Blogging on Numeric Citizen Blog

Trying to Define What is a Blog Home

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 13:53:00 -0400

This might be obvious for many bloggers, but these questions popped up in my mind this morning when working to enable the new visual design of my blog.

What is a blog’s home? Or is it defined? Should it be the geographical region where the blog is hosted? Or should it be the author’s regional location? Or should the author sign with his or her name followed by both, like “Numeric Citizen from Montréal, Canada, hosted on a server somewhere in the US”? And where this signature should go? At the end of each post? Or at the end of the blog’s main page?

I’m still pondering my options.

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:29:47 -0400

Dominik Schwind:

If you don’t have one yet, go start a personal website! Don’t take it too seriously, try things and it can be a nice, meditative hobby and helps against the urge to doomscroll. Also you might never know, your kind of people might find it and connect with you.

I give this advice from time to time, and generally people’s reactions are: 🤨🤔🤷🏻‍♂️.

Everyone will respond: “but how do you get discovered so people can read and like your posts?”. To which my reaction is: 🤦🏻‍♂️

Launching Numeric Citizen Blog Digests

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 09:52:59 -0400

Today, I’m excited to share my latest idea and creation: a website collecting my Micro.blog posts, monthly digests. What, another website? Yup.

In case you didn’t know, Micro.blog has a newsletter capability. My blog offers readers the opportunity to subscribe to a monthly blog post digest delivered to their inboxes. Plus, each digest is also available as a webpage (here’s the index page if you are curious). It’s a great way to get a quick overview of everything I published for a specific month. Of course, the whole thing is searchable.

But one day, I tried feeding one digest into ChatGPT and started asking questions about it. It was a revelation. Eventually, I asked for a structured summary, and ChatGPT promptly complied, returning a beautifully formatted summary. I spent quite some time reading the output, and I was blown away by how accurate and complete it was. This is where the idea of creating a new website to store and share those summarized digests. I think it’s a great way to get up to speed with my blog for newcomers or for people who might have missed a few months.

So, here we are, digests.numericcitizen.me is born. For now, you’ll find the summary of last month, but each month will be added as a single article. An AI-generated summary (by Micro.blog) describes the current month, and you need to click the title to get all the content. I plan to add some other highlights to this site. Stay tuned and enjoy.

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 15:49:28 -0400

“Start a blog. Start one because the practice of writing at length, for an audience you respect, about things that matter to you, is itself valuable. Start one because owning your own platform is a form of independence that becomes more important as centralized platforms become less trustworthy. Start one because the format shapes the thought, and this format is good for thinking.” - JA Westenberg in The Case for Blogging in the Ruins

Beyond feeling independent, having a blog helps active thinking.

Let's Start 2026!

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 10:45:39 -0400

This is my first post of the year on Micro.blog. Despite the overall global, political, and economic challenges that don’t seem very promising, I am personally looking forward to 2026.

Travel-wise, I have four planned: Egypt, Mexico, France & Thailand. This could also be a productive year for photography. I’m looking forward to those trips as we celebrate our 20-year relationship, my wife and I. 😊

Tech-wise, it’s the year of the iPhone upgrade. After skipping the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17, it’s time to upgrade my capable but aging iPhone 15 Pro Max. I expect to stay on the Max. It could also be the year when I replace my M2 MacBook Air with the M5 version. It will depend on the available money and other factors. Lastly, if Apple finally release a HomePod with a screen, I might get one, too. 💻

I wish you a good one!

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 10:06:04 -0400

I’m done with the 2025 editions of The Ephemeral Scrapbook (all editions in one place!). It’s my free newsletter built with care and love and hosted on Ghost. Looking forward to 2026.

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:46:09 -0400

I’m trying something new this year for my year-in-review blog post. Using all my monthly post digests stored in Craft¹, I’m using ChatGPT to look at those digests, take into account last year’s year-in-review article, plus this year’s document personal milestones to suggest ideas. This is now possible because Craft now supports MCP. Using the best ChatGPT models, I get a lot of material to consider but somehow I feel this is really overwhelming. I should be more directive like limiting the number of possible scenarios, their length, etc. I’m still exploring this workflow.

I subscribe to my own blog post digest newsletter for archival purposed. ↩︎

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 14:06:13 -0400

Anyone from my dear followers reading my newsletter (the ephemeral scrapbook)? Thoughts? 🙏🏻

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 13:55:33 -0400

Rant on. I’m judging on facts and acts, not with what someone says. Some people might defend web openness et al, but sharing on x.com in 2025 because it’s the place most people go is not an act of openness. It’s an act of contribution toward fascism. Stop pretending, people, don’t be lazy, stop taking shortcuts and leave x.com once and for all. Rant off.

Algorithms, Platforms, and the Personal Web Space

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 22:49:10 -0400

The piece) from Disassociated about being “freed from personal websites” thanks to algorithms and timelines really resonated with me. I’ve long believed that platforms are killing the web; they are not the web.

I recently asked my son if he had ever considered having his own personal website—a blog, having a place outside the usual platforms. His immediate response was, “But what about discoverability?” Why I think that everything comes down to that: It’s always about beating the algorithms (hello SEO) so that we are “discovered”. I always believed about my own existence without the need of any algorithm. Same with my wife: she knows about my websites but rarely visit them. She’s always talking about discoverability too, thinking that there is no future if I’m not one those platforms. She couldn’t be more wrong. And yet… Platforms have obscured the open web, plain and simple.

This led me to a question that keeps circling in my mind: if we go back 50 years, how accurately did newspapers reflect reality? And how different is our situation today? Yes, the speed and reach of information are radically different now, but consider people who read only one newspaper—like my father did when I was young. Weren’t they also shaped, if not manipulated, by that publication’s editorial line?

Disclaimer: I feel my feelings are well reflected in those few words… it’s complicated.

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 12:42:57 -0400

I happen to spend more and more time on Ghost Network tab to see who’s subscribing to my blog, reply to comments, etc. That’s really cool.

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 08:12:14 -0400

When blogging from Scribbles.page, this is how the blog post will appear on my timeline (because I use Micro.blog’s RSS feed reading capabilities, which is really cool). The first occurence of the post is the cross-posting result from Micro.blog to my Mastodon account (yes, I subscribe to my own Mastodon account). I see the full post including the shared link. The second occurence is the RSS feed article as grabbed by Micro.blog and reposted on my timeline; if you follow me on Micro.blog, this is what you will see. The post is truncated and the link is missing. I think there is room for improvement here. cc @manton

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 11:23:08 -0400

The latest edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter is out (Craft-based version). In case you didn’t know: this is a free newsletter available to a mailbox near you (to go out later today). Pas editions can be found here (Both, Craft versions & Web versions).

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 13:27:06 -0400

I’m done with the latest edition of The Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter (Craft-based version). Enjoy. BTW, past editions are available here (Craft-based versions).

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 09:07:51 -0400

Here’s another edition (Craft edition) of the world-famous Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. It’s also published as a free newsletter on Ghost. Maintaining this newsletter is quite fun and forces me to explore more than I would if I weren’t authoring it. My publishing cadence is also quite consistent. I wish more people knew about it and would subscribe… but hey, that’s the life of any blogger.

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 07:35:31 -0400

I began my writing project for the Apple Journal review. For this project, I will try a different approach¹. I started experimenting with the Perplexity Comet browser to survey past reviews. I use genAI to create quick summaries of previous articles. I save text highlights in Inoreader for the most interesting past reviews. I use Craft to compile all my knowledge and copy-paste the genAI summaries. However, I’m unsure where this will lead.

Dare I say ‘modern approach’? ↩︎

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 08:35:50 -0400

As a blogger and someone curious about many topics, I often feel I miss opportunities to become an expert in certain fields. Generative AI is one example. It gained public attention in the fall of 2022. At that time, when generative AI started to gather attention in the public, I should have recognized this important moment. I should have taken the chance to gather knowledge and organize it like a true researcher. I’m very analytical in general. I ask good questions. I have the tools and the motivation to do this work. Now, it feels overwhelming to catch up.

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 17:02:04 -0400

I began to unpublish several posts from numericcitizen.me, mainly those imported from Substack. It’s fascinating how quickly content can become irrelevant in our rapidly changing world.

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 20:08:05 -0400

I see a big increase in subscribers to my blog on Ghost since Ghost 6 was released this week. I don’t know if that will last, but hey, I’ll take it!

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 21:06:21 -0400

I wrote these articles on Medium under the Numeric Citizen Journey in the last year and I wonder how different my readership would have been if I wrote these articles on Substack. Substack isn’t having a great time these days…

Bye Bye (Again) Medium

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 08:25:00 -0400

My Medium membership is up for renewal on August 17th. I returned to Medium last year to share a special set of articles about my potential career pivot to freelancing. I wrote over a dozen articles on this topic, believing Medium was a suitable platform for personal and career-focused content. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Despite following all the SEO tricks, I earned only $1.64 in revenue, which I won’t receive since the minimum payout is $10. 😳 I expected my earnings to at least cover the cost of my Medium membership, but that didn’t happen. I also intended to read more content on the platform, but I didn’t. I thought I would gain more followers, but that didn’t occur either. I understand now that I need to move on¹, ².

Goodbye, Medium. It was one of my numerous experiments³. I’ll keep my account active but won’t write or share anything further.

The vibe on Medium feels strange. The presence of generative AI often lingers in my mind while reading content there. ↩︎
I aim to focus my creative energy on the right things; doing less often leads to a more sustainable and enjoyable journey. ↩︎
Write.as, Substack were other experiments, too. ↩︎

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 22:21:15 -0400

Referring to an earlier post today, I think I know why I’m publishing less often long articles. Building each newsletter edition takes quite some time and is rather disruptive-I’m constantly on the lookout to find new and interesting stuff to put into each ephemeral scrapbook. Learning to use Elements proved to be more demanding that I thought (but it was worth it!). And more recently, maintaining my visual catalog of Liquid Glass failures also requires some dedication, thank you, Apple.

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 13:09:34 -0400

It has been a long time since I published a long article on numericcitizen.me. Aside from my newsletter, in-depth articles have become rare. It seems that I am only able to produce short texts. Should I be worried about that?

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 11:41:35 -0400

I just discovered that you can have more than one newsletter on Ghost. Maybe I could use it to restart my Photo Legend Series?

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 07:55:58 -0400

Wondering if Digg could be a place for blogging beyond doing link posts… 🤔

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 08:39:48 -0400

I wonder what’s going on with Daniel Eran Dilger. It’s been close to five years without posting on his blog: Roughly Drafted. His Twitter account is now private. Nothing to see on LinkedIn either. 🧐

Micro.blog Question Challenge

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 14:48:39 -0400

Jim Mitchell, on his blog:

As is customary after posting my own, I’m extending the challenge to Numeric Citizen (@numericcitizen) and David Johnson (@crossingthethreshold) to answer the same questions:

Here are my answers!

Why did you start a blog in the first place? It was when Apple had iWeb, part of MobileMe. It was a family thing only. iWeb died, so did my blog. Eventually, I returned to blogging on Blogger, now part of Google, while developing iPhone apps in 2009. It lasted until 2013. Then it all died. I returned to blogging in 2015, using WordPress, then migrated to Ghost and Micro.blog; both serve different purposes. The rest is history.
Have you blogged on other platforms before? Yes, all in all, I experimented with iWeb, Blogger, WordPress, Micro.blog, Write.as, Substack, Medium. Am I missing one? Oh yeah, Scribble.pages! Sorry, Vincent!
Why did you choose Micro.blog? Back in 2018, when it launched. Initially, I wasn’t sure about it and viewed it as an experiment (I shared some thoughts about this). I went all in during COVID. Couldn’t be happier.
Do you write your posts directly in the editor or in another application? It depends. Most of the time, I wrote on the web editor, but with recent updates to the Mac app, I do it more and more on the Mac app. Oh, MarsEdit is also one app that I use, from time to time.
When do you feel most inspired to write? All the time, mainly in the mornings when my head is still pristine (can’t tell if this is something we can write!)
Do you publish immediately after writing or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft? Most of the time, I write and then publish, especially on Micro.blog. For longer posts, I let it simmer for a while.
What’s your favorite post on your blog? So hard to tell because what I write is so short. The whole thing is what I’m most proud of: having the time and the gut to think and write about anything away from big platforms, it’s something to be proud of IMO.
Any future plans for your blog? Since last year, I decided to focus more on what I already have. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. So, Micro.blog forever! For now. I recently launched “Who Is Numeric Citizen?” website with the idea to replace another website built using Craft. 🤭

Thanks for calling me out on that, @jimmitchell ! How about @abc ? Will he catch the call?

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 09:11:58 -0400

It’s funny how I treat my online assets like my websites. I think of these like software or apps. That is why I maintain change logs for them, just like app release notes. You can find one here, and one there. It’s fun.

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 08:59:46 -0400

Is this a plain website? Is this a digital garden? Is this a landing page? No, it’s "Who Is Numeric Citizen?" A newly launched personal landing page where you can learn about him and his creative journey. Learn all the details (what, why, how) by visiting the website! I’ll meet you there.

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 19:29:57 -0400

Who’s reading or paying attention to the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter?

Thinking Outside

Fri, 02 May 2025 12:35:09 -0400

Thinking right now: people love to consume content the closest to their platform of choice. People on Substack wants to consume content over there, people on Medium, the same, on Medium. That’s why the idea of manually cross-posting my newsletter to Substack often comes back haunting me. This newsletter is currently only available from Ghost (and RSS + email, of course).

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 15:31:49 -0400

I had plenty of time this weekend, but I must admit that I didn’t accomplish much of what I intended to work on. Sigh. 😒

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 21:41:54 -0400

From time to time, while scrolling through my Micro.blog timeline, I’ll pause, read a particular post, peak at someone’s profile and previous posts, remember that this guy exists and wonder why in the first place I was following him or her. Then I sometimes hit the unfollow. Why do I think this is some sort of failure ?

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:35:58 -0400

Doing some clean up in my RSS feeds where many feeds stopped working in the last 2–3 years. Of all of those who stopped blogging, I wonder why and what are they doing now.

Musing About Journaling Goals

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 17:08:03 -0400

I maintain a daily journal at work where I jot down the day’s highlights. I write about what went well, the current challenges I’m facing, and any opportunities to do something different. I also note the clients I spoke to and the reasons behind it. I’ve been doing this for a while now, but I never refer to the journal once it’s written. It’s just a dump of my thoughts.

I wonder why I’m doing this. I think the act of writing it down is the ultimate goal, not the end results. It’s the same with my personal journal. I rarely write in it, but I do occasionally. I rarely, if ever, refer to it. Why is that?

Now, let’s talk about blogging. Why is all that? Is there a pattern here?

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:06:49 -0400

After skipping a week, here is the latest edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. This edition is the one shared from Craft as a published document. The Ghost web-hosted version is coming later today.

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 15:13:14 -0400

I’m not too fond of text quotes shared as beautiful pictures (coming from Readwise, for example), especially if they don’t come with ALT text description. They look pretty, though. Here’s an example. I don’t like them because they hinder content indexing in some ways.

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 09:32:31 -0400

In my latest edition of The Ephemeral Scrapbook: “Got a keyboard. I took a break because of work. I’m skipping DeepSeek. The iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra. Who wins? Marking the start of a dark era.”

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 21:07:16 -0400

Today, I decided to let go a few writing ideas from my “idea pipeline.” I realized that sometimes, the words we choose not to write are just as significant as the ones we do.

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 21:31:06 -0400

Or, Instead of All This—

No one will ever control our own identities on third-party platforms. You relinquish control over your identity when you choose to present yourself on one of these platforms. You can be rate-limited for posting too much. You can be suspended by a bot that determines your behavior is bot-like. The platform can pivot at any time from one thing to another. The entire platform could shut down. You have no control, and jumping from one to another will only mean that you have to do it all again later.

