Is Wordpress.com quietly building a blog based social network with Reader?

I have no inside information, but the answer is, They are half way or more there.

Aside

If I were a good (slick) blogger I would fill this post up with neat screenshots of Reader pages that illustrate each of my key points.  You could then squint at these unreadable pics to your hearts content.  Instead, just go to Wordpress.com and register.  You can see Reader for yourself.

/Aside

WP Reader is an aggregater of all the blogs hosted on Wordpress.com PLUS remotely hosted installs of Wordpress that use Jetpack.  Everytime you login to Wordpress.com the first thing you see is the Reader.  The Reader is also on all the WP mobile apps.  You can search for posts and blogs by keywords and subscribe to (follow) any blog in the index.  The Reader can also serve up the newest posts on the system whether you have subscribed or not.

1. The Reader is fast and attractive, well laid out and easy to use. It’s like a timeline.
2. It is everywhere and has a huge user base.
3. It can send you notifications if you want.
4. You can “Like” a post from Reader.
5. I think you can even comment on a post from Reader if the owner of the blog has comments turned on.
6. Reader is a very powerful discovery tool.
7. Reader is a powerful traffic tool. Not just one time traffic but repeat traffic. It is so easy to subscribe to a blog you will find yourself with followers soon after making a few posts.
8. You can see who follows you in Reader.  They have a profile page.

What if’s…

But what happens if they give you the ability to add RSS feeds from any blog hosted anywhere?

What would happen if they adopt Indieweb webmentions from the Reader and all WP blogs? So you could comment on another blog from your blog but all in Reader.  And get replies. These types of Indieweb feed reader (see webmention link above) are already available, so it would be just a matter of WP coding these capabilities into Reader.  Don’t ask me how, I’m not a coder.

With just a few more features a de facto social network would emerge.  I don’t know if it would succeed.  I don’t know if it would be a good fun community or be filled with trolls.

If I were WP, I would be at least thinking about it in my off time.

Micro.blog is also a blog based social network and seeing how well it’s features work tells me you can have a successful community built around blogs.

All this is just speculation.  A social network may be the furthest thing on WP’s mind.  All I am pointing out is that the foundations are there at least by accident.

The inspiration for this post came from Greg McVerry.  He very astutely asked the same question in Indieweb chat room a week or so ago.  But, other pressing matters were being discussed so no more was said.  But Greg’s observation got me thinking so I thought I would start a discussion.

Could it be done? Do you think they are doing it?

LEECHING AND LINKING IN THE HYPERTEXT KINGDOM

Cool! Kicks Condor’s experimental directory for August 2018.  What I love about this is he’s indexing the fun part of the web, the part that is buried so deep in Google it will never see the light of day.

Opera’s co-founder says launching a web browser to compete with Google, Microsoft and Apple isn’t as nuts as it sounds.

On first encountering the web in 1996, like most people I was fascinated by two key questions: how can I find information online and how can I enable my own web pages to get found? Like any poet tr…

Source: Official Blogger Blog: It’s spring cleaning time for Blogger

I’ve been reading a lot of “places to host your blog” type articles. Most have added a note of caution about Google abandoning services.  It looks like a mixed bag. Improvements are being made to Blogger but at the same time some features are being discontinued.

Announcements are starting to appear in my Wordpress dashboard.  That means the hammer is about to fall soonish.  Maybe no next update but before the end of the year.  This is WP pounding the beach, prepping for the invasion.  Crap.

I’ve been reading the spiel from WP and they talk a lot about the editor.  My problem has never been the editor in WP, it’s been finding where the switches are in the admin panel.  The other problem with WP is when something does not work tracking down who the culprit is: a plugin, the template, operator error, the latest update,  some obscure setting?

Despite that, WP has always been cool because there were so many ways to add on to it, so many ways to customize it with plugins.  The answers I’ve seen about plugins still working have been dodgy.  And what about themes? Is my current theme going to break?

I have this feeling this is more about making WP better suited for commercial for profit blogging than it is about blogging.

When I find an interesting new tool, I like to think of all the ways I can use it.  When I found out I could put HTML on a Page on a Micro.blog hosted blog it got me thinking.

So what else will work there?  Nothing earth shattering here but a couple of small ideas.

One thing you can do is make a webring landing page.  The key here is that you can post HTML to Pages on MB.

For those that don’t remember the webring heydays of the 1990’s, webmasters would join several webrings,  now you didn’t want all those ring codes taking up space on your index page so you created a separate page for your webring codes.  Usually visitors would enter and leave the site by this page.

