A new TestFlight beta is out for Micro.blog 3.1. The big changes for this release are per-post cross-posting options and video upload. (Might still be some problems for certain video files. Proceed cautiously in that part of the app.)

@manton Just noticed. So how does the cross-posting work now? I’ve linked Mastodon in the Feeds page. So if I check Mastodon option in the New Post settings, it will cross-post otherwise not? Does it remember previous setting?

@pratik I am at the point that cross posting is useless for me until I can more easily choose where I post at a post level.

@JohnPhilpin This is at post level in the new beta

@pratik It defaults to "on" for all configured services and doesn't remember the previous setting. In other words, it works like the web version and Mac app. I still feel this is the best default for most people... I know this is debatable! Now that it's consistent everywhere we can consider if the defaults need to change.

@pratik oh … Thankyou … will go take a look. I came off the beta months ago because it broke my system … time to look again.

@pratik ha … I posted to mb .. cross posting to 4 others and looking to see if they appear … nada … only to find it’s not even on the microblog timeline … back later.

@pratik What you said is what Manton said.

Checked = cross-post activated or "on"

Unchecked = cross-post deactivated or "off"

"on" is the default — nothing is being remembered; it will always be on when making a new post.

It looks like your test was successful per the current design. The next step for folks is to use the Feature Requests thread if they want it to work a different way 👍

@SimonWoods maybe I’m misunderstanding.

There are two steps for cross posting now:

First, you’ve to link/enable Mastodon and Micro.blog in the Settings page. This is a one-time thing.

Second, when you write a post in the new beta, you can check the “cross post” to Mastodon row in the ⚙️ This is the part that I’m asking if it remembers or not when making another post. It seems it does.

And this is the way I want it to work hence this update is great for me.

@JohnPhilpin I’m seeing your post on Micro.blog. How about elsewhere?

@pratik yeah, that is the correct behaviour. Everything will automatically cross post unless you say otherwise per post.

@SimonWoods nails it with how it works.

Once the post is sent, your previous option of “not” cross-posting to a specific channel/service will be reset to the defaults = everywhere.

@pratik I stand corrected. It doesn’t remember at the post level so you’ve to remember to manually uncheck it each time. Not ideal but definitely much better than the earlier way.

@vincent @SimonWoods Yup. Got it now. Still a lot better than the previous way where you had to go to the settings and disable crossposting entirely.

Default “off” at post-level would be ideal though but this works in the short term.

@manton I don’t see the cross-posting settings. Is it not available for external blogs?

@pratik oh, I can see what you mean where you have to select them first… I think that’s a bug my end, so will have a look.

@manton DOG VIDEOS ALL DAY EVERYDAY!!!

@pratik Yep, I also think off-by-default would be best. Though I'm a bit of an "opt-in everything" person so I don't currently understand the alternative approach too well.

@kimonostereo Not for external blogs yet. We would likely need some way to preserve that setting in the feed.

@pratik ok - so clearly it took more time than usual to appear - now I can also see both.

But nothing was syndicated.

Now I need to understand behavior. I currently have all repost switched off.

In the app - I can check and uncheck the different services - and I can see a checkmark is there OR not.

I assumed that having it checked meant it got sent? BUT maybe it is that I also have to have them all enabled and then deselect that which I don’t want to send?

@JohnPhilpin What do you mean by “was not syndicated”? That it didn’t appear on other sites?

Your last paragraph is accurate. You have to check the destinations for the post to be crossposted.

@pratik so IF i enable cross posting on the account - then the default is to cross post everything - and I then need to run the checks every time ... what I want is to occasionally cross post ... so default is never and then on a post - choose on e or more of the acounts I want to send to - should that work somehow?

@pratik no syndicated = not posted

@JohnPhilpin No, the default is always crosspost and you have to uncheck to NOT post it at the other places. Previously, you couldn’t do the unchecking in the iOS app

@pratik bringing @manton into the conversation … to offer a different approach that makes the cross posting at a post level more useful

At the account level

1 I enable cross posting for any and all services I want to include in my list

2 for each service I decide whether they are ‘always on’ or ‘always off’

At the post level

1 When I have written a post and publish … it is cross posted according to the rule I set in step 2

2 but I can bring up the list of all the cross post possibilities … there is a check mark against each service that is on

3 just for that one post, I can uncheck checked services and check unchecked services so that single post is cross posted to that selection

—-

In my particular case, I would enable all services to be cross portable but NOT on … I would choose that at the post level.

This because some 90percent of my posts are in drafts and I use actions to publish and most of what I write I don’t want to blindly push out to other services

—-

So … is this how it works? Or am I making things too hard?

@JohnPhilpin What you describe are finer grain controls which I'm not sure @manton wants to do to prevent confusion. I kinda agree with him on that. So I was focusing my attention on what the default should be but not before deciding what affordances the platform offers from the values perspective.