Or, instead of all this, you could learn how to make a damn website.

But, asking for my wife here¹, once you’ve got your little HTML island right in the middle of the digital ocean, how do you get noticed? How do you build a business, even the smallest one, from this island?

For real, i had a serious debate about all this today with her. ↩︎

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 16:39:48 -0400

I initially thought Micro.one would be a suitable platform for my new French blog, but after spending the entire weekend experimenting with it, I’ve already realized that I miss two essential features from the full Micro.blog experience: personal notes and support for newsletters. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 12:44:13 -0400

“Blogging or not? A game caught my attention. A personal letter to Zuck. I like poems. Pixelfed, Pixelfed, Pixelfed! Apple is clever about Severance. I bought a keyboard. And so much more.” - The Ephemeral Scrapbook — Edition 2025-02 is out! The email version coming later today.

Dear, Will You Read My Blog?

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 16:10:46 -0400

Me: “My new French blog is nearly ready to go live. Will you read it?"

Her: “Well, yeah, sure, but how will I know there is something new to read?"

Me: “Well, you just have to go to the website, just like you read the news."

Her: “Mmm, but it’s not the same. I have to remember the website’s address. Can you send notifications instead?"

Me: “Well, I’m not sure this would fit the idea of a blog, but you just need to save it as a bookmark. Also, I can show you a great RSS reader?"

Her: “🤔"

Me: “It’s an app where you can read blog posts. There are many great ones for your iPhone or iPad."

Her: “Well, yeah, but I must remember to open it just to see if something is new?"

Me: “Yes, exactly, just like when you open up your favourite news website or when you just tap on the Facebook icon on your iPad…"

Her: “🤨"

Me: “If there was a weekly newsletter, would it be ok for you to read it?"

Her: “That would be better, for sure, but… you know… I already get so many emails!"

Me: “M’ok, but my hosting service doesn’t provide a newsletter feature. Maybe I could just tell you: there is something new on my blog that you might find interesting because I wrote a story about you."

Her: “👩🏻‍💻"

The challenges a blogger may face can be unpredictable.

Micro.one is the seed for something bigger

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 21:40:25 -0400

Today, I think I finally found a real use case for Micro.one. I bought my domain and set up my account. It was rather quick and easy. If I had let Micro.one set up my domain name for me, it would have been even easier.

I think the ingredients of Micro.one are all there for an accessible solution for those who want to get out of Meta or other silos and start owning their little space on the web, free of tracking, free of ads, and built on open software technologies. Of course, Micro.one isn’t the only service of its kind. But it does offer the right feature set to be an open and federated web citizen.

I feel an overwhelming desire to explore and savor this type of web content even further. I believe that sharing my passion for this subject matter could potentially ignite a similar level of enthusiasm in those around me. Even if it doesn’t, if people are genuinely curious enough to inquire about the reasons behind my enthusiasm, it’s a positive development, potentially marking the beginning of something more substantial. After all, who knows what the future holds?

I’ll share more in the near future.

The Medium Mirage

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 08:05:05 -0400

Medium seems to suffer from another problem: AI-generated content and fake account for fake engagement to generate revenues. According to their recent article (Paywall might be enforced to read this), many accounts under the Partner Program were suspended recently to stop this fraud.

I’ve returned to Medium last fall (read my comments about the reading and writing experience over there) and found that content quality has gone down compared to what we used to read there. The revenue program is much less generous than it used to be. I published 18 stories since my return and earned less than a dollar! We don’t know how these revenues are calculated, but it is a bit insulting or at least discouraging. At this rate, I won’t recover the Partner Program subscription cost in the first year which makes my presence there questionable. This should have been a no-cost journey which it’s not. Still seven months to go…

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 12:46:12 -0400

The first edition of 2025 of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter is out. I’m curious if some of you look into these. Let me know.

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 15:46:57 -0400

I have twice as many followers on Bluesky than on Mastodon. Don’t know how many followers on Micro.blog… because… Micro.blog. 🙃

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 09:48:23 -0400

I love this panel that Ghost presents after hitting “Publish and share”. That was the last edition for 2024.

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:00:36 -0400

Now I feel bad about this. 😔

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 14:47:03 -0400

I still have three more articles to publish before the end of the year: one about Medium, the final edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook, and a review of my creative year.

On Header Images and Creative Liberty

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 11:43:36 -0400

Manuel Moreale link posting on the subject of header images on blog posts:

“I’ll go one step further Nelson, I have a growing hatred towards pointless images in blog posts in general, I don’t even care if they’re AI-generated or not. If they’re there as part of the content then by all means use them but if you’re just adding a stock image from unsplash to make the page “feel” more interesting then you’re just part of the broader problem that’s plaguing the web.”

Header images do add to the page load times, yes I do use AI-generated images from time to time, like in this post where I wanted to make a point, and I use many of my personal photos… like in this edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. Yes, I prefer header images on that specific blog because it is part of its visual theme. So then what? That’s MY corner of the web. I do what I find cool and creative and whatever.

I’m guessing he’s reading none of my blogs because of this, among other reasons?

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 09:42:51 -0400

Meta blog post – Manu

I am not the biggest fan of meta blog posts, also called blogging about blogging. I do think they’re sometimes useful but they’re also quite uninspiring for me to read. And that’s why I try to stay away from the topic for the most part.

I find this statement surprising coming from the author behind the popular “People & Blog” series. Maybe I’m missing something here.

Photo Sharing, The Web and Museums

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 22:07:07 -0400

Here is a thought about recent tweaks to RSS importer on Micro.blog. For example, now it’s possible to import photos in the RSS feed published by Glass. With this, when I publish a photo on Glass, it gets posted on my blog too. The same photo on two platforms. As much as I like the POSSE principle for writing, it doesn’t fit well with my desire to share photos on special places, like a photo-dedicated service. Glass is such a special place, just like Pixelfed. What would be the point of having a single photo spread out on other platforms? I see places like Glass like museums. Pieces of art hanged on the wall of a museum are unique to this place. It makes the place unique. I’m still thinking about all this.

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 16:48:02 -0400

Here’s the latest edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter! I hope you enjoy! Email version coming out soon! For those asking: it is entirely built using Craft Docs.

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 11:21:54 -0400

It’s been a while since the last edition of The Ephemeral Scrapbook edition. Here’s the latest one where I talk about Glass, Realmac Software Elements, Apple Intelligence, the iPad, Apple a many more digital tidbits. Coming up by email to subscribers later today. Hope you enjoy!

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:16:30 -0400

Just finished the latest edition of The Ephemeral Scrapbook, edition 2024-43. Enjoy. Email version coming out soon to my dear subscribers!

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 09:09:23 -0400

I’m happy to share the newest edition of my Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. Email version coming out much later today.

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 15:36:01 -0400

This is the second edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook, edition 2024-36. Email version coming out later today.

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 10:00:54 -0400

Job title of the day¹ “SaaS Content Writer”. 👀🤦🏻‍♂️

Found on Medium. ↩︎

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 08:21:06 -0400

The first edition of my third-generation newsletter “The Ephemeral Scrapbook”, edition 2024-35, is out! Email version coming out later today! Consider becoming a supporter on my Ko-fi page. 🙏🏻

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 21:37:04 -0400

How writing can help you solve problems - Eric Gregorich

Writing is thinking.

So true.

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:34:08 -0400

This is the final edition of the Creative Summary newsletter, which will be renamed “The Ephemeral Scrapbook Newsletter.” Over the past two weeks, the author has shared 20 posts, 12 photos, and one podcast episode, but no YouTube videos. The author feels conflicted about using Facebook and have rediscovered Medium, where they plan to publish more articles.

The newsletter also includes discoveries from MG Siegler, highlights from the iPhone Photography Awards, and insights on Apple’s upcoming event. The author is considering freelancing and will document the journey on Medium. He discusses app recommendations and express concerns over AI in photography and deepfakes.

Footnote: this summary was generated using ChatGPT as an experiment.

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 07:00:04 -0400

This morning, I submitted an article to a Medium publication. The subject is about considering going freelance. It’s been a long time since I have done this. Back in 2020 when I was much more active on Medium, submitting articles to Medium publications was the only way to get noticed and hope to make a few dollars along the way.

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 08:01:43 -0400

The latest edition of my weekly creative summary is out! This is a jam pack one. Email version coming out soon to subscribers! Pass editions available here.

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 12:30:00 -0400

There will not be an issue of my weekly creative summary newsletter this week, as I have been focused on another project. You can, of course, visit pass issues by visiting this index page! I hope you don’t mind!

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 18:23:58 -0400

👋🏻 I’m a little bit late, but hey, here is the newest edition of my weekly creative summary newsletter. The email edition is coming up later today. 😅

On My Writing Style As a Traveler

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 02:46:15 -0400

As you probably know, I’ve been writing and sharing my travel notes since the beginning of my trip to Croatia. I’m proud of maintaining the regularity to post each day, but not as proud of my writing itself. I can’t quite describe the quality of my writing, but when I read it back, it feels rather superficial. Why do I feel this way?

Well, my writing tends to list the places I visited and whether I liked them. But I almost always fail to explain why I loved visiting them. Take yesterday’s travel update, for example: I wrote that I fell in love with Sibenik and shared a photo of banners adorned with children’s drawings. What exactly resonated with me in this place? What were my emotions when I entered the narrow streets of the village and first saw the banners everywhere? It was surprising—the children’s drawings added a contrast to the old buildings’ walls, giving the city a sense of humanity. And you know what? It was the children’s festival! It’s a great way to celebrate humanity.

Part of my problem is that I’m not a native English speaker, but a French speaker. I don’t have the same level of vocabulary to describe feelings or physical places. I’m wondering if I could first write a version of my travel update in French and then ask ChatGPT to translate it into English. For today’s travel update, that’s what I’m going to do. We’ll see how it comes out this time. Let me know if you notice a difference.

Disclaimer: this text was first written in English (yes, in English!) and I asked ChatGPT to improve to the writing. It made a big difference, trust me, but I still have this feeling of owning the ideas and the final results.

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 17:54:54 -0400

Is it me, or Automattic is missing a big opportunity by not enabling users to publish their journal entries to a custom blog or website directly from Day One? I think they do.

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 15:34:00 -0400

My /nope page is up.

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 11:09:58 -0400

It Sunday time and so my weekly creative summary is out! This is the Craft hosted version. The email version is coming out later today. Enjoy. By the way, the Craft version, this week, contains a sub-page that won’t make it in the newsletter edition, thanks to Craft.

Pondering

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 17:18:04 -0400

In a week, I’ll be preparing to fly to Croatia for a three-week vacation with my wife. I’m still considering several aspects of the trip. How much blogging should I do during this time? Should I stay quiet and focus entirely on my vacation and photography? What camera equipment should I bring? Should I bring my MacBook Air in addition to my iPad Pro?

I need to decide the right balance between being present in the moment and documenting the journey through my blog. While I enjoy sharing my experiences, I also want to fully immerse myself in the trip without the constant pressure of content creation. As for the camera gear, I’ll need to carefully assess what I’ll actually use versus what I might pack just in case. The MacBook Air could be helpful for editing photos on the go, but the iPad Pro is a more compact and convenient option. Ultimately, I want to travel light and focus on making the most of this vacation with my wife.

I still have a week to figure this out.

Sun, 09 Jun 2024 08:30:43 -0400

It’s Sunday, and it’s time for the new edition of My Creative Summary newsletter! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I love putting it together!

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:24:30 -0400

In case you didn’t know me, I’m on this week’s People & Blog edition. It was fun to answer Manuel Moreale’s questions.

This is an Audiocast — A Narrated Blog Post

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 08:22:49 -0400

This is my second narrated blog post on Micro.blog. It seems to me that writing for sharing as a text-only post triggers different strings for me than writing for a narrated text post. It feels strange because this isn’t a podcast episode. There is no introduction, no conclusion. No background music either. Yet, I find this cool because this is going to be available also to my podcast subscribers. Because of that, I call this an audiocast since the textual transcription (the writing) is done before the audio recording. Audiocast: this word doesn’t exist, isn’t it? Remember that you read it, and heard it here first.

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:59:51 -0400

The new narrated posts feature of Micro.blog has an unexpected twist. Since my blog also hosts a podcast, any narrated blog posts will end up on Apple’s Podcast directory. I’m unsure if this is what I want, but I appreciate the possibility for those who prefer to consume my content as an audio file.

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 20:27:06 -0400

When I launched my weekly creative summary newsletter, I wanted its structure and format to remain consistent for a long time. However, after 17 editions, I’ve decided to refine the newsletter’s structure. I’m never fully satisfied with my tools, workflows, and past decisions about how to do things.

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 16:52:10 -0400

I really have to finish my weekly newsletter edition… but I just came back from a 60KM bike ride! 😅 Now, back at it! Coming out soon.

First Narrated Blog Post Experiment

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 14:50:13 -0400

Hi everyone. I might be late to the party, but I finally sat down for a few minutes to test Micro.blog’s new feature: narrated blog posts. It is strange because this is my first use and I cannot write a full review because as I’m writing this, my audio recording is still not done, and I don’t know how is the audio attachment and processing will actually work. It might be similar to when I post a new podcast episode. In any case, I think this is a clever addition to an already useful and enjoyable blogging service. Thanks to @Manton for this. Now, should I say, “have a great day and see you for another blog post?” Probably not.

[Update #1]: It seems the play button doesn’t show up. Probably a bug with the Cards theme. Investigation started. [Update #2]: I found out that narrated blog posts come out as podcast episodes on Podcasts. I’m not sure this is what I want.

Thu, 30 May 2024 07:48:37 -0400

I still have my Medium account and content. I’m not sure what to do with it. I still get trafic to my posts. I updated my profile page this morning to remove a reference to my Linktr.ee page that I’m phasing out later this year.

Sun, 26 May 2024 08:05:55 -0400

⚠️ It’s time for the 2024-20 edition of my weekly creative summary! Not my best week, but good enough to share! 👨🏻‍💻😅 Index to past editions can be reached here. Newsletter going out by email later today. 📬

Mon, 20 May 2024 14:04:33 -0400

Just downloaded three YouTube videos on my Mac, ran MacWhisper¹ to generate the transcripts, then uploaded the resulting files into ChatGPT for a summarization and to get a few answers to my numerous questions. I saved about an hour of work. What a wonderful time to be alive!²

A great Mac utility to do video transcription using GenAI. ↩︎
From a tech standpoint. ↩︎

Sun, 19 May 2024 07:36:46 -0400

🚨Hey, it’s Sunday! And you know what happens on each Sunday? It’s time for the new edition of the weekly creative summary newsletter! Here you go, ladies and gentlemen! Enjoy. Made with care and love. 😌

Fri, 17 May 2024 07:30:13 -0400

It’s Micro.camp day and I’m looking forward to it! This will be my first! @manton @vincent @jean

Mon, 13 May 2024 12:23:02 -0400

Having to authenticate with Wordpress just to like a blog post is so “tired”.

Mon, 13 May 2024 07:37:17 -0400

Posted a photo on my Ko-fi page this morning. It’s for supporters only. I shared some thoughts about street photography. I decided to use that page to share more personal stories that I don’t share elsewhere. It’s only the beginning. It will take time to open up more. It’s a journey.

Tue, 07 May 2024 04:30:37 -0400

I find it hard to save time for blogging while traveling. There is always so much to do that I kind of forget about writing. This post is an exception, though. 😂 we’re visiting Nice today. Been there once but it’s always fun to revisit great cities.

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 21:35:44 -0400

For some reason, tonight, I miss Medium. I used to love writing for it and reading from it. I still have close to 800 followers, albeit the number really never change, which I find strange.