Landing Page:

Now Micro.blog does have a footer space you can place HTML in, but what if you wanted to join several rings?  You create that landing page.

1. in your MB admin you create a new page.  Name in something like “Webrings” so visitors know where to find the code.
2. Join a webring somewhere.  Use yoursite.com/webrings/ as the page you join with.
3. Place the webring code on that page. (An HTML code should work.  I’m not sure if a javascript code will work but you can try.)
4. You probably should place a greeting on that page explaining where visitors are at.  You want to make the ring easy to navigate.

Ring Homepage:

Let’s say you want to start your own webring and run it.  You can start a webring at a ring host.  I recommend Webringo.  Old school rings need a Homepage where you set out the criteria of your webring (example).

Have some fun!

What other things can you do with a micro.blog Page?

How to Add a Blogroll or Micro Link Directory in Wordpress

Once upon a time Wordpress had a Links function, which let you manage lists of links.  This was commonly used for blogrolls.  A few years back, Wordpress “bricked over” the Links function, hiding it.  But the core functionality is still there waiting to be used.

The Plugin I used was Links Shortcode, which is free and fairly simple to use. The plugin does two things:

It revives the Links Function in Wordpress.

It lets you put those links on any Page of your Wordpress site using a simple shortcode.

That’s it really.  The links function lets you divide up your links into categories (ie. blogroll, freestuff, causes you support…) so you can put one or several categories of links on pages you create.

Uses that come to mind:  Blogroll, small curated link directory, best of list, list of your identities on different social networks, the choices are endless.

Alternative:  Simple Links Directory Lite plugin.  The free version is limited and it’s a bit more complicated than Links Shortcode, but it works.

Surfing blogrolls used to be fun, it’s time to bring that back to blogging.  This article is part of the decentralized blog search and discovery strategy.

I’m doing a soft launch of my new blog directory.  It is ready for submissions by bloggers.  If you have one blog or several you can add your URL’s.  Listings are free, I don’t want or need the money, I want you to find more readers. Mind, we do have guidelines. We take all types of blogs: regular blogs, photo blogs, podcast and microcast blogs, micro blogs.

I have seeded just a few sites in the directory, just enough to give you an indication of what types of sites go where.  Some lists have no listings because they should be self explanatory.

Even if you do not want to add your URL, I would appreciate it if you would spread the word to your blogger friends.  They might want a listing.

This is a continuation of my previous pipe dream.  I decided to do something more modest, a micro directory if you will.  It is not quite as personal as a Blogroll but it is smaller than a stand alone web directory.  It falls somewhere in between.

Some things I’m excited about:

• The directory is responsive to mobile.  So phone users can use it. I have this vision of a bored train commuter, takes out his phone, selects a listing in the directory and she’s off reading somebody’s blog.
• The directory search feature seems to work better than most.  This is important both in general and for mobile.
• The directory is part of the blog here.  Which makes it easier to find users.

That’s enough for now.  More thoughts later.

This was also posted to /en/linking.

Memories File:

The most basic “blog” I ever saw was a simple .txt page. Entries were dated and in reverse chronological order. Blog like.  It was actively added too although posts were short.

But wait there is more!

That .txt file was tucked up in the head area of the website with the robots.txt where only snoops and bots could find it.  Eventually word leaked out because this webmaster had one of the best robots.txt files ever so people looking for that found the blog and word spread.  😄

This was back in the early ‘00’s when everybody was starting to blog.  I think the webmaster was poking a little fun at us.

I just added an Advanced Search to my Micro.blog hosted blog. I have 2 domains for two blogs one on Wordpress and one on Micro.blog. I found Duckduckgo Search Box creator would let me do a site search of several domains at one time.

1. I created a search box for both domains. 2. I created a new Page, “Advanced Search” on my Micro.blog blog. 3. Pasted the searchbox code one the page. Saved. And it works and it’s free.

Now I’m going to do the same on my Wordpress blog.

Yesterday, like Snoopy, I almost got the Sopwith Camel, out of the barn to get ready for one last dogfight with the Red Baron.  Meaning, I almost bought a domain, directory script and hosting for it to start a directory of blogs.  I had it all researched, script picked out, ideas as to how to make it good, everything, then I started writing the blog post below (italics). It’s not complete but it was my reality check.

