Like, I want:
-
Lwa to have a solid Web (centralized and not) presence. I’d love for it to a fusion of something like Lighthouse, Superfeedr and itself with a native mobile app that can be used to experiment on additions to things like Micropub and Microsub in one spot. Initially, I wanted to make everything granular but it’s just generally easier to avoid heavy context switching if I just smash it together for now with a sense of concern separation.
-
Koype to get to micro.blog’s level. I made a random statement to Manton that I’ll have Koype Hub up and running as a “competitor” (I like testy comrade better, lol). That would be a combination of both Lwa working in tip top shape and Koype Hub so one can just “register” and it’ll provision them with some sane defaults.
The more I think about it, I want to make open and flexible forms of something like Wordpress and Tumblr in one place.
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"text": "Like, I want:\nLwa to have a solid Web (centralized and not) presence. I\u2019d love for it to a fusion of something like Lighthouse, Superfeedr and itself with a native mobile app that can be used to experiment on additions to things like Micropub and Microsub in one spot. Initially, I wanted to make everything granular but it\u2019s just generally easier to avoid heavy context switching if I just smash it together for now with a sense of concern separation.\n\n\nKoype to get to micro.blog\u2019s level. I made a random statement to Manton that I\u2019ll have Koype Hub up and running as a \u201ccompetitor\u201d (I like testy comrade better, lol). That would be a combination of both Lwa working in tip top shape and Koype Hub so one can just \u201cregister\u201d and it\u2019ll provision them with some sane defaults.\n\nThe more I think about it, I want to make open and flexible forms of something like Wordpress and Tumblr in one place.",
"html": "<p>Like, I want:</p><ul><li>\n<p>Lwa to have a <em>solid</em> Web (centralized and not) presence. I\u2019d <em>love</em> for it to a fusion of something like Lighthouse, Superfeedr and itself with a <em>native</em> mobile app that can be used to experiment on additions to things like Micropub and Microsub in one spot. Initially, I wanted to make everything granular but it\u2019s just generally easier to avoid heavy context switching if I just smash it together for now with a sense of concern separation.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p>Koype to get to micro.blog\u2019s level. I made a random statement to <a href=\"https://manton.org/\">Manton</a> that I\u2019ll have Koype Hub up and running as a \u201ccompetitor\u201d (I like testy comrade better, lol). That would be a combination of both Lwa working in tip top shape <em>and</em> Koype Hub so one can just \u201cregister\u201d and it\u2019ll provision them with some sane defaults.</p>\n</li>\n</ul><p>The more I think about it, I want to make open and flexible forms of something like Wordpress and Tumblr in one place.</p>"
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"content": {
"text": "I really need to just focus on the things that \u2018serve\u2019 (interest) me and those around it. I feel like I was slacking this year regarding IndieWeb/fedi/p2p stuff and I\u2019m just a bit grumpy about progress.",
"html": "<p>I really need to just focus on the things that \u2018serve\u2019 (interest) me and those around it. I feel like I was slacking this year regarding IndieWeb/fedi/p2p stuff and I\u2019m just a bit grumpy about progress.</p>"
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"author": {
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I really need to just focus on the things that ‘serve’ (interest) me and those around it. I feel like I was slacking this year regarding IndieWeb/fedi/p2p stuff and I’m just a bit grumpy about progress.
