{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-10-03T16:14:03-0400", "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2020/10/03/unsubscribing-from-youtubes-recommender/", "category": [ "Blocktober", "YouTube", "reader", "IndieWeb", "indiepaper.io", "microsub", "micropub", "ownyourdata" ], "syndication": [ "https://news.indieweb.org/en/martymcgui.re/2020/10/03/unsubscribing-from-youtubes-recommender/" ], "name": "Unsubscribing from YouTube's recommender", "content": { "text": "First, some backstory. But feel free to skip to the good stuff!\n \n\nWith topics ranging from media and social critiques, to making and tech topics that I care about, to death itself, regular content from creators that post on YouTube have been a part of my daily life for the last several years.\nThis is enabled by three main features:\nSubscriptions, to let me check in for new videos from creators I want to follow.\n The Watch Later playlist, to let me save videos I wanted to include in my regular watching.\n A YouTube app connected to my TV to let me play through my Watch Later list.\n\n Over time, I feel that YouTube has been consistently chipping away at this experience for the sake of engagement.\n \n\nIn 2016, when I found the advertisements to be too invasive, I became a paid \"YouTube Red\" (now YouTube Premium) subscriber. With ads gone, and with so many content creators posting weekly or more, it was easy to let watching videos through YouTube become a regular habit. Turning off and clearing my YouTube viewing history helped mitigate some of the most creepy aspects of the suggestion system, at the cost of being able to track what I'd seen.\nThis replaced a lot of idle TV watching time. For several years!\n\"Progress\" marches on, however, and the next thing to go was the experience of accessing the Watch Later playlist. I first noticed this after updating to a 4th generation Apple TV. From the (suggestion-cluttered) main screen of the YouTube app, you must make a series of precise swipes and taps down a narrow side menu to \"Library\", then to \"Watch Later\", then to the video that you'd like to start. Not long after, I noticed that the YouTube iOS app and the website itself had similarly moved Watch Later behind a \"Library\" option that was given the smallest of screen real-estate, overwhelmed by various lists of suggestions of \"Recommended for You\", \"Channels You Might Like\", and more.\nMost recently, I noticed that YouTube has been changing the definition of a \"subscription\", where the iOS app will show a timeline of text posts and ephemeral \"Moments\" in between the actual video content that I am trying to see. Or they'll (experimentally?) try to chunk the subscription display by days or weeks.\n\n All the while, this extra emphasis on recommended videos wore me down. I found myself clicking through to watch stuff that I had not planned to watch when sitting down. Sometimes this would be a fun waste of time. Sometimes I'd get dragged into sensationalized news doom-and-gloom. Regardless, I felt I was being manipulated into giving my time to these suggestions. \n \n\nAnd hey, it's #Blocktober, so let's see if we can escape the algorithm a bit more.\nA Plan\nWhat I would like to achieve is what I described at the top of my post:\nI want a way to check for new videos from creators I follow (no notifications, please).\n I want a way to add those to a list for later viewing.\n I want to view items from that list on my TV.\n\nI have some tools that can help with each part of that plan.RSS is (still) not deadFeeds are already part of my daily life, thanks to an indie social reader setup. I run Aperture, a Microsub server that manages organizing source feeds in various formats, checking them periodically for new content, and processing them into items grouped by channel. I can browse and interact with those items and channels via Microsub clients, like Monocle which runs in the browser and on my mobile devices with an app called Indigenous.\nDid you know that YouTube provides an RSS feed for every channel? It's true! In fact, if you visit your Subscription manager page, you'll find a link that the bottom to download a file containing the feed URLs for all of your subscriptions in a format called OPML.\nScreenshot a an interface listing channel subscriptions. At the bottom is an entry named \"Export to RSS readers\" with a button labeled \"Export subscriptions\". The button is highlighted with hand-drawn pink annotations of an arrow and a circle.My YouTube subscriptions download had more than 80 feeds (yikes!) so I didn't want to load these into Aperture by hand. Thankfully, there's a command-line tool called ek that could import all of them for me. I had a small issue between ek's expectations and YouTube's subscription file format, but was able to work around it pretty easily.\nA list of feed URLs in ApertureA list of videos in Monocle, showing channel name and video title.\n With Aperture taking care of checking these feeds, I can now look at a somewhat minimal listing of new videos from my subscribed channels whenever I want. For any new video I can see the channel it came from, the title of the video, and when it was posted. Importantly, I can click on it to open the video in the YouTube app to watch it right away or save it for later.\n \n\nThis feels like a lot of work to avoid the mildly-annoying experience of opening the YouTube app and browsing the subscriptions page.\n\n We must go further.\n \n\n\n Save me (for later)\n \n\nIn addition to fetching and parsing feeds, Aperture also has a bit of a secret feature: each channel has an API, and you can generate a secret token which lets you push content into that channel, via an open protocol called Micropub.\n\n So in theory, I could browse through the list of new videos in my YouTube Subscriptions channel, and \u2014 somehow \u2014 use Micropub to save one of these posts in a different channel, maybe named Watch Later.\n \n\nThis is where we introduce a super handy service called Indiepaper. It's a bit of web plumbing which essentially takes in a URL, gets all the nice metadata it can figure out (what's the title of this page? who's the author? etc.), and creates a Micropub post about it, wherever you want.\nThe real \u2728magic\u2728 of Indiepaper comes in the form of utilities that making adding an item as few clicks as possible.\n\n For your desktop web browser, Indiepaper can take your channel's Micropub URL and key and generate a bookmarklet which will send the current page you're looking at straight to your Watch Later channel. Add it to your browser's bookmark toolbar, load a YouTube video, click \"Watch Later\", and you're done!\n \n\nFor an iOS device, Indiepaper also provides a Shortcut that works the same way. Share a YouTube video URL (from the YouTube app, or straight from your reader) to the Shortcut and it adds the item to the channel right away.\n\n For example, I can load up this YouTube video by Aaron Parecki about making a DIY Streaming Bridge with a Raspberry Pi for the ATEM Mini and OBS in my browser and click the \"Watch Later\" bookmark in my bookmarks toolbar. After a brief delay, I'll see a notification that it \"Saved!\", and can check my Watch Later channel (marked with the television emoji \ud83d\udcfa) to see that it's there now.\n \n\nScreenshot of a Watch Later channel in Monocle with the saved video.At this point I can:\n\n Browse new videos from my subscriptions in my feed reader.\n \n\n Save videos on demand to a separate watch later channel in my feed reader\n\n However, something is missing. I still want to be able to watch these, distraction-free, on my TV.\n \n\nThe Last (and Longest) Mile\nThis is where things get ugly, folks. It is also where I admit that this project is not finished.\nAs far as I'm aware there are no apps for any \"smart\" TV or media appliance that can browse a Microsub channel. Much less one that can identify a video URL and send it off to the appropriate app for playback.\n\n However, there are some existing ways to save media on your home network and play it back on your TV, such as Plex or Kodi.\n \n\n\n So, here are some highlights:\n \n\n\n Assuming you've got a Plex server with a library called \"myTube\". Your TV (maybe through an appliance) can run a Plex app that lets you browse and play that local media distraction-free.\n \n\n An automated task on that server could act as a Microsub client, periodically looking in your Watch Later channel for new entries.\n For each new entry, the automated task could fetch the video with a tool like youtube-dl and save it to the myTube folder, where Plex will find it.\nLittle details:\nTo prevent repeated downloads, the automated task should either delete or mark new entries as \"read\" once they've been downloaded.\n \n Plex doesn't have an easy way to delete media from the TV interface. Perhaps the automated task can check with Plex to see if a video has been watched and, if so, remove it from myTube. Or maybe save it to a \"watched\" list somewhere!