I would enable all services to be cross portable but NOT on

I was initially assuming this was how it worked. But at least now we have per-post control. But it's still ON unless we check it off. But yes, I prefer what you suggest.

some 90 percent of my posts are in drafts and I use actions to publish and most of what I write I don’t want to blindly push out to other services.

@jsonbecker raised a good point. If we are using Drafts to publish, why even enable cross-posting in Micro.blog? Just set up actions in Draft for each of those services you are publishing to and do it via Drafts.

I'm trying something else for Mastodon. I raised a topic in the Help Forum for clarification before I proceed.

@pratik I will wait until @manton weighs in before I do a full reply …

Re @jsonbecker suggestion … yes … using the very excellent post/update drafts action .. that would indeed work … but I wonder what percentage of micro blog users have drafts … much less uses drafts to post to micro blog on a regular basis?

Was thinking about the microblog self contained solution … if bookshelves, podcasting et al are services built in to micro blog so you don’t need a third party … why would you need a third party to post … the most basic service of micro blog.

Granularity is very important … without it … I cannot see how I can easily cross post without cluttering up my services …. Eg … only very occasionally into LinkedIN, but more often into Mastodon or BlueSky … maybe only book, film and music posts into TUMBLR etc

And yes … this is not a Full reply’ 🤣

@chrislottorg It’s not the most convenient option unless everything you post on your socials is via Drafts.

My friction arises from having to switch to Drafts to post when I’m browsing each platform’s timeline. Often I get lazy and use the native posting window mostly for micro posts (I wish I could disable the posting feature in each of these apps ☺️)

Longform posts are often written in Drafts. But you never know which posts starts off as micro and ends up as longform 🤷🏽‍♂️

@JohnPhilpin fundamentally the purpose of cross positing is not, IMO, very careful curation of identity. It’s a key feature largely to support the idea that you want everything you post to first and foremost live on your blog on the open web. Crossposting is a way to expose that content natively where other people are while you own the canonical version of your content.

There are whole social media management tools that are about posting the same or different content specifically to different platforms and audiences and endless complexity there. But in the end, if your goal is not post on your own site and syndicate everywhere, I’m not at all convinced what you’re doing is what is meant by crossposting. It could be valuable and work well for you, but it’s implementing a different function than Indieweb style “syndicate your blog”.

Micro.blog isn’t a social media management tool— it’s a blogging tool that helps do the syndication where available to other platforms.

@jsonbecker I wouldn’t disagree that I am an edge case. And you are doubtless way more qualified than I as to what cross posting is - and what ‘we’ want … doesn’t change my mind though 😂 … since Micro Blog is increasingly ‘shoe shine and desert’.

I think my request that duplicates functionality found in other apps is reasonable as we have other functionality built into Micro Blog that replicates functionality found in other 3rd party apps, bookshelves and podcasts particularly spring to mind.

@JohnPhilpin and @jsonbecker Sorry to wade in here - I may not be illuminating anything. I would like "syndication profiles" - that is, maybe I syndicate to everything, or maybe I syndicate to a work or professional stream, or maybe to a personal stream, or maybe to a family stream. I try to be authentic at all times, but I do have different personae in real life, and I'd like these to carry over into my digital life - even if there is a "single source of truth" should anyone be bothered to go looking for it. After all, my personae aren't deceptive (they are all me!), but they are differently contextualised, and people who know me know me in different places. I take the point about it being arguable whether MB is the tool to offer such fine-grained control, but then I am looking for an ur-tool that does.

@mmetcalfe I fully understand what you, @JohnPhilpin, and @pratik want. It’s viewing Micro.blog as a posting tool to other services, which I get. In some ways it absolutely can be that. It’s just a different persona and use case than is currently optimized here. I’m actually considering writing this up how I would at my day job as a product manager (including the solution I would propose) as a fun public exercise. I’ll see what energy I have this weekend.

@jsonbecker Looking forward to that but yes, it gives me pause to think how I’m using Micro.blog.

@mmetcalfe exactly … Thankyou for weighing in.

@jsonbecker look forward to it .. but I’ll understand if the ‘strength’ to make it happen eludes you.

@jsonbecker @JohnPhilpin Thank you. For me, interesting conversation and like @pratik, it has got me thinking about my social media and blogging practice. I've been trying to avoid this, but I don't think I can put it off indefinitely!

@manton Just noticed this on the current iOS beta: Attaching a photo to a post gives the error: "Whoops an error occured. Please try again." It seems like the photo is attached and I can add alt text, but the photo does not post.

@kimonostereo Thanks. Has photo upload worked for you in the 3.x version at all yet? Wonder if it’s something with our support for Movable Type again.

@manton hmmm. Good question! I don’t think I’ve tried to upload a photo to MT using the beta app before this, so it might just be a MT issue with the app.