(no subject)
So, LiveJournal has been making some mistakes. And paying money for features is, like, so totally Web 1.0.
I'd like to tell you about tumblr.
No icons. No "groups". No anything. Just a bookmarklet for quickly sharing whatever you're looking at online, and free subdomains (read: make one account, then with one login, manage infinite other accounts - and no one has to know that they are the same person).
And here in lies The Magic: the comment system is inverted. Let me explain: today, when you visit a comment-enabled page, there are two ways to interact with it. You leave a comment, and then you check back at your leisure to see who else has contributed. This is slow, clunky, and counterintuitive - it is also the way that the web has worked for decades. The second way is for updates to be pushed to you: RSS, email alerts, etc. This is also less than ideal - why would you go to your email to get information about something not-email related? No one needs more robots in their inbox.
On tumblr, when you want to make a comment, you reblog. You click a button, and the contents of the post you are commenting on is pasted into your own posting page, with automatic referrals to the original author. Add your own commentary, hit post, and Boom: the author's content, in front of your readers, with your commentary. Each comment in the form of a reblog exposes content to exponentially more viewers. It's viral information sharing. Treating memes (both of the Dawkins and 4chan variety) as memes: units of information. Plus, public accountability for all of your words - no longer is cowardice rewarded with the obscurity of nested comments on a static page: everything you post, anywhere, is on your front page. Exponentially more people's eyes on something.
And to seal the deal, tumblr is free. And will be. Forever. And the people who run it are good people. And use it. Correctly.
Publicly accessible API, full-control over pure CSS themes, and a userbase that, quite frankly, would rather be writing than blogging.
Also, some there's some fantastic porn there. (And yes, porn tumblrs reblog each other when they share similar interests. It's basically the Best Thing.)
So hey, kids: move on up to the Web 20X6 Curation Generation™ and jump ship. It's really, really nice here. I promise. Check out the directory, or take a peek at my "likes" for just a small sample what's there.
Oh, one more thing? Rich text, HTML, or Markdown posting. Score.
I'd like to tell you about tumblr.
No icons. No "groups". No anything. Just a bookmarklet for quickly sharing whatever you're looking at online, and free subdomains (read: make one account, then with one login, manage infinite other accounts - and no one has to know that they are the same person).
And here in lies The Magic: the comment system is inverted. Let me explain: today, when you visit a comment-enabled page, there are two ways to interact with it. You leave a comment, and then you check back at your leisure to see who else has contributed. This is slow, clunky, and counterintuitive - it is also the way that the web has worked for decades. The second way is for updates to be pushed to you: RSS, email alerts, etc. This is also less than ideal - why would you go to your email to get information about something not-email related? No one needs more robots in their inbox.
On tumblr, when you want to make a comment, you reblog. You click a button, and the contents of the post you are commenting on is pasted into your own posting page, with automatic referrals to the original author. Add your own commentary, hit post, and Boom: the author's content, in front of your readers, with your commentary. Each comment in the form of a reblog exposes content to exponentially more viewers. It's viral information sharing. Treating memes (both of the Dawkins and 4chan variety) as memes: units of information. Plus, public accountability for all of your words - no longer is cowardice rewarded with the obscurity of nested comments on a static page: everything you post, anywhere, is on your front page. Exponentially more people's eyes on something.
And to seal the deal, tumblr is free. And will be. Forever. And the people who run it are good people. And use it. Correctly.
Publicly accessible API, full-control over pure CSS themes, and a userbase that, quite frankly, would rather be writing than blogging.
Also, some there's some fantastic porn there. (And yes, porn tumblrs reblog each other when they share similar interests. It's basically the Best Thing.)
So hey, kids: move on up to the Web 20X6 Curation Generation™ and jump ship. It's really, really nice here. I promise. Check out the directory, or take a peek at my "likes" for just a small sample what's there.
Oh, one more thing? Rich text, HTML, or Markdown posting. Score.