\n \n\nIf this feels like a lot of work just to avoid some engagement temptation, that's because it is! It may sound simple to say that someone should build a competitor to YouTube that focuses on creators and viewers. One that doesn't seem to spend all its time pushing ads and pulling on you for engagement and all the other things that go into funding a corporate surveillance-driven behemoth.\nBut no matter how easy it feels to browse a slickly animated user interface that pushes carefully coached eye-grabbing thumbnails of videos with carefully coached compelling titles, there is a lot about video - even watching video - that is not easy!\nIt's good to stay mindful of what these services make easy for you, what they make hard, and what they make impossible. Trying to take charge of your own consumption is barely a first step.\n\n What aspects of social media are you shutting down for yourself in #Blocktober?", "html": "<p>\n First, some backstory. But feel free to skip to the <a href=\"https://martymcgui.re/posts/#tldr\">good stuff</a>!\n <br /></p>\n<p>With topics ranging from media and social critiques, to making and tech topics that I care about, to death itself, regular content from creators that post on YouTube have been a part of my daily life for the last several years.</p>\n<p>This is enabled by three main features:</p>\n<ul><li>Subscriptions, to let me check in for new videos from creators I want to follow.</li>\n <li>The Watch Later playlist, to let me save videos I wanted to include in my regular watching.</li>\n <li>A YouTube app connected to my TV to let me play through my Watch Later list.</li>\n</ul><p>\n Over time, I feel that YouTube has been consistently chipping away at this experience for the sake of engagement.\n <br /></p>\n<p>In 2016, when I found the advertisements to be too invasive, I became a paid \"YouTube Red\" (now YouTube Premium) subscriber. With ads gone, and with so many content creators posting weekly or more, it was easy to let watching videos through YouTube become a regular habit. Turning off and clearing my YouTube viewing history helped mitigate some of the most creepy aspects of the suggestion system, at the cost of being able to track what I'd seen.</p>\n<p>This replaced a lot of idle TV watching time. For several years!</p>\n<p>\"Progress\" marches on, however, and the next thing to go was the experience of accessing the Watch Later playlist. I first noticed this after updating to a 4th generation Apple TV. From the (suggestion-cluttered) main screen of the YouTube app, you must make a series of precise swipes and taps down a narrow side menu to \"Library\", then to \"Watch Later\", then to the video that you'd like to start. Not long after, I noticed that the YouTube iOS app and the website itself had similarly moved Watch Later behind a \"Library\" option that was given the smallest of screen real-estate, overwhelmed by various lists of suggestions of \"Recommended for You\", \"Channels You Might Like\", and more.</p>\n<p>Most recently, I noticed that YouTube has been changing the definition of a \"subscription\", where the iOS app will show a timeline of text posts and ephemeral \"Moments\" in between the actual video content that I am trying to see. Or they'll (experimentally?) try to chunk the subscription display by days or weeks.</p>\n<p>\n All the while, this extra emphasis on recommended videos wore me down. I found myself clicking through to watch stuff that I had not planned to watch when sitting down. Sometimes this would be a fun waste of time. Sometimes I'd get dragged into sensationalized news doom-and-gloom. Regardless, I felt I was being manipulated into giving my time to these suggestions. \n <br /></p>\n<p>And hey, it's #Blocktober, so let's see if we can escape the algorithm a bit more.</p>\n<h2>A Plan</h2>\n<p>What I would like to achieve is what I described at the top of my post:</p>\n<ul><li>I want a way to check for new videos from creators I follow (no notifications, please).</li>\n <li>I want a way to add those to a list for later viewing.</li>\n <li>I want to view items from that list on my TV.</li>\n</ul>\nI have some tools that can help with each part of that plan.<h3>RSS is (still) not dead</h3>Feeds are already part of my daily life, thanks to an <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/reader\">indie social reader</a> setup. I run <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Aperture\">Aperture</a>, a Microsub server that manages organizing source feeds in various formats, checking them periodically for new content, and processing them into items grouped by channel. I can browse and interact with those items and channels via Microsub clients, like <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Monocle\">Monocle</a> which runs in the browser and on my mobile devices with an app called <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Indigenous\">Indigenous</a>.\n<p>Did you know that YouTube provides an RSS feed for every channel? It's true! In fact, if you visit your <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/subscription_manager\">Subscription manager</a> page, you'll find a link that the bottom to download a file containing the feed URLs for <i>all</i> of your subscriptions in a format called OPML.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/0a/45/30/ca/f8a732330929ddc02346efec6a2b3dd4a9ab76938c8353bac3d1f5c9.png\" alt=\"\" />Screenshot a an interface listing channel subscriptions. At the bottom is an entry named \"Export to RSS readers\" with a button labeled \"Export subscriptions\". The button is highlighted with hand-drawn pink annotations of an arrow and a circle.<p>My YouTube subscriptions download had more than 80 feeds (yikes!) so I didn't want to load these into Aperture by hand. Thankfully, there's a <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Ekster\">command-line tool called ek</a> that could import all of them for me. I had a small issue between ek's expectations and YouTube's subscription file format, but was able to <a href=\"https://github.com/pstuifzand/ekster/issues/37\">work around it pretty easily</a>.</p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/8d/04/98/c8/ca20670d07a365bab13d61872eaf53ca86a5259e2b1b2a3326825b9c.png\" alt=\"\" />A list of feed URLs in Aperture<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/4d/41/4b/85/8be6fb906017dcc6bdbb8f2e2523ec6bc66f4b7ac46b4b07076b9b1a.png\" alt=\"\" />A list of videos in Monocle, showing channel name and video title.<p>\n With Aperture taking care of checking these feeds, I can now look at a somewhat minimal listing of new videos from my subscribed channels whenever I want. For any new video I can see the channel it came from, the title of the video, and when it was posted. Importantly, I can click on it to open the video in the YouTube app to watch it right away or save it for later.\n <br /></p>\n<p>This feels like a lot of work to avoid the mildly-annoying experience of opening the YouTube app and browsing the subscriptions page.</p>\n<p>\n We must go further.\n <br /></p>\n<h3>\n Save me (for later)\n <br /></h3>\n<p>In addition to fetching and parsing feeds, Aperture also has a bit of a secret feature: each channel has <a href=\"https://aperture.p3k.io/docs\">an API</a>, and you can generate a secret token which lets you <i>push</i> content into that channel, via an open protocol called <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Micropub\">Micropub</a>.</p>\n<p>\n So in theory, I could browse through the list of new videos in my YouTube Subscriptions channel, and \u2014 somehow \u2014 use Micropub to save one of these posts in a different channel, maybe named Watch Later.\n <br /></p>\n<p>This is where we introduce a super handy service called <a href=\"https://www.indiepaper.io/\">Indiepaper</a>. It's a bit of web plumbing which essentially takes in a URL, gets all the nice metadata it can figure out (what's the title of this page? who's the author? etc.), and creates a Micropub post about it, wherever you want.</p>\n<p>The real \u2728magic\u2728 of Indiepaper comes in the form of utilities that making adding an item as few clicks as possible.</p>\n<p>\n For your desktop web browser, Indiepaper can take your channel's Micropub URL and key and generate a <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/bookmarklet\">bookmarklet</a> which will send the current page you're looking at straight to your Watch Later channel. Add it to your browser's bookmark toolbar, load a YouTube video, click \"Watch Later\", and you're done!\n <br /></p>\n<p>For an iOS device, Indiepaper also provides a Shortcut that works the same way. Share a YouTube video URL (from the YouTube app, or straight from your reader) to the Shortcut and it adds the item to the channel right away.