Directories and Search Engines Do No Good if Unused

1. They have to have a starter set of listings. I call this “seeding” the directory.  If a searcher comes to use the directory you need to provide them with something or they will never come back.  This means the Editor(s) of the directory have got to add a starter set of sites to the database manually.  It’s a lot of work.
2. You have two sets of customers: A. searchers, the public, B. webmasters adding their URLs.  The expectations are different for each set.  You have to market to both.
3. You have to provide traffic to sites listed.  With a new search engine or directory you have to build a user base.  This means you have to gain exposure, either by hard advertising or by word spreading within whatever niche you serve.  Also links back, articles and search boxes on websites help.  This is why it is better to start in a niche, because members of the niche are more likely to support you.
4. You are not going to make any money at it for years, if ever.
5. …

Time!

I’m not willing to put the time and money forward to make such a directory at this moment.  That and the time commitment to promote it, that is, gain traffic to it would be huge.   So I scrapped the Big Plan.

As I said before, there is a need.  Blog directories are a stopgap measure for a few years until the next generation can cook up better solutions to the blog discovery problem.  The need will grow in the near future as Twitter and FB either decline or restrict our being able to syndicate our posts to them or both.

I do have other “clever Plans,” in the works. I’m not giving up.  This is not retreat, I’m just attacking in a different direction.  More when those plans are closer to launch.

(Plus I salvaged that post I started yesterday.)  😄

In a previous conversation, I made a rough list of types of blog search directories and search engines.

Blog Discovery:  I’m sure directories are not the best solution for blog discovery, but like blogrolls they have a place at the table because they are low tech and cheap. Here’s a rough hierarchy:

• Do In A Pinch: Blog acting as a directory.

• Minimum: A proper directory script (ie. phplinkdirectory or similar) This allows for blog owner to submit their blog, write a description etc.

• Better:  A directory script that not only lists blog URL but also lists blogs RSS feed.

• Better x 2: Directory described above which also generates it’s own RSS feed for each category and subcategories.

• Better x 3:  Some sort of fusion of the x2 directory above, and Indieweb stuff to some degree.  Maybe a fusion of a standard directory with Kicks Condor’s Indieweb.xyz.  This is just brainstorming.

• Better x 4: Probably an RSS search engine like the old defunct Daypop or Icerocket. Because this leads the searcher to individual posts about a topic in close to real time.  Such an engine could use Post Kinds as filters for the searcher to refine their search.  There used to be a lot of RSS blog search engines I could find only RSSMicro today.

• Best: Some sort of hybrid directory/RSS/crawler engine listing only blogs.  The search crawler digs deep into a blog for those posts from 2015 or before that are buried and won’t appear in feeds.  The RSS search engine for the newest posts.

The more advanced the solution, the greater the technology bar to entry.  Just about anyone can start a human edited directory, but creating an RSS search engine requires more programming skill.  Moreover, the more advanced solutions require more money to run which again raises the bar to entry.

We see this now with web search, the cost to build a search engine that will rival Google is more than many countries can afford.

But if we only follow the technology route we create another set of silo’s like Google and Bing.

So in the blog world we need lots of different ways to discover blogs and blog posts.  We need ways for new blogs to be found by readers before their bloggers lose heart in talking to themselves.  We need many high tech search engines and many low tech directories so that the blogosphere does not become consolidated once again into a few silos.  No one source is going to index the entire blogosphere, and that’s okay. because each index is a collection.

The Indieweb plays an important role in this.  Webmentions will become the new backbone of making the Web the social network.  And they will also help blogs get discovered.  But right now Indieweb adoption is relatively small.  We also need to find audiences that are just readers who do not blog.  Because even siloed social networks have their own search function.

• If there are 100,000 bloggers, then we need 100,000 blogrolls.
• We need site searches, like phinde, that can index multiple domains.
• We need many dozens of blog directories of all sorts: human reviewed and, somehow, Indieweb automated.
• We need a dozen blog and RSS feed search engines.

Other reading:

Search Engine History

Bomis Webrings had Important Differences.

Indieweb, Discovery and Search.

I’m curious, how are you finding new and interesting blogs?  Are these places doing a good job in helping you?  How are new blogs getting found?

In the past there were blog specific places to search for blogs and new blog posts: blog directories, blog search engines, RSS feeds directories, RSS search engines.  In addition there were blogrolls, mentions by fellow bloggers, regular web search engines,etc.  Not a lot of that infrastructure remains today.  Blog search has been incorporated into regular web search on Google and Bing which means a post from a small blog is competing against established, branded sites for every search.

I’m asking because, if we are moving to the web being the social network then blog discovery becomes crucial.

