It's even worse than it appears..
Friday, December 2, 2022
I need help testing a new important app -- it's the first one that hooks RSS directly up to Mastodon via the Mastodon API. I am reluctant to promote it until it's had been validated. So if you know how to run a Node app, and have a few minutes to help out, please give it a try, and let me know, in this thread, whether it worked. A link to one of the Mastodon messages it created would be helpful too. Thanks! #
Having fun with AI. I asked the OpenAI chatbot to write a story about the demise of bloggers now that OpenAI can do all the writing. It added journalists all on its own. I assume some pundit can use this in an op-ed for the NYT or Washington Post about the dangers of AI. Which I then asked OpenAI to write. 💥#
If you use FeedLand you can follow my Mastodon posts via this feed. Just click the Subscribe button and you're in. Mastodon, unlike Twitter, provides an RSS feed for each user. A huge advance in the state of the art. I hope Twitter takes note and adds this feature. #
Users as advocates#
  • This is how users advocate in their own interest.#
  • Mastodon adds a feature that users value, demonstrably, by RTing the call to action and subscribing to the feeds in their favorite feed reader.#
  • Now we find out which readers do it well and which do not. The ones who don't will be motivated to catch up. Once users make it an issue. #
  • And other social platforms will be motivated to follow Mastodon's lead. #
  • So when Mastodon supports RSS, and there's demonstrated user support, Twitter must add the feature. It's a fundamental law of tech. #
  • Once Twitter has a competitor, all kinds of things are possible that weren't before. #

Last update: Friday December 2, 2022; 7:55 PM EST.

You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)