Technology
This “import everything into micro.blog” project will be interesting and take more time than I thought. Well, if micro.blog breaks in the next two weeks, I take full responsibility 😂
I'm not missing Twitter
To be completely honest: I’m surprised that I’m not missing Twitter … at all. I’ve had a Twitter account since 2007, and during the years it had become my source for tech news. It was a habit to open Twitter in the morning, during the day and, in the evenings to read about what had happened. During the last few years I become more and more frustrated with Twitter - I don’t know why (I didn’t see the bad stuff in my feed) but it felt more and more like a place that I should avoid.
In 2018, I deleted my Facebook account (completely fed up with Facebook as a company, and as a social platform) and thought about deleting my Twitter account also … but I kept it since it was my news source, and I could see any alternative.
Then Musk came along, and started to “improve” Twitter. While I was a bit skeptical of Musk, I didn’t think that it would become as bad as some people said (I was wrong). So I stayed on Twitter, but I started to add blogs and news sites to my feed reader just a precaution. Which turned out to be a really good idea.
I made my last post to Twitter in October 2022, and was then satisfied with just reading my feed. Then Musk decided that no third party clients should be allowed. Since I never used the web site, or Twitters client, it was also the end of me using Twitter … almost. I still read the RSS feed for a couple of accounts that I checked.
Of course Musk killed that possibility also. Well, I can see when I’m not wanted so I stopped using Twitter completely, and a few weeks back I removed my account (still gone, just checked, I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk reviewed the account somehow).
Today, I was listening to a podcast, and they talked about Twitter. This made me realize that I hadn’t really used Twitter since February/March something, and I hadn’t missed it at all. In fact, I’ve probably missed FB more that I’ve missed Twitter - apart from the news, there was very little that tied me to Twitter. Compared to Facebook where family and friends are (my mother still can’t understand why I’m not on FB).
Today, I get my news mainly via RSS feeds, but also Mastodon and micro.blog. And I don’t miss Twitter at all. Perhaps I should thank Elon for making me leave Twitter 😋
Step 2 in my “move-everything-to-one-blog” quest is now completed. Should now be able to move about 1000 posts. Step 3 write script to move another 700 or so. Step 4 will be the move of 200-300. Step 5 about 2000. Unfortunately there is a significant overlap for step 2, 4 and 5
I’ve been using 1Password v7 and v8 on different computers for 1-2 years, and I still much prefer the UI of v7.
I remember having seen various discussions about read-later services, unfortunately I’ve forgotten what services was discussed and if they were any good (and who participated in the discussions). Anyway, I’m looking for a new read-later service, do you have any recommendations? I know about Pocket, Instapaper. I want something that is preferably iOS, macOS, web.
Things are getting interesting. I stopped using Facebook several years ago because … well, Facebook. I also stopped using Twitter because “recent events”. I’ve only used Reddit via Apollo and since Apollo has shut down I don’t see myself using Reddit anymore. I don’t watch TV that have ads within the programs because I find it highly disrupting. I can’t stand podcasts that have the same type of ads, but I do listen on podcasts where the ads are relevant and presented in good way. Now, it looks like I might be reducing my YouTube watching a lot in the future, if they enforce this “max 3 videos if you don’t watch ads or pay premium”.
I’m not really complaining, I’m just noticing that things are changing and my behavior is going to change (more time to spend on other things). These companies absolutely have the option to do this, and I have the option to not join in.
And before you go “but the content creators, shouldn’t they earn some money?” Yes, they should and that is why I’m supporting some of them directly.