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 13:56:09 -0400

🔥 It’s still Sunday where I live, and it’s time to share the newest edition of the weekly creative summary! Coming up soon to a mailbox near you¹. 😅

You aren’t subscribing?? What are you waiting for! ↩︎

Ghost and ActivityPub Support - We All Win

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:17:26 -0400

I’m a bit late to the game but I just read the announcement by Ghost about their ActivityPub support that is coming to their platform. I find this development super exciting; one of my site is on Ghost. Having people subscribe to my content via their favorite Mastodon client is super cool. But what is cooler is that people will be able to reply to my articles right from here on Micro.blog and get their reply published right under my articles, just like on Micro.blog. I think this is a good way to offer a reduced friction experience compared to having to log in to post a reply, which is the standard way to interact with a Ghost blog post. Can’t wait to see this coming this year.

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:26:33 -0400

🚨Okay, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for the newest edition of my weekly creative summary! Thanks for taking the time to have a peek at it. 😊 If you prefer the email version, it’s coming up later today, but be sure to subscribe here!

Now ☀️9 °C - 🌡️2 °C - 🌧️29%

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:02:35 -0400

Today, I wanted to try something different and write this post on Micro.blog instead of Scribbles. Since the Micro.blog editor is so far behind Scribbles’, I’m using Ulysses for this experiment. Sadly, people won’t be able to reply using a contact form because my blog on Micro.blog doesn’t offer one. In any case, say hello@numericcitizen.me!
Today is a special day—video recording day! I’m excited to share more about my creator dashboard, a project I’ve been passionately building in Craft.
I’ve been editing photos with Photomator recently and discovered that for some photos, Photomator would create a sidecar file which is more than 100 MB in size, while for other photos, the sidecar file is only around a hundred kilobytes, under similar editing workflows.
I find Grammarly to be overly iterative when suggesting corrections. After applying a suggestion, it will iterate and suggest something else that it could have figured out in the first place. They are transitioning to AI, and I think it will help. Oh, and Grammarly considers markdown formatting marks to be corrected.
Yesterday, after watching this video, I wondered if I should switch to FinalCut Pro for my video production. There are things that I find super cool and useful in FCP that I don’t have in Screenflow like Gling.ai.
It took me 22 minutes to write this post.
Maybe I could alternate between Scribbles and Micro.blog for this /Now post. What do you think? Don’t miss previous /Now posts on Scribbles.
This is a photo that I processed yesterday night. A better version will soon be available on my Glass page, though.

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:43:57 -0400

I want to discover a new blog, any suggestions for me?

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 08:52:30 -0400

I’m currently working on building a creator dashboard in Craft and it’s fun but Craft is rather limited compared to Notion. I’m working on an upcoming video about that! Stay tuned.

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 06:46:14 -0400

On Micro.blog, Scribbles, And Multi-homing

It’s easier for me to do this using Scribbles editor. I don’t know why. Might be a combination of how the compose screen is styled and laid out, plus the use of a WYSIWYG editor. But whatever it is, it all combines into an experience where the words flow a little easier for me. That’s probably the only way I can describe it. There’s nothing really empirical about it all, but maybe that’s the point. It’s involves the emotional side of writing: the “look and feel”.

I prefer Scribbles editor to Micro.blog’s, too. There is something about Scribbles that makes the experience more enjoyable. But I’m still using Micro.blog for longer posts and Scribbles for short ones, except maybe the /Now posts. Well, it’s complicated. Anyhow, I think Micro.blog’s post editor needs some more love.

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 08:47:54 -0400

🚨 After a three-week pause, here comes the latest weekly creative summary, a day earlier. I hope you enjoy this edition. Coming later by email to my dear subscribers. ✌🏻

Feeling Undecided — Thinking Out Loud

Sun, 07 Apr 2024 21:20:00 -0400

Believe it or not, I’m still undecided about what to use for my summer travel journal. My options are 1) A new dedicated blog with Micro.blog, 2) Scribbles, 3) Pixelfed, 4) None of the above. I’m also undecided about how much effort I want to put into this. Micro.blog’s image handling concerns me¹. Scribbles is in a similar position². This leaves me with Pixelfed. Yet, this question is fundamental to my decision: it is more about images or words. It’s the former. I might end up with Pixelfed. Or with a bit of everything³. Decision. Decision. Decision.

This is highly dependent on my visual theme selection. ↩︎
Posting on Scribbles is limited to a browser. Preparing posts offline is a must here. ↩︎
Isn’t the case right now, anyway? ↩︎

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:15:25 -0400

Dear @Vincent, why is this page not showing on my Scribbles blog? BTW, I love Scribbles a lot and finally found my real use cases for it. I think people do like it too. Conitnue your good work!

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 20:21:08 -0400

@Denny wrote:

I don’t view myself as a “content creator” and recoil at that phrase. I keep a blog as a way to stay involved in the world. Simply put, my motivation is to write, share, read, engage, learn. My contribution is a drop in the ocean and irrelevant to me beyond it being my tiny contribution to the collective whole.

This thought really resonated with me. So much that I’m considering to replace “compulsive creator” to “compulsive contributor” in my bio. It is so much more meaningful and positive.

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 14:29:49 -0400

Today, 2024-03-24, it’s Sunday, and it’s time for the latest edition of my weekly creative summary, edition 2024-11, available right here. Available later today by email to my dear subscribers! Enjoy.

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 07:40:12 -0400

I decided to use my Ko-fi page to share more personal tidbits about me and my creative journey. These are behind the One-a-month subscription. I feel at ease sharing these things because they are behind a tiny shield: the paywall. If you want to know more about me and get virtually closer, now it’s possible. Please, come in and enjoy the ride.

On Writing Inline Links

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 06:50:09 -0400

Each time I write a sentence with an inline link to something else, I’m hesitating. Here are two examples.

V1: When I read this article I simply couldn’t believe it.

V2: When I read Gurman: No iPad Announcement Planned for March 26, I simply couldn’t believe it.

Which version makes better sense? Which version will trigger a click to visit the link? Linking from within sentences (inline) gives great explanations on how to do the latter¹. Right now, I’m 99% of the time using the version 1 but I consider changing my writing style to go with version 2 as often as possible.

It’s a great use of inline link right there! And I think it works great. ↩︎

Not Everything Should Be "Timeless"

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 11:27:47 -0400

Today, I came across a blog via someone’s else blogroll, and to my surprise, while browsing the blog’s content, I couldn’t find a single post with a publication date. So, let me be clear: I’m not feeling at ease when visiting a blog that don’t display publication date for each post. I can of understand the idea of “timeless” content, but I feel at lost with the author’s decision. I need time references in my digital life so I can better understand the content and the context. Call me old school if you want. I’m ok with this.

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 06:48:05 -0400

Added a new entry to my blogroll: Enthusiasms. A great blog about many things: sciences, weather, sometimes about Apple, gardening, etc. This guy do have many passions and is enthusiastic about many things. Warning: some rabbit holes in there¹.

His weather observations page is something I must try to replicate for myself! ↩︎

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 08:33:45 -0400

It’s Sunday, It’s time for the weekly creative summary, edition 2024-10! Enjoy! Please, consider supporting my creative work and visit my Ko-fi page! 🙏🏻 Thanks. The email version is coming out later today for my subscribers! Hold on!

Must Have Public Mental Health Disclaimer

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 18:13:51 -0400

I’ve been reflecting on blogrolls deeply in recent days and started writing an article on that subject. While doing so, an idea came up and I decided to write something that I think anyone who builds and shares a blogroll should add on it as an introduction. I’m reproducing it here.

This is my blogroll. This is a list of blogs that I visit often for different reasons. If you are a blogger and you don’t see your blog in this list, don’t be sad or offended. But I want to say that I’m sorry if you feel that way. Now, why not get in touch with me and share about your blog. I love to discover new things. hello@numericcitizen.me

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 11:44:29 -0400

Is a corporate “blog”, still a blog? Take for example: Information Architects news site. Some posts like this one are really about musing on specific subjects, not directly related to the company’s products. I understand the marketing value proposition is maintaining a blog for a company, and yet…

Asking for a friend. 🫣🕵🏻

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 07:31:29 -0400

Like a few others, I’m proud to join the One a Month Club put together by @jarrod [^1]! You can show your support here on Ko-fi! I might post exclusive content on Ko-fi like a photo or a small personal text on a monthly basis. I’ll see where it goes!

[^1] I’m not sure how to get my page registered on Jarrod’s page, though. 🤔

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 20:32:24 -0400

When I don’t know what to write, I edit and share photos. 👨🏻‍💻👀

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 18:08:11 -0400

I’m not sure I’ll be able to publish this week’s edition of my creative summary newsletter simply because I don’t feel creative at all this week. 😔

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:40:51 -0400

I updated my blogroll page to take advantage of Micro.blog’s new blogroll feature.

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 10:55:01 -0400

I’m done with this week’s creative summary, edition 2024-09. I hope you enjoy as much as I do putting them together, each week. 👨🏻‍💻

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 13:28:13 -0400

When my sons got old enough, I offered them their first email address on Gmail. That made them happy. They didn’t have an iPhone to use it but they could sit down in front of a computer and start writing emails. I wonder if I came up with an empty but ready-to-use blog if they would react the same? Probably not.

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:02:03 -0400

What would be the best or the most suitable Micro.blog visual theme for a travel journal type of blog? Outpost? I find it drab. Maybe Typewriter? Currently testing the latter on numericcitizen-test.micro.blog.

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 09:56:29 -0400

Week number eight is complete. You can read my weekly creative summary right HERE! Coming up later for newsletter subscribers. Thanks for reading about my work. 🙏🏻

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 10:46:55 -0400

I’m playing with my content by asking ChatGPT to summarize my blog’s monthly digest newsletter. It would be nice if we had an option to include this summary automatically using Micro.blog newsletter feature. cc @manton

A Metablog That You Can Follow via RSS

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 20:24:42 -0400

💡 Today, I want to share the newest addition to my digital publishing space: my metablog, hosted on Micro.blog. This isn’t entirely new; another version is already in place, but it is hosted as a series of Craft-shared documents. What I’m sharing today is hosted on Micro.blog using the recently introduced increase in the number of blogs you can have with a single premium account¹. From this migration, my metablog will gain RSS feed support, enable POSSE, and be closer to my online community here on Micro.blog, but also on Mastodon and Bluesky.

One last thing: this is a work-in-progress, a build-in-public thing. I’m slowly transposing most of my content to this new home, one post at a time. You’ll know it because of cross-posting and the RSS feed provided that you subscribe. 👈🏻 Some posts date back to 2020, but you might be surprised by discovering a few gems.

I’m using two, and I’ll probably stop there. I promise. ↩︎

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 15:33:49 -0400

Thought of the day: Micro.blog is probably the most fun and flexible thing on the open web these days that I can play with. It is approachable which in itself is a great quality. It is a creativity “unleasher”. When something is fun, I want more of it. I want to spread the word and share my excitement. 👊🏻

Finalizing This Week's Creative Summary — Plus: An Idea

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 08:38:01 -0400

It’s Sunday, and you know the drill: it’s time to share my latest edition of the weekly creative summary. It’s mostly complete, so this week’s edition partially follows the “build in public” movement. I wonder if I should start sharing the document at the beginning of the process so that you can see the whole creation process as I’m working on the current edition. What do you think?

I’ve been doing these summaries since last September and enjoy putting them together. It’s issue number 22. Enjoy. The email version is coming out later today.

Built with care and love on 100% recycled electrons.

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 16:06:21 -0400

After much thinking, I decided not to create exclusive content for paying subscribers of numericcitizen.me. Reason #1: I don’t publish often enough to warrant such a decision. Reason #2: I don’t have the time to create such content and don’t want to feel the pressure. Reason #3: I prefer asking for support for my whole creative journey. In a sense, someone subscribing encourages the pursuit of my journey by saying: can’t wait to read what’s coming! Are you one of those? 🙂

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 08:41:14 -0400

I’m still looking into new use cases for using Micro.blog’s new blog limits¹. Porting a portion of my meta blog is one such use case, but porting this portion would be really difficult. I might go ahead with a dual publication: I keep the Craft version because it is richer and faster to publish but also publish on Micro.blog because of RSS support and better integration with my Micro.blog digital community.

I’m currently using one blog, this one, and one one-page site. ↩︎

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:00:18 -0400

It’s time for the 2024-06 issue of my weekly creative summary! Not my best week, but good enough to share! 👨🏻‍💻😅 I created an index for the past editions. Newsletter going out by email soon. 📬

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 16:18:03 -0400

I wrote a little article¹ explaining how I’m using Ghost’s API to “browse” published articles so that I can select an article that I want to update.

On Numeric Citizen I/O blog (link). ↩︎

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 15:34:32 -0400

It’s the perfect coffee shop kit for me. At first, I didn’t think of going out today, but I realized that I spend all weekdays at home for work. I guess it was time to see the world and enjoy a creative session at the coffee shop while listening to music. Slow vibes¹.

the photo wasn’t post-processed beyond what the iPhone usually does. ↩︎

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 17:00:00 -0400

🔥 It’s still Sunday where I live, and it’s time to share the newest edition of the weekly creative summary! Coming up soon to a mailbox near you. 😅

From an Idea to Blips

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:47:12 -0400

As I wrote earlier today, I’ve been wondering about a possible use case for Scribbles¹. It took me about 5 minutes to get my idea, and it is called Blips, Numeric Citizen Blips, to be more precise². Blips will enable me to share… short blips of my digital life. I should be fun, noisy at times. But not too much. Enjoy. Or not. 🙃

Straightforward blogging service that is absolutely a joy to use. Nothing fancy, but mighty. ↩︎
Blips sound digital; it’s a concept perfectly fitting the “Numeric Citizen” branding. ↩︎

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 19:27:46 -0400

👀🕵🏻‍♂️

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 19:17:07 -0400

I’ll be blipping soon. 👀

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:23:18 -0400

Sometimes, I have an idea for what would be a short blog post, and start writing it, thinking I’ll share it here on Micro.blog. As I’m writing my article, it grows and grows and grows to a point where I need to reconsider where I’m going to share the article. When I cross the 500 words mark¹, this is where it makes more sense to post on my main website which is dedicated to long and less in-the-moment thoughts. I’m working on a long one about micro.blog. Stay tuned.

It’s not a definitive threshold. ↩︎

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 10:06:38 -0400

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 14:34:22 -0400

🚨Hey, it’s Sunday! And you know what happens on each Sunday? The new edition of the weekly creative summary newsletter has been released! Here you go, ladies and gentlemen! Enjoy. Made with care and love. 😌

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 12:47:39 -0400

I’m thinking of leaving Write.as. Last year, I purchased a 5-year subscription during a promotion, intending to use it extensively. However, I haven’t used it as much as I anticipated. My main focus was writing about the Ukraine war. I could migrate this to Micro.blog. Yet, I’m concerned that my views on the conflict might offend some people here, as not everyone is interested in politics. 🤔🧐

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 11:00:43 -0400

🌞It’s Sunday, and it’s time for the second edition of the weekly creative summary newsletter! I was late working on this edition and wasn’t sure how it would come out. I’m pretty satisfied with this week’s edition.😀 I’m seeing more and more people heading to the Craft edition of this newsletter, and I’m highly grateful for the interest that this newsletter generates.

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 18:47:18 -0400

One more yearly subscription to my website¹ and one more subscriber to The Craft Bible². It’s a good day for me. I don’t have thousands of subscribers (yet), and they all count as if they were my first one. 😻

Hosted on Ghost. ↩︎
Hosted on Gumroad. ↩︎

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 08:08:01 -0400

I’m a bit sad 😔 that this post, “Dear Micro.blog - How Can I Help” didn’t get the expected traction. I don’t know why. Maybe it fell between the cracks of a busy Micro.blog timeline. But this morning, I’m trying something different by explicitly tagging my virtual friends cc @jean @manton

Micro.Blog — How Can I Help?

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 15:10:02 -0400

A serene yet dynamic sky filled with a blend of fluffy cumulus and towering cumulonimbus clouds, illuminated by a soft, diffused sunlight.