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"content": {
"text": "I really need to just focus on the things that \u2018serve\u2019 (interest) me and those around it. I feel like I was slacking this year regarding IndieWeb/fedi/p2p stuff and I\u2019m just a bit grumpy about progress.",
"html": "<p>I really need to just focus on the things that \u2018serve\u2019 (interest) me and those around it. I feel like I was slacking this year regarding IndieWeb/fedi/p2p stuff and I\u2019m just a bit grumpy about progress.</p>"
},
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2020-10-12T20:36:01Z",
"url": "https://barryfrost.com/2020/10/micropublish-2-3-0",
"category": [
"micropublish"
],
"name": "Micropublish v2.3.0",
"content": {
"text": "I\u2019ve pushed a biggish update to Micropublish to bring it to v2.3.0. It includes some of the stable and experimental Micropub extensions discussed in the IndieWeb pop-up session I joined earlier this year. Read\u00a0full\u00a0post\u2026",
"html": "<p>I\u2019ve pushed a biggish update to <a href=\"https://micropublish.net\">Micropublish</a> to bring it to <a href=\"https://github.com/barryf/micropublish/releases/tag/v2.3.0\">v2.3.0</a>. It includes some of the stable and experimental <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/Micropub-extensions\">Micropub extensions</a> discussed in the IndieWeb <a href=\"https://indieweb.org/2020/Pop-ups/Micropub\">pop-up session</a> I joined earlier this year.</p> <a href=\"https://barryfrost.com/2020/10/micropublish-2-3-0\">Read\u00a0full\u00a0post\u2026</a>"
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"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Barry Frost",
"url": "https://barryfrost.com/",
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2020-10-12 15:48-0700",
"url": "http://tantek.com/2020/286/b1/",
"in-reply-to": [
"https://github.com/indieweb/indieauth/issues"
],
"name": "IndieAuth needs non-normative Privacy Threat Model documentation",
"content": {
"text": "Similar to \nThe Google WebID privacy threat model document, \nthe IndieAuth specification should have a brief non-normative \n\u201cPrivacy Threat Model\u201d or \u201cPrivacy Considerations\u201d section, perhaps right after the \nSecurity Considerations section, or alternatively as a separate document which the spec links to.",
"html": "<p>\nSimilar to \n<a href=\"https://github.com/WICG/WebID/blob/master/privacy_threat_model.md\">The Google WebID privacy threat model document</a>, \nthe IndieAuth specification should have a brief non-normative \n\u201cPrivacy Threat Model\u201d or \u201cPrivacy Considerations\u201d section, perhaps right after the \n<a href=\"https://indieauth.spec.indieweb.org/#security-considerations\">Security Considerations</a> section, or alternatively as a separate document which the spec links to.\n</p>"
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"author": {
"type": "card",
"name": "Tantek \u00c7elik",
"url": "http://tantek.com/",
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oh my
The arcology is a web publishing system for org-roam written in the literate fashion in phoenix elixir and emacs lisp
– rrix/arcology
org-roam and advanced IndieWeb features in one place. Coded literately. I am in love
Also on: social.coop
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"url": "https://doubleloop.net/2020/10/11/7211/",
"published": "2020-10-11T07:24:32+00:00",
"content": {
"html": "<p>oh my</p>\n<blockquote><p>The <a href=\"https://commonplace.doubleloop.net/20200502125029-arcology.html\">arcology</a> is a web publishing system for org-roam written in the literate fashion in phoenix elixir and emacs lisp</p>\n<p>\u2013 <a href=\"https://code.rix.si/rrix/arcology\">rrix/arcology</a></p></blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://commonplace.doubleloop.net/20200308222205-org_roam.html\">org-roam</a> and advanced <a href=\"https://commonplace.doubleloop.net/20200401181719-indie_events_and_rsvps.html\">IndieWeb</a> features in one place. Coded literately. I am in love</p>\n\n\nAlso on:<p><a href=\"https://social.coop/@neil/105014966866639668\"> social.coop</a></p>",
"text": "oh my\nThe arcology is a web publishing system for org-roam written in the literate fashion in phoenix elixir and emacs lisp\n\u2013 rrix/arcology\norg-roam and advanced IndieWeb features in one place. Coded literately. I am in love\n\n\nAlso on: social.coop"
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I think I figured out how to bridge something like SSB into the IndieWeb. In short, a n-count hub, one for each user, that handles the work of following and subscribing to people in the space as well as handling messages from the IndieWeb into the SSB space.
I have ideas on how this might work. I need to sit down and finish what I have built for the fusion of Lwa and Lighthouse so I can make this simple. The goal, by the way, with the new Lwa is to take all of the logic for Webmentions and fold it into that service. That way, people can get a in-built reader for their mentions. I might aim to handle authorization of feeds as well. Perhaps also a button to handle registration with things like Twitter and Mastodon via Bridgy.
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"url": "https://v2.jacky.wtf/post/452e7f5b-beef-4370-a3af-9a05935ef0ca",
"content": {
"text": "I think I figured out how to bridge something like SSB into the IndieWeb. In short, a n-count hub, one for each user, that handles the work of following and subscribing to people in the space as well as handling messages from the IndieWeb into the SSB space.I have ideas on how this might work. I need to sit down and finish what I have built for the fusion of Lwa and Lighthouse so I can make this simple. The goal, by the way, with the new Lwa is to take all of the logic for Webmentions and fold it into that service. That way, people can get a in-built reader for their mentions. I might aim to handle authorization of feeds as well. Perhaps also a button to handle registration with things like Twitter and Mastodon via Bridgy.",
"html": "<p>I think I figured out how to bridge something like SSB into the IndieWeb. In short, a n-count hub, one for each user, that handles the work of following and subscribing to people in the space as well as handling messages from the IndieWeb into the SSB space.</p><p>I have ideas on how this might work. I need to sit down and finish what I have built for the fusion of Lwa and Lighthouse so I can make this simple. The goal, by the way, with the new Lwa is to take all of the logic for Webmentions and fold it into that service. That way, people can get a in-built reader for their mentions. I might aim to handle authorization of feeds as well. Perhaps also a button to handle registration with things like Twitter and Mastodon via Bridgy.</p>"
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The “Adjust CSS” slider on this delightful homepage is an effective (and cute) illustration of progressive enhancement in action.
