Notices by Dave Winer ☕️ (davew@mastodon.social)

@Gargron — your point of view is very important here.

@Gargron @ben @KevinMarks

i think that's a good approach. glad you've thought this through.

@Gargron -- makes sense.

but -- if you can have some of what you want now to get started, why not.

that's always how i approach these things. that's why i was so happy to see that you all supported outbound RSS.

but i want more connections between the two world. we're not done building.

and thanks for taking the time to respond.

@Gargron

you sound like me -- wrt RSS. 😀

they do have a feed btw, so you could meet them half-way by supporting RSS as an equal with ActivityPub.

there's lots of good stuff out there that's available in feeds that hasn't made it to AP yet.

btw, i am able to follow you in my feed reader, bc as you know Masto supports outbound RSS.

maybe you and i should work together to bring the two worlds together?

@raganwald @jmeowmeow @aral

the most important thing is we all have to work together, then we'll be making good use of the small web (I like social web better).

small pieces loosely joined, a term coined by david weinberger, the best explanation of the web in four freaking words! ;-)

@aral

that was my first reaction when they started, but then i got to know the devs, and i don't think jack is very involved. they have their own ideas.

anyway, i try -- i don't think we win by moralizing. you're in bed with zuck with activitypub, and i wouldn't trust him, and his for sure is in charge of that venture.

@aral

You could take another approach and consider that activitypub has problems that aren’t being solved, and maybe a fresh start by smart devs, which they are, might get us to a better place sooner.

A little advice about social media from someone who has been on social media since it has existed. You don’t have to argue. When someone wants to argue with you, you should block them. There is no good outcome possible from arguing on social media.

@aral

maybe we could collaborate?

@aral

btw imho the way to achieve your goal is step by step, not all at once.

bluesky is refreshing because it is so small. that's a big clue. it's multi-user, not focused on individuals. it's just that the scale is such that it's manageable and fun, the way twitter was at first.

it's not that twitter went the wrong way so much as twitter got old and big.

the key is to create constantly refreshing experiences.

i think that would be something facebook would have trouble figuring out btw

@aral

i fully agree. all my products are built on that basic idea.

@aral

What are you working on? You can respond privately, I am not looking for debates, looking for interop.

@aral

I do the same thing. 😁

Mastodon which is incredibly hot, supports RSS beautifully.

Just add .rss to any account to get the feed. Amazing!

https://mastodon.social/@davew.rss

Open that in your favorite feed reader. It’ll work.

Post a screenshot, say what the reader app is.

And pass this on to everyone who uses a feed reader.

Spread the word!

This is a huge deal for the open web.

Earlier today I used Google to try to find a doc I wrote a few years ago. I am the author. I have the original. Well a bunch of people copied my file and posted it on their sites, with their template and their ads (I don't have ads), and for whatever reason Google ranks their docs higher. Mine isn't even on the first page. So tell me, how is that Google isn't implementing a "man in the middle" attack? Why aren't they taking the heat for delivering incorrect results?

Mastodon should either support markdown, or pass through the marks unaltered.

What they do now is the only wrong choice, they strip the marks, and don’t render.

In other words if I use md’s equiv of *italics* either turn it into actual italics or leave the asterisks alone.

You can’t trust corporate APIs. The only ones you can trust are open APIs that aren’t owned by anyone -- like the web, http, html, rss. You have to watch out because the bigco’s will try to own those too. To a large extent Google already owns the web. And they are throwing their weight around in much more consequential ways than twitter. But Google is invisble to the press. That will end someday.

@Deus @jeffjarvis @EvilKiru

I’m standing with the open web.

http://this.how/googleAndHttp

My comments re the announcement from @jeffjarvis of the CUNY scholarship to do Masto-Journalism..

http://scripting.com/2023/01/14.html#a143124

@aral

Absolutely. I call them products because I put the same attention into my free stuff as I did with my commercial products.

Mastodon is a great example. The UI isn’t perfect, but it is really good, shows people who know how to do it put a lot of love into this and didn’t fight over bullshit, they made something nice without locking people in.