Following the publication of “What If” by Maique, an avid blogger on Micro.blog, his post prompted me to write my own. But before, here’s a summary of his post (thanks ChatGPT):

Micro.blog has been hosting maique.eu for years, but there have been some technical issues. Despite some annoyances, the community and features make it worth the cost. However, there are also cons such as lack of proper notifications and support. Moving away would be a hassle.

I do share most of his views on the current state of Micro.blog because I did experience some issues with the service myself. I won’t repeat it here. That being said, I love Micro.blog, and I certainly want it to thrive. I’m a believer. I’m a supporter of the ideas behind the service. I subscribe to the premium tier. I love it so much that I created a series of videos about Micro.blog so that others can take full advantage of its features set. But I want to do more. In fact, I can do more. How can I help? Where do I enlist?

As an IT guy for more than 30 years, I know how hard it can be to run such a service. I don’t know the technologies behind it, but Micro.blog seems to need constant nurturing. Sadly, I cannot help here. I’m not a full-stack developer in any way.

But there this help.micro.blog support site. I did tech support in the past. I do pay a visit from time to time to gather the mood and the subjects that people care enough to submit posts. Maybe I could help there? I don’t know. Could I do a first screening of the posts and direct level-2 requests to Manton for further investigation? He would be freed somewhat from glancing at all the incoming requests and focus on the hardest ones. I don’t know. Oh, and this feature requests topic contains more than a hundred of them. I could create a real Micro.blog feature requests board, like this one I built from scratch for Craft?

Then, there is this Discover section: I do pay a visit from time to time. I’m not sure how it is being maintained or how often. Can I help there? I don’t know.

What else? I could do podcasting, too! Maybe I could help Jean to revive the highly respected Micro Monday podcast! I have my own podcast; I’m not too bad because I have eight listeners, according to Podcasts Connect!

As you can probably see, I have many ideas. I’m creative. I do have some time to spare for my passions. Micro.blog is one of them. But, as much as I want to help, it means nothing if the doors are closed. I’m not saying that I received a “no thank you” from Manton or Jean. I didn’t ask, actually. Now, I’m officially asking: how can I help?

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 10:08:47 -0400

It’s time for the first edition of 2024 of the weekly creative summary newsletter! Lots of stuff related to projects, writing, articles, etc. Fun fact: putting this summary together takes about two hours per week. This version was created in Craft, which offers the best experience, the email version is coming later to my dear subscribers! Past editions are available on my main website by following this link. Enjoy.

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 15:23:20 -0400

I’m supporting Manu Moreale. Bloggers need to support bloggers!

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 10:14:17 -0400

I can’t wait to share my first weekly creative summary of the year tomorrow. So much stuff in there! Meanwhile, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, flash the QR code! Or click this link if you are too lazy! 🤣

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 13:58:09 -0400

I still struggle with the idea of writing posts directly on Mastodon or Bluesky. Replying to others who write to me directly there is ok, though, if I can’t reply from Micro.blog.

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 10:09:19 -0400

Just finished going through my monthly newsletter come out of Micro.blog. 😳 It’s long and feels a bit messy. 🤨 For 2024, I decided to be more selective of the posts that will make it to the gate each month. Not everything is worth being summarized.

About blog.numericcitizen.me visitors for 2023

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 10:24:36 -0400

Visitors to blog.numericcitizen.me increased significantly compared to the previous year. Leaving Twitter at the end of 2022 probably explains why. Embracing the POSSE model and my adoption of Mastodon and Bluesky also explains why more people visited my blog. It’s been a great year on Micro.blog, and I’m really looking forward to 2024!

About numericcitizen.me visitors for 2023

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 10:17:05 -0400

My main blog stats show a slight increase in visitors, especially in the last three months of 2023¹. The switch from WordPress.com to Ghost.org positively influenced the trend. The next post will be about the “blog.numericcitizen.me” site where the story is quite different.

It’s related to the launch of my weekly creative summary. ↩︎

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:14:51 -0400

It’s Sunday; it’s time for the next weekly creative summary! Edition 2023-50 will be my last one… until 2024!¹ The email version is coming up later today for my lovely subscribers! Expect some improvements in 2024! Stay tuned!

Were you afraid that it would be my last edition like forever? 😌 ↩︎

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 22:24:41 -0400

I’ve been a long-time blogger with WordPress.com before switching to Ghost. Today, I wanted to leave a comment on someone’s blog but was rebuffed with a login form. Authentication methods offered were WordPress.com, Facebook¹, and Email. Am I alone who finds this to be a show-stopper for leaving simple feedback?²

Really, Facebook? ↩︎
Even on my blog, you need to be a subscriber to drop a comment on an article. I know this becomes a natural “filter” and prevents some form of spamming. But it also prevents some spontaneity. ↩︎

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 09:43:44 -0400

Being a compulsive creator is not always easy. There are good days and bad days. Yesterday was a bad one. Early today started on a sour note too, but thanks to the supporting comments I got, it turning into a better day now. 💙

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 14:01:31 -0400

And here we go for the week: the weekly creative summary for 2023/49 is out! The newsletter version coming up soon for my dear subscribers! I hope you enjoy this week’s edition!

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 10:48:06 -0400

It seems that at the current rate, 2023 will be my second-most active year on Micro.blog, after 2020. Ref. Blog stats.

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 10:50:57 -0400

💥 Hey, it’s Sunday! And, it’s time for the new edition of my Weekly Creative Summary! Enjoy. Coming up later for my lovely subscribers! 💌

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 07:54:07 -0400

If you don’t know me, but especially the places where I’m sharing and for what purpose, that is the video to watch.

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 08:11:19 -0400

Today it’s time for an update to my creative and blogger workflow¹. You can get an overview in this diagram, and the changelog here on my metablog. Any questions? 😅

The previous version was published on 2023-04. ↩︎

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 13:32:50 -0400

I should visit the Micro.blog Discover section more often… there are some gems over there from time to time.

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 09:09:48 -0400

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! 😀 Today is the day of the new edition of my weekly creative summary! Enjoy! While this early release provides the best visual experience (thanks to Craft’s shared documents), the newsletter edition will come out soon to my subscribers.

The Danger of POSSE

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 08:23:04 -0400

A recently published article on The Verge discusses POSSE and the Fediverse: “Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.” This content strategy emphasizes the importance of owning the content you create by publishing it on your own platform, like a personal blog or website, and then syndicating or sharing that content on other platforms, such as social media or content aggregators.

The main idea behind POSSE is to ensure that creators maintain control over their content. By publishing first on their own platform, creators can establish a primary source for their work that remains under their control. They can then share or syndicate this content to other platforms to reach a wider audience, drive traffic back to their own site, and engage with communities on those platforms.

This strategy is particularly relevant in the digital age, where content creators often face the dilemma of reaching large audiences on popular platforms (like social media networks) while also wanting to maintain ownership and control over their work. POSSE offers a balanced approach, allowing creators to leverage larger platforms’ reach without sacrificing their own site’s autonomy.

I’m practicing POSSE myself; all my online setup is built around it. I depend on two publishing poles: Micro.blog and Ghost¹. Some find this setup time-consuming and don’t want to be held responsible for replying or engaging on each branch (Mastodon, Bluesky, etc.). My take on this is yes, it might be time-consuming, but I like to engage on each platform because each brings a different type of community. I find it a bit frustrating to reply to someone who systematically shares content from his blog with Mastodon without any reply or acknowledgment. I understand that some posters are very popular and can’t reply to everyone. You can see if someone is replying from time to time. It’s a good idea to check before judging. The danger here is to act like bots if there is no engagement at all.

Micro.blog is responsible for the cross-posting magic. ↩︎

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 11:54:18 -0400

It’s Sunday😃, and it’s time for my new edition of my Weekly Creative Summary, the 2023/45 edition! Mail version coming out later today for my website subscribers!¹

If you don’t subscribe already, what are you waiting for?? ↩︎

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 12:01:34 -0400

And here is the next edition (2023/44) of my weekly creative summary. The newsletter edition is coming out later today by email! Enjoy. 😅

In Search of Augmented Capabilities Using AI

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 07:15:52 -0400

I want to augment my creative capabilities¹. I’m considering the best way to pay for Augmented Intelligence (AI) services². I’m currently subscribing to MidJourney for imagery. ChatGPT with GPT-4 is not cheap at 20 $US a month, but I get Dall.E 3. Raycast enables GPT-4 for 8 $US on top of my 8 $US, totalling 16 $US monthly, but I don’t get Dall.E 3. I prefer MidJourney over Dall.E 3 as it seems to allow more diversity in requests. And there is the ChatGPT client to consider. Raycast is one of them. MacGPT is another one. Even Grammarly and Craft are ChatGPT clients³. I need to continue my analysis. Ideas? Suggestions?

Go faster, go further, explore better creative ways. ↩︎
Yes, I’m okay with taking advantage of modern tools like AI, just like I was okay with using a spell checker in Microsoft Word 1.0. ↩︎
But you cannot configure Grammarly to use the GPT-4 model. ↩︎

Sun, 22 Oct 2023 07:53:57 -0400

This week, because of this business trip to Las Vegas, I’m taking a “mild” break from my creative hobby. No more time tracking, no urge to look for the next opportunity to write and share. I am just putting myself in a different mood for this business trip to be successful and valuable. 😌

Sun, 22 Oct 2023 07:30:26 -0400

And now is the time for another weekly creative summary. This is edition 2023-42, available as a shared document directly from Craft, later by email for the millions of subscribers!¹

Well, maybe not that many. 😜 ↩︎

Episode 05 — Sometimes It’s Better to Say No

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 16:55:55 -0400

The timing was right, and the target was well-defined, but the potential traction was far from guaranteed. Would this project be worth all the effort? Someone said: for every yes, there are a thousand no. After many weeks of thought and pondering, I decided against doing a unique project.

Link: The Apple Rumors Hub

Transcript

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 13:52:11 -0400

Who’s reading my weekly creative summary? How could I improve it?

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 08:01:04 -0400

Another creative week is mostly completed, it’s time for a new edition of the Weekly Creative Summary, now available as a Craft shared document, later by email for my subscribers! Buckle up! 😊

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 07:23:06 -0400

I just realized the upcoming weekend is a long one. I should have enough free time to produce another podcast! And a YouTube video about my Craft super-template for research and writing.

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 19:17:45 -0400

It’s Sunday, and it’s time for the new edition of my weekly creative summary, available now directly from Craft, later by email, for those who subscribe. Enjoy the ride.

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 10:00:06 -0400

Wish of the day: I would love to have a canonical URL pointing to my published newsletters hosted on Micro.blog so I could refer to them in other blog posts. cc @manton 🙏🏻

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 14:07:21 -0400

Here is my weekly creative summary newsletter for 2023/38, in Craft format. Website and newsletter coming up soon. 😅👨🏻‍💻

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 09:36:10 -0400

😏 I’m about to begin something special that I can’t wait to share with you before the end of the week-end. I hope everything works fine¹. 👀

Wish me luck. Or, wish “us” look would be more appropriate! ↩︎

Episode 04 — Did You Know?

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:14:23 -0400

Inspired by a recent podcast episode where Martin Feld interviewed John Gruber, for this fourth podcast episode, I decided to talk about my early years as a blogger.

Links:

Really Specific Stories podcast: https://pca.st/pcp6rwjs
Interview with John Gruber episode: https://pca.st/i0xdkxfh, his announcement on his blog: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/09/20/really-specific-stories-yours-truly
A reply to John Gruber about his interview: https://micro.blog/numericcitizen/23822941
Search for the “BuildingiPhoneApps” keyword on the internet archive for a glimpse of my very first blog, and locate 2010 and beyond on the timeline.

Transcript

Sun, 17 Sep 2023 19:17:52 -0400

Who’s reading my weekly creative summary? Do you like? If not, why? I’m genuinely curious. 🧐

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 20:56:54 -0400

I’m spending way too much time designing the layout of my upcoming weekly creative summary😅. I decided to post it on my Ghost-based and share the document directly from Craft. It will be fun to see how it goes. 👀

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 13:05:51 -0400

This morning 🌅, inspired by @maique and @gr36, I decided to create a weekly summary of my creative work and everything that surrounds or supports it. It’s really fun to put together and helps have an introspection about the things I do and use. The first edition is going out this coming Sunday, Sept 3th, directly on Numeric Citizen Space¹. Just one day before my birthday! 😃🎂🧁

I will probably send it by email as a newsletter, too. So, if you prefer, subscribe now! ↩︎

Episode 02 — I’m an Iterative Type of Guy

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 18:05:44 -0400

While writing my next edition of the Friday Notes newsletter (#107), I realized that writing has never been a one-stretch thing for me. It takes countless writing iterations before getting things done. In this episode, I share my anxieties 😰 about writing in general ✍🏻. Plus, a few words about my expectations for the upcoming Apple Event “Wonderlust”! 👀

Links

Jean-Louis Gassée’s “Monday Note” newsletter https://mondaynote.com/.
Be Inc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Inc.

Transcript

Finally Settled on Blog Post Visual Attributes

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 07:00:53 -0400

After so many years of blogging, I think I have finally settled on the styling of each blog post. 😅 I like to emphasize key words with bold, making it easier to detect what this post is all about. Next is the use of emojis to make things a bit less serious and more approachable.🙂 Next is the selective use of Micro.blog’s post title for longer and more significant posts.¹ 😜 More recently, I started using footnotes because they add another dimension to the reading experience and are displayed in a nice popup on the site.²

This blog post is such an example of using a title. ↩︎
Footnotes are far easier to create in Ulysses than in the web interface, tough. ↩︎

Adding Bookmarks to my Blog

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 14:32:38 -0400

I decided to expose my Micro.blog bookmarks, in the spirit of the “open blogger” movement (“I’m an open Blogger”), I think it’s a good thing to let other people know a portion of what I find interesting. The recently introduced tags for bookmarks is an indication that the premium feature continues to grow in functionality and usefulness. I’m happy with that. I didn’t play with the formatting, leaving the default one in place.

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 06:10:29 -0400

Just finished glancing at my Micro.blog posts for the month of July, thanks to my newsletter. Man I do spend time on this blogging platform! Hope you enjoy reading my stuff as much as I love posting and blogging all this!

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 07:16:16 -0400

No Friday Notes post this week. I have a few ideas but didn’t have time to expand on them and write the article. Hint: it’s about photo sharing in the age of content abundance. Oh well. 😔

My week-end so far

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 14:34:48 -0400

Exploring Pixelfed✅. Producing a 60-minute video about Pixelfed✅. Writing an article about Pixelfed✅. Learning about Tinylytics✅. Learning about templates in Micro.blog and custom themes✅. Adding Tinylytics to my blog✅. Subscribing to Tinylytics. ✅

Next up: going to see the latest Mission Impossible.

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 12:08:24 -0400

Thought of the day: blog readers might not like negativity-tinted post or being told the truth they don’t want to read. I published my observations and opinion regarding our hyper-dependency on being connected all the time, so much that we don’t really connect in-person anymore. A few subscribers unsubscribed. 😒 Or maybe they just agree with my take and are looking for ways to regain more time in-person by unsubscribing from my blog? 😂

I guess there is always a positive side of an event. 🙏🏻

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 10:51:17 -0400

I’m feeling upbeat about returning to a more normal blogging schedule. It’s part of my life and I miss it when I’m off-grid for a long time. Of course, I kept my travel journal up-to-date, so writing was still a thing.

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 03:43:22 -0400

Using Day One to document my trip in Morocco is so refreshing🥰. This app is so well designed and executed. Strangely enough, I rarely use Day One other than for peeking at past memories of my publications (automatically added through IFTTT automation with RSS feeds). I rarely add to my personal journal. That might change from now on.

