Scripting News: Monday, December 11, 2023
Do you have a feed-only blog?#
Obviously, at some point Musk will sell Twitter to Zuckerberg.#
Something that should make you cry. So many of our friends on the web are happy to let Facebook run the new Twitter. What is wrong with you. I don't know any better way to put it. Quitting Twitter is pointless, meaningless, powerless. But not building Threads for Facebook is not meaningless. For once can people look out for the future, keep the window open for independence for writers and developers, and let us try out some new ideas that might not be something Zuckerberg would love? Come on already. This is the saddest moment, when there's so much possibility, and you all are ready to just throw it away. (And no, I don't believe for a minute they're going to do anything that helps the Fediverse. I know the playbook. Saying you'll be open is what you do until you dominate, then it's just business. Truth is it's always just business, and saying you're going to be open at this stage of network development is good for business.)#Starting in September or so I start thinking about Blogger of the Year, a thing I do at the end of most years. Not too many people care, but it's a good thing for me to do -- to review what makes a blog the most interesting and valuable of the year, to me -- obviously. We all should name a BOTY, or give out any award we feel is deserved. People think "well it's just me and I don't matter" -- which is totally true, and is why you might as well pick someone. At least they'll know you appreciate them. And it gets you to think about what you value, which builds over time to a better understanding of everything. Last year I chose Heather Cox Richardson, whose Substack site is a constant read for me. Every night an email arrives, at different times, and if I'm up and in the mood, I'll spend a few minutes with HCR and it's always illuminating. She was my choice last year because her writing re-kindled my interest in American history, and I started reading books on most slavery, something that was seriously missing from my NYC education, and is so important to who we are as a country. #
Before moving on to this year's BOTY, I thought HCR could help figure out how we could move past merely reporting on Trump's danger to democracy, something that was clear going back to 2015, the news could start reporting on The Resistance, what we're doing to prevent the end of democracy. And in order for that to happen, we have to do newsworthy things for them to write about! We're not doing that. It started out well, with the Woman's March on January 20, 2017, but that was it. We can and must keep showing up, and I'm not advocating huge marches, I want to see neighborhood-level marching. Once a month, rain or shine, we all walk (if possible) or drive to our voting places, where there will be music, food, people with ideas, dancing, whatever you like. Making civic participation a regular thing. You go because you want to be there. Not against something but for all of us. All we have to do is figure out how this works, how to beat the drum, to get the ball rolling. The idea is that if we got close to 100 percent voter participation, our democracy would be in the best shape it's been in probably since inception. I had another idea that's worth considering. We should all wear the same button, just a picture, no slogans, an idea of what we stand for as Americans. It could be an American flag, or it could be a photo of Martin Luther King. The latter was my choice. People love the button, but it didn't catch on. If we all did, it's omission would be noticed, and we'd know there's someone we should talk with about America and offer them a free button, nicely, if they'll put it on right now. Anyway, I'm putting this out there again, and I'll keep doing it. #There's an interesting recent development in the world of feeds and blogs -- blogs that are only feeds. Designed to be read in feed readers of all sizes and shapes. I have a few of these myself. My linkblog for example. Also, FeedLand provides an outbound feed to every user, which meets all the qualifications of a feed-only blog. #
I want to say this as loudly and clearly as I can. If we want independent writing on the web to flourish, we need our own search engine, to help us find each other, and build associations of writers, so we can influence each other, and help developers create new tools for all writers. Or simply to find something I wrote about 15 years ago, so I can refer back to it. I really don't have a good way yet to find stuff I've written. It's all there on the web, for crying out loud. #More important, we need to learn to work together, we do very very little of that. It's amazingly difficult to get a new idea heard by other developers. This is a huge problem, it's why we've always been dominated by big companies who don't care about what we do. #
Start with a search engine for bloggers. I'll help. And let's do lots of them, so no one can stand in the way of trying out new ideas. #
If you develop one of the ideas I write about here, tell me about it!#
Let me try it out. Lately there have been people doing this, but for some reason I don't find out about the work until it's too late.#
What are people thinking? If I ask for something, there's a reason -- I want to learn from it.#
And of course I'll share what I learn here on my blog, of course.#
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has officially pledged his fealty to former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election — despite some concerns about Trump's messaging.#
Linkblog items for the day.
Jezebel is back. jezebel.com
A blog for developers with no RSS feed. Hard to believe. chrome.com
The Lawyer Who Took on Big Tobacco Is Now Fighting an Online Sports Betting Giant. vice.com
Tumblr's 'fediverse' integration is still being worked on, says owner and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg. techcrunch.com
Using A.I. to Talk to the Dead. nytimes.com
November: The Future of RSS. scripting.com
ChatGPT exploded into public life a year ago. theguardian.com
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