Thinking about a new project. A little adventure perhaps using micro.blog with my own wordpress site hosted on Cloudways.
Promoted as recalling the old days of the Internet… less commercial… I’ve found a few examples of micro blogs by doing web searches.
Where I go is amorphous… Wondering if any MPU members have something solid to say.
I looked into micro.blog but didn’t have a use case for myself. Indeed, if you already use Wordpress, there are numerous twitter-clone-type themes you could install and use on Wordpress.
I use P2 on one (mostly abandoned) blog of mine. Use it hosted free on wordpress.com.
Are you looking for help on how to build micro.blog using Wordpress?
Micro.blog is actually several different things rolled into one.
At the start of this year I tried to use MB hosting as I really didn’t want to maintain my own. But the apps and service had some limitations that I didn’t want to live with (It’s improved a lot since then). So I’ve ended up with a self hosted WordPress that is fully integrated with micro.blog’s timeline (e.g. my posts show up on MB and replies people make on MB show up on my WordPress site). If you go this route, without cross posting, there is no fee from MB. If you want cross posting I think that by itself is $2/month (MB has one of the best implementations of this IMO).
I really like the social network on MB and that is the glue that has kept me involved. MB can post your content go github pages as a way of not being completely reliant on the MB service. From the start I didn’t want my content “owned” by a third party.
I think a first step is to think about what you’re looking for and then see how that matches up against what MB offers. Quickly typed this out but hope it helps.
No WordPress help needed (mostly). @Bowline used the words “use case.”
My questions start with, "What can micro. blog do for me?
@ronguest addresses my interests.
And — features & benefits, fun factor… traffic building… of service…
Stick a toe in the pool before jumping in. What’s my use if any.
Steps Taken
Now, I consider… all I can say now is it looks interesting. Misunderstandings and fatal flaws??
So, the $5 plan is a hosted plan. However that doesn’t mean you can’t self host as well. In other words micro.blog can aggregate the feed from WP to its own feed.
I hope that makes sense.
@RichardC Regarding self-hosting a blog: I’ve done it for years but I recently decided it’s way more trouble than it’s worth unless you are a pro or a dedicated amateur. If all you want to do is write and be read there are easier ways to do that. If you are self-hosting a blog, you are now doing three things: writing, and being read and maintaining that blog. And that third thing, the blog maintenance, will become an emergency at some point when you need to do other things.
@ronguest Nitpick: I bet micro.blog doesn’t post to Facebook profiles anymore, because Facebook recently blocked third-party apps from doing that. Which I hate.
Related to the subject of social media alternatives: I recently discovered the Diaspora open source social networking network, which I now love. Diaspora is part of a larger universe that includes mastodon, hubzilla, and other platforms. They talk with each other.
I’ve had several sites profit and non-profit. Had hassels and good times but no claim to pro. Challenges just far enough apart that i need to recall/search for the fix.
My present site is minimalist. As a platform for me to practice my writing… get better, it works. Also It’s a whatever has caught my attention place. Some friends check in…
When I put it up, one aim was to write a hundred posts. …period. Next check and see patterns and likings. So long as I maintain it l’ve got a box to keep my stuff in. It ages better than other tools/social media places.
For writing longer-form than a tweet, with the social aspects (ie the possibility of getting people to read your writing), Medium has been great in theory (and is lovely to look at), but only so-so in execution. And with recent financial difficulties, it’s getting worse.
There are tons of free alternatives. I usually recommend Wordpress’s own hosted platform, which you can upgrade on if desired but most people don’t. There are weird and junky alternatives (I still don’t ‘get’ Tumblr), but some also-rans can still fit the bill - George R R Martin is probably the biggest blogger on Livejournal, for instance.
Tumblr has a legacy. It’s like Twitter with infinite-length posts. I would not recommend anyone start a Tumblr today.
Dude, hate to break this to you but you are both an amateur AND a pro. :)
My problem is that my hosting provider is rubbish. It was fine 11 years ago when I started with them, but there has been a slow, gradual but inexorable decline. And I just don’t have time to move the whole thing. Particularly because the domain, mitchwagner.com, is also where I host my personal email, and I’ve got that going to G Suite. So for me to move the domain I would somehow have to do it in a way that does not break my email. Sure I could do it as a weekend project but somehow there never seems to be a weekend that I want to devote to that.