</p>\n<p>\n For example, I can load up this <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtETl23cnOA\">YouTube video by Aaron Parecki about making a DIY Streaming Bridge with a Raspberry Pi for the ATEM Mini and OBS</a> in my browser and click the \"Watch Later\" bookmark in my bookmarks toolbar. After a brief delay, I'll see a notification that it \"Saved!\", and can check my Watch Later channel (marked with the television emoji \ud83d\udcfa) to see that it's there now.\n <br /></p>\n<img src=\"https://media.martymcgui.re/90/15/95/34/2be5d9a0e876fa5a1b628182ac1f8d4a7fa35d387e6291594f319e90.png\" alt=\"\" />Screenshot of a Watch Later channel in Monocle with the saved video.<p>At this point I can:</p>\n<ul><li>\n Browse new videos from my subscriptions in my feed reader.\n <br /></li>\n <li>Save videos on demand to a separate watch later channel in my feed reader</li>\n</ul><p>\n However, something is missing. I still want to be able to watch these, distraction-free, on my TV.\n <br /></p>\n<h3>The Last (and Longest) Mile</h3>\n<p>This is where things get ugly, folks. It is also where I admit that this project is not <i>finished</i>.</p>\n<p>As far as I'm aware there are no apps for any \"smart\" TV or media appliance that can browse a Microsub channel. Much less one that can identify a video URL and send it off to the appropriate app for playback.</p>\n<p>\n However, there are some existing ways to save media on your home network and play it back on your TV, such as <a href=\"https://plex.tv/\">Plex</a> or <a href=\"https://kodi.tv/\">Kodi</a>.\n <br /></p>\n<p>\n So, here are some highlights:\n <br /></p>\n<ul><li>\n Assuming you've got a Plex server with a library called \"myTube\". Your TV (maybe through an appliance) can run a Plex app that lets you browse and play that local media distraction-free.\n <br /></li>\n <li>An automated task on that server could act as a Microsub client, periodically looking in your Watch Later channel for new entries.</li>\n <li>For each new entry, the automated task could fetch the video with a tool like <a href=\"https://youtube-dl.org/\">youtube-dl</a> and save it to the myTube folder, where Plex will find it.</li>\n</ul><p>Little details:</p>\n<ul><li>To prevent repeated downloads, the automated task should either delete or mark new entries as \"read\" once they've been downloaded.</li>\n <li>\n Plex doesn't have an easy way to delete media from the TV interface. Perhaps the automated task can check with Plex to see if a video has been watched and, if so, remove it from myTube. Or maybe save it to a \"watched\" list somewhere!\n <br /></li>\n</ul><p>If this feels like a lot of work just to avoid some <i>engagement temptation</i>, that's because it is! It may sound simple to say that someone should build a competitor to YouTube that focuses on <i>creators </i>and <i>viewers</i>. One that doesn't seem to spend all its time pushing <i>ads</i> and pulling on you for <i>engagement</i> and all the other things that go into funding a corporate surveillance-driven behemoth.</p>\n<p>But no matter how easy it feels to browse a slickly animated user interface that pushes carefully coached eye-grabbing thumbnails of videos with carefully coached compelling titles, there is a lot about video - even watching video - that is not easy!</p>\n<p>It's good to stay mindful of what these services make easy for you, what they make hard, and what they make impossible. Trying to take charge of your own consumption is barely a first step.</p>\n<p>\n What aspects of social media are you shutting down for yourself in #Blocktober?\n <br /></p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Marty McGuire", "url": "https://martymcgui.re/", "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg" }, "post-type": "article", "_id": "15271636", "_source": "175", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "author": { "name": "fluffy", "url": "http://beesbuzz.biz/", "photo": null }, "url": "http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts", "published": "2020-10-02T12:57:48-07:00", "content": { "html": "<p>On IndieWeb Chat, the topic of conference swag came up, in the context of a bigger discussion about freebie giveaways and the apparently unending demand for free t-shirts.</p><p>I have multiple drawers stuffed full of free t-shirts that I have no intention of wearing. And I can\u2019t imagine anyone else wanting to wear them, either, and donating them to thrift shops just feels like it\u2019s offloading my problems onto someone else.</p><p>Much of the swag that places hand out (be it at conferences, first days of work, awareness campaigns, or whatever else) seems like it\u2019s at best well-intentioned but at worst a gigantic environmental burden, both in terms of peoples' environments and the environment of the planet as a whole (materials, energy expenditure, landfill, etc.).</p><p>So here\u2019s some thoughts on common bits of swag that I\u2019ve received and my personal usage of it. This applies both to conference swag (provided by conferences and vendors thereof) and employee swag (i.e. given out on employees' first days or during internal events or the like).</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_1_Writing-stuff-pens-notebooks-etc\"></a>Writing stuff (pens, notebooks, etc.)</h3><p>I am in favor of things like this. I\u2019m always losing pens, and taking notes on things is a lot easier if I have notebooks to take the notes in. So, I generally do use this stuff. I generally only use them if they\u2019re on the nicer end of things; spiral-bound notebooks with hard covers, pens which aren\u2019t just crappy ballpoint pens, that sort of thing.</p><p>I definitely prefer paper that is either unlined or gridded/graph paper. I\u2019ll <em>use</em> lined notebook paper but it\u2019s not as useful to me as a sketchbook or something with grids.</p><p>And of course, some people don\u2019t care for this stuff and won\u2019t use it. So, make it opt-in.</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_2_Clothing-items\"></a>Clothing items</h3><p>Clothes almost never come in a size or style which is comfortable for me. I hate wearing shirts with large swaths of non-breathable logo printed on them. I also hate wearing shirts that are just plain advertising for other things.</p><p>I also do not wear polo shirts. Even when I was male-presenting I didn\u2019t care for that style.</p><p>Also, \u201cunisex\u201d t-shirts really mean \u201cmen\u2019s.\u201d Worse, if I show up at a place and people tell me the shirts are \u201cunisex\u201d (and don\u2019t tell that to other people in line) I just feel called out for being visibly trans. You might think you\u2019re being inclusive, but you\u2019re not.</p><p>If you\u2019re going to have t-shirts as a thing to give out, please make sure to have both crewneck and scoop-neck styles; crewneck are more masculine, scoop-neck are more feminine. And provide a complete range of sizes for both styles; there are small men, and there are large women. And make the shirt something that people want to wear on its own, rather than being purely a marketing vessel for your thing.</p><p>Like seriously have you ever seen some random person on the street wearing a t-shirt saying \u201cDo everything, believe more! IT IS WHAT WE BELIEVE\u201d and then decide to look into rackmount server hardware or whatever?</p><p>Hats are similar; some people love baseball caps, others can\u2019t stand them. Same goes for knit caps, beanies, trilbies, fedoras, and so on.</p><p>Also, in this day and age, it seems likely that going forward a lot of places are going to be handing out face masks. In addition to the t-shirt issues (especially regarding breathability \u2014 that is obviously <em>way</em> more important here!) you\u2019ll also probably want to make it obvious that they\u2019ve not been handled directly by people at the conference (for example, being in a sterile plastic bag), and of course different people have different head sizes/shapes and material preferences. They should also probably have flexible metal for shaping around the nose, and a pocket for a removable filter.</p><p>So basically: give people choice, make it something that people would <em>want</em> to wear, and make it opt-in.</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_3_Water-bottles\"></a>Water bottles</h3><p>Oh my <em>god</em> I have so many reusable water bottles that I never use. These seem to be especially favored by companies where they have disposable paper cups and want to discourage people from using them. When I worked at HBO we got a new reusable water bottle pretty much every month. Some of them were nice, some of them were crap.</p><p>All of them go unused.</p><p>Like, I get the intention behind reusable water bottles: Hey, let\u2019s be good to the environment, let\u2019s not use single-use drink containers like disposable cups or single-use water bottles.