Something happened on the internet again. A guy who likes to tweak his blog theme totally switched platforms, moving from one host to another in haste and inadvertently breaking some links. And it’s basically Elon Musk’s fault. WordPress gets some blame too. Let me explain.
A Micro.blogger is born
Elon Musk bought Twitter and started wrecking it. So many people fled to Mastodon; conversation started happening there. The zeitgeist was Mastodon to the social-media rescue. It has promise since it’s – based on IndieWeb principles – decentralized. All this compelled the geek in me to try social media again.
In turn, I was reminded of Micro.blog because it, too, is IndieWeb friendly and social. Which would be better, Mastodon or Micro.blog? I was thinking of each one as social platforms. Mastodon is more Twitter-like – both a good and bad thing. But then, looking more into Micro.blog, I was slapped sober; it’s more…blog-like!
While I wanted to try Indie Social Media, I kind of needed a better blog host than old-fashioned Blogger. Due to the WordPress disruption last year, I had moved from WordPress to Blogger, which was nostalgic if nothing else. And though I’m fond of it – despite Google – Blogger is like the walking dead.
Realizing Micro.blog is both decentralized social media and a blog platform, my brain was electrified into action. I saw Micro.blog in a new light; as host, it could be my new blogging home! It’s modern, has a credible reputation, and is built on a firm IndieWeb foundation. The cherry on top is that my blog could automatically cross-post to the Micro.blog social timeline. Why hadn’t I joined before?
Faster than a growing 16-year old can inhale a pizza, I was whisked off my feet from Blogger; a Micro.blogger was born. I moved my domain name before I imported any previous posts. Permalinks? Yes…until I broke them. It’s a small price to pay; no worries. I also readily paid for a monthly subscription – sign me up, take my money! – and then, so impressed by the service, I bought a whole year of hosting at once. I’m all in.
A microblogger is born
This change in blog hosts caused another change; the way I blog. Not only was a Micro.blogger born, a microblogger was born.
You see, my custom for years was to only publish long-form posts – articles with a title like the one you’re now reading. And when I had a Twitter account, I Tweeted short stuff like links, quotes, or microposts. But now that I can totally do that on Micro.blog in addition to traditional blogging, I find myself liberated in sharing with the world, free to publish both short and long posts, no longer bound by a quantity of words; quality matters most.
With this newfound freedom, I’m now embracing the idea and practice of mixing microposts with, uh, “macro” posts on my blog; it’s like a whole other level of blogging for me. Let’s say you took the best of Tweets and the best of Medium articles and combined them in a single feed; that’s a Micro.blog blog.
It’s great because sometimes I only have a few words to say about something and can now freely share that; I don’t have to wax verbose just to create a long article. Simple status updates are welcome here. Yet I’m also not limited to only 280 character text snippets; when the muse impels, my words can flow like Niagara Falls.
I think the mix works well. If nothing else, it certainly accomplishes what Micro.blog founder, Manton Reece, aimed for: people blogging more often. I’m now posting at least once a day, whereas I used to post about three times a week.
So this blogger upgraded. Now I’m also a microblogger.
And thanks to what’s dubbed the “Fediverse” (think Blogosphere), I don’t have to choose between Micro.blog or Mastodon. Basically, one can feed into the other, so with my Micro.blog account, I also have a Mastodon profile - no instance required. Bonus! But all this…is for another post.
Note: This post exceeds 280 characters by several thousand. No problem.
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