Do I brag too much or not enough? It occurred to me that Micro.blog might be on the only platform of its kind that has built-in support for exporting content in several different file formats. And multiple APIs to get your data out? JSON, XML-RPC, Micropub. Our commitment to portability is absolute.

From an article at NPR about what might happen to TikTok when the law goes into effect:

It’s also possible that users will be able to access the app but it may be buggy, operate slowly or crash often, the TikTok official said.

Buggy and crash? I guess it’s possible that if some backend services were shut down it could cause problems for the app. Sounds more like made up nonsense, though, as TikTok scrambles to figure out what to do because they only had literal years notice this might happen.

Free Our Feeds looks like a sincere effort but it’s a little vague. $30 million is a lot of money to raise via donations. I’d love to see this team communicate in more detail what they want to do.

Funny how “billionaire” is now effectively a synonym for “anyone rich”. It’s almost a cheat — like a shortcut to describe venture capital or any profit. Won’t anyone think of the poor millionaires who are unfairly grouped together with the super-rich? 🤪

With the increase in scrutiny around how Matt Mullenweg manages the WordPress project, some people have asked whether it’s a risk to invest in .blog, which is owned by Automattic, and in fact whether Micro.blog is online only at the whims of the mad king. I’m not worried. It...

Good morning, IndieWeb! We’ve got a meetup this Wednesday in Austin, at Radio Coffee & Beer. You can RSVP here or just show up. ☕️🍺

As more people follow Bluesky users in Micro.blog, there are more posts that are flowing into our platform, so you’ll start to see the occasional Bluesky post in Discover too. Discover can evolve to be a snapshot of interesting microblogs anywhere, Mastodon too, even if it’s mostly Micro.blog users.

Thanks David Pierce for including my home screen in the latest Installer at The Verge! I mention some of the apps on my home screen and why they’re there. Lots of great CES coverage at The Verge this last week too.

I’m a frequent critic of modern Apple but I’m happy to point out when they stand up for values that have nothing to do with money. As Meta and Amazon are disbanding their DEI efforts, Apple is pushing back. The term DEI is tainted now, unfortunately. Scrap the acronym. Keep working toward the goal.

I’m interested in the IndieWeb, books, and thinking about curation, so of course I love this post from Ben Werdmuller:

The indieweb should feel like the Norrington Room: an expansive world of different voices, opinions, modes of expression, and art that you can explore, peruse, or have curated for you. It’s not about any particular goal aside from the goal of being enriched by people sharing their lived experiences, creativity, and expertise. It’s a journey of discovery, conversation, and community, not a journey of extraction.

Hope to visit Blackwell’s one day too.

Palmetto State Park. San Marcos River, trail, and old CCC building.

There are a bunch of interesting new smart glasses at CES — see this post by Victoria Song at The Verge — but I’m still looking for something simpler. Looks like normal glasses, can take photos, no screen, optionally you can talk to it, not made by Meta.

Ouch. Pretty good game until everything unraveled on the 1 yard line. Great season overall for UT though. 🏈

On Core Int 624 we talk all about Micro.one! Daniel checks it out live on the show for the first time and has feedback about the sign up process and business.

The popular Mastodon server Hachyderm.io has defederated with Threads. They have a long post with their reasoning: Threads’ recent changes in their moderation policies, both what they’ve put in and what they’ve taken out (read the diff), puts their moderation practices in d...

Catching up on the Bluesky world, I missed this note in Last Week in Bluesky about trending topics:

The technological underpinning of how Trending Topics work on Bluesky is noteworthy: every trending topic is a custom feed. Every time a new topic is trending, a new custom feed gets created, giving the team better control over the topic. It also allows for new possibilities that have not yet been explored, such as archiving and documenting feeds after the trend is over, or other options that have not yet been explored.

I like it. Technical choices affect what’s possible with moderation.

On the Meta content moderation change, I think there’s something to the idea that a company will always pivot or disappoint you if you don’t know what they stand for. Twitter also changed who they were multiple times. I want to build a company that has an unwavering, clear message over decades.

Photos of the LA fires are unreal. Feeling for everyone out there.

Very cold and slightly rainy afternoon. For some reason I picked this weather to go for a short walk along the river.

I received some good feedback about the latest episode of Timetable, so I thought I’d re-post the transcript here, for folks who don’t listen to podcasts or who just missed it. In a way, it’s an evolved mission statement, but more personal, reframed for 2025. You can listen ...

Micro.blog’s status page has been down for a while. It’s back up now. No actual server downtime while the status page was down, thankfully. 🤞

I enjoy reading Ben Thompson’s Stratechery every day, and I’m always nodding along, but I think his take on Meta and content moderation is off the mark. The web is the open platform where nearly any speech is allowed. Platforms need to tread more carefully because of their power to influence.

Feel like I can finally catch my breath and start promoting Micro.one now. Great to see so many people share a link to it. I noticed a handful of posts and probably missed some.

We’re starting up a new beta for Strata, our companion mobile app for private and shared notes in Micro.blog. You can join the TestFlight beta here. Bookmarks, tags, and highlights are moving into Strata and (eventually) out of the main Micro.blog app.

Colin Devroe with some thoughts on social platforms and VC funding:

People are still chasing follower counts. Mastodon (which may not be perfect but the model is far more attractive and sustainable than anything else out there right now) isn’t growing at the pace Bluesky is and so people aren’t even considering it. That is a shame.

If you’re chasing follower counts, you’ll never be truly happy. Chase good content and good conversations. Chase having your own space on the web.

There’s now an event page for next week’s IndieWeb Meetup in Austin. ☕️🍺

New Micro.blog coffee mugs! T-shirts too if you haven’t seen them, courtesy of @jimmitchell who has my blessing to run with this merchandise.

Trying to pay some old fee from a car lease that I returned 7 years ago, stuck on the phone, dropped calls, terrible finance websites, and generally just a complete waste of time… But this typo on their website maybe hurts me the most:

Please note that it may take upto 15 minutes to receive.

The audio narration works for very short posts too. Me reading this post about Mark Zuckerberg earlier today gives the post a whole new “I’m so tired of this” feeling.

I added audio narration to my latest blog post. You’ll see a little “listen” play button near the top. This is a Micro.blog feature that I forget exists sometimes! There’s a help page about it.