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:57:08 -0400

Finally finished and published this article this morning 😅. It’s been long in the making. Looking at my writing projects pipeline, it has always been pretty short. 😱

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 08:13:40 -0400

Why my (numericcitizen.me) website is getting a lot more traffic in the last two days from … Facebook is a mystery for me 🤔

Fri, 26 May 2023 06:57:03 -0400

Today’s thought: by accepting the idea that blogging is writing for myself, I would probably write more often.

Thu, 25 May 2023 19:24:39 -0400

I’m fascinated by the lack of visual updates to Gruber’s Daring Fireball website. I mean, he has been using the same design like forever! And then I look at Micro.blog users here constantly trying themes or even building their own and tweaking it often. I’m not particularly fond of his design choices but hey, who am I to judge! Content wins over form?

From Weekly to Monthly Digest

Tue, 23 May 2023 22:04:06 -0400

Following the announcement of the tweaked Micro.blog newsletter functionality, I’m switching to a monthly digest instead with a specific category as the sole source for its content. Three reasons for this change: first, the digest will become a more intentional set of creative gestures instead of being the result of a weekly and automatic content spit out without any distinction. Second, monthly means less noisy than weekly. Third, less is more. Let’s try that. 🙂

From Authenticity To Attention and Eventually to Connection

Sun, 21 May 2023 15:45:50 -0400

I recently heard the notion of blogging for ourselves as opposed to writing for other people to read. I like this idea a lot, and after giving it some thought, I think I know why. If I’m being honest with myself in life and decide to share something like a thought about something, my guess is that writing for ourselves helps a lot in being authentic. I think it’s one of the best ways to attract attention and, eventually, maybe, make a connection.

Tue, 16 May 2023 17:54:18 -0400

I wish I had something interesting to share so I could be part of Micro Camp someday. Maybe next year? This is something I wanted to do last year, and yet… I won’t be able to listen live either… I cannot take off from work on Friday, so it leaves only Saturday, but I’ll be on the move that day too. Oh well.

Sun, 14 May 2023 21:09:44 -0400

For the first time in a long time, I’m starting to think I’m finally catching up to 90% of the things I wanted to write and share. It’s a good sentiment to have a month before a two-week summer vacation. I know it’s a bit of a cryptic post.

Sun, 14 May 2023 21:02:51 -0400

I wanted to publish my long post about Inoreader this weekend so much, but it’s not ready yet. Tomorrow it’s probably the day. Being patient and knowing when something is not ready is a virtue of the writer.

Sat, 13 May 2023 08:16:40 -0400

If you’re on Inoreader, this is a link to my profile page. I’m not sure there are many subscribers here, but in any case, you can follow me there if you want!

Can't Wait for the Upcoming Publishing Weekend

Thu, 11 May 2023 12:55:45 -0400

This weekend, I will publish a 6000 words thousand article about my migration to Inoreader. I’ve been working on that one for at least three months. While doing so, for the first time, I used Ulysses’ “multi-sheets” feature, where each sheet is a different section tied together as a long article that I can publish as a whole. Pretty handy stuff when working on very long articles. Thanks to Ghost’s publishing feature, it will also be the first time that a portion of my article (the last three sections) will be made available to my subscribers only.

I can’t wait to share with my readers the long journey that led me to Inoreder. Watch this space.

Tue, 09 May 2023 11:00:08 -0400

I got my first two paying members (annual subscription!) on my website (numericcitizen.me) hosted on Ghost! Two people are willing to give me their money for my work. I feel blessed. 😊

A Peek Into My Typical Creative Week

Sun, 07 May 2023 07:59:35 -0400

Have you ever wondered what my typical creative week looks like? Here you go, courtesy of Things 3’s Logbook. As I was completing this week’s stretch, I had a look at the logbook, I thought it could be fun to share with you a behind the scene look. I love Things 3 logbook because it gives me a look at my past work.

If you want a closer look at my Things 3 usage in my creative workflow, you might want to watch this video. Oh, and don’t miss my documented micro-workflows.

Now, it’s time to prepare for the upcoming week by duplicating the project template and setting my three goals for the week. 😅

Mon, 01 May 2023 07:35:57 -0400

I had such a busy creative weekend, to the point where I wonder if I did too much. I mean, I didn’t see most of the weekend. It was raining most of the time, and I had those videos and articles that I wanted to move forward. On the positive side, I feel that my ideas backlog is more than ever in control.

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:56:50 -0400

I made my decision. The coffee shop it is. It’s a brand new place near my home. Not too busy yet because there aren’t well-known.

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:27:55 -0400

I’m still wondering where I’ll spend my Sunday afternoon for my creative activities. Should I go out to a coffee shop near my house or should I stay home, make myself a coffee and go in my home office? 🤔🙄

I like the ambiance of the coffee shops, looking around me and furtively watching some people in their own bubble, in front of their screen, with their AirPods on, typing, pausing, etc. It’s a stimulating environment.

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 07:14:19 -0400

While spending some time in the Anybox bookmarks manager this morning, I was thinking of restarting my monthly newsletter because they are fun (but time-consuming) to build. I should find a way to better automate the production process, though.

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 10:15:47 -0400

I started writing my 2023 year summary, and I must candidly admit that I’m proud of my digital accomplishment so far. 😊 You won’t notice, but a lot is going on… you know, this iceberg 🧊 image where most of it is underwater, only to see a small portion on the surface?

Major Updates Coming to WriteFreely And WriteAs

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 06:45:24 -0400

Matt, the founder of the WriteFreely ecosystem, recently wrote a promising post:

It’s become clear over time that in order to make WriteFreely (and Write.as) as useful as it can be, it needs to have a much more unified experience.

…

I don’t think it makes sense for our self-hosted product to be chopped up into multiple components like our hosted tools are. Instead, I want to bring all those tools into a single application in WriteFreely.

Earlier this year, I wrote an article (“The Write.freely Ecosystem Explained”) trying to explain the WriteFreely ecosystem because I thought that, in its current form, it was a bit hard to grasp. It’s one of my most popular posts on Write.as. I think there is a need for unification and consolidation into a seamless experience. I’m glad the see that it’s coming.

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 07:07:40 -0400

BasicAppleGuy writes about his website turning three:

Today marks the third anniversary of basicappleguy.com. A challenging but also very successful year; I want to continue the tradition of recapping the year and thanking you all for the tremendous support.

I worked from home for the first two years of the site because of the pandemic. That meant 19,200 minutes saved on commuting each year alone, which afforded me hundreds of hours to write and work on new wallpapers. This also meant I had around-the-clock access to a Mac (and a good internet connection), giving me abundant opportunities to work on projects with much more freedom. Source: 3 — Basic Apple Guy

His blog post resonates with me a lot. Since March 13, 2020, I have worked from home, and I also save a lot of commute time. I couldn’t do all that content creation that I did since then if I was returning to the office downtown. I’m super appreciative of that, and I hope that it will stay that way. I don’t see why it would change.

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 19:42:35 -0400

Coming back from vacations. 🛬 Returning to normal programming this week. Vacations are always a great opportunity to disconnect and let new ideas pop up.

When AI Failed to Inspire Me

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 07:13:07 -0400

I was looking for inspiration all week to write my next Friday Notes edition. Early morning yesterday, I was still unsure if I could make it, but at lunchtime, I tried ChatGPT with “Give me some blog post ideas about the positive effects on creativity of going on vacation for a week”. It came back with phrases that looked taken from a travel agency ad. I tried again with different variations of my question. It failed to impress and to inspire me. I’ll pass this week’s edition.

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 06:42:52 -0400

Still in my spring cleanup phase, I’m archiving all my bookmarks and references to build a Hugo-based static website. I’m happy to keep my focus on content instead of trying to understand and configure a web site built on Hugo tech.

Some Numbers

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 07:30:14 -0400

🚨 This is post #2000. I have already written more posts in 2023 than for the entire year last year. I’ll probably write more than 2021. The record year, 2020, will be hard to beat. This post was written using Ulysses on my MacBook Air which is the most used device, with 73%. My Mac mini comes second with 20%, and lastly, my iPad with 7%. I love numbers. Returning to normal programming.📺

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 08:46:05 -0400

I’m fascinated by the fact that very notorious people in the tech space depends on so simple workflows or simple tools like Apple’s Notes or Reminders to do their work. I reproduce something found on Kottke “Ask Me Anything”:

What do you use for a mobile note taking app (does it sync with your computer)? — Alan H

I am very low-tech when it comes to note taking. I use the default iOS/MacOS Notes app for most things, including keeping track of my media diet. It’s simple, works pretty well, can handle to-do lists, and syncs seamlessly with all of my devices.

I should pay attention to this and maybe think about it when I’m looking at new tools or new ways of doing my things.🤨

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 21:06:35 -0400

It’s time for an update to my content creation workflow (on Numeric Citizen I/O). In the coming days (or in a week or two), I’ll add something new to help others find new ways to do simple tasks. Comments and questions are always welcomed. 😊👨🏻‍💻

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 08:08:03 -0400

This week I got two unexpected gifts from my readers (fans?). One reader on my Ghost-hoested blog paid a one-year subscription, a 25$ gift! Another sent me 40$ to my PayPal account because he likes my YouTube videos about Craft so much. These are in addition to this Italian who sent my money a few months ago.😊

I don’t do what I do for the contributions, otherwise, I would have stopped a long time ago. Yet, these people make a difference and send good vibes to creators and writers like me.

So, dear past (and future?) contributors: thank you.

From A to B — Another Digital Journey Completed

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 08:13:35 -0400

From the Numeric Citizen Blog

to the Numeric Citizen Space.

The former was my WordPress site, now on Ghost and merged with what used to be the Numeric Citizen Introspection, the home for my Friday Notes Series newsletter. It took me a while, but here I am. I’m so relieved from not having to use WordPress anymore. I have learned quite a bit about WordPress since 2015, but my desire to simplify my digital life was pressing me to make some changes.

From now on, in Ulysses, I got two places to push my articles, here or Ghost. That’s it.

Both are under the same domain name, which is something that I wanted for a while. Now, I hope to spend more time writing than moving things around. I will publish my migration process in the upcoming days on my Numeric Citizen I/O, my metablog.

From a design perspective, I’m using Ghost’s Casper default theme, which is relatively close to what I was using on WordPress. I’m ok with this for the moment. I may hunt for alternatives in the future, but for now, that will be it.

Now, returning to normal programming.

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 08:48:12 -0400

Yesterday, I got my first ever paid subscriber to Ghost website, even though it is basically a free website. Thanks to Ghost newsletters feature, I’m offering a way for users to pay anyway as a way for showing their support toward my writing efforts.

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 20:28:51 -0400

Never say never, I suppose.

Proof.

Spending Most of Your Life Running a Blog

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 07:32:37 -0400

Kottke.org turns 25. It’s quite a remarkable journey. I didn’t know about this website until recently. I’m not a frequent reader of it, although I spent quite some time today on it to better get the gist of it. Yet, I’m barely sure how to pronounce it. But I’m quite impressed to see someone’s life spent running a blog and getting paid for it.

I’ve been into computer tech since I was a teenager. I’m 55 now. I learned quite a lot from writing software, doing digital photography, followed Apple’s story with avid attention. My creativity is at its best with computers. I even found my career by simply being exposed to computers.

For some reason, I didn’t know much about website hosting back then, even less about blogs. I didn’t pay attention, I guess. It’s like being a writer who didn’t know we could write books. This sounds strange.

I wish I had a blog for this long. It’s not the first time that I have written this thought. But Kottke.org turning 25 reminds me that I wish I were this guy. Can you imagine having written 40 000 posts? I don’t know if we can still read them all (it appears we can). You won’t find all my posted content since I first wrote my first post. And I keep deleting stuff while moving from one place to another because I think it makes no sense to keep all that.

Bravo to Kottke.org.

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 16:05:34 -0400

21 years ago today, my first blog post. A bunch of promising social networks have come and gone in that time. Often feels like very little is permanent, so make sure to have your own space on the web.

Manton Reece https://www.manton.org/2023/03/09/years-ago-today.html

I can barely remember what I was doing in 2002. I didn’t have a website. I didn’t know about website hosting. I didn’t really care about blogs, for that matter. I started blogging in 2009 when I started doing iPhone application development. I wanted to share my discoveries while learning Objective-C and publishing apps on the App Store. At some point, writing took more of my time than actually writing lines of Objective-C code.

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 19:37:10 -0400

@numericcitizen@me.dm is my new Mastodon address on Medium’s newly launched Mastodon instance. It’s without enthusiasm that I created this address when Medium opened the door to all Medium members today. I left the Paid Partner Program earlier this year. First, because I was no longer publishing articles over there. Second, because I’m not at ease supporting a closed platform like Medium. I’m not sure where I’ll go from here. That being said, I find it interesting that a closed and proprietary platform like Medium opens up to Mastodon, a distributed and open source network. Call it opportunistic, it will be interesting to see where this will lead in the future. I’ll certainly watch from afar.

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 11:08:36 -0400

“Social networks can be a great way to connect with friends and family, but they can also be toxic. Unfortunately, these networks can lead to cyberbullying, trolling, and other forms of online harassment. People can be cruel and insensitive in their comments, even if they don’t mean to be. Additionally, social networks can lead to feelings of envy and inadequacy, as users compare their lives to those they see on their timeline. It is important to remember to take a break from social media and step away whenever necessary to protect your mental health.” — ChapGPT

This text was used for the purpose of demonstrating the posting feature of Micro.blog. Please consider replying to this post so I can show how replies work. Thanks.

Sun, 26 Feb 2023 14:55:08 -0400

Will be spending the rest if the weekend trying to advance my (many) projects. One being to produce my next YouTube video about using Craft as a website publishing tool.

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 09:32:37 -0400

👉✅ I’m running a quick poll on my YouTube Channel, in the community section! I’m curious about your interest in “how-to” videos about Micro.blog. Thanks for taking the time to vote! 🙏🏻

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 20:21:39 -0400

The funny thing about posting ideas on Friday nights, writing out loud ideas, it goes out unnoticed; nobody is paying attention. Everyone is too busy enjoying their weekend!

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 20:00:40 -0400

Since last June I’ve been producing YouTube videos about Craft (the note taking app, not the game! 😜). I’m closing in to having fifty videos done. I like doing this quite a lot actually.

Now I’m looking for the next product or service to talk about. 🧐

It seems there is a lot to talk about with Micro.blog, don’t you think? 🤓

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 07:56:35 -0400

👉 It’s Friday, and it is time for another quick experiment. For the next few days, I will cross-post from the Micro.blog to my Mastodon account and see how it goes. I’m unsure if I will add more confusion than anything else.

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 22:41:29 -0400

👉🏻 Day One, now available on the web. Woah! This is cool.

I’m a big fan of Day One. I use it 99% of time for documenting my numeric life (details here if you are curious). When Automattic bought them a while back, I was curious to see how it would influence its future. Now we get a much better idea. The web access maybe was an obvious “next step”, but they did a superb job of transposing most of the Day One experience on the web.

What could be the next step for Day One? Well, what about being able to blog from Day One? A dedicated “public” journal could be created and any entry saved into that journal would go online. Boom.

Now, if only I could spend more time writing personal thoughts in it.😒

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 22:44:30 -0400

Micro.blog things I like:

No ads

No likes

No brands

No metrics

No algorithms

No influencers

No follower count

No suggested/sponsored posts

Reverse chrono social timeline

Bookshelves feature

Simple, clean, UI

Customizability

Photos feature

Friendly folks

Blog hosting

iPhone app

Jason McFadden https://jasonmcfadden.com/2023/02/16/microblog-things-i.html

Nothing more to add.

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:56:19 -0400

Better late than never. As a content creator, these are goals for 2023. More in my Digital Garden.

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 10:48:07 -0400

A few people here probably already know that I’m a big fan and power user of Craft, the document creation app. Over the years, I created and shared many documents online for different purposes. Today, I’m sharing an index of all the published documents. My goal is to showcase many of Craft’s capabilities. If you are curious, you can ask me questions about these. I’ll be more than happy to respond.

