My world on the web
Do you tire of shared links to articles shared from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, the Bumtown Home News that you cannot read because of their paywall that blocks an article after you bit into a paragraph? This bookmarklet lets you leap over that hurdle, and read content ad/content free via archive.today
Paywall Jumper Bookmarklet by Alan Levine
I think we are truly missing out on the web where I, as a reader, make a visit to your site or place. This is te active tense web. It’s like visiting your home, knocking on the door, maybe having a conversation on your porch or the back yard. Or if you are not home, I will peek in the window and see what’s new, and leave a comment tacked you your door.
You Never Visit My Blog Home Anymore, You Just Hang Out at the Social Media Mall – CogDogBlog by Alan Levine
I was left thinking about this post Alan. About gardens and streams. It has been something that I have been thinking about for a while:
I fear I have become a recluse in the woods living in the small hut that is my own website, just talking to myself as the local habitat walks on past wondering what I am doing.
đź’¬ Communities and Conversations of the Past | Read Write Collect by Aaron Davis
I still sift through my RSS feed in the search of gold, but rarely go to the mall unless I have to. However, I largely find myself these days sitting on my porch reading books, having a conversation with the dead, of sorts. I am not sure this is ideal, but I guess it will do for now.
A hidden value of blogging over time is … forgetting/finding what you wrote about
I find myself not only stumbling upon old posts, but surprised I even wrote some of them. It is a strange experience having conversations with past self.
The proclamations of web death are focused on the Big Loud Large Scale part of the web. It is not the whole web itself. Rather, there is a vibrant, bubbling culture of web creativity in the IndieWeb, the small web, the places where people write, share, create not for profit, bust just because they can, and it fuels their main work.
My Own Personal Theory for The Death of the Web citing Python, M (1975) – CogDogBlog by Alan Levine
I often wonder exactly what I am doing here on my ‘Sunday Drive’ of a blog, but them I stop worrying and just keep blogging.
To all y’all who gave up owning your blogged content to machines of email distribution— you’ve also stabbed a knife on the web by obscuring outbound hyperlinks (if even used). A key attribute of my web experience is assessing the value of following a link by rolloever/inspection to read the domain. Now those fundamental units of the web, the link, are obfuscated in gibberish links for gobbling click data, or encrusted with tracking url barnacles. I am URL literate are you?
Alan Levine: “To all y’all who gave up ownin…” – mastodon.cloud by Alan Levine: “To all y’all who gave up ownin…” – mastodon.cloud
It is a good question Alan
tlac; Too Lazy Asked ChatGPT
I feel father comfortable swimming in HTML and writing the stuff by hand (I thought at one time everyone would learn to write HTML). It never tops being refreshing to learn one more trick.
Source: Links to Text Fragments by Alan Levine
I never knew that there was an option to select a link to the highlighted text in the browser. For years I have been using the Fragmentation plugin in WordPress, I guess this makes that obsolete?
I really like the prospect of pointing to a particular section of text when linking out from my blog. I like(d) Hypothesis for this, but find the workflow of creating a highlight that I would then link to a bit tedious and time consuming.
In the spirit of Groomian #BlogOrDie, rather than just append some more ideas to my recent post on podcast listening, why not just blog anew? No rules here except the ones I concoct. Left Of My List I only realized yesterday when I drove for errands, and as usual, flipped on the Overcast player to […]
Stephen Downes does point out that the Android app AntennaPod does support import/export of sets of feeds as OPML, and shares a nifty example from some guy named “Ed” who shares his listens as an OPML file rendered readable on the web using the “lost art” (Stephen’s accurate description) of an XSL Stylesheet. The link lists links to all show’s web sites and RSS feeds.
Source: One More Thing on Podcast Listening (well maybe two) (or three) by Alan Levine
Thank you for sharing this Alan. I felt all old school, delving into the ‘lost art‘ of stylesheets. I posted my podcasts OPML here.
I had maintained an OPML via the links in WordPress, but really like the way that the file is presented via the stylesheet. I wonder if there is a way of applying a stylesheet to the WordPress file, for now I think that is just an itch.
I also really like Podcast Index too. Thank you for sharing. Sadly, it looks at ‘podcasts’ as a whole, rather than episodes. At least it is a start.