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2020-10-05T22:21:31+02:00",
"url": "https://notiz.blog/2020/10/05/blocktober/",
"name": "#blocktober",
"content": {
"text": "Ich hab WhatsApp gel\u00f6scht!\n\n\n\nFacebook ist mir ja schon l\u00e4nger ein Dorn im Auge und vor ein paar Wochen hat Tantek \u00c7elik im IndieWeb Chat folgendes vorgeschlagen:\n\n\n\nJust suggested \u201eBlocktober\u201c for October as a CTA for The Social Dilemma, as in, make your October the month you Blocktober social media\n\n\n\nPerfekte Gelegenheit! \n\n\n\nIch hab schon vor knapp zwei Jahren meinen Facebook und Instagram Account gel\u00f6scht aber WhatsApp ist mir bisher wirklich schwer gefallen.\n\n\n\nDie Entwicklung (Rechtsruck, Alternative Fakten, Verschw\u00f6rungstheorien) der letzten Jahre hat das ge\u00e4ndert. Facebook ist sicherlich nicht die Ursache dieser Entwicklung, aber ist ein wesentlicher Verst\u00e4rker!\n\n\n\nMit seinen Algorithmen und Echo-Chambers, mit seinen Regeln und seinem eigenem kleinen \u00d6kosystem sorgt Facebook f\u00fcr eine Radikalisierung seiner Nutzer, es diskriminiert, es experimentiert mit der Psyche, es duldet Aufrufe zum Mord, es verkauft Drogen, es manipuliert und es \u00fcberwacht.\n\n\n\nWarum f\u00e4llt es uns trotz dieser \u00dcberschriften so schwer Facebook, Instagram oder WhatsApp zu l\u00f6schen?\n\n\n\nTim Kendall, der ehemalige \u201eDirector of Monetization\u201c von Facebook schreibt folgendes \u00fcber seinen ehemaligen Arbeitgeber:\n\n\n\n\nWe took a page from Big Tobacco\u2019s playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset. The social media services that I and others have built over the past 15 years have served to tear people apart with alarming speed and intensity. At the very least, we have eroded our collective understanding \u2014 at worst, I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war.\nbusinessinsider.com\n\n\n\n\nFacebook macht s\u00fcchtig! Pubertierende definieren sich \u00fcber ihre Instagram Profile, ihre gro\u00dfen Geschwister haben nahezu ihr ganzes Leben auf Facebook ver\u00f6ffentlicht und ihre Eltern planen die Elternabende \u00fcber WhatsApp. Egal welches Alter, ohne Facebook & Co. erf\u00e4hrt man Ausgrenzung.\n\n\n\nDa ich so langsam in die letzte Kategorie rutsche, war es f\u00fcr mich besonders schwer WhatsApp zu ersetzen. Einzelne Kontakte waren einfach zu \u00fcberzeugen auf eine andere App zu wechseln, aber f\u00fcr viele WhatsApp Gruppen habe ich bisher keine Alternative. Ein Freund meinte, dass ich mit meiner Aktion andere indirekt zwingen w\u00fcrde, mich auf alternativen Wegen zu kontaktieren\u2026 Perfekt! Vielleicht schaffe ich es ja sogar, dass sie das Medium komplett wechseln!\n\n\n\nMit WhatsApp l\u00f6sche ich auf alle F\u00e4lle meine letzte Facebook App! \u2026auch wenn das Facebook nur wenig interessieren wird!\n\n\n\nNoch ein Grund mehr!",
"html": "<p><strong>Ich hab WhatsApp gel\u00f6scht!</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook ist mir ja schon l\u00e4nger ein Dorn im Auge und vor ein paar Wochen hat <a href=\"https://chat.indieweb.org/2020-09-13/1600035511205600\">Tantek \u00c7elik im IndieWeb Chat</a> folgendes vorgeschlagen:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote><p>Just suggested \u201eBlocktober\u201c for October as a CTA for The Social Dilemma, as in, make your October the month you Blocktober social media</p></blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Perfekte Gelegenheit! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ich hab schon vor knapp zwei Jahren <a href=\"https://notiz.blog/2018/11/22/facebook/\">meinen Facebook und Instagram Account gel\u00f6scht</a> aber WhatsApp ist mir bisher wirklich schwer gefallen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Die Entwicklung (Rechtsruck, Alternative Fakten, Verschw\u00f6rungstheorien) der letzten Jahre hat das ge\u00e4ndert. Facebook ist sicherlich nicht die Ursache dieser Entwicklung, aber ist ein wesentlicher Verst\u00e4rker!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mit seinen Algorithmen und Echo-Chambers, mit seinen Regeln und seinem eigenem kleinen \u00d6kosystem sorgt <a href=\"https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/filterblase-radikalisierung-auf-facebook-a-1073450.html\">Facebook f\u00fcr eine Radikalisierung seiner Nutzer</a>, <a href=\"https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2014/09/facebooks-real-name-policy-can-cause-real-world-harm-lgbtq-community\">es diskriminiert</a>, <a href=\"https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/facebook-steuert-ueber-manipulierte-timeline-emotionen-seiner-nutzer-a-973132.html\">es experimentiert mit der Psyche</a>, <a href=\"https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-failed-kenosha\">es duldet Aufrufe zum Mord</a>, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLdN0fpv0rM\">es verkauft Drogen</a>, <a href=\"https://netzpolitik.org/2019/wahlmanipulation-und-falschmeldungen-facebook-rueckt-versprochene-forschungsdaten-nicht-raus/\">es manipuliert</a> und <a href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/facebook-project-atlas/\">es \u00fcberwacht</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Warum f\u00e4llt es uns trotz dieser \u00dcberschriften so schwer Facebook, Instagram oder WhatsApp zu l\u00f6schen?