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 22:13:09 -0400

I don’t have many subscribers to my Ghost-hosted website. I always find it sad when someone unsubscribes the very same day I send out a new edition of my newsletter. If I had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, I wouldn’t notice.

What did I do wrong? Was the content not worth reading? These are the questions that come to my mind every time.

I shouldn’t pay attention to that. 😔

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:06:55 -0400

Sometimes I’m reminded that I wish I had picked out “Digital Citizen” instead of “Numeric Citizen” as my “nom de plume”. In English, Digital has a better significance than Numeric. Am I correct? 🧐

Thanks for Paying Attention

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 23:05:21 -0400

There’s this question that keeps popping up in my mind all the time since I’m being more active on Micro.blog. Why am I getting way more interactions with others on Micro.blog compared to Twitter? What am I doing differently? I write about the same subjects, albeit maybe more frequently. I think I have a few possible explanations.

First, Twitter is full of bots. Twitter is a dumpster. I suspect many people or organizations are simply cross-posting stuff on Twitter without real human beings behind the content. I did exactly that myself via Buffer for a few years. Optimizing exposure by scheduling posts at the “right” time was the idea. A bot worked for me.

Second, and this is probably the most probable reason: algorithmic timeline. The Twitter engine is tuned to generate higher engagement. The more you engage, the higher the probability that your content will appear on people’s timelines. If you’re well-known, again, the higher the likelihood that you will make it to the timeline of others.

I’m not well-known. I didn’t engage that much with others. Both made me a near-nobody on Twitter. So I didn’t get exposure, hence the lack of engagement with my content.

Third, there is just too much noise on Twitter to get noticed. My content competes against the rest of the Twittosphere. My context was noise for others, hence the lack of feedback, comments, and interactions.

Here on Micro.blog? Night and day. I’m not a star, far from it. But I get a sense that some people are paying attention.

Thanks for that anyway. 🤗

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 19:06:58 -0400

So, I started the cleanup of numericcitizen.me. Each day, on WordPress.com, I look at my past posts and select the ones that won’t make the cut. Most of them are simply deleted. However, some posts get exported in markdown files before being deleted. Those exported posts, in turn, are imported in Craft for archival purposes. It’s a tedious process.

Before moving to Ghost, I want to bring the most valuable content. But, what is valuable content, actually? I realize that I have put a lot of time and effort into writing in the past several years. Some posts are short and very time or context-specific. Today, they no longer sport any value except for giving a glimpse of what was. Then what? Nothing. It’s probably more of a value to me than to my readers. I probably should be writing in a personal journal instead, right?

Anyhow, it’s time to move on. I know what I want numericcitizen.me to become. But, in its current form and content, it’s off. There is too much noise, I want it to be more focused. Deleted old, insignificant posts will help, but at the cost of time and losing some of my memories.

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 22:26:06 -0400

I was searching for something in one of my past posts here on Micro.blog, using the built-in search option. Searching is swift. Looking at the search results, It's funny to see all the different writing strategies I used over time. I count four of them that I name like this: the newbie, the teaser, the titled and the balanced.

The newbie strategy was to write and don't pay too much attention. It was in my early days here on Micro.blog. Then came the teaser strategy era. Taking advantage of Micro.blog cross-posting feature, all my posts had to be cross-posted on Twitter and made sure to systematically add hashtags to the post's title to get attention. People on Twitter using hashtags for search could potentially hit my posts. That was total nonsense. Then, the "titled strategy" came in where all my posts would get a title. Readers would then need to expand my post to read the content. Lastly, the current strategy, the best IMO, is to use the title for longer posts only. Otherwise, I leave the title field empty, hoping readers will hit the link to read the rest of the post.

Maybe I should have set the title for this one. 🤔

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 19:58:12 -0400

Interesting (and sadly valid point) from Om Malik:

Regardless of age, the big elephant in the room is that we are certified addicts to attention.

It doesn’t matter whether it is Twitter, Instagram, or Mastodon. Everyone is playing to an audience. The social Internet is a performance theater praying at the altar of attention. Journalists need attention to be relevant, and experts need to signal their expertise. And others want to be influencers. For now, Twitter, Instagram, and their ilk give the biggest bang for the blast. It is why those vocal and active about Mastodon are still posting away on Musk’s Twitter.

If we didn’t care for attention, we wouldn’t be doing anything at all. We wouldn’t broadcast.

We care. I certainly care that you care about my content, my words, and my thoughts.

Instead, we would socialize privately in communication with friends and peers.

Even in this social scenario, we are broadcasting and expecting that people are listening. This is how we are programmed. This is why social networks, and the web in general, are so addictive.

Source: Why internet silos win – On my Om

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 08:39:25 -0400

Did you know I’m writing a newsletter named “Friday Notes” on Ghost? It’s free and probably more personal than what I’m writing here. Here’s the link. I also publish a monthly newsletter called “Numeric Citizen Introspection”, but that one takes longer to produce, so It’s not exactly on a monthly basis. Here’s the link. Of course, if RSS is your thing, both are available too. Shameless plug /end.

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 19:24:00 -0400

Up until now, the Mastodon ecosystem felt like some sort of black magic to me. Today I spent a few minutes explaining to my wife what Mastodon is. As someone who already knows about Twitter and its subtleties, she got it pretty quickly. I couldn’t have done it a few weeks ago, but now, I could. I always thought that when you can explain something to someone, it is probably because you know enough about the subject. I think my explanation made sense to her, and for me! It was only then that the magic and the profound nature of the social and decentralized network became so clear to me. It was an enlightening moment, for sure. Better late than never. I instantly felt convinced that my awakening to the open web and Mastodon, a form of open web instantiation, would be a game-changer for me.

Sun, 15 Jan 2023 12:05:36 -0400

This is a fucking blog, and it’s wonderful. It’s perfect. It allows you to share your words, in your own voice, with no corporate fuckery to fuck it up for you.

Source: Start a Fucking Blog

I’m still fucking laughing!

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 10:53:16 -0400

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. When posting content on Micro.blog, sometimes I’ll do it directly from the Micro.blog website, sometimes from the “native” Micro.blog client on the Mac, sometimes using MarsEdit, sometimes using Ulysses. What the hell? Why can't I settle on one way of doing things as simple as posting on Micro.blog? The pattern seems to be that the longer the post is expected, the more sophisticated the tool I select. Sometimes I’ll start on the web, then copy and paste in MarsEdit (rarely on Ulysses).

This blog post was first started on the web, then copy & pasted in MarsEdit. 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 09:28:43 -0400

Thought of the Saturday morning: I like the principle of logging my digital life activities, especially my actions leading to content publishing. The Logbook in Things 3 and Dayone and IFTTT greatly help here. [Rewind](https://www.rewind.ai) would be fantastic on the Mac, but it is way too expensive.

PS. What you are seeing in the screenshot is my actual logbook in Things 3.

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 15:59:35 -0400

I still can’t believe how different the interaction I get here, on Micro.blog, compared to what I used to (not) get on Twitter. It is night and day, literally. I’m blown away 🤯 by the quality of responses I got to some of my posts and the discussion that this sometimes triggers. I do get in touch with people here that I never thought was possible on Twitter, even thought we were following each other over there, thanks to Mastodon and Micro.blog “talking to each other.” I’m so appreciative of this digital community. 😃

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 13:41:03 -0400

Dear @manton, please consider adding share sheet support on MB client on iOS so we can easily create link posts. What should be included: source link, options for quoting text and a comment. Thanks. 👋🏻🙏🏻

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 17:01:26 -0400

I recently wondered if I should put a title to a Microblog post or not (see my post). I finally came up with an easy decision process.

Most of the time, my post won’t include a title. Much longer and feature posts will get a title. I don’t expect many of them here, though.

Can you imagine that at some point in the past, I included #hashtag in the title because MB would cross-post my content to Twitter, hoping to get traction from those on Twitter searching with #hashtag? It was a bad idea in retrospect.

This post had no title. 🤣

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 11:32:07 -0400

This is my current content creator workflow and tools. I recognize that it is more focused on the tools but not the flow between them could be better explained.

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 10:20:02 -0400

I wish I had prepared a year in review post. Not this year. Maybe next year.

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 09:14:55 -0400

As we get closer and closer to 2023, with announcements surrounding Mastodon ecosystem, the latest being the creation of an instance by the creators of Mammoth, a Mastodon client, my challenge will be to not succumb and get my own account. I want to focus in 2023, that’s why it is a challenge. That said, creating an instance to ease the adoption of Mastodon with a simple setup and sign up procedure is clever.

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 10:09:54 -0400

I always wonder if I should put a title to my posts. Short post = no title. Longer post = with title? Long post without a title gives a preview of the post content which is good for readers to see what the post is all about? Decision decision decision.

More is Indeed Better on Micro.blog

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:58:14 -0400

I receive more user feedback or interactions in a day here on Micro.blog than in an entire month on Twitter. On top of that, the quality is 100x higher too.

Think about that for a second.

Thank you guys!

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 15:04:53 -0400

Sometimes I wish I had started blogging fifteen or twenty years ago. It would be so cool to have this long stretch of writing at my disposal and reflect back at what I wrote. I guess I’ll do just that in ten or fifteen years from now… 🤷🏻‍♂️

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 13:43:59 -0400

Starting from now: I no longer cross-post my original Micro.blog posts to Twitter. Curious to see how bad it will be for my visitors analytics.

Musing About Writing Needs And This War

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 13:36:26 -0400

Earlier this year, back in May I think, I started a subscription to Write.as. Why? I was curious about this platform for writers and there was a special for a five-year subscription. So, why not! Then I started to write about my reactions to the war in Ukraine. I wrote maybe a dozen of posts on this subject. I had to let go my feelings. Then I stopped. But I still follow the news about this senseless war. I’m still in state of mixed feelings ranging from feeling helpless, frustrated, desperate, raging, etc.

Now, I don’t know what to do. Should I continue writing on Write.as or move my written frustrations elsewhere? Here? I don’t know. Enabling posts import to my timeline from the Write.as RSS feed might be a good solution.

Tell me what you think about dilemma.

Write.as: Are You Fediverse Friendly?

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 21:57:37 -0400

Write.as and Fediverse support (or lack of):

Write.as doesn't render the URLs of both the toot and the PeerTube video. The HTML embedding code does work, but the rendered video is not responsive and doesn't blend well with the page on mobile.

My guess is that we will see changes to Write.as to make it more Fediverse friendly.

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 09:13:53 -0400

I love the idea of Ooh.directory, blog directory and most supporting RSS feeds. I submitted mine. Will see if they accept it.

Following Mastodon Users From Micro.blog

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 22:03:59 -0400

[@anildash@mastodon.cloud](https://micro.blog/anildash@mastodon.cloud) I've been improving our ActivityPub support in Micro.blog. Just posted a video earlier today that you might find interesting: www.youtube.com/watch

Manton Reece https://micro.blog/manton/14888307

Thanks to this video, I understand that I can follow Mastodon users right from Micro.blog.

Another Day, Another Rabbit Hole

Sun, 11 Dec 2022 16:08:59 -0400

Well, I almost forgot about it. Today I received my invite to start testing Post.news; another potential exit door from Twitter.

From what I’m seeing, there is already quite a few people in there and I like the posting experience so far. It’s way easier to setup than anything Mastodon-related. Yeah, I know, it’s not the “federated” & “open web” et al., but hey, it’s not Elon Musk’s Twitter!

Upgraded to MarsEdit 5.0...

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:53:40 -0400

Because native software is cool. Because indie developers are cool. Because it supports Micro.blog but not Twitter. Because it is cheap. Because it’s a small company. Because their new Micropost (markdown) editor is nice, perfect for posting on Micro.blog. It is frictionless. Micropost & micro.blog, any coincidence? Mmmm.

Anyways… it’s a great update that I’m currently testing. Returning to normal programming.

Written from the couch, on my M1 MacBook Air.

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 09:00:00 -0400

So, if you want to push your career and your life in a new direction then take care of your blog. Because it all adds up. Source: Take Care of Your Blog

Yep, it all adds up pretty quickly and moves your life in the direction of your own choosing.

My Photo Publishing Flow for Italy

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 07:31:07 -0400

Following my post earlier this week, I finally found my publishing workflow for my vacation in Italy. From time to time, I’ll write a story on my Photo Legend Series. Glass will be for regular publishing of my best shots of the day. I’ll use Craft to build a photo diary, it’s part of another project. I’ll share the link when I’m ready. Finally, Micro.blog will receive posts from my blog and Glass via the RSS cross-posting feature. What I think will be my best photos of the vacation will go to Unsplash and Smugmug when I return from vacation and after post-processing them in Lightroom. Unsplash will only get a few of them, while the full set will go to my Smugmug page.

On Ghost Explorer

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 06:58:51 -0400

This could be the best thing to come to Ghost in a long time: Ghost Explorer. And there is more coming next week, apparently 🤔. For someone who left Substack for Ghost more than a year ago, this is something that I was missing on Ghost. Now, it is much easier to get discovered. I guess. It remains to be seen if this will change the bottom line for me, though.

About This Reading Enabling Device

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 07:39:12 -0400

For many reasons that I’m aware of, I forgot that the iPad is the best device for reading and collecting information tidbits that are fueling my content creation workflow. The iPad enables me to effortlessly annotate and store content into Craft using a Shortcut. In fact, unsurprisingly, the iPad actually is a devide that invites reading sessions into my morning routine. I should use my iPad more often; I’ll probably read more consequently.

Only 84 posts this year

Sat, 23 Jul 2022 08:53:48 -0400

Woah, I just paid a visit to my stats for Micro.blog. This year, I’ve got only 84 posts published; the lowest since 2019. It’s a bit sad because I like the platform, its values and the community. It’s not the first time I have lamented the lack of time elasticity. I have too many projects and fall into many rabbit holes. At the very least, I could tweak my routine to visit and post once a week. Vacations are a month away, but this could be the occasion to spend more time here.

That Rabbit Hole that is named YouTube Videos Production

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 12:11:33 -0400

I felt in a rabbit hole with these YouTube videos production. Either it’s because Craft is such a great application to talk about, or I’m just discovering the subtleties of the video medium, and I like it a lot. Or it could be both. Either way, I have much less time to write and publish here or on other publishing platforms.

If you aren’t aware yet, I recently started a YouTube channel about Craft. I’ll definitively write an article on my metablog about my adventure. I’m learning a lot.

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 14:10:37 -0400

As much as I like #Ghost as a hosting service for my monthly and weekly newsletters, the lack of community, commenting, and recommendations by other readers make me wonder if I made the right move when I left #Substack.

The Power of Instant Publishing

Wed, 18 May 2022 10:39:34 -0400

I’m currently working on a proof-of-concept to migrate one of my website to Craft using the application’s SharePage feature. The beauty of this solution is the simple fact that the content of the documents are always readily available on the web. Once the root document has been shared, there’s nothing more to do on my part. It’s the most frictionless experience to date. I find this powerful and satisfying.

Wondering About Returning to Podcasting

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 10:39:21 -0400

Now that I’m finally having my dedicated room in the house for working, I’m wondering about returning to podcasting (I used to have a podcast, in French) or even testing the YouTuber world (even though I wrote in the past that I’ll never be a YouTuber). Why is that?

First, a dedicated room is mandatory to be able to record without being disrupted too much. Second, sound quality would probably be much better than recording in an open space. Third, I could create a better background because my room is decorated to my personal tastes.

But is this enough to convince myself to seriously consider getting back to audio or video content creation? I have all the tools: a great MacBook Air, a Mac mini, an Apple Studio Display, a good microphone, a NAS for archiving purposes, etc. Yet, I’m not really good at audio or video production, and it’s very time-consuming for me. I would certainly learn a lot while working hard at this. Moreover, should I do this in my native language which is French or do it in English, which I’m not perfectly fluent with? Maybe I could try to do it together with other podcasters (I know a few of them). Too many questions, not many answers.