</p><p>But look at it this way: anyone who\u2019s going to not use disposable drink containers probably already has a reusable drink container they really like. And unless this drink container is better than an average one, it\u2019s probably just going to take up space in a cabinet or landfill. This is especially true for low-grade \u201csports\u201d bottles where they aren\u2019t even usable in a sports context (for example, being made of a rigid, thin plastic but having a squeeze-bottle top).</p><p>And I don\u2019t know about other people, but if I\u2019m in a situation that I\u2019m using a disposable container, it\u2019s because <em>I don\u2019t have my reusable container with me</em>. Giving me another one to not have with me isn\u2019t going to solve the problem. If I\u2019m visiting an office I won\u2019t have my own personal coffee cup. Maybe just have reusable drinkware available for visitors to use, or something?</p><p>As far as bottles go, different people have different tastes for what sort of material and shape and so on makes for an acceptable experience. Especially among folks with various sensory sensitivity issues and so on.</p><p>Basically: make it opt-in.</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_4_Stickers\"></a>Stickers</h3><p>Some people love stickers. Some people don\u2019t. Some people will take the stickers and never have any idea of where to put them and they just accumulate in a drawer somewhere until the backing falls off and they make a big mess and oh god why didn\u2019t I just throw them out oh no now there\u2019s gunk all over the place</p><p>Make it opt-in.</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_5_Random-cosmetic-items\"></a>Random cosmetic items</h3><p>There\u2019s a tendency at women-focused conferences especially to provide random \u201cgirly\u201d things. They seem to always focus on the audience being women, and not aspects of the audience itself. I\u2019ve been to women in tech conferences where the swag bag is full of things like press-on fingernails, makeup mirrors, nail polish (usually in gaudy, branded colors), and so on, never anything to do with the audience of the conference.</p><p>What\u2019s even worse is when someone makes a gendered comment when they hand me the bag, in a way which implies that I wouldn\u2019t want this stuff because I\u2019m not a \u201creal\u201d woman. (Which also implies that men shouldn\u2019t want these things, either.)</p><p>So, basically: make it opt-in.</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_6_Pronoun-pins\"></a>Pronoun pins</h3><p>I love pronoun pins. They\u2019re great. I especially like ones with a write-in spot and which can be rewritten (such as being able to write on them with a \u201cpermanent\u201d marker and then erase that with an alcohol wipe or something).</p><p>These go into a bigger category of thing but it\u2019s good to at least consider the following things:</p>\n<ul><li>Make the pronoun itself the central focus</li>\n<li>Make it easy to read at a distance</li>\n<li>If you use color as a shorthand, don\u2019t use commonly-gendered colors (e.g. pink or blue), and also consider colorblindness for readability</li>\n<li>Offer <em>at least</em> he/him, she/her, they/them, and \u201cask.\u201d</li>\n<li><strong><em>DO NOT PROVIDE A JOKE PRONOUN OPTION</em></strong>. I cannot stress this enough. Joke pronouns as an option only serve to delegitimize the entire thing.</li>\n<li>Also, it\u2019s nice to let people take more than one, as a shorthand for \u201cthese options are all fine.\u201d</li>\n</ul><p>And make it clear that this isn\u2019t just for trans people! Encourage <em>everyone</em> to have one. But <em>encourage</em>, don\u2019t force \u2014 some people are still in the closet or otherwise aren\u2019t comfortable disclosing.</p><p>Basically, do what you can to normalize the idea of cis people declaring their pronouns, and to make the pronoun declaration obvious, but also accept that people might have reasons not to declare them, and at least make allowances for the fact that not everyone\u2019s pronouns are going to be in the set that you consider.</p><p>(This obviously applies more to conferences themselves than about individual vendors at conferences.)</p><h3><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#783_h3_7_Overall\"></a>Overall</h3><p>So, the summary I have on marketing swag in general:</p>\n<ol><li>Make it opt-in</li>\n<li>Make it opt-in</li>\n<li>Provide utility</li>\n<li>Provide choices</li>\n<li>Don\u2019t treat everyone as an external marketing vessel, especially when your goal is just to market to the recipient</li>\n<li>Make it opt-in</li>\n</ol><p><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/783-Swag-and-marketing-gifts#comments\">comments</a></p>", "text": "On IndieWeb Chat, the topic of conference swag came up, in the context of a bigger discussion about freebie giveaways and the apparently unending demand for free t-shirts.I have multiple drawers stuffed full of free t-shirts that I have no intention of wearing. And I can\u2019t imagine anyone else wanting to wear them, either, and donating them to thrift shops just feels like it\u2019s offloading my problems onto someone else.Much of the swag that places hand out (be it at conferences, first days of work, awareness campaigns, or whatever else) seems like it\u2019s at best well-intentioned but at worst a gigantic environmental burden, both in terms of peoples' environments and the environment of the planet as a whole (materials, energy expenditure, landfill, etc.).So here\u2019s some thoughts on common bits of swag that I\u2019ve received and my personal usage of it. This applies both to conference swag (provided by conferences and vendors thereof) and employee swag (i.e. given out on employees' first days or during internal events or the like).Writing stuff (pens, notebooks, etc.)I am in favor of things like this. I\u2019m always losing pens, and taking notes on things is a lot easier if I have notebooks to take the notes in. So, I generally do use this stuff. I generally only use them if they\u2019re on the nicer end of things; spiral-bound notebooks with hard covers, pens which aren\u2019t just crappy ballpoint pens, that sort of thing.I definitely prefer paper that is either unlined or gridded/graph paper. I\u2019ll use lined notebook paper but it\u2019s not as useful to me as a sketchbook or something with grids.And of course, some people don\u2019t care for this stuff and won\u2019t use it. So, make it opt-in.Clothing itemsClothes almost never come in a size or style which is comfortable for me. I hate wearing shirts with large swaths of non-breathable logo printed on them. I also hate wearing shirts that are just plain advertising for other things.I also do not wear polo shirts. Even when I was male-presenting I didn\u2019t care for that style.Also, \u201cunisex\u201d t-shirts really mean \u201cmen\u2019s.\u201d Worse, if I show up at a place and people tell me the shirts are \u201cunisex\u201d (and don\u2019t tell that to other people in line) I just feel called out for being visibly trans. You might think you\u2019re being inclusive, but you\u2019re not.If you\u2019re going to have t-shirts as a thing to give out, please make sure to have both crewneck and scoop-neck styles; crewneck are more masculine, scoop-neck are more feminine. And provide a complete range of sizes for both styles; there are small men, and there are large women. And make the shirt something that people want to wear on its own, rather than being purely a marketing vessel for your thing.Like seriously have you ever seen some random person on the street wearing a t-shirt saying \u201cDo everything, believe more! IT IS WHAT WE BELIEVE\u201d and then decide to look into rackmount server hardware or whatever?Hats are similar; some people love baseball caps, others can\u2019t stand them. Same goes for knit caps, beanies, trilbies, fedoras, and so on.Also, in this day and age, it seems likely that going forward a lot of places are going to be handing out face masks. In addition to the t-shirt issues (especially regarding breathability \u2014 that is obviously way more important here!) you\u2019ll also probably want to make it obvious that they\u2019ve not been handled directly by people at the conference (for example, being in a sterile plastic bag), and of course different people have different head sizes/shapes and material preferences. They should also probably have flexible metal for shaping around the nose, and a pocket for a removable filter.So basically: give people choice, make it something that people would want to wear, and make it opt-in.Water bottlesOh my god I have so many reusable water bottles that I never use. These seem to be especially favored by companies where they have disposable paper cups and want to discourage people from using them. When I worked at HBO we got a new reusable water bottle pretty much every month. Some of them were nice, some of them were crap.All of them go unused.Like, I get the intention behind reusable water bottles: Hey, let\u2019s be good