It's even worse than it appears..
Tuesday September 9, 2025; 7:44 AM EDT
Bullet points from yesterday's podcast#
  • I asked ChatGPT to provide bullet points for yesterday's podcast. I thought this time it did a really good job. It did misunderstand some things I said, I just deleted those, below.#
    • Blogging lost to Twitter because Twitter had one-click subscribe.#
    • Subscribing in feed readers required too many steps: copying URLs, menus, pasting, confirming.#
    • This friction discouraged adoption compared to Twitter's simplicity.#
    • Feed reader developers (2002-2006) competed instead of cooperating, creating cluttered subscription buttons.#
    • Twitter succeeded because it eliminated that friction.#
    • FeedLand solves this with one-click subscribe and checkboxes next to feeds.#
    • Users can see others' subscriptions, similar to Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, Facebook.#
    • Private feeds are possible but niche; public following is standard and expected.#
    • Emphasis on factoring UI: reduce steps, as with "Edit This Page" in 1999.#
    • Rebooting the blogosphere requires cooperation and a universal "follow" button.#
    • FeedLand's checkboxes make subscribing or filtering feeds simple.#
    • Introduces "Radio WordLand" release with advanced checkbox features.#
    • FeedLand timelines can be filtered live using checkboxes tied to feeds.#
    • Example feeds: Daves WordPress blog, Great Art feed from Bluesky, linkblog, Scripting News, podcast, WordCamp Canada 2025 feed.#
    • WordCamp Canada keynote in Ottawa, Oct 16-17, 2025.#
    • WordLand integrates categories for organizing feeds.#
    • Commitment to "Edit This Page" feature: too valuable to abandon.#
    • Broader goal: restore writer-friendly features Twitter removed (links, styling, no character limits).#
    • Criticism of Bluesky/Twitter/Threads for perpetuating character limits and stripped-down writing.#
    • Aim: build software that forces platforms to support the web by user demand.#
    • Automatic/WordPress bringing ActivityPub to blogs is "heroic" bridging web and Mastodon.#
    • WordPress posts in Mastodon retain titles, styling, links, and images -- better than Twitter/Bluesky.#
    • Believes competition will pressure other networks to drop artificial limits.#
    • Concludes with confidence: momentum is building, new features will roll out soon.#

© copyright 1994-2025 Dave Winer.

Last update: Tuesday September 9, 2025; 9:05 AM EDT.

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! :-)