In one sample listen, you might be wowed. But over a series, Biff and Buffy sound like a bunch of gushing sycophants, those office but kissers you want to kick in the pants.
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Beyond the point of showing that this can be done (reference the old saying about why a dog does something) – what is the use? Will people really use this as a mode to consume content?
Source: Wow Us with your AI Generated Podcast… by Alan Levine
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I agree with you Alan about the initial amazement about what is possible, I am not sure how purposeful it is. I listened to David Truss’ podcast he posted and was left thinking about my experience with David Truss’ writing. I imagine that such tools may provide a possible entry way into new content, but I am not sure what is really gained by putting this into an audio format? If as David has suggested (quoting Adam Grant), “The future belongs to those who connect dots.” Does an autogenerated podcast help with that? (On a side note, anytime someone talks about connecting dots, I am reminded of the wonderful work of Amy Burvall.) I wonder in this case if the focus on the product overlooks the learning gained through the process of highlighting the patterns and finding a trace through all the dots?
I personally listen to a lot of text using the phone’s accessibility features. I think that a text summary read in this manner is both sufficient and maintains the divide, whereas I feel that the artificial voices sit somewhere in the uncanny valley. However, the more I think about this, I wonder what is the uncanny valley anymore and whether we are “all already interpolated” within the system, especially after reading Jill Lepore’s dive into the world of the talking chatbot.
Make your own links. And take care of them.
The Power of Creating / Maintaining Your Own Links by Alan Levine
Hi Alan,
After reading you post, I have been left thinking about what rot I have out there. For example, over the years I have different created sites to explore Known (WhatIf) and Wikity. I have since folded the content into my own site, but never considered the links that I may have shared out into the world. Just wondering if you could or would share any strategies that you have used when you may have changed links in time?
Aaron
Given the abuse of comment spammers making it a PITA to manage, many bloggers turn them off, or use some fancy new hip static publisher that does no support comments (aka D’Arcy). Or it happens away from the publishing source, maybe tied back with something like ActivityPub. There the depth of the response is thin, quick, all the intensity of an emoji or some meme gif.
So when I get a genuine, non spam blog comment from a real person, with maybe complete sentences that indicate they actually read what I wrote, not glancing at in during a scroll session, it’s quite a gift.
Source: The Gift of Comments by Alan Levine
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I agree with you Alan about the gift of a comment on the blog. As Robert T. Schuetz’ once said,
Comments are like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms, the sugary goodness that adds flavor to our day. Comments turn posts into conversations. Sometimes, these conversations turn into friendships, and sometimes these friendships span the globe.
Source: Comments are the Marshmallows by Robert T. Schuetz
I remember in the past at the end of each year I would go through all my comments and collate the bits that stood out. I managed to do this for four years (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017), but then it fell on the way side I guess. I wonder if one of the challenges is the way in which comments and general conversation have become distributed over the years? Ironically, looking back, it is sad how comments on platforms such as Disqus have been lost to time. Personally, I find something in writing my comments on my own site these days and POSSEing them elsewhere, although it means I do not always get around to commenting as much as I would like.
If ever you apply Thing 1 to ask a question in public, always keep in mind Thing 2— understand that there is often more.
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Every element is a conversation. It’s not fair to compare Discourse to a garden variety BBS or discussion board. Yes, in structure maybe – every item/post is a “topic” and a response a reply, and topics are organized in categories and also via tags. But what I saw for a conference venue is that every presentation, event, announcement was open to being as well a conversation.
I got 5000+ links to comb through. But my blog is gonna be cleaner and I will have accomplished myself the wishful dream I tossed out as tweet in the wind.
I can do my part to tend my own garden of links- whether others let their stuff rot is on them.
I realized another problem with either/or approaches to doing this. Being able to see each other in conversation adds much to the dynamic, especially to see the people we are talking to, and, where, if they are okay to share, their immediate surroundings. And they can easily choose to participate without the camera, that is always an option for me.
But is that the “right” way? The “best” way?
So go ahead and gloat about your AI infused semantic blockchain… I’ll keep applying the trailing edge tools, and will sharpen them as I go.
index.php and replaced this with ?s=.
In regards to itches, I would still like the ability to search for content associated with particular tags, this is what happens when you start using WordPress as a commonplace book. That this granny is happy enough for now.