Photo credit: Will Francis on Unsplash.

Taking a break of many things

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 12:29:02 -0400

If you are wondering what’s up with me, I’m on vacation for a week. I’m not only taking a break from work, my office, but also from blogging. Expect a return to normal programming next week.

Written on my iPad, somewhere on a sandy beach in Mexico 😃😛

Sun, 13 Mar 2022 20:55:47 -0400

I wrote this some time ago (thanks to Surprise Me!). It was when I started using HEY World to publish posts. It didn’t last long. And I’m quite happy with this decision. Happy to be here. Happy to be there instead.

My Oldest Post

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 19:00:50 -0400

Going back in time on previously published content can be the source of a few smiles. My oldest post on my main blog is about Micro.blog. Here is an excerpt:

This morning I found out the existence of a blogging platform called Micro.blog. Something very special. Very lean. Very light. Without ads. Leaner than WordPress. Yet capable. Close to Twitter but with less clutter.

It’s funny. It’s not about introducing my blog or something like “hello” world.

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 14:07:07 -0400

Please, don’t think that because I’m now subscribing to write.as that I’m leaving Micro.blog. It couldn’t be farther than the truth. You’re pretty much stuck with me here, for as long as I can see! ☺️

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:06:13 -0400

On December 18th of 2019, Here’s what I wrote on Micro.blog:

Now that I’m closing my account here on micro.blog I’m starting to get more interactions 🤷🏻‍♂️.

The responses I got were so enlightening, I changed my mind. What a great community. 😀

It’s the Time of the Month to Start Crafting the Next Edition of My Monthly Newsletter

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 10:15:51 -0400

Well, it’s the time of the month where I start to work on the next edition of my monthly newsletter (it’s free BTW). I spend about ten to fifteen hours each month to put this together using my past readings and discoveries, Craft and Ulysses. Each time, it’s a pleasure to create. I think I should put together an article about the workflow I use to create each newsletter. Would you find this interesting?

An idea. The iPad. A Brainstorming Session. Another Article in the Works.

Sun, 19 Dec 2021 18:53:48 -0400

I love the iPad. Apple’s Notes.app in dark mode is 😍. You’re currently seeing a brainstorm of ideas for an upcoming blog post in early 2022. The subject? Can you tell just by looking at my notes? Hint: It’s a meta blog post. Another hint: https://numericcitizen.io.

Yes, I know, my handwriting sucks. 🤦🏻‍♂️😔😉

Currently Working On — A Teaser

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 08:19:32 -0400

Four articles to be published soon

Directly from Craft, a peek at four articles that I’m currently working on, almost ready for publication! 👀👨🏻‍💻

I dare you to meet me in my Digital Garden! 🏡

A New Home, Same Purposes

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 08:46:25 -0400

I’m done putting the final touches to my new home, a place where I continue sharing my newsletter and publish new posts under the Friday Notes and Photo Legend Series. Instead of using Substack, I’m now on Ghost(Pro). And I love it! I hope you stay with me in this transition.

Considering bookmarking this link: https://numericcitizen-introspection.blog or adding it to your favourite RSS reader: https://numericcitizen-introspection.blog/rss/.

Like the Dislike — Put the Decision in Creator’s Hands

Sat, 13 Nov 2021 14:55:56 -0400

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

So, YouTube will remove the dislike button soon from its platform. In one of his recent video, the popular YouTuber, Marques Brownlee, expresses his dissatisfaction about Google’s decision. His view echos mine. I’m not a big consumer of YouTube content, but when I do spend time there, I want to spend it on good quality content. The like / dislike ratio is an important indicator for me, and I suspect it is for many people.

We heard during the experiment that some of you have used the public dislike count to help decide whether or not to watch a video. We know that you might not agree with this decision, but we believe that this is the right thing to do for the platform.

I think the content creators should play a bigger role in all this: let them decide. The same way a blogger can turn off the comment section at the end of each blog post, people’s reactions on each video could be turned off by the author’s decision. In fact, I would argue that the ultimate decision to allow likes and dislikes should be held by the content creators. Simple as that. Make it an opt-in or opt-out default, but put the decision in creator’s hands. I would go as far as saying that the counters could stay private to the author if he or she decides so.

To me, one of the best rewarding indicator is the one that shows how far users are watching videos. They may agree or disagree, but as soon as they watch most of it, anything else is irrelevant.

I wonder if this decision by YouTube better serves their interests. I mean, without any ratio indicator, users have no choice but to start to play the video to decide if it is worth the time. This simple change makes people spend more time on the platform. Or is it the other way around and users will instead look at the comments to get a better idea of the video quality? I doubt it, as reading takes too much time to decide. People are busy, their attention span is short, a quick glance at the like dislike ratio is the way to go.

Once the decision to let people react to a video is made, then the platform could finally make it available only if the user watch “most of” the video. That no rocket science. There are probably other tricks that could be played to better control what’s going on in user’s reactions. But at this stage, it seems closer to be only implementation details.

As for the creator’s mental health issue, again, I would argue that if they tend to rely too much on the likes to feel rewarded, they could turn off the option. That’s something that could help others in dealing with this.

Glass, a photo sharing service, didn’t provide a like button from day one and doesn’t plan to add one. Is it good? Well, it depends. One thing is clear, from the comments I’m seeing posted by others, I have to ask myself: what is the difference between getting dozens of “I love it” or hitting the “like” button? Not much.

Photo credit: Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 14:33:36 -0400

Here is my Sunday so far… how is yours going?

Got Things Done This Week

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 12:36:30 -0400

I’m feeling pretty happy again this week-end as I managed to do everything that I was sitting in my blogger’s to do list (which is setup every Sunday in Craft). What you’re seeing in my summary newsletter here is only part of my content creator story.

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 14:38:16 -0400

I’ve been experimenting with something in recent weeks. Each Sunday, I open Craft and switch to the calendar view and create my todo list for the upcoming week. I love this. It it because I’m checking off most of the items on the list? Probably. Here’s last week plan.

Not bad. Now, let’s prepare the upcoming week. 🧐🧑🏻‍💻

Sat, 23 Oct 2021 10:17:05 -0400

Hey guys! I’m still around! Been busy on Twitter recently, using Typefully. I’m still in love with Micro.blog even though I’m publishing less from here. I’m reading my timeline from time to time and I’m happy to report that it’s still a vibrant community. Keep it up!

Am I missing Notion? @notionhq @craftsdocsapp

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 16:32:23 -0400

Been thinking about Notion recently. Before using Craft, I was a fan of Notion. I spent a few moments today on Notion to make some cleanup. I think I’m still a fan. Craft feels better for me as a writer tool. Yet, Notion is features rich. They keep improving it. I don’t know if they do it at a faster pace than Craft. They are certainly more mature. The team behind Craft being smaller, they don’t have the same resources. Many features are missing. But there is something to it that is missing in Notion. Craft being native on the Mac (it’s a Catalyst app), it makes a big difference. Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on Notion. Who knows if I’ll come back.

Dear @Viticci, I’m Not a Professional Reviewer, So What?

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 06:56:26 -0400

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

This podcast episode from MacStories featuring Viticci triggered quite a few reactions. Why? Because of these two sentences in the first moments of the episode talking about the iPad mini:

“You wouldn’t want to read/or watch a review by someone who is not a professional reviewer. It wouldn’t be enjoyable.”

Yep. Viticci said that. In “The value of a non-reviewer’s perspective” from Mere Civilian:

”I agree, a review from a person who does not write for a living may not be enjoyable. However, I strongly disagree with the first sentence. “

What? Really? Then, I read this reaction from Lee Peterson on his blog:

”MacStories posts some great stuff but not everyone wants to read long articles, some like smaller easy to digest articles from independent writers, I like to think I do that here. I get to the point and try to respect my audiences time, does that make my opinion invalid or not enjoyable?”

And here is my response. Viticci comments make him look full of himself. Period. I’m happy for him if he can live from writing reviews. I would rather read review from real end-users because the point is to get comments and observations from real use case scenarios. Sure, I like reviews from Marques Brownlee because he has well-balanced and critical point of views on a lot of stuff. It also touches the subject of what makes someone a blogger or a writer. If you write constantly, then you are a writer. Are you Shakespeare? Probably not. There is a starting point for everyone. Some will fall along the road, others will thrive. I tend to think of reviews by professionnel reviewers as synthetic reviews, where there is a lot of speed and feed talk. At some point, we want to go beyond that and have comments coming from experience. So, sure, I’d like to read comments from pilots about the real usefulness of the iPad mini. They are the one who can make a judgment on the subject.

Last year I wrote “I’m not an audiophile, but here are my thoughts on Apple’s AirPods Max” which is not of “review” but a collection of observations. I concluded with this:

”So, do I like the sound quality of my AirPods Max? Yes. Do they sound better than my Bose QC25? Yes. By a wide margin compared with the price difference with my Bose Q25? No. But, hey, they are wireless, convenient, comfier, have transparency mode, spatial audio and they fit within Apple’s walled garden.”

Is there any value in this? I think so. Should Viticci care? Certainly not. I do have genuine thoughts and opinions, and this is my ultimate right to share them with the world for exactly what they are: thoughts and observations. Nothing more, nothing less.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

A typical month on Substack

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 07:16:34 -0400

Five publications each month. Four Friday notes posts, one monthly newsletter. Some new subscribers. No comments. A lot of fun at writing and publishing these posts. I’m writing for myself. I don’t feel the pressure of regular writing schedules. It’s easier than I thought. The more I do it, easier it becomes. Substack is a slowly evolving publishing platform. I wish it was a bit more like Twitter’s Revue. Anyways. https://numericcitizen.substack.com.

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 15:37:27 -0400

I spend between 4 to 5 hours each month to put together my Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter.

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 08:03:48 -0400

Decided to put everything I read online through @Pocket. Highlights are synced to my @Readwiseio account, and I share a lot of them with comments on my Pocket page here. Feel free to follow me there.

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 10:33:41 -0400

I’m trying something new, again. I’m testing Revue, by Twitter. What I found is quite interesting, from a Substack user perspective. You can read all about it here, on Revue. Tell me what’s your impressions.

Feeling honored

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 19:55:19 -0400

It doesn’t happen too often but when it does, I feel very proud about it. One of my blog post about the story of 1Password 8 going Electron on https://numericcitizen.me received a backlink from Michael Tsai (look for “JF Martin” and you’ll see the excerpt).

Mr. Tsai does a tremendous work with his link posts in general. I can imagine how much work he puts into this each day.I would love to have a peek at his blogger workflow.

Doing all the things I love

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 14:40:34 -0400

Photo by karl chor on Unsplash

After an emotional week-end, long in coming, today I’m doing all the things I love the most: doing computer stuff — writing in a coffee shop — feeling like a real blogger — doing some photo processing — walking — biking. I know time will fly.

Life is good. Those days are so rare. I’m enjoying every single minutes of it. Work resumes tomorrow.

Photo by karl chor on Unsplash

I Love This Machine

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 07:05:42 -0400

It is light, fast and an absolute design gem. Small, but not too small. It runs a powerful operating system. It’s highly portable. It is venerable. It is a rare “species”. There is something really special about it. Furthermore, it has a real keyboard that I can trust. Battery life is good. It is out of the way. It’s the perfect device for writing and blogging.

It’s a 2013 11” MacBook Air.

I’ll explain in the coming week or so.

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 12:06:58 -0400

It’s always saddening me a bit when, on the day of a new issue of my newsletter is being published, a few people decide to unscubscribe. I know, I cannot please everyone, people are busy, etc. And yet… 😒 oh well. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:22:37 -0400

I’m mostly done with the latest issue of my Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter. It’s been a year since I started this free monthly newsletter and I still love it. While waiting for the next issue tomorrow, why not give a look at the previous one here. Subscribe, it’s free!

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 21:40:44 -0400

I wish I could have used « Digital Citizen » instead of « Numeric Citizen ». Oh well. It’s a branding issue, nothing serious.

A few thoughts on cleaning up my Twitter accounts following list

Sat, 10 Jul 2021 14:00:52 -0400

Since last year, I’ve been making a major cleanup of my Twitter account. I came from following more than 2000 people down to less than 300… and my goal is to drop below 100. I’m slowly getting there. Here are a few take outs from this major cleanup of my accounts following list.

First, there are a lot of stale accounts on Twitter, which tends to artificially increase “followship”. It looks like people stopped tweeting a while ago — they left the building. Second, a bunch of accounts were iPhone developers that I started following during my indie developer era, back in 2009-2013. My interests have since then shifted to writing and blogging. I no longer need to get in touch with the developers community. Third, and this coud be the most troubling take out: Twitter has become less and less useful in my numeric life. Articles readings happens more and more though RSS feeds and Mailbrew. So, what’s left for me from Twitter? Getting reactions from people during specials events, related to Apple’s announcements. That’s pretty much it.

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 07:35:57 -0400

I’ve been experimenting with time tracking. I’ve been doing it as an experiment at first, but now it’s part of my workflow. I’m using Toggl and Timery. Ask me anything.

I’m starting a new trend: open writing.

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 10:17:11 -0400

If you’ve been paying attention in recent months, did you know that you can have a peek at my upcoming blog posts that I’m working on? Thanks to Craft, You can peak at a selection of drafts, ideas, reference lists, etc. I give a name to this: open writing. Think of this as being this observer looking at a painter while he or she is painting a new artwork.👨🏻‍💻

What would be super cool is if someone interacted with this by posting comments… which is something Craft makes possible.

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:01:37 -0400

I’ll never consider moving my newsletter from Subtack to go to Facebook. Over my dead body. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: Bulletin Is “Directly for Journalists and Individual Writers” – The Hollywood Reporter

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 09:30:16 -0400

Problem of the day: my read later list is spread among Safari Reading List, Apple’s Reminders, Pocket, Craft and since iPadOS 15, QuickNotes😳. What is the problem with me? 🤦🏻‍♂️

I have to do something about this, once and for all.

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 15:05:45 -0400

Finally on vacation for two weeks. Been a long time. For the second summer in a row, we rented a chalet which happens to be real nice. But there is one thing: internet access is flaky at best. Good time to disconnect and spend more time writing I guess. 😌

Micro.blog > Twitter Blue.

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 12:19:20 -0400

I like how Micro.blog stacks up against Twitter’s subscription. $5: Micro.blog hosting, photos, use your own domain name, categories, bookmarks, themes, CSS, plug-ins, bookshelves, standalone pages, native apps, open APIs. $3: undo tweet, thread viewer, free Twitter features.

Manton Reece https://www.manton.org/2021/06/03/i-like-how.html

Indeed.

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 11:45:39 -0400

Better reading experience of Twitter Threads, via Twitter Blue, will encourage people to write more threads on Twitter instead of publishing a blog post. I’m not sure that I like the trend here.

Sat, 29 May 2021 09:27:52 -0400

Current status: publishing.

Sat, 29 May 2021 07:05:27 -0400

Current status: writing. Who knew. 👀

About those digital attention seekers ... GTFO (#socialnetworks)

Fri, 28 May 2021 17:40:48 -0400

I hate it when people subscribe to my stuff, to my blog, my newsletters, or whatever, just to grab my attention and wish that I’ll follow them back. That is not the way I operate or think. I’m looking for real content, enlightenment, creativity, singularity. I rarely follow back someone unless they meet what I’m looking for online. Just saying.

Here is a free pro-tip for content creators (#writing #author #protip #tip)

Fri, 28 May 2021 17:24:38 -0400

An easy way to differentiate yourself from the crowd is to persevere with your journey of publishing your stuff out there. There are countless authors who started something only to stop after a while. Be the one who continue and keep it going. Regularity and continuity are key factors to build your online presence. I guarantee you that people will come and stick around if you meet these goals.