Thinking of starting a new blog. At Wordpress.com.
One more advantage to having Wordpress do the hosting/server maintenance/updates is that they are immeasurably better at locking down blogs to quickly protect unpatched flaws andfailures to auto-update that otherwise require constant hands-on attention to the site and plugins (or expecting/paying a sitehost to do it). These days automated hacking tools randomly test sites for known vulnerabilities and inject malware and it’s a requirement to update plugins and middleware or else you will get hacked. One person I know with a tiny religious site was near tears because not only was her site compromised, serving malware to visitors, but then it got recognized at Google, and Chrome automatically blocked visitors from visiting her site (plastering a scary warning when they tried); she found out 2nd-hand and her webhost was less than helpful in eliminating the malware and patching the system.
Wordpress.com doesn’t allow any and all themes, but there’s a good enough variety of free-to-affordable ones to choose. And it doesn’t allow most plugins, but the ones you get are safe.
A few years back, Ghost appeared as a cross between Medium and Wordpress, designed specifically for writing, for ease of writing, and for beautiful, simple sites. But it remains less sophisticated than Wordpress.com, Wordpress has made gains in simplification and usability, and Ghost’s own hosted solution is pretty expensive, starting at $29/month.
I should download and delete my existing blog rather than worry about upkeep.
Scattered Thoughts —
Yes abandon hope.
And WordPress com may be a path.
For me —
I’m going to explore micro.blog
I got 60,000 words stuck in posts and expect over 100,000 by the time I reach my 100 post goal. By the time I get there I’ll know if micro.blog can act as a path for new folks on my site. If yes. fine. If no, I may have found a new interesting communications channel.
I’m toying with the idea of making a niche raise bed veggie gardening site. I’d want to build a base of many readers and offer items for sale.
When I searched for garden on micro.blog I got a big zero. First glance not much of a straw to draw enthusiasts to my site.
I planning on staying with Cloudways. No because they are the new sliced bread (Best thing since sliced bread). For my low volume site, $10 a month and some money for akismet, donations, and jetpack.
My migration from another host to Cloudways was accomplished with minimum disruption but I’m not planning on doing it again. Definitely not planning…
My understanding with Cloudways is I can add anotther site to my server or buy another box to try to fill up. They advertise, “Your managed cloud hosting platform.” I appreciate their bot that looks at my site and suggests how to make it faster… They also provide security from attack. Disclaimer, I’ve only been with them for three or four months.
I own a license to all StudioPress themes and have been pleased with them. But they have been bought by a another company. Don’t know if the will continue to update…
Almost enough rambling…
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.
Bilbo Baggins
Just a question, why nobody recommends Static Site Generator, it’s one of the best alternatives today. I built my own site using Hugo, and I never had such performance or peace of mind with Wordpress.
Absolutely, here is a link to Gatsby a very strong option for SSGs.
And Netlify is where you will host your site.
Static site… understood.
WP, Joomla, … offer power and flexibility for growth. It may not be needed but … Lesser platforms can be a pain in expansion mode. Learning/mastering WP, Drupal can be a real advantage… a skill to have in your toolbox. It all depends.
I wanted to chime back in here. I’d posted in another thread about Micro.blog in August 2019 but since then I’ve started to host one of my blogs at micro.blog rather than just cross posting from WordPress.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since I started a paid, hosted account but it’s been a huge improvement over my previous WordPress hosted site. A few notes thus far in comparing the two.
Regarding the social aspect of the Micro.blog timeline and community, I’ve had far more interaction there than I’ve ever had on my WordPress site and there’s ZERO comment spam. It’s all actual people sharing aspects of life and that’s really nice change from the tone of Twitter. Like any other social site, it’s possible to just post and not participate in conversations if that’s what you want to do. But if you want the interactions I’ve found the community is very welcoming.
I think Micro.blog is around the 5 year mark and while it’s no where near the complexity of WordPress, Manton constantly improves it and carefully adds new features. Cost is $5 a month which seems more than fair to me. I tend to avoid app subscriptions but for a service such as this, I’ll happily accept it.