to the environment, let\u2019s not use single-use drink containers like disposable cups or single-use water bottles.But look at it this way: anyone who\u2019s going to not use disposable drink containers probably already has a reusable drink container they really like. And unless this drink container is better than an average one, it\u2019s probably just going to take up space in a cabinet or landfill. This is especially true for low-grade \u201csports\u201d bottles where they aren\u2019t even usable in a sports context (for example, being made of a rigid, thin plastic but having a squeeze-bottle top).And I don\u2019t know about other people, but if I\u2019m in a situation that I\u2019m using a disposable container, it\u2019s because I don\u2019t have my reusable container with me. Giving me another one to not have with me isn\u2019t going to solve the problem. If I\u2019m visiting an office I won\u2019t have my own personal coffee cup. Maybe just have reusable drinkware available for visitors to use, or something?As far as bottles go, different people have different tastes for what sort of material and shape and so on makes for an acceptable experience. Especially among folks with various sensory sensitivity issues and so on.Basically: make it opt-in.StickersSome people love stickers. Some people don\u2019t. Some people will take the stickers and never have any idea of where to put them and they just accumulate in a drawer somewhere until the backing falls off and they make a big mess and oh god why didn\u2019t I just throw them out oh no now there\u2019s gunk all over the placeMake it opt-in.Random cosmetic itemsThere\u2019s a tendency at women-focused conferences especially to provide random \u201cgirly\u201d things. They seem to always focus on the audience being women, and not aspects of the audience itself. I\u2019ve been to women in tech conferences where the swag bag is full of things like press-on fingernails, makeup mirrors, nail polish (usually in gaudy, branded colors), and so on, never anything to do with the audience of the conference.What\u2019s even worse is when someone makes a gendered comment when they hand me the bag, in a way which implies that I wouldn\u2019t want this stuff because I\u2019m not a \u201creal\u201d woman. (Which also implies that men shouldn\u2019t want these things, either.)So, basically: make it opt-in.Pronoun pinsI love pronoun pins. They\u2019re great. I especially like ones with a write-in spot and which can be rewritten (such as being able to write on them with a \u201cpermanent\u201d marker and then erase that with an alcohol wipe or something).These go into a bigger category of thing but it\u2019s good to at least consider the following things:\nMake the pronoun itself the central focus\nMake it easy to read at a distance\nIf you use color as a shorthand, don\u2019t use commonly-gendered colors (e.g. pink or blue), and also consider colorblindness for readability\nOffer at least he/him, she/her, they/them, and \u201cask.\u201d\nDO NOT PROVIDE A JOKE PRONOUN OPTION. I cannot stress this enough. Joke pronouns as an option only serve to delegitimize the entire thing.\nAlso, it\u2019s nice to let people take more than one, as a shorthand for \u201cthese options are all fine.\u201d\nAnd make it clear that this isn\u2019t just for trans people! Encourage everyone to have one. But encourage, don\u2019t force \u2014 some people are still in the closet or otherwise aren\u2019t comfortable disclosing.Basically, do what you can to normalize the idea of cis people declaring their pronouns, and to make the pronoun declaration obvious, but also accept that people might have reasons not to declare them, and at least make allowances for the fact that not everyone\u2019s pronouns are going to be in the set that you consider.(This obviously applies more to conferences themselves than about individual vendors at conferences.)OverallSo, the summary I have on marketing swag in general:\nMake it opt-in\nMake it opt-in\nProvide utility\nProvide choices\nDon\u2019t treat everyone as an external marketing vessel, especially when your goal is just to market to the recipient\nMake it opt-in\ncomments" }, "name": "Plaidophile: Swag and marketing \"gifts\"", "post-type": "article", "_id": "15245864", "_source": "3782", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-10-02T12:12:13-07:00", "url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2020/10/02/18/activitypub-conf", "category": [ "activitypub", "indieweb" ], "content": { "text": "I'll be hanging out at ActivityPub Conf this weekend, starting with my live Q&A session tomorrow! I'm always happy to chat about all things OAuth and authentication! Check out my recorded talk ahead of time, and join the discussion on the forum! \n\nhttps://conf.tube/videos/watch/32351956-89d7-4887-b6b0-f1a32f91dc36 \n\nhttps://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/oauth-2-1-and-activitypub/948", "html": "I'll be hanging out at ActivityPub Conf this weekend, starting with my live Q&A session tomorrow! I'm always happy to chat about all things OAuth and authentication! Check out my recorded talk ahead of time, and join the discussion on the forum! <br /><br /><a href=\"https://conf.tube/videos/watch/32351956-89d7-4887-b6b0-f1a32f91dc36\"><span>https://</span>conf.tube/videos/watch/32351956-89d7-4887-b6b0-f1a32f91dc36</a> <br /><br /><a href=\"https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/oauth-2-1-and-activitypub/948\"><span>https://</span>socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/oauth-2-1-and-activitypub/948</a>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Aaron Parecki", "url": "https://aaronparecki.com/", "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg" }, "post-type": "note", "_id": "15243808", "_source": "16", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-22T19:04:05-07:00", "summary": "", "url": "https://aaronparecki.com/2020/09/22/25/activitypub-oauth-2-1", "category": [ "activitypub", "oauth", "indieauth", "indieweb" ], "name": "ActivityPub and OAuth 2.1", "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Aaron Parecki", "url": "https://aaronparecki.com/", "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/aaronparecki.com/41061f9de825966faa22e9c42830e1d4a614a321213b4575b9488aa93f89817a.jpg" }, "post-type": "article", "_id": "15237656", "_source": "16", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-10-02 00:10-0700", "url": "http://tantek.com/2020/276/t1/", "category": [ "socialMedia" ], "in-reply-to": [ "https://tantek.com/2020/275/t1" ], "content": { "text": "At least stop reading Facebook & YouTube algorithmic feeds, and turn off all #socialMedia notifications.\n\nMore from @mantonsblog: https://www.manton.org/2020/09/14/stop-using-facebook.html\n\n@aaronpk How to leave Facebook: https://aaronparecki.com/2020/06/14/14/how-to-leave-facebook\n\nWant smaller steps? https://indieweb.org/Facebook#How_to_wean_yourself_from", "html": "At least stop reading Facebook & YouTube algorithmic feeds, and turn off all #<span class=\"p-category\">socialMedia</span> notifications.<br /><br />More from <a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/mantonsblog\">@mantonsblog</a>: <a href=\"https://www.manton.org/2020/09/14/stop-using-facebook.html\">https://www.manton.org/2020/09/14/stop-using-facebook.html</a><br /><br /><a class=\"h-cassis-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/aaronpk\">@aaronpk</a> How to leave Facebook: <a href=\"https://aaronparecki.com/2020/06/14/14/how-to-leave-facebook\">https://aaronparecki.com/2020/06/14/14/how-to-leave-facebook</a><br /><br />Want smaller steps? <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Facebook#How_to_wean_yourself_from\">https://indieweb.org/Facebook#How_to_wean_yourself_from</a>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik", "url": "http://tantek.com/", "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/tantek.com/acfddd7d8b2c8cf8aa163651432cc1ec7eb8ec2f881942dca963d305eeaaa6b8.jpg" }, "post-type": "reply", "refs": { "https://tantek.com/2020/275/t1": { "type": "entry", "url": "https://tantek.com/2020/275/t1", "name": "Tantek\u2019s note", "post-type": "article" } }, "_id": "15227228", "_source": "1", "_is_read": true }
Strong same:
I’m glad I have this site to play with things, almost all web development and ‘front-end’ stuff leaves me cold these days. It’s all so process driven, so full of unnecessary complexities and dependencies, it’s as if the entire industry wants you to forget you can write HTML by hand and upload it somewhere and it’s a working website. It’s complexity for complexity’s sake, like what accountancy software companies did to the tax code: “Oh this is too complex you need to pay us lots of money to sort it out.” Annoying. I can see some resistance to it and there are still people making blogs and playing around with stuff, so hopefully the professional professionals will calm the fuck down at some point.