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tim Kendall, der ehemalige \u201eDirector of Monetization\u201c von Facebook schreibt folgendes \u00fcber seinen ehemaligen Arbeitgeber:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<p>We took a page from Big Tobacco\u2019s playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset. The social media services that I and others have built over the past 15 years have served to tear people apart with alarming speed and intensity. At the very least, we have eroded our collective understanding \u2014 at worst, I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war.</p>\n<a href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/former-facebook-exec-addictive-as-cigarettes-tim-kendall-2020-9?r=DE&IR=T\">businessinsider.com</a>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Facebook macht s\u00fcchtig!</strong> Pubertierende definieren sich \u00fcber ihre Instagram Profile, ihre gro\u00dfen Geschwister haben nahezu ihr ganzes Leben auf Facebook ver\u00f6ffentlicht und ihre Eltern planen die Elternabende \u00fcber WhatsApp. Egal welches Alter, ohne Facebook & Co. erf\u00e4hrt man Ausgrenzung.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Da ich so langsam in die letzte Kategorie rutsche, war es f\u00fcr mich besonders schwer WhatsApp zu ersetzen. Einzelne Kontakte waren einfach zu \u00fcberzeugen auf eine andere App zu wechseln, aber f\u00fcr viele WhatsApp Gruppen habe ich bisher keine Alternative. Ein Freund meinte, dass ich mit meiner Aktion andere indirekt zwingen w\u00fcrde, mich auf alternativen Wegen zu kontaktieren\u2026 Perfekt! Vielleicht schaffe ich es ja sogar, dass sie das Medium komplett wechseln!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mit WhatsApp l\u00f6sche ich auf alle F\u00e4lle meine letzte Facebook App! \u2026<a href=\"https://netzpolitik.org/2018/ob-nutzer-oder-nicht-facebook-legt-schattenprofile-ueber-alle-an/\">auch wenn das Facebook nur wenig interessieren wird</a>!</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Noch ein Grund mehr!</strong></p>"
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2020-10-03T16:14:03-0400",
"url": "https://martymcgui.re/2020/10/03/unsubscribing-from-youtubes-recommender/",
"category": [
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"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>"
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"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"
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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!
https://conf.tube/videos/watch/32351956-89d7-4887-b6b0-f1a32f91dc36
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/oauth-2-1-and-activitypub/948
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"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>"
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"type": "entry",
"published": "2020-10-02 00:10-0700",
"url": "http://tantek.com/2020/276/t1/",
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"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>"
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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.
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"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>"
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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
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"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",
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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
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"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"
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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.
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"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.",
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{
"type": "entry",
"published": "2020-07-13T21:29:46+0000",
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"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>"
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