An interesting note – I wanted to link to the entry at links.daveverse.org for a particular link. I went to the site, did not see an easy way, so I went to the RSS feed linked at the bottom of the site. To my surprise, the feed listed items pointing to the links.daveverse.org item, but that item did not have the URL related to that item. I finally found them at https://dave.linkblog.org/. However, this seems to be at odds with Dave Winer’s own description of what a linkblog feed should be – what’s up with that?
Feeds
There are 124 posts filed in Feeds (this is page 3 of 13).
Use case: linkblogging from your phone
I use my RSS reading app to graze stories from the feeds I am following. After scrolling through the list, I have a set of browser tabs open to read. After reading, usually I have several tabs (or perhaps a lot of tabs) for which I would like to save the links. Many times in the past, I have copied them to a “link dump” file. However, another approach is to use a linkblogging tool to capture the links.
My tool of choice in this situation is MyStatusTool (my live version is here). Here is a screenshot from my phone browser:
The area above the “post your update” button is the text area to enter a post. MyStatusTool uses the medium-editor toolbar to make it easy to add a link. The most difficult thing is to select the link text and get the medium-editor toolbar to appear (usually I double-tap the text). It is also best to only link to a single word (again, selecting several words as the link text can be difficult). The tool also creates a view of user posts, so you can review just your posts and not all of the content from subscribed feeds.
If anyone is interested in installing MyStatusTool, let me know! More information is available at The Feed Network.
More on linkblogging
Frank McPherson wrote this week on the subject of linkblogging, looking at how RSS can be used to share. I liked his perspective on how linkblogs can be useful in a web browser, while just having a RSS-feed linkblog requires a feed reader. Both of these types of sharing are supported on the Web – diversity in action!
Some thoughts on linkblogging
As I have written in the past week, I have a number of linkblogs and linkblog sites:
- Liveblog47 – Links to liveblogs covering the current Trump administration
- Linkblog – A place for my links
- AndySylvester.com – my links category
- KamalaCampaignTimeline – a single page site of links to media during the Kamala Harris presidential campaign
I have used different tools for these sites, but I consider all of them to be linkblogs of one kind or another. Many people have linkblogs. However, this week, Dave Winer says that he “had to do a definitive linkblog“. Really? Like there is such a thing. Is there a “definitive blog”? Dave has commented on how people should not start a group “whose name says you own the future of something that is open” (podcasting), or what constitutes the open social web. Please – let’s have a little humility here. Linkblogs are everywhere and have lots of variety, just like regular blogs. No need to add the adjective “definitive” here…
Dave Winer writes today about “a nice social web that builds on simple open formats”. I think that is already here – The Feed Network! Nothing else to do to make this happen…
Tara Calashain of ResearchBuzz has created a great RSS web app called No Kings TV, which displays news and YouTube videos from 20 regions in the US, and has a button for “Protest News”. Check it out!
I have used stock WordPress as a linkblogging tool (used a category). I also have a nice tool for linkblogging (see demo here). I also have a Hugo-based linkblog. No lack of options!
I am interested in seeing what Dave Winer is going to do with WordLand as a linkblogging tool. It can already be used as a linkblogging tool, but I think he wants the RSS feed to be something that is different from what WordPress generates.
Here is a demo version of MyStatusTool (one of the tools in The Feed Network tool catalog) – take a look and let me know if anyone is interested in setting up a demo!
Meanwhile, the tools of The Feed Network are there for people to set up their own social networks with real-time notification. If anyone needs help with setup, let me know!