Mandaris

There have been a couple of posts on Micro.blog - the service I use to host my blog - about how to improve the handling of longform content. I thought I would yell into the void write my thoughts and feelings about this topic.

How did I get here?

I’ve been blogging for a while. I remember the days of GeoCities and LiveJournal and enjoyed spending time on the internet. When twitter came out, I spent a lot of time trying to be witty and win sweepstakes. I enjoyed it because it was quick dopamine hit to see new content or create my own without going into details like titles or nuance.

When twitter started to get less fun, I found myself wanting to get back into owning my own content. I saw Manton’s kickstarter for micro.blog and it really was the answer I was looking for.

Where are we?

With Micro.blog, I got the following:

• Hosting for my blog where I didn’t have to worry about the the technical infrastructure
• Web and iOS clients to make my posts
• Freedom to share it outside of micro.blog

I think the last point is really one of the things that I like about micro.blog. I make something and there isn’t a pull to make you part of the service. Either with cross posting or RSS, I’m confident that my message goes out there. Whether it’s my media reviews, pictures of my dog, or asinine comments, I share them on my blog an in The Timeline.

The micro.blog timeline shows the last 40 to 50 entries from different accounts that you are following and allows you to respond quickly if you choose. The people that you choose to follow is the thing that engages you, not an algorithm designed to trick you into doomscrolling. The Timeline doesn’t do reblogging, retweeting, or boosts. Much like time itself, it’s ephemeral. The content is there as a snapshot in time and you are more than welcome to explore more of the authors content on their respective sites.

Though, The Timeline is not perfect.

I’ve been on the service for years and I sometimes don’t know or remember what content shows up in the timeline. For example, if I want to share a link, I have to decide on whether I share just the link, text around the link, whether I should use the title of the page being linked or my own title because all of these could show up different in The Timeline.

First world problem.

Where are we going with this?

We live in a world where sometimes 180 to 300 words don’t really convey what we want to say. For some of us, we’d like to share a little more. This works for our personal blogs, but it seems as if some of us want more. And it seems as if there is some change coming to the service.

Great points in this conversation about how Micro.blog handles longer blog posts with titles. Maybe the time has come for a change here. I’ve never wanted Micro.blog’s timeline to be a bunch of summaries and “read more” links, but right now we should be encouraging longer posts, not relegating them.

I’ve had some time to think about what I would enjoy as a way to have more longform in The Timeline.

• Make it clear that the Number 1 priority for The Timeline is for the readers. NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T is more than just a clickbaity title. I love reading things from my friends such as @JohnPhilpin and @lmika, but I would rather see their longer pieces on their own websites or in my RSS reader. If I’m reading The Timeline, I want to see as many things from my friends before I get back to pretending to work.
• Make it so that the rules are clear When the change happens, have the rules next to the post text area. There should be directions to get help either on the page or a link to where the directions are.
• Allow for image previews If you do a book review, a small preview of the book cover becomes available. This could be a long term goal to include something like that for those who add images to their posts.