The Web - Journal J

The Web

In which AI kills the human Web, or at least its spirit

* Here’s a depressing roundup of how the bottomless greed of AI companies is utterly destroying the Web all of us grew up with. I’m furious. * There’s also irony in the fact that open access publishing is under threat from people responding to AI by closing the very

Blogging

A list of good enough blogging platforms by price if you just want to write

Plus some blog recommendations as a nice side effect.

Social Networks

Realizations about actually avoiding social media

I’ve had or re-had a few realizations lately that have helped me greatly: 1. Crossposting to or across social media is counterproductive if doing so to avoid social media. Applies to POSSE too. 2. Having a domain for micro thoughts, day-to-day photos, comments, and random musings is a waste

Blogging

Responding is better than replying

The other day I posed a question on the Web that has (gladly) initiated a string of responses from people. And by that I do not mean comments on social media but entire blog posts. Before sharing a few thoughts on that and making it all meta (the good kind)

Blogging

If I was born and brought up in the time of modern social media, would I even blog?

This was the question I asked on the Web yesterday, and people had interesting responses. Imagine you were born and brought up in a time where Twitter and Instagram always existed. Would you still blog? Many said no, which I find to be an interesting conclusion especially for people who

Writing

The story of my blogs

I’m the latest guest on the “People and Blogs” series by Manu. Hearing from people in this series has been a great way for me to meet some of their blogs over coffee. And now some of you web humans reading this might like the story of my blogs

Social Networks

Reinventing the wheel

Instagram (I): Stories are not posts. They disappear after 24 hours. People (P): What if I want to retain them? I: Now you can archive stories P: I don’t like some people I: Okay, you can mute their stories too P: I want to organize stories I: Now you

Social Networks

Social media, where a teaser post about your article gets a better response than your actual article

I’ve seen this recurring theme on Twitter, LinkedIn, and virtually every microblogging social platform I’ve used. Teasing something exciting you’re working on gets better visibility than when you share that work itself. Here’s an example from the Twitter of yore—which people forget wasn’t all

Blogging

LinkedIn Newsletters are spam and a scam

Many people have been suggesting me to start a “LinkedIn Newsletter” for my space articles specifically because it will tap into my existing connections and their networks on the platform. After much reluctance against joining yet another siloed service, I thought perhaps it doesn’t hurt to give it a

Social Networks

A few thoughts on Threads joining the Fediverse

It actually happened. Meta’s social networking app Threads joined the Fediverse! And I have a few thoughts. 1. This is a big deal. For the first time in history, you can not have an account on a Meta-owned app but still be able to follow and soon interact with

Social Networks

Mastodon and the Fediverse is too noisy. Why?

Mastodon and most Fediverse platforms may be better than traditional social networks at interoperability but they don’t do much about other issues. In fact, they largely copy these issues straight from the social media giants. Most Fediverse platforms, including Mastodon, publicly display follower counts, like (favorite) counts, and share

Social Networks

Tired of social networks? Here’s why you should be Fediverse curious

Many of us are familiar with the feeling of investing time and effort on a particular social network, only to either see it become irrelevant over time or do something stupid or malicious that scatters people over to half a dozen platforms. And so you start over, with all your