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I’m testing the concept of having space on the blog for microposts. Basically, the kind of thing I might post to Twitter but aren’t fleshed out into a full story. These would not have headlines and would not be sent to email subscribers. Instead, they would sort of be sandwiched between longer posts.
What do you think?
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6 responses to “”
wilco
My apologies to everyone who got an email alert about this test. I thought I had turned it off!
I’m testing the concept of having space on the blog for microposts. Basically, the kind of thing I might post to Twitter but aren’t fleshed out into a full story. These would not have headlines and would not be sent to email subscribers. Instead, they would sort of be sandwiched between longer posts.
Love this idea! As long as they show up in the RSS feed, I’m good.
If you or someone you know is savvy with WordPress custom post types (CPT), you could easily create a CPT for microposts and then all of the microposts could display on a separate index from the main posts. It could also have a separate RSS feed while still showing up in the main RSS feed (if set that way, or you could remove them from the main RSS feed).
I enjoy the micropost format and have moved largely away from Twitter over the last few years, so I’m happy to see more folks experiment with it on blogs.
Yeah! I’ve been thinking a lot about ownership of online work, and how problematic it is for journalists to give so much free work to companies like twitter and facebook. I’m not thinking about ditching those platforms entirely, but I want the good stuff I post there to also live here in a permanent way.
To clarify, you do or do not want them in the main RSS feed?
I am pretty sure this feature will have to be part of a larger redesign. It doesn’t work well with my mobile theme, and my desktop theme is so old it’s not responsive. It’s well past time for a change.
Sorry for the late response on this, Tom. I want the microposts on *a* RSS feed — whether that’s a combined feed with the main one or a separate one doesn’t matter much to me.
Self-hosting and the ownership of online presences and content is a topic near and dear to me and I’ve written a fair bit on the topic from the perspective of a visual artist, so I’m glad to see it get a bit of traction in other communities as well.
I’m unsure of the limitations that may be in place within WordPress.com, but a full redesign sounds great and I look forward to seeing what you do!
I love this idea, Tom. Innovative and clever. Another way to engage your audience on a different level. Moreover, these microposts are seeds that could sprout into a fully developed stories.