Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Micro-Blogging”
Micro-blogging: 3 years later... (5 years in)
It’s been three years since the last time I posted about micro-blogging. Since then Google Buzz has been killed off, Google Plus has taken its place, Tumblr has arrived on the scene, and Identica doesn’t exist in the same way as it once did. I’m also using KDE now, so I went from using Gwibber to using Choqok:
[caption id=“attachment_7119” align=“aligncenter” width=“618”] Choqok[/caption]
I used Tumblr for about a year but I abandoned it because it’s just animated gifs and curation of the work of others. Out of all the Tumblrs I followed (about 20) only about 3 of them produced original content. All the rest were just reblogs. Also, there’s too much porn on there to use at work.
Micro-blogging: 2 years later...
Almost exactly 2 years ago I started micro-blogging. Back then I signed up for Twitter, Pownce, and Plurk accounts. One month later I concluded that I really liked Twitter and that Pownce and Plurk were annoying. A few days later I discovered Identi.ca - a FLOSS version of Twitter and decided I would send frivolous tweets to Twitter and tecnological dents to Identi.ca. Then, a little while later Pownce was taken off the net. So what has happened in the intervening years?
Pownce is Dead, Long Live Twitter
As I mentioned in my post Micro-blogging: One Month Later, I hadn’t really used Pownce much at all. Even now, 4 months later, I haven’t touched it. In fact, ever since that post in August, I only used it once to transfer a file to my brother. I thought there wasn’t much room on the net for so many micro-blogging services. Most people, including CNN’s Rick Sanchez, use Twitter. And if you’re hard-core into libre software, there’s Identica. So I didn’t see why anyone would use Pownce. On top of that, Pownce was supposed to make money by getting people to pay for extra services. I just didn’t see any value in what they were charging for. So, I wasn’t too surprised when I got an email last Monday that Pownce was going to close shop.
Identi.ca, the free software micro-blogging platform
Another micro-blogging post? What’s going on here? Well, when I first did my micro-blogging post, Identi.ca had just gone public and I didn’t think there was a reason to join yet another micro-blogging service. But two things came together to convince me to check out Identi.ca. First of all, I’ve overcome my reluctance to using micro-blogging services. Second, I heard an interview on Linux Outlaws with the creator of Identi.ca.
As you can see, it’s pretty much inspired by Twitter. It has a very similar interface and reply mechanisms. I got a good vibe from it - as I did with Twitter. Something about the aethetics just made me want to use it - just like Twitter and unlike Pownce. Of course, there are some negatives with Identi.ca being inspired by Twitter. Chief amongst these is the reply functionality. Only Plurk (with Pownce in a distant second) have correctly implemented replies in a way that makes sense. Without a threaded reply, it’s pretty hard to correctly follow the conversation that may come out of something posted on Twitter and Identi.ca. Of course, maybe that’s done on purpose. Perhaps replies are an afterthought because that’s not what these micro-blogging services believe micro-blogging to be about. I’d LOVE to see a mode in Identi.ca (just another tab, really) where posts could be viewed in a threaded fashion to be able to follow the conversation better. That would help Identi.ca leapfrog over Twitter in useability and functionality.
Micro-blogging: One Month Later
It’s been about a month since I signed up for a bunch of micro-blogging websites. So what do I think after about a month? Let me start off with Twitter.
In my first look at the micro-blogs I had some pretty good feelings about Twitter. That has basically carried over for the past few weeks. I added a Twitter plugin to my blog, using it for quick thoughts I don’t want to elaborate on with a blog post. I’m also using Twitux on my Linux computer for posting without having to load up the Twitter site. I haven’t really been using the Flock Twitter plugin because it doesn’t seem to update correctly or often enough. I’m enjoying using it for those quick thoughts. I’m definitely going to keep using Twitter for the foreseeable future. So I feel the way about Twitter as I did a month ago - I like it.