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-30T16:49:28Z", "url": "https://adactio.com/links/17469", "category": [ "frontend", "development", "complexity", "overengineering", "indieweb", "html", "empowerment", "simplicity" ], "bookmark-of": [ "http://aegir.org/words/canvassing" ], "content": { "text": "Aegir.org | Canvassing\n\n\n\nStrong same:\n\n\n I\u2019m glad I have this site to play with things, almost all web development and \u2018front-end\u2019 stuff leaves me cold these days. It\u2019s all so process driven, so full of unnecessary complexities and dependencies, it\u2019s as if the entire industry wants you to forget you can write HTML by hand and upload it somewhere and it\u2019s a working website. It\u2019s complexity for complexity\u2019s sake, like what accountancy software companies did to the tax code: \u201cOh this is too complex you need to pay us lots of money to sort it out.\u201d Annoying. I can see some resistance to it and there are still people making blogs and playing around with stuff, so hopefully the professional professionals will calm the fuck down at some point.", "html": "<h3>\n<a class=\"p-name u-bookmark-of\" href=\"http://aegir.org/words/canvassing\">\nAegir.org | Canvassing\n</a>\n</h3>\n\n<p>Strong same:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I\u2019m glad I have this site to play with things, almost all web development and \u2018front-end\u2019 stuff leaves me cold these days. It\u2019s all so process driven, so full of unnecessary complexities and dependencies, it\u2019s as if the entire industry wants you to forget you can write HTML by hand and upload it somewhere and it\u2019s a working website. It\u2019s complexity for complexity\u2019s sake, like what accountancy software companies did to the tax code: \u201cOh this is too complex you need to pay us lots of money to sort it out.\u201d Annoying. I can see some resistance to it and there are still people making blogs and playing around with stuff, so hopefully the professional professionals will calm the fuck down at some point.</p>\n</blockquote>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jeremy Keith", "url": "https://adactio.com/", "photo": "https://adactio.com/images/photo-150.jpg" }, "post-type": "bookmark", "_id": "15179517", "_source": "2", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-29T22:14:00+0100", "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2020/09/tfefq/", "category": [ "indieweb", "community" ], "bookmark-of": [ "https://jamesg.blog/2020/09/29/why-i-indieweb.html" ], "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jamie Tanna", "url": "https://www.jvt.me", "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png" }, "post-type": "bookmark", "_id": "15154473", "_source": "2169", "_is_read": true }
In a scary turn of events, it's already October! But that means it's #Hacktoberfest, which is super exciting - reminder that it's #HomebrewWebsiteClub Nottingham on Wednesday which will be Hacktoberfest themed - I hope to see you there for some Free and Open Source contributing! https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-hacktoberfest-edition--dTrYgmFEBZff
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-28T21:11:08.143Z", "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2020/09/r5xmi/", "category": [ "hacktoberfest", "homebrew-website-club" ], "content": { "text": "In a scary turn of events, it's already October! But that means it's #Hacktoberfest, which is super exciting - reminder that it's #HomebrewWebsiteClub Nottingham on Wednesday which will be Hacktoberfest themed - I hope to see you there for some Free and Open Source contributing! https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-hacktoberfest-edition--dTrYgmFEBZff", "html": "<p>In a scary turn of events, it's already October! But that means it's <a href=\"https://www.jvt.me/tags/hacktoberfest/\">#Hacktoberfest</a>, which is super exciting - reminder that it's <a href=\"https://www.jvt.me/tags/homebrew-website-club/\">#HomebrewWebsiteClub</a> Nottingham on Wednesday which will be Hacktoberfest themed - I hope to see you there for some Free and Open Source contributing! <a href=\"https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-hacktoberfest-edition--dTrYgmFEBZff\">https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-hacktoberfest-edition--dTrYgmFEBZff</a></p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jamie Tanna", "url": "https://www.jvt.me", "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png" }, "post-type": "note", "_id": "15125882", "_source": "2169", "_is_read": true }
I’ve just reinstalled some IndieWeb support to this blog, let’s see how it works out.
Also, hello again to folks on Micro.blog! 🙂
wearsmanyhats.micro.blog{ "type": "entry", "author": { "name": "Alan Ralph", "url": "https://alanralph.co.uk", "photo": "https://micro.blog/alanralph/avatar.jpg" }, "url": "https://wearsmanyhats.micro.blog/2022/10/25/old-obsolete.html", "content": { "html": "<p>I\u2019ve just reinstalled some IndieWeb support to this blog, let\u2019s see how it works out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, hello again to folks on Micro.blog! \ud83d\ude42</p> <a href=\"https://wearsmanyhats.micro.blog/2022/10/25/old-obsolete.html\">wearsmanyhats.micro.blog</a>", "text": "I\u2019ve just reinstalled some IndieWeb support to this blog, let\u2019s see how it works out.\n\n\n\nAlso, hello again to folks on Micro.blog! \ud83d\ude42 wearsmanyhats.micro.blog" }, "published": "2020-09-28T10:24:43+00:00", "post-type": "note", "_id": "33380038", "_source": "7224", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-23T08:15:00+0100", "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2020/09/ccldj/", "category": [ "indieweb" ], "bookmark-of": [ "https://evgenykuznetsov.org/en/posts/2020/indieweb-glue/" ], "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jamie Tanna", "url": "https://www.jvt.me", "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png" }, "post-type": "bookmark", "_id": "14975154", "_source": "2169", "_is_read": true }
You might not think this is a big deal, and maybe it’s not, but I love the idea behind the indie web: a people-focused alternative to the corporate web. Seeing everything you’ve ever linked to in one place really drives home how much of the web’s content, made by individuals, is under corporate control and identity.
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-22T19:11:32Z", "url": "https://adactio.com/links/17433", "category": [ "indieweb", "links", "linking", "silos", "blogs", "blogging", "hyperlinks", "personal", "publishing" ], "bookmark-of": [ "https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2020/indexing-my-blogs-links/" ], "content": { "text": "Indexing My Blog\u2019s Links - Jim Nielsen\u2019s Weblog\n\n\n\n\n You might not think this is a big deal, and maybe it\u2019s not, but I love the idea behind the indie web: a people-focused alternative to the corporate web. Seeing everything you\u2019ve ever linked to in one place really drives home how much of the web\u2019s content, made by individuals, is under corporate control and identity.", "html": "<h3>\n<a class=\"p-name u-bookmark-of\" href=\"https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2020/indexing-my-blogs-links/\">\nIndexing My Blog\u2019s Links - Jim Nielsen\u2019s Weblog\n</a>\n</h3>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>You might not think this is a big deal, and maybe it\u2019s not, but I love the idea behind the <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/\">indie web</a>: a people-focused alternative to the corporate web. Seeing everything you\u2019ve ever linked to in one place really drives home how much of the web\u2019s content, made by individuals, is under corporate control and identity.</p>\n</blockquote>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jeremy Keith", "url": "https://adactio.com/", "photo": "https://adactio.com/images/photo-150.jpg" }, "post-type": "bookmark", "_id": "14962133", "_source": "2", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-07-13T21:29:46+0000", "url": "https://www.funwhilelost.com/2020/posting-to-the-fediverse-from-my-indieweb-site", "name": "Posting to the Fediverse from my IndieWeb site", "content": { "text": "Hopefully this gets picked up and Webmentioned to brid.gy's cool Mastodon POSSE!\u00a0\u00a0", "html": "<p>Hopefully this gets picked up and Webmentioned to brid.gy's cool Mastodon POSSE!</p><p>\u00a0</p><p>\u00a0</p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Andy Jacobs", "url": "https://www.funwhilelost.com/profile/funwhilelost", "photo": "https://www.funwhilelost.com/file/fa79187640f271e6a8584ac106c82f5e/thumb.jpg" }, "post-type": "article", "_id": "14865938", "_source": "232", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2018-01-02T22:15:22+0000", "url": "https://www.funwhilelost.com/2018/this-is-my-favorite-new-years-resolution-bring-back-your", "category": [ "indieweb" ], "in-reply-to": [ "http://mashable.com/2017/12/27/browser-bar-url-facebook-bad" ], "content": { "text": "This is my favorite new years resolution: Bring back your browser bar http://mashable.com/2017/12/27/browser-bar-url-facebook-bad/#k08SwFZ85mqa #indieweb", "html": "This is my favorite new years resolution: Bring back your browser bar <a href=\"http://mashable.com/2017/12/27/browser-bar-url-facebook-bad/#k08SwFZ85mqa\">http://mashable.com/2017/12/27/browser-bar-url-facebook-bad/#k08SwFZ85mqa</a> <a href=\"https://www.funwhilelost.com/tag/indieweb\" class=\"p-category\">#indieweb</a>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Andy Jacobs", "url": "https://www.funwhilelost.com/profile/funwhilelost", "photo": "https://www.funwhilelost.com/file/fa79187640f271e6a8584ac106c82f5e/thumb.jpg" }, "post-type": "reply", "_id": "14865951", "_source": "232", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "author": { "name": "fluffy", "url": "http://beesbuzz.biz/", "photo": null }, "url": "http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1524-Social-media-break", "published": "2020-09-17T09:53:06-07:00", "content": { "html": "<p>Yesterday I decided to take a break from social media. This was for a number of reasons, but they all boil down to my increasing frustration with how interactions occur in rapid-fire quick-sharing spaces, and this has been growing <a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1912-Slowcial-networking\">for quite some time</a>.