’ve done that in the past, but I value seeing my posts in my timeline to ensure that they post... just simplifies things.

@justindirose I prefer to use Drafts to write and post without having to open the other apps to do so. Works well for me!

@justindirose Drafts and MarsEdit are the way to go.

@chet Glad to know the option exists but I keep it for the reason you cite - to see it posted. Although I admit that I do like to see replies.

@justindirose Another person endorsing Drafts. It works on iOS and macOS and is distraction-free.

@pratik I like replies, too, especially on photos. But sometimes I want to post something that I know will be controversial. I know that kind of self-censorship is not a good thing. I'm not looking for a fight, but it’s hard to resist arguing with strangers on the Internet.

What's great in this whole conversation is that it reinforces how great micro.blog is. It's the best blogging platform and it’s a vibrant social feed. They're totally independent of each other and they're also totally interconnected.

@chet @pratik @justindirose If you regularly find yourself wanting to post something to your own blog but not have it go to the Timeline, you can do as @tones suggested above: replace your (main) feed with a category feed in your Account’s Feeds & Cross-posting settings. Then only things posted to that category go to the Timeline. Not as elegant as a “do not send to the Timeline“ setting, but that’s all we’ve got.

@pratik @chet I'm totally ok with people replying -- but I know myself and I like feeds of information. So my antisocial desire is more "drop this thing here and leave" versus "please don't talk to me" though I feel the latter sometimes!

@justindirose @pratik I see it both ways, and both could be useful. I’m not able to get into Manton’s mind, but I think that he set out to build the best blogging system and a “thin glue,” as he calls it, feed that binds together this collection of independent blogs. Separating those two things will take a lot of thought, and Manton has demonstrated that he’s willing to be very patient and intentional about making changes. For the time being, it feels like we have good workarounds until official feature release.