Defining a microblog post | Manton Reece
Defining a microblog post | Manton Reece.
I’m working on a new project around timelines and microblogs. It consumes RSS feeds
You’re telling me microblogging doesn’t have to be social media’d or proprietary!? RSS is a weird technology, it’s so obviously useful, but I still fear it’s doomed to obscurity and nerd world.
Ever since the demise of Google Reader I’ve been using a self-hosted RSS reader called Stringer.
Not having an RSS item title might take some getting used to for mainstream blogging clients and readers. Most RSS apps assume that all posts have a title, even though titles are technically optional in the spec. But I think this is an important distinction because if you think about Twitter-like posting, it should be fast and convenient; making up a title first interrupts the flow of posting.
In Stringer, it could be fairly easily modified to include “microblog” posts which don’t include a Title attribute I think. And that’s the great part of open standards and Open Source software projects. Anyone with time, skill, and a need can create the tool they want to use to consume content on the web the way they want.