Manton Reece

Speaking of Android, I’ve added a link to Dialog from the Micro.blog “New Post” page. Plus new app icons!

Nice update from Vincent Ritter on his upcoming Android app for Micro.blog, Gluon. Looking good!

I wrote in a post last year — and in the companion podcast episode — that pushback against Instagram is coming. This week, John Gruber didn’t hold back on how much worse Instagram already is:

At the time Facebook acquired Instagram, Instagram was by far the nicest social media experience I’d seen. It is now quickly descending into a cesspool of crap. I fully expected Facebook to Facebook-ify Instagram, but it’s sad watching it happen. It seems to be accelerating in the wake of the departure of co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger — again, surprising no one.

The way forward is clear: post your photos to your own blog. Here’s a selection of recent photos on Micro.blog, all starting on someone’s blog.

www.manton.org/2019/01/1...

Basecamp has moved their blog Signal v Noise off Medium.com and back to their control. DHH’s post is so well aligned with what we believe in for Micro.blog that it almost reads like part of our mission statement:

Beyond that, though, we’ve grown ever more aware of the problems with centralizing the internet. Traditional blogs might have swung out of favor, as we all discovered the benefits of social media and aggregating platforms, but we think they’re about to swing back in style, as we all discover the real costs and problems brought by such centralization.

Medium.com was swinging in the wrong direction, especially with the change last year to no longer allow custom domain names. I think 2019 is going to be a great year for blogging.

www.manton.org/2019/01/1...

We shipped version 1.4 of Micro.blog for macOS today. This update includes the following changes:

• Added clicking on a photo in the timeline to open it in a new window.
• Added setting alt text on photos for accessibility. Click the photo thumbnail before posting to your blog.
• Improved how the navigation animates when opening a conversation or user profile.

As part of preparing this release, I accidentally opted in to Dark Mode in macOS Mojave before Micro.blog was ready for it. I’ve released a 1.4.1 update to revert this. However, if you love Dark Mode and want to see the in-progress version of Micro.blog, you can download a beta of version 1.5 here. The timeline and posting screen still have a white background, so when those features are ready we’ll do a final 1.5 release.

www.manton.org/2019/01/1...

Very happy to see that Dialog is now out of beta! Dialog is the first Micro.blog app for Android available in Google Play. From the blog post announcement by Mike Haynes:

It is with great excitement that I announce Dialog is now officially out of beta. If you were a part of our public beta, there should be an update available soon — if there isn’t already — and new users can download the app now via the Play Store. We also encourage everyone to leave a review for the app there if they have the time.

Dialog is a full-featured Micro.blog app. Browse the timeline, Discover, favorites, view conversations, post to your blog, and send replies. I’ve also updated the Micro.blog help site to link to the new Dialog web site.

www.manton.org/2019/01/1...

Registration is open for IndieWebCamp Austin. February 23–24.

It’s become a tradition during WWDC that I always head out to the Presidio on Sunday to have lunch and visit the Walt Disney Family Museum. Looking forward to this exhibit of Mickey Mouse drawings curated by Andreas Deja.

We’ve got a new help site! Special thanks to @paulrobertlloyd for the redesign. Love the new search box.

What a game. Spurs get the win over the Thunder in 2 OTs. All sorts of records in this one. Spurs start with 14 3s in a row, then Aldridge finishes the game with 56 points. 🏀