</p><p>The microblog format significantly changes the way people interact. Every post is short and taken out of context (while everyone expects everyone else to have the full context already), which makes it impossible to have a as meaningful conversation <em>especially</em> when a short notion spreads far and wide. I feel that it is a big part of what\u2019s dividing everyone in a never-ending search for clout that devolves into a shouting match.</p>\n\n\n<p>What this break means, in practical terms: I am avoiding posting to, and reading timelines of, sites like Twitter and Mastodon<a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1524-Social-media-break#d_e1524_fn1\">1</a>. Obviously my blog posts still get syndicated to them (chances are, that\u2019s how you saw this post!), and if someone links to something from them on Discord or Slack I\u2019ll still read it (which is why I don\u2019t just block those sites from my network outright). But I\u2019m keeping my browsers signed out of the sites themselves to prevent me from seeing notifications and beginning to doomscroll and so on. And of course responses to my posts still come in as webmentions, so I\u2019ll see those eventually \u2014 but unless something is posted as a native comment I probably won\u2019t respond directly.</p><p>This also means it takes a much more concerted effort for me to share my thoughts on things, which hopefully means I\u2019ll be more thoughtful about what I do share. And hopefully this means I both miss out on and avoid participating in the unhelpful churn of discourse and hot takes.</p><p>For real-time chat I\u2019ll still be on Discord and Slack, but I\u2019m also significantly cutting back on my involvement in high-traffic random chatter spaces. I\u2019ve muted most of the servers I\u2019m on so that I need to make a specific effort to look for conversations, and I am trying to stick to more meaningful conversations with small groups of people (such as my songwriting and drawing groups, as well as <a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/discord\">my own small community</a>) rather than trying to sip from a firehose.</p><p>So far I keep noticing that when I have an intrusive, quippy thought that I\u2019d normally post for a quick rush of dopamine, I just have to keep the thought to myself and decide whether it\u2019s worth holding onto by saving to a note to myself for later<a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1524-Social-media-break#d_e1524_fn2\">2</a>. So far I haven\u2019t saved anything, and I\u2019m realizing just how much pointless ephemera and effluvia it all is, and how quickly it evaporated from my brain; why does that need to be put somewhere for everyone to see?</p><p>I\u2019m just not wired to be able to deal with constant, unending, fire-and-forget interactions with others, and certainly not being randomly connected with thousands (if not millions) of others in real time. I\u2019m pretty sure humans in general aren\u2019t really capable of this and I wonder just how much of a mental health burden this is placing on everyone right now.</p><p>Social media is like crack, and it\u2019s time I finally break my addiction. It hasn\u2019t been healthy for me at all.</p>\n\n<ol><li><p>I\u2019d basically been avoiding Twitter for the most part anyway; it turns out that it\u2019s not just an <em>algorithmic</em> timeline that\u2019s a problem, though. For all its good intentions, Mastodon is still basically a Twitter clone, and it still has the same problems Twitter was trying to solve with the algorithmic timeline in the first place. <a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1524-Social-media-break#r_e1524_fn1\">\u21a9</a></p></li><li><p>Oddly, the thought never really occurred to me to post it to Discord even though that seems like a perfect spot for it. Which I think tells me a lot about the messed-up motivations in why I would post to social media in the first place. <a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1524-Social-media-break#r_e1524_fn2\">\u21a9</a></p></li></ol><p><a href=\"http://beesbuzz.biz/blog/1524-Social-media-break#comments\">comments</a></p>", "text": "Yesterday I decided to take a break from social media. This was for a number of reasons, but they all boil down to my increasing frustration with how interactions occur in rapid-fire quick-sharing spaces, and this has been growing for quite some time.The microblog format significantly changes the way people interact. Every post is short and taken out of context (while everyone expects everyone else to have the full context already), which makes it impossible to have a as meaningful conversation especially when a short notion spreads far and wide. I feel that it is a big part of what\u2019s dividing everyone in a never-ending search for clout that devolves into a shouting match.\n\n\nWhat this break means, in practical terms: I am avoiding posting to, and reading timelines of, sites like Twitter and Mastodon1. Obviously my blog posts still get syndicated to them (chances are, that\u2019s how you saw this post!), and if someone links to something from them on Discord or Slack I\u2019ll still read it (which is why I don\u2019t just block those sites from my network outright). But I\u2019m keeping my browsers signed out of the sites themselves to prevent me from seeing notifications and beginning to doomscroll and so on. And of course responses to my posts still come in as webmentions, so I\u2019ll see those eventually \u2014 but unless something is posted as a native comment I probably won\u2019t respond directly.This also means it takes a much more concerted effort for me to share my thoughts on things, which hopefully means I\u2019ll be more thoughtful about what I do share. And hopefully this means I both miss out on and avoid participating in the unhelpful churn of discourse and hot takes.For real-time chat I\u2019ll still be on Discord and Slack, but I\u2019m also significantly cutting back on my involvement in high-traffic random chatter spaces. I\u2019ve muted most of the servers I\u2019m on so that I need to make a specific effort to look for conversations, and I am trying to stick to more meaningful conversations with small groups of people (such as my songwriting and drawing groups, as well as my own small community) rather than trying to sip from a firehose.So far I keep noticing that when I have an intrusive, quippy thought that I\u2019d normally post for a quick rush of dopamine, I just have to keep the thought to myself and decide whether it\u2019s worth holding onto by saving to a note to myself for later2. So far I haven\u2019t saved anything, and I\u2019m realizing just how much pointless ephemera and effluvia it all is, and how quickly it evaporated from my brain; why does that need to be put somewhere for everyone to see?I\u2019m just not wired to be able to deal with constant, unending, fire-and-forget interactions with others, and certainly not being randomly connected with thousands (if not millions) of others in real time. I\u2019m pretty sure humans in general aren\u2019t really capable of this and I wonder just how much of a mental health burden this is placing on everyone right now.Social media is like crack, and it\u2019s time I finally break my addiction. It hasn\u2019t been healthy for me at all.\n\nI\u2019d basically been avoiding Twitter for the most part anyway; it turns out that it\u2019s not just an algorithmic timeline that\u2019s a problem, though. For all its good intentions, Mastodon is still basically a Twitter clone, and it still has the same problems Twitter was trying to solve with the algorithmic timeline in the first place. \u21a9Oddly, the thought never really occurred to me to post it to Discord even though that seems like a perfect spot for it. Which I think tells me a lot about the messed-up motivations in why I would post to social media in the first place. \u21a9comments" }, "name": "Plaidophile: Social media break", "post-type": "article", "_id": "14829222", "_source": "3782", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-15 18:10-0700", "url": "http://tantek.com/2020/259/b2/", "in-reply-to": [ "https://github.com/microformats/h-entry/issues" ], "name": "Process for updating a proposed h-entry property", "content": { "text": "The current \nh-entry change control process \ndoes not specify how to update the definition of a proposed feature, which means it falls back to being as strict as updating a stable feature which is more strict that desired for proposals. This issue is for considering a proposal for updating the definition of a proposed feature, as discussed during the \nrecent Microformats Issue Resolution pop-up.