So how do you find new voices and new blogs?

• Social Media: Facebook, Twitter and others.
• Readers: Wordpress.com Reader and similar.
• Search Engines: Google, Bing, Duckduckgo and others.
• Blogrolls: Lists of blogs other bloggers follow.
• Blog Directories: if so, which ones?
• Web Mentions and Comments:  People commenting on your own blog posts.
• I don’t look for blogs.
• I only follow a select group of friends or business blogs and I am not curious as to what else is out there.
• Other: explain.

Bloggers: If you are a new blogger, how are you getting found by readers?  Talking to yourself is lonely, I’ve been there.  How do you reach out to gain readers?

Please answer by webmention, or commenting below.  I really want to know about your experience so include whatever detail you like.  Thanks!

This was also posted to /en/blogging.

In reply to: Chris Aldrich replying to the Blog Snoop Memo.

Chris,

Cow Paths:  Yes we have this concept in both New Urbanism and planning municipal bike/hike trails.  It’s a good analogy for what I’m doing: “What’s available off the shelf and free as a stopgap until somebody designs something better?”

Blog Discovery:  I’m sure directories are not the best solution for blog discovery, but like blogrolls they have a place at the table because they are low tech and cheap. Here’s a rough hierarchy:

• Do In A Pinch: Blog acting as a directory.
• Minimum: A proper directory script (ie. phplinkdirectory or similar) This allows for blog owner to submit their blog, write a description etc.
• Better:  A directory script that not only lists blog URL but also lists blogs RSS feed.
• Better x 2: Directory described above which also generates it’s own RSS feed for each category and subcategories.
• Better x 3:  Some sort of fusion of the x2 directory above, and Indieweb stuff to some degree.  Maybe a fusion of a standard directory with Kicks Condor’s Indieweb.xyz.  This is just brainstorming.
• Better x 4: Probably an RSS search engine like the old defunct Daypop.  Because this leads the searcher to individual posts about a topic in close to real time.  Such an engine could use Post Kinds as filters for the searcher to refine their search.  There used to be a lot of RSS blog search engines I could find only RSSMicro today.
• Best: Some sort of hybrid directory/RSS/crawler engine listing only blogs.  The search crawler digs deep into a blog for those posts from 2015 or before that are buried and won’t appear in feeds.  The RSS search engine for the newest posts.

I don’t think we have tapped RSS fully.

OPML: I use Inoreader and I subscribed to your Indieweb list from your Following Page.  Brilliant list and thanks.  I think there is a future for this for deep discovery.

rel=directory: My instincts tell me this is important and they are on the right track.  The directory also is a low tech way to sort by topic.  Because it’s not enough to just have all the Indieweb plugins, but people need to know what the blog’s topics are.

Vouch: Yes. Needed in some form.  I used to move at the periphery of the spam crowd although I was never part of it and I can tell you, right now Indieweb stuff, (webmentions etc.) are in a honeymoon.  The spammers will figure out how to exploit these in ways you never dreamed of.

Thanks to you and to Kicks Condor for taking the time to reply so extensively.  The first step needed for Blog Snoop is to have an extensive index of blogs.  Only then will it be of any use.  And this was a useful discussion because it gave me some ideas that might work.  Again thanks.

1. Cool!
2. Neocities.org and webrings are made for each other.  Both Webring.com and Ringsurf.com appear to be malfunctioning when you try to join.  Webringo.com works. If I were the owner of Webringo I'd try to get exposure on Neocities somehow.
3. Duckduckgo.com provides the site search to find Neocities hosted pages.  They have done a good job.
4. There are some subjects that are better suited for a static site rather than a blog.  In fact the content will probably get buried on a blog. Neocities is perfect for such micro-sites.

A weblog listing old websites, Bible verses, and, on occasion, other web-related resources. Updated almost every day.

This is really neat: a neo-retro site about retro sites.  The webmaster finds old relic websites and links to them.  These sites were the way the web was when it was fun.  Back when experts built websites and shared their knowledge and experience.  Today we have Wikipedia.  This is a good rabbit hole to explore.

New to blogging? These are the best blogging platforms for you.

This is a decent list.  I think there are a couple of really important things you need to find out before you sign up for one of these platforms:

1. Can you export your content (your posts and pages) to another platform?  Preferably export to Wordpress or something Wordpress can convert.  If not pass, because you will probably move a couple of times to different platforms.
2. Use your own domain.  It makes moving so much easier down the road.  Yes it costs some money but not a fortune.  And frankly, you are more likely to stick to blogging if you are paying for it.  It’s too easy to walk away from a free blog.

