Blogging

There are 105 posts filed in Blogging (this is page 5 of 11).

Demo of MyStatusTool – Twitter using RSS and rssCloud

I have created a proof of concept for a microblogging tool relying on RSS for data storage and rssCloud for notification. I was motivated to do this to show how rssCloud could be used to support a Twitter-like experience. Also, I was blocked for posting an innocuous comment on the FeedLand user feed tool, and felt that there needed to be an alternative to that tool for microblog posting. My earlier posts on the development of this tool are here and here.

In this demo app, the basic functions are:

  • Ability to make a short post
  • When a post is made, a RSS feed is updated, a separate page for the post is created, and the post appears on the home page via Websockets
  • The tool provides hosting for the RSS feed and posts created
  • The tool can display updates to any RSS feeds that support the rssCloud protocol via Websockets (feeds are listed in a configuration file)
  • The contents of the feeds in the configuration file are displayed when the user accesses the page (so they can see what has been posted recently), then any posts with the tool appear at the top of the page

The tool is set up for a single user and requires some configuration. Please consult the README on the Github repo for more information if you want to set up the tool for yourself.

The demo app is available at http://fedwiki.andysylvester.com:443/. The contents of the feeds in the configuration file are displayed, along with any recent posts using the demo app. I encourage people to try making posts and see how they appear and how quickly they appear. As posts continue, so will display of updates to the RSS feeds in the configuration file.

This is a proof of concept, but will be further developed. If you find problems in the tool, or want to suggest features, feel free to create an issue in the Github repo. Also, I would love it if a few other people try installing it and let me know how it goes…

Update on MyStatusTool development

Recently I published a roadmap of the major features for a “Twitter using rssCloud” tool that I am calling MyStatusTool. As of this weekend, I have the major pieces in place (have a text box to enter a short post, to create a RSS feed based on the posts, for each post to have a page, to ping a rssCloud server when a post is live, to have the posts be displayed in reverse-chronological order, and to display posts from other tools that create RSS feeds supporting rssCloud). I spent some time looking at integrating Passport.js to provide multi-user capability, but it turned out to be more than just a day’s worth of work. As a result, I am going to push my current version to Github this weekend after writing some docs. More news to come!

A roadmap for MyStatusTool

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was working on a blog tool not ready to show off yet. Since then, I thought I should follow Colin Walker’s lead in describing some of what I am developing. The working title is MyStatusTool, you can think of it as “Twitter using rssCloud”. The minimum functionality I am working toward is to have a text box to enter a short post, to create a RSS feed based on the posts, for each post to have a page, to ping a rssCloud server when a post is live, to have the posts be displayed in reverse-chronological order, and to display posts from other tools that create RSS feeds supporting rssCloud. This pretty much describes the “Read user feeds…” functionality in FeedLand (link works if you have a FeedLand account). You can also think of the Twitter web user interface as an example. I will probably create a temp Github repo soon to start putting the app under version control. Stay tuned for more updates!

What is the independent web?

I got a comment from a reader yesterday asking what I meant by the phrase “the independent web” in my previous post. In my post, I defined it as “websites and web presences that are not part of a silo like Twitter, Facebook, etc, where people own their data and control it”. An extension of this is using technologies like RSS for checking for site updates and for podcasting, which are not controlled by another platform (even though entities like Spotify and other streaming services would like to “capture and keep users” within their ecosystems). Wanting to double-check, I did some searching to see if there were other references to this phrase. and found a number of links I will add at the end of this post. To me, the key aspect of “independent web” is not being dependent on a silo (like Twitter or Facebook). This can be self-hosting or hosting on a service that provides good export (Micro.blog as an example). I recently wrote a post about how easy should it be to create a website, based on a discussion between several bloggers. The key point of that discussion, to me, was that Twitter/Facebook provides ease of use/setup/no cost, but also a lack of control. To me, if you want to have an independent site, you should be prepared to pay something for it, and the cost of hosting a weblog or website is pretty low. Finally, to me, the use of the term “IndieWeb” has grown somewhat beyond this “independent web” definition to include using technologies like Webmention as part of a website to site-to-site communication. Again, to me sites don’t have to use Webmention to be considered part of the independent web. I hope this helps answer the question my reader had.

Other links on “the independent web”:

Business Insider – The Independent Web

John Battelle – Identity and the Independent Web

Web Designer Depot – What is the Independent Web and Does It Matter in 2021?

Victoria Drake – Make your own independent website

The History of the Web – Toward an independent web

Mental Pivot – Support the independent web