in Blogging, IndieWeb

Why praise Micro.blog?

My friend, John Philpin, responded (https://beyondbridges.net/2018/06/in-praise-of-micro-blog/) to my question about using Micro.blog (what makes it more than just another blogging service), and to me his response in a nutshell is “community”. One of the features of Micro.blog is the ability to find other Micro.blog users using the Discover /Users page (https://micro.blog/discover/users), then to “follow” them after selecting a user (a la Twitter), then seeing the posts of those users in the Timeline (a la Twitter), being able to respond quickly to them (a la Twitter), and creating Mentions by using the username of the user (a la Twitter). To me, this is the “killer feature” of Micro.blog. The posting abilities are pretty standard (editing, linking, etc.).

Perhaps another “killer feature” is that the Micro.blog staff perform curation and enforce community guidelines (http://macgenie.micro.blog/2018/04/10/a-guide-to.html), which results in higher signal-to-noise ratio for postings and conversations. I started this year with a goal of making some type of post every day, even if it was just a link. That lasted about six weeks, so I am trying to “get back in the saddle again” through this post.

I tend to use RSS for tracking posts of people I am interested in (my reading list page (http://readinglist.andysylvester.com/) is an example), and then engage as I see interesting posts. I can follow the posters at Micro.blog through RSS, and do follow a few people I know (John Philpin, Ron Chester, Frank McPherson). Sometimes I feel my reading time is limited, and this reading list gives me a single place to go to follow the people that interest me.

So, should I praise Micro.blog? As a service, it is still somewhat new. However, it appears to have attracted a number of followers, and has a possibly sustainable business model through hosting support. I think it deserves the opportunity to demonstrate how blogging can facilitate community through services paid for by users, and welcoming those (like myself) who are posting from afar…

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  • Read Why praise Micro.blog? by Andy Sylvester (andysylvester.com)

    My friend, John Philpin, responded (https://beyondbridges.net/2018/06/in-praise-of-micro-blog/) to my question about using Micro.blog (what makes it more than just another blogging service), and to me his response in a nutshell is “community”. One of the features of Micro.blog is the ability to …

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