Micro.blog - you can get a basic blog and even use your own domain for US$5 per mo.  Limited customization right now but that can help keep you and your readers focused on the words you write rather than do-dads.  It is a very good deal.

Vivaldi.net - IF you are really strapped for money and need a free blog, without advertising, try Vivaldi.net.  You will get a subdomain (ie. yoursite.vivaldi.net) address, limited features but it all works has no ads.

I’m deconstructing my old blogs. I have tow old static movie list pages I want to keep. I thought about putting them up on Neocities, but that just creates a new site to have to deal with. Two pages don’t make for much of a worthwhile stand alone site. I guess I’ll just stick them on the new blog. At least on a blog people can comment.

I know I do go on about old web directories.  Eventually I’ll get it out of my system.

For a younger audience, it is helpful to see what I’ve been talking about, in the flesh, er, pixels.  Back in the late 90’s and early to mid 2000’s there were quite a few niche science fiction and fantasy directories.  I found two of these directories still functioning on the Web.  At one time these were the prominent examples of their kind. I’m glad they are still around to see.

First, is Speculative Vision Network.  It’s always been part of a portal, art gallery, forums, interactive stories, directory.

Second is Scifisource. Which has always been a directory.  It looks pretty much the same as I remember it.

I do not know to what extent these are being maintained but they still function.  These are the real deal, sorta sealed in amber, and at least serve as examples of the niche directories of that era.

I’m hitting a fork in the road with this site and the experiment of using a blog as a directory of blogs.  The problem here is me: I’m running out of time.  I’m duplicating a lot …

We’ll see what happens.  It was a guerrilla blog discovery idea I thought I would experiment with.  Details at the link.

Like: An Interview with Vivaldi’s CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner - gHacks Tech News

Great browser.  Some hints at upcoming features.

For decades I’d write notes to myself on the backs of old envelopes.  These immediately got lost, thrown out or washed in the next load of laundry.

I liked the simplicity of iOS Notepad but it locked me into the iOS walled garden at the time.  Evernote came along, but then jumped the shark.

Simplenote is free and ad free.  There are apps for every computer, even Linux, and every mobile OS, plus web.

It’s so simple, basic, it takes no thought to use it.  Typing a note has no barriers, it’s as easy as typing a post on Facebook or Micro.blog.  It automatically saves so I don’t even have to remember to do that. I like this simplicity.  I don’t want a lot of things getting in the way of my thoughts in that instant.  So it works for me.

And, of course, everything syncs.  I have the Linux app on my laptop, lost connection to the internet,  but the note I typed in Simplenote still saved locally and synced with the network once it was restored. (I can’t remember if I had to reopen the app first or not.)

It’s not fancy.  Basic text. But it beats writing on the back of old envelopes.

Blog Lane Webring: Gettiing on a webring is like turning onto a previously unexplored street and seeing the sights, hence the name: Blog Lane. Purpose: To help visitors discover blogs. This is a…

The problem with blogs, especially new blogs is getting discovered.  I’d like to see if webrings can help with that.  Sure this is a throwback to the 1990’s Web, but the Web in the ‘90’s was fun to explore.  Time to recapture that.  If you have a blog join and try it out.

In reply to: The Awesome Directories.

Kicks,

I think I have an answer to your linkrot concern. Not for Awesome but a hypothetical directory - “someday”.

The idea really isn’t mine, I got it thinking about the Microcast.club directory, which is really a new Indie style webring that also has a List of Sites page aka a flat directory page.  When you join you get a webring code to place on your site, plus listing in the directory.  Cool.

Linkrot.

On some hypothetical future niche directory it’s that webring code that prevents the linkrot.  As long as the webring/directories robot keeps finding that validation code you stay in the directory, no code and eventually you will be dropped. Not perfect but it automates the process a bit.

It wouldn’t have to be a webring code, it could just be a validation code, I suppose.  I like the idea of indiestyle webring/directory combined.  My worry would be scale on the ring.  Old style webrings had a sweet spot of 50-200 sites.  Over 200 and they become difficult to manage and it was found that bigger destination sites in the ring siphoned off too much ring traffic and gave very little back.

Still adding that directory page was a good evolutionary move for indie-style rings.

Massaging this idea a bit:  one could let ring members self define subject categories when they join very much like you did on Indieweb.xyz (tags sorta) which would help when it gets larger.

This was also posted to /en/linking.