davew, 2 months ago

The point is this --

I want to write in one app and publish in lots of places.

I want the writing app to work the way I like to write.

I want all my writing archived in one place, on my system.

I don't want character limits.

I want to be able to use the basic features of writing, including titles, links, simple styles, enclosures, with the ability to edit.

None of this would be revolutionary or even require guessing about UIs.

davew, 2 months ago

In other words, things like Masto, Treads, Twitter etc are the equivalent of printers of yesteryear.

I want to use my editor, the one I like.

No more tiny little text boxes like this.

fabio, 2 months ago

@davew give Firenvim a try. Since I discovered it, I can replace any nonsensical HTML textbox with a full blown Neovim instance. I can’t even remember what it means to use Ctrl + directional keys to navigate through words on those useless things.

superflippy, 2 months ago

@davew It’s funny how Twitter’s original limitation based on SMS message standards in 2006 has perpetuated throughout social media.

davew, 2 months ago

@superflippy

yes

rscottjones, 2 months ago

@davew That’s just a personal blog + rss/email.

There’s no reason we should have to publish the same damn thing on countless systems.

The only benefit big social platforms offer is helping to consolidate discovery onto one server, plus possibility of virality.

But couldn’t we just have an opt-in rss aggregator that provides good search of rss items, allows you to follow topical posts, and assists with interoperability for commenting and resharing? I’m not a developer, but that seems doable 🤷‍♂️

mcepl, 2 months ago

@davew

1. It is called #POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE

2. You cannot do it anyway. Nobody on Mastodon et al. wants to read your full blog posts (#brevity has a value), so in the end you have to have at least two systems.

3. Yes, that textbox is horrible. Use something better.

davew, 2 months ago

@mcepl

thanks for the advice. have a nice day.

abreaction, 2 months ago

@davew

No, because the drivers were specific to the word processing program.

No guarantee it worked with every printer. That was later when Windows took over the drivers.

I remember AppleWriter, Xywrite, Wordstar, Wordperfect, etc

Uair, 2 months ago

@davew

In the early 90s i owned a word processor that was a typewriter with a three line preview screen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_processor_(electronic_device)

hnapel, 2 months ago

@davew It was Wordperfect.

gatewayy, 2 months ago

@hnapel
That was the first program/application I ever installed. I was born in 1981 so I installed that in the early 90s.

@davew

enoch_exe_inc, 2 months ago

@davew It was like this until around the late-2000s and early-2010s. My childhood memories are full of typing out documents in all kinds of text editing and word processing software (but still most frequently Microsoft Word), and then printing it out onto paper. The phenomenon of typing into these little boxes and posting it to the web only really came about with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. And now, it’s everywhere.

Still, I wish Mastodon supported markdown.

tomw, 2 months ago

@davew You can still do this?

This seems to be a metaphor but I'm not sure what for. Email for example is also interoperable in this way.

danielpunkass, 2 months ago

@davew But the printers came pre-loaded with white paper with ads in the margins, right? The printer companies have to make money, too!

cstross, 2 months ago

@davew This is why friends don't let friends use Microsoft Word.

(Well, except for Word 5.1a for MacOS, and earlier versions. Word for Mac was good, until they burned it to the ground then salted the ruins with Word 6.)