\n\n\nProposal: the definition of a proposed feature may be updated to be more consistent with one or more real world public web sites publishing and or consuming the feature, by citing URLs for those examples in an edit summary. New proposed property or value definitions may also be added for consideration per the existing requirements for adding a proposed feature. If you\u2019re not sure whether to update an existing definition or add a new definition, try to work with the proposer(s) of an existing definition to come to a consensus to update it. Lacking consensus, add a new definition for consideration, retaining any previous definition(s).\n\n\nThis proposal also adds a convergence requirement for moving a feature from proposed to draft. If there are multiple definitions for a proposed feature, an issue must be opened to discuss how to converge the definitions by consensus agreement among those with real world public web sites publishing and or implementations consuming the feature.\n\n\nThis is a rough first draft, feel free to propose alternatives, simplifications, editorial suggestions.", "html": "<p>\nThe current \n<a href=\"https://microformats.org/wiki/h-entry#change_control\">h-entry change control process</a> \ndoes not specify how to update the definition of a proposed feature, which means it falls back to being as strict as updating a stable feature which is more strict that desired for proposals. This issue is for considering a proposal for updating the definition of a proposed feature, as discussed during the \n<a href=\"https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/microformats2-issues-resolution-session-cay9SF07oNTY\">recent Microformats Issue Resolution pop-up</a>.\n</p>\n<p>\nProposal: the definition of a proposed feature may be updated to be more consistent with one or more real world public web sites publishing and or consuming the feature, by citing URLs for those examples in an edit summary. New proposed property or value definitions may also be added for consideration per the existing requirements for adding a proposed feature. If you\u2019re not sure whether to update an existing definition or add a new definition, try to work with the proposer(s) of an existing definition to come to a consensus to update it. Lacking consensus, add a new definition for consideration, retaining any previous definition(s).\n</p>\n<p>\nThis proposal also adds a convergence requirement for moving a feature from proposed to draft. If there are multiple definitions for a proposed feature, an issue must be opened to discuss how to converge the definitions by consensus agreement among those with real world public web sites publishing and or implementations consuming the feature.\n</p>\n<p>\nThis is a rough first draft, feel free to propose alternatives, simplifications, editorial suggestions.\n</p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik", "url": "http://tantek.com/", "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/tantek.com/acfddd7d8b2c8cf8aa163651432cc1ec7eb8ec2f881942dca963d305eeaaa6b8.jpg" }, "post-type": "reply", "refs": { "https://github.com/microformats/h-entry/issues": { "type": "entry", "url": "https://github.com/microformats/h-entry/issues", "name": "GitHub project \u201ch-entry\u201d", "post-type": "article" } }, "_id": "14785232", "_source": "1", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-15 16:39-0700", "url": "http://tantek.com/2020/259/b1/", "in-reply-to": [ "https://github.com/dtran320/runair/issues" ], "name": "Runair needs an open source license", "content": { "text": "Runair is awesome! Would be great to give an explicit open source license like CC0 (preferred), or BSD, MIT, Apache etc. of your preference and mention it in README.md.\n\n\nFor example, the IndieWeb newBase60py library uses CC0: https://github.com/indieweb/newBase60py and you could copy this LICENSE file in its entirety https://github.com/indieweb/newBase60py/blob/master/LICENSE", "html": "<p>\nRunair is awesome! Would be great to give an explicit open source license like CC0 (preferred), or BSD, MIT, Apache etc. of your preference and mention it in README.md.\n</p>\n<p>\nFor example, the IndieWeb newBase60py library uses CC0: https://github.com/indieweb/newBase60py and you could copy this LICENSE file in its entirety https://github.com/indieweb/newBase60py/blob/master/LICENSE\n</p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Tantek \u00c7elik", "url": "http://tantek.com/", "photo": "https://aperture-media.p3k.io/tantek.com/acfddd7d8b2c8cf8aa163651432cc1ec7eb8ec2f881942dca963d305eeaaa6b8.jpg" }, "post-type": "reply", "refs": { "https://github.com/dtran320/runair/issues": { "type": "entry", "url": "https://github.com/dtran320/runair/issues", "name": "GitHub project \u201crunair\u201d", "post-type": "article" } }, "_id": "14783100", "_source": "1", "_is_read": true }
From the IndieWeb chat: Tantek Çelik suggests “Blocktober”. Block the big social networks in October. Maybe you can’t quit Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube forever, but you can do it for a month.
{ "type": "entry", "author": { "name": "Manton Reece", "url": "https://www.manton.org/", "photo": "https://micro.blog/manton/avatar.jpg" }, "url": "https://www.manton.org/2020/09/15/from-the-indieweb.html", "content": { "html": "<p><a href=\"https://chat.indieweb.org/2020-09-13/1600035511205600\">From the IndieWeb chat</a>: Tantek \u00c7elik suggests \u201cBlocktober\u201d. Block the big social networks in October. Maybe you can\u2019t quit Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube forever, but you can do it for a month.</p>", "text": "From the IndieWeb chat: Tantek \u00c7elik suggests \u201cBlocktober\u201d. Block the big social networks in October. Maybe you can\u2019t quit Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube forever, but you can do it for a month." }, "published": "2020-09-15T16:33:50-05:00", "post-type": "note", "_id": "14779545", "_source": "12", "_is_read": true }
Reminder that it's #HomebrewWebsiteClub Nottingham tomorrow! I hope to see you there at 1730 for some website stuff - it'll be the last non-#Hacktoberfest themed one until November! https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-4BIUc3geqfW0
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-15T15:47:54.115Z", "url": "https://www.jvt.me/mf2/2020/09/yykpr/", "category": [ "homebrew-website-club" ], "content": { "text": "Reminder that it's #HomebrewWebsiteClub Nottingham tomorrow! I hope to see you there at 1730 for some website stuff - it'll be the last non-#Hacktoberfest themed one until November! https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-4BIUc3geqfW0", "html": "<p>Reminder that it's <a href=\"https://www.jvt.me/tags/homebrew-website-club/\">#HomebrewWebsiteClub</a> Nottingham tomorrow! I hope to see you there at 1730 for some website stuff - it'll be the last non-#Hacktoberfest themed one until November! <a href=\"https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-4BIUc3geqfW0\">https://events.indieweb.org/2020/09/homebrew-website-club-nottingham-4BIUc3geqfW0</a></p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jamie Tanna", "url": "https://www.jvt.me", "photo": "https://www.jvt.me/img/profile.png" }, "post-type": "note", "_id": "14770709", "_source": "2169", "_is_read": true }
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-14T15:11:00+02:00", "url": "https://www.jeremycherfas.net/blog/i-have-to-test-a-webmention", "in-reply-to": [ "https://stream.jeremycherfas.net/2020/fourierfiend-the-simplest-syndication-tool-in-many", "https://boffosocko.com/2020/09/11/55776585/" ], "name": "I have to test a webmention", "content": { "text": "Sometimes, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.\nLike send a webmention to himself. Because someone else was getting an error when they tried to send one.\nAnd then, maybe, I can try using Telegraph to resend Chris' original.", "html": "<p>Sometimes, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.</p>\n<p>Like <a class=\"u-in-reply-to\" href=\"https://stream.jeremycherfas.net/2020/fourierfiend-the-simplest-syndication-tool-in-many\">send a webmention</a> to himself. Because <a class=\"u-in-reply-to\" href=\"https://boffosocko.com/2020/09/11/55776585/\">someone else was getting an error</a> when they tried to send one.</p>\n<p>And then, maybe, I can try using Telegraph to resend Chris' original.</p>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jeremy Cherfas", "url": "https://jeremycherfas.net", "photo": "https://www.jeremycherfas.net/user/themes/tailwind/images/zoot.jpg" }, "post-type": "reply", "_id": "14738720", "_source": "202", "_is_read": true }
Why keep blogging? For me, there are at least 3 good reasons:
- To leave a trace.
- To figure out what I have to say.
- Because I like it.
{ "type": "entry", "published": "2020-09-14T09:20:03Z", "url": "https://adactio.com/links/17392", "category": [ "blogs", "blogging", "writing", "publishing", "indieweb", "sharing" ], "bookmark-of": [ "https://austinkleon.com/2020/09/09/15-years-of-blogging-and-3-reasons-to-keep-going/" ], "content": { "text": "15 years of blogging (and 3 reasons I keep going) - Austin Kleon\n\n\n\n\n Why keep blogging? For me, there are at least 3 good reasons:\n \n To leave a trace.\n To figure out what I have to say.\n Because I like it.", "html": "<h3>\n<a class=\"p-name u-bookmark-of\" href=\"https://austinkleon.com/2020/09/09/15-years-of-blogging-and-3-reasons-to-keep-going/\">\n15 years of blogging (and 3 reasons I keep going) - Austin Kleon\n</a>\n</h3>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Why keep blogging? For me, there are at least 3 good reasons:</p>\n \n <ol><li>To leave a trace.</li>\n <li>To figure out what I have to say.</li>\n <li>Because I <em>like</em> it.</li>\n </ol></blockquote>" }, "author": { "type": "card", "name": "Jeremy Keith", "url": "https://adactio.com/", "photo": "https://adactio.com/images/photo-150.jpg" }, "post-type": "bookmark", "_id": "14735399", "_source": "2", "_is_read": true }