The new Twitter alternative: Substack Notes
Contrasting the start of Twitter in 2006 and the start of Substack’s Notes in 2023
Social media
The social network “Minus” is remarkably thoughtful
If you enjoy contemplative places online, give Minus a try.
Where did you reach your 10,000th step today?
If you wear a Fitbit (or Apple Watch), it’s fun tracking where you reached your 10,000th step of the day. The default daily goal on all Fitbit devices is 10,000 steps. Upon crossing that goal, your Fitbit will vibrate in celebration. Take that moment to observe where you are walking. Pause, take a photo, and …
Facebook Page invites waiting to be accepted
Did you know there is a section on Facebook that lists all the pending invites for Pages you’ve been invited to? Apparently over the years people have invited me to lots of Pages, but I haven’t accepted the invite! How to get to your pending Page invites Just go to: https://www.facebook.com/pages/?category=invites Page invites I just …
Doing more with the links you share
A linkblog. Do you remember those before social media? On my spudart.org blog, I had a sidebar of links. The earliest version of my linkbar is on Archive.org from 2002. In that 2002 example, I didn’t have any commentary on each link. The following year, I started to add a little piece of insight about …
Idea: a script to find Flickr photos being used online
Flickr is a great place to find photos to use. Many photographers assign their photos with a Creative Commons license, so any can use the photos. (there are different requirements with this license. Some require attribution. Some don’t allow profit use.) Whenever I see an article using a Flickr image, I almost always click over …
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Twitter CEO says the important stat is reply rate, not follower count
I love this quote from the CEO of Twitter on the number of followers a person has: “I don’t think that’s the number you should be focused on. I think what is more important is the number of meaningful conversations you’re having on the platform. How many times do you receive a reply?” Too often …
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I’m now managing the @TribuneAgency Twitter account
Yesterday I started to manage the @TribuneAgency account again. This is the Twitter account for Tribune Content Agency. We are the branch of Tribune Publishing that syndicates and licenses content from all over the place. I created the Twitter account in 2013. I ran it for a couple years, then some of my coworkers ran …
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Tribune Publishing new logo, replacing the old tronc logo
The first time most Tribune Publishing employees (myself included) saw our new logo was on our Cisco phone display this morning. As a designer, I enjoy that my first experience with our brand was in 8-bit grayscale. For the Tribune employees who check their email on the way into the office, their first experience of …
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I have a problem with Evernote. I use it an archive, not as active in-progress writing.
When you write a blog post or a draft of something, where do you save it? I put all my blog posts into Evernote. It’s a great app to save documents and images. Having all my blog drafts together in one organized place is so handy. All the drafts are searchable. When you go to …
I have a problem with Evernote. I use it an archive, not as active in-progress writing. Read More »
Rare hashtags
It’s funny to find hashtags on Instagram that are rarely used. When commenting on a photo, I’ll often combine two words together into a hashtag. And then I click on the hashtag to see if there any other photos. Apparently is the first Instagram photo with the hashtag: #comiccompilations in the comments No photo has ever …
How to cut the noise out of Facebook (use a friends list sorted by most recent)
Spend less time on Facebook, and enjoy it more. Tired of all the junk on Facebook? Do you find yourself scrolling and scrolling forever? Only a couple items out of hundreds look interesting? Cut down all the garbage you see on Facebook and take control of your timeline. The method is simple and employs two …
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The discovery metadata field
The internet would be a really interesting place if every article that was shared automatically had a “via link.” Ok, so the internet is already interesting. But what makes the internet such a great place is its connectivity. Everything is linked together. We can easily share a link to an article. So many links all …
My favorite way to set up Tweetdeck as a background stream
I’ve found my favorite way to keep Twitter running in the background at work. Tweetdeck is the tool, with two columns. Yup. Just two columns. If you try to use the normal Twitter stream on the homepage, you’ll have to manually click the “See 35 new Tweets” message. Plus, the homepage of Twitter shows you …
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The classic sad tale about social media API.
A new platform launches. The platform needs users and growth. So the platform offers an API for developers to make super-cool apps and services. Why bother developing the innovation in-house when you can have other outside people do it for you? Third-party developers get excited about the API, because it lets developers access the platform’s …
My 11 essential Chrome menu bar icons
The Chrome menu bar can be a great location for shortcuts. I use my menu bar to get instant notifications of new emails and Linkedin messages. My menu bar also allows me to take the webpage I’m currently viewing and quick check it’s popularity, save an article, and annotate the page. However, your Chrome menu …
What Linkedin does when there is no image on your blog post
We all know the general rule of thumb that all blog posts should have an image. It helps to promote the post in various channels. Lately I’m approaching my blogs as a thought space where I post more frequently to get my ideas published. With more posts, these ideas get developed further. The only thing …
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Blogging more helps me appreciate things in life
I was just thinking I would blog more if I had an app like Tweetdeck, but for WordPress where I can open a simple text edit window. Drag over one image, and boom. Blog post. And then I realized, Oh! There are MacOS WordPress apps! Instead of posting to Twitter, just do quick blog posts …
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What’s popular in your Twitter network might be not interesting to you
Twitter is now curating a list of articles that are popular among the people you follow. A bit like what Nuzzle has been offering for years. Twitter calls this section “Popular articles”. Sounds like it would be great, right? “Popular articles” will unveil what your Twitter network considers to be good. However, you might not …
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Reply rate of the top 10 journalists on Twitter
Barkha Dutt of the Washington Post is the most-engaged top journalist on Twitter. 64% of the reporter’s tweets are at-replies. That’s how to use Twitter–as an engagement platform, not a broadcast platform. How do the other most-followed journalists on Twitter rate with their response level? Poynter published a list of the the most-followed journalists on Twitter: Anderson …