Importing HEY World Posts to Substack? @SubstackInc

Sat, 15 May 2021 11:48:40 -0400

Nope. Better chance next time. No easy way to ask for help either. Tried different variations of the RSS feed URL. Nope, doesn’t work. There is no option to expert from within HEY either. As you can see, looking for some easy way out of HEY World. 👨🏻‍💻

Sat, 15 May 2021 09:02:41 -0400

HEY World was a fad. Using the dice feature to pop up a random HEY World website shows that the vast majority of users didn’t keep updating their feed. What could explain this lack of durable enthusiasm?

My Go-To Internet Destination for Reading: Mailbrew Website

Sat, 15 May 2021 08:17:39 -0400

I recently noted that I’m spending much more time on Mailbrew website for my newsletters reading rather than in HEY Feed. Why is that? Well, I think there are a few sticky features in Mailbrew that helps me better process information tidbits. First, the reading experience is great. The “Read” button next to a URL will bring a nicely formatted version of an article from a URL. Second, A “save” button is handily available for me to use if I want to keep a piece of information for later use. My collection of saved items is growing by the day. There’s also the Save to Mailbrew bookmarklet that comes handy. The website on the iPad is also a joyful experience.

Mailbrew update schedule is pretty fast and brings many small improvements on a constant flow. Now, if only there was a highlighting feature it would make Mailbrew reading experience a perfect fit for my workflow.

By the way, thanks to Mailbrew, you can get a weekly summary of all my publications here.

Wed, 05 May 2021 12:38:56 -0400

That could prove to be quite useful! Link posts are always a pain to prepare. Thanks to @cdevroe 🙏🏻 Source: Introducing the Micro.blog Posting Bookmarklet – Colin Devroe

Friday musing

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 07:21:20 -0400

TGIF! 🙏🏻 It’s a rainy Friday here. Friday is a slow and strange day for me as a blogger and content creator. I should go more often on Flipboard. In a way, Ello makes me think of Micro.blog. It’s been a long time since my publishing pipeline has been that low. I’m catching up, I guess. My Micro.blog feed is quieter than usual; is the Ulysses effect already fading? I’m not a good podcasts listener. I won’t get my four-pack AirTag today. I didn’t order the Apple TV 4K with updated remote; don’t know when I will. That’s a great question.

About My Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 08:07:40 -0400

My next newsletter issue is nearly done. On Substack, I’m not a big name in the blogger sphere or a journalist dropping from places like the New York Times. Yet, I enjoy putting together this monthly newsletter, and I generally like the end results. Subscribers are staying and keep increasing over time. It’s a good sign, I guess. Are you one of them? https://numericcitizen.substack.com

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 14:54:21 -0400

It’s that simple: choice. That’s all we are asking, us, humans. Thinking otherwise is wrong doing. Simple. as. that. Thanks to Apple for letting me, decide, have a choice, not to be part of being a product, just be a human. [www.youtube.com/watch

HEY World slowly fading... but... (#thoughts #blogging)

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 07:36:49 -0400

From time to time, I use the « HEY World Shuffle » URL to trigger the display of a randomly chosen HEY World user website. It’s funny as I never know what discovery I’ll make. I see a lot of users who made their first try of the service in its early days by sending random thoughts. The vast majority of users didn’t bother to continue but a few did, and there are a few gems to discover. I’m slowly building a list of HEY World bloggers, like a blog roll, by subscribing through RSS feeds. It is fun. That being said, the question is: was HEY World a fad? The jury is still out on that one. Yet, I see a lot of potential growth in features for this service. Will the owners care to make them happen?

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 19:36:05 -0400

Still relevant.

numericcitizen.me/2021/04/0…

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 07:29:56 -0400

I should read this every day. Thanks to @gr36.

Sun, 28 Mar 2021 14:06:01 -0400

This is a test with the most recent update to a little-know utility: Linky. I love it. 👍🏻

Substack vs Buttondown — Who’s Better? — My Observations - Numeric Citizen Blog numericcitizen.me/2021/03/2…

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 08:02:00 -0400

Want to know what Craft is capable of as a website publishing tool? Take a look. Move around the site, you’ll get a better idea of its navigation structure and feature. I love this app.

HEY World, it's now official! (#hey #heyworld #blogging)

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 15:49:32 -0400

They flipped the switch to ON. HEY World is LIVE! I’m so glad, curious and already excited to use this other channel to share my written content with the world. I’m already thinking about my first post on this new platform. Furthermore, I think this addition brings even more value to an already useful service, on which I depend every single day. Recently, I asked: How many websites can a blogger have? Well, as soon as a newcomer doesn’t add too much friction when publishing content, it’s ok to have many. HEY World seems to be such a service. Count me in.

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:19:17 -0400

After spending so many hours trying to understand the requirements to set up my online presence to support the IndieWeb movement… I’m close to just giving up. I fail to get the whole picture and none of the sites that I look at has a complete explanation that corresponds to my use case. Gosh. I’ll put this aside for a while and eventually come back to this. Maybe.

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 21:25:00 -0400

I often read the word “Quill” in here but never really paid too much attention, until now. Quill allows for posting content to your blog from a simple web page. You knew that, already, right? Not me. Sorry for the interruption, normal programming to return in 3, 2, 1. Thank you.

Quick Poll on Writing During the Pandemic (#blogger #writer #poll)

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 08:24:01 -0400

Today, I would like to do a quick poll among my blogger / writer friends here on Micro.blog. How did the pandemic influence your writing habits? Do you write more? Less? What could be the reasons behind the change of habit?

To help you out and start the thread, I’ll answer to my own poll. The pandemic brought me closer to be what we call “a writer”. I write a lot more. I do put more efforts into each piece. I use more tools to help me. My research goes deeper. I have many pieces in the works, all the time. I spend around 5-10 hours for writing each week.

Now, why do I write more? Because there is less noise in my life in general, thanks to the restrictions (no travels, curfew, work from home: no commute). This “silence” created a pool of free time. My creativity took over. So, I write. And I love it.

Tell me your story? Let’s discuss.

Sat, 27 Feb 2021 11:12:13 -0400

This is what I call a VERY productive Saturday.: three articles published (on Medium, on Numeric Citizen I/O, and on my Numeric Citizen Blog) and a monthly newsletter went out! 😎 Time for a break. 🏃Oh, and thank you for reading my stuff! 🙏🏻

I Tested HEY World! (#hey #heyworld)

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 19:58:25 -0400

Today, I tested HEY World. This is my non-review. It could have worked great, but it’s not ready yet. One could say “Nice try, buddy”.

I love their response to my test message. One thing stands out from their response, though:

“For now, HEY World is just an experiment. …

“Assuming there’s demand, we’ll begin opening it up for more people soon. And then, hopefully, for all HEY for You customers. Personal blogs will finally be as easy as sending an email.”

It seems to me that they are on the fence. They already have their tag line. They keep the door wide open. Could it be closer than we think or want to say it?

Now, what I’d like to see is how many emails like mine they get each day and what are they saying?

If they actually turn the switch on, count me in. I’ll find a use of it. For sure.

Ghost’s Killer Feature (#ghost #blogging)

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 19:36:44 -0400

After reading “Ghost on the iPad, a Review” from Tablet Habit, I tried to remember my experience when I tried the service myself. It wasn’t a good one for the thing I wanted to do with it: create a photography-oriented blog.

In recent days, it seems that the “Ghost” name is gaining traction in the blogging arena. I have to wonder if Ghost is better at this than what I experienced for photography. I don’t think I’ll try it again, but I think they do have one killer feature that other platforms don’t have: the combination of a blogging platform and a newsletter publishing tool. They really look to be well integrated.

One could argue that the difference between blogging or sending a newsletter is small (Think of HEY, World). I could easily agree. But sometimes, the actual implementation of the integration between those two features can make a real difference.

I’m currently using Substack for my monthly newsletter (Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter) and WordPress as well as Micro.blog more my blogging needs. Sometimes, I do wish there would be less friction when I’m publishing my work. A single platform doing all of this in a basic manner would be certainly very enticing.

How many websites can a blogger have? (#blogger #blogging #bloggerlife)

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:02:14 -0400

How many websites a blogger can have? Good question. I do have (too?) many, each filling their own niche. On that subject, something caught my attention yesterday in the public announcement of HEY’s experiment: “Hello, World!”. Jason Fried explaining why he never had a blog:

“It was primarily because setting up a personal blog was just too much of a hassle. It felt formal, it required yet another tool, yet another place to write, yet another platform to pay for just one feature. I had to pick a template, I had to think up a name, I had to make the relationship official.”

Sure, setting up a blog can be a hassle. For me, it is some kind of challenge and an exercise in creativity. This brings me to something I want to share with you. I’ve been working on something new in the last few days. I’m very excited about it. I started a “metablog”. Yes, another place to publish content. What is it? Well, it is a blog about blogging.

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about the word “meta”:

Any subject can be said to have a metatheory, a theoretical consideration of its properties, such as its foundations, methods, form and utility, on a higher level of abstraction. In linguistics, a grammar is considered as being expressed in a metalanguage, language operating on a higher level to describe properties of the plain language (and not itself).

Why do I feel the need to create yet another numeric space? Well, I believe in focused channels in general. I wanted a dedicated space for writing about being a blogger, using tools and services to put things together and out to the world. In other words, it is more about the “how” than anything else. I believe people like to get a look behind the curtain. I certainly do. So, I created this space where I’ll post my updates to my blogger workflow, in more detail.

So, there you have it: Numeric Citizen I/O. You’ll be able to comment on each individual post (I’m using Commento, a privacy-friendly commenting service.). I dearly encourage you to engage in discussion, ask questions or leave your comments. Thanks for visiting!

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 21:35:11 -0400

Indeed.

Writing is fun.

Mike Rockwell https://mike.rockwell.mx/asides/999

Hey, World (#hey #newsletters)

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 18:43:53 -0400

Each day, it seems there is always something new happening in the world of newsletters. When it’s not someone famous who joins Substack, a company out of nowhere offers a brilliant idea built around supporting newsletters in one way or the other. I’m thinking of Hey in particular.

“Email is the internet’s oldest instant self-publishing platform. Except you have to define a small audience every time you write. But what if you didn’t? What if you could just email the web to reach the world? Introducing the HEY World experiment” - Jason Fried from HEY

Yesterday, the company behind the popular HEY email client tentatively announced a new service for their customers. The idea behind is to allow any HEY users to create newsletters and publish them just by sending them to world@hey.com. The service would then post these newsletters on the web, complete with the author’s name. A simple static page, no tracking, no nothing more. I call this: simply brilliant.

The service is not currently available, only in some form of alpha-stage for internal use only. They announced it to read the room and see if there is some interest in something like this that could become some soft of hyper-distributed publishing platform.

I’m personally interested in this kind of service simply because it removes friction in the publishing process. What could be simpler than just writing the newsletter like we do with emails and then hit “send”!? Simply brilliant. For the reader, they can subscribe by email or by using the available RSS feed.

You can read the announcement here. I like the simplicity of this implementation. Very clean. Very lean. I’m in love. Too bad this isn’t available — yet.

Are we digital nomads? (#blogging #internet)

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 17:33:14 -0400

In the last few months, on Twitter and on Micro.blog, I’ve been witnessing something that takes the shape of a small phenomenon: people are moving from one place to another in the digital space. Many are writing about their experience of moving from one hosting site to another. Some are leaving WordPress to return to Ghost. Others are proudly putting together their hosting solutions. The same happens in the newsletters hosting space: people are leaving Mailchimp to go to Substack or Revue. People are looking to get better return on their investment both in time and money. Others are simply trying to optimize their blogging workflow. There is a myriad of reasons why people decide to leave a place for another one.

I find these numeric movements quite fascinating. Are you one of those guys?

Learning Blot.im the hard way (#blot #selfhosting)

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 09:13:35 -0400

So I started another experiment involving Blot.im. For those who don’t know Blot.im, it is a static web site generator that seems popular among the crowd here. On paper, the process of publishing is very simple: you drag and drop files on a specific folder on your computer and they get instantly published on the web. Sound great, right? That’s what I thought.

My goal with Blot.im is to do some “meta blogging”; a place where I could write about the tools, services and my blogger workflow. So I registered a new domain with GoDaddy: numericcitizen.io. Then, I opened my Blot.im account and stated experimenting. The initial setup is pretty simple. And then challenges pretty quickly started to emerge.

First, I wanted my new domain to point my Blot.im domain. Tried to follow the Blot.im instructions to make it work but all attempts failed. GoDaddy doesn’t support ALIAS DNS records as Blot.im ask me to create. I asked for help from Blot.im support. Still a work in progress.

Second, I chose to use Git as the “client” to push content on the service because I don’t want to use Dropbox, a service I despise. By using Git, I need a Git client on my Mac. I’m tentatively settled on Nova. So far so good. After cloning the Git repo from Blot.im to my local machine, I can then use Ulysses to write my posts and push them with Nova. The workflow is very geeky: create .MD file in Ulysses, “commit” within Nova then hit “push” to publish. Not as seamless as I would like. But here another issue: inserting images with a Markdown file is not as easy as it seems. Again, trying to figure out instructions on Blot.im site doesn’t work. The other thing is that if you drop an image within a folder, it will trigger Blot.im to create its own blog post, something that I don’t want. Not cool. Again, I’m asking support to help me here with this supposedly trivial task.

Third, I would like to use Github as the source of truth. Setting up a new repo is simple and cloning it to my local machine too. But, now, how do I make Blot.im to use the Github repo as the source of content? Again, trying to figure out Blot.im instructions but failing to make it work. Still trying to figure that out.

Fourth, tweaking the visual appearance is not as easy as I would have liked. There is a theme editor and I still need to be pretty knowledgeable in HTML and CSS. I did fork one of the theme to make it mine and started to do some tweak but it is a painful trial-and-error process.

All in all, I’m far from positive about Blot.im right now. I spent way too much time on these issues. I’m not sure where this is all going. If you are using Blot.im, please, do me a favour and chime in!

Testing, testing, 1.2.3. (#webmention #indieweb #openweb)

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 09:28:13 -0400

I’m still new to the Indieweb world. Today, I’m learning about webmentions. I like the idea of linking reactions back to the origin. So, after enabling a plugin on my main blog, I’m trying to link back to one of my recent post and see what happens. One day, I wrote “The Journey is the Reward”. I don’t post personal things very often. Thanks for your feedback.

Love and hate (#microblog)

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:09:15 -0400

I’m in love with Micro.blog. It’s simple, not too busy. Based on open web standards. But today, I’m a bit frustrated with the bad sad of being too simple. My most important grievance is the lack of design flexibility. Built-in themes are too basics and unappealing. You have to be a HTML and CSS expert to try to figure out how to make simple tweaks. This frustration is behind my recent desire to look elsewhere for hosting the whole thing. I’m willing to invest quite a bit of my time to gin control of the appearance of my online presence. I’m patient. The guys behind Micro.blog are working on the next features and I hope they will address some of my complaints.

Looking behind the scene. (#blogging #Hugo #html #git #github)

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 08:22:15 -0400

It all started with the idea of tweaking my micro.blog visual theme. I don’t like it, but this is the best that I could find from the included themes. After reading for a while and seeing people writing about their blogger workflow, I found out that Micro.blog is using Hugo, a static website generator. Then I started to learn about Hugo by searching for introduction videos on YouTube. Then, I learned about Hugo themes and how they are constructed, and at the center of how a website is displayed. Since static websites need a place to be stored, GIT and Github came into the picture. So, I started to read about GIT and Github. Git and Hugo both can be installed on my Mac mini to locally create content and generate a microblog from that. It a great experimentation place to learn and dig a bit deeper. Github is also a place to find new Hugo-based visual themes. Then I learned that I can import one of those themes on my machine so can change the visual appearance of my local Hugo microblog. Then, came the idea of publishing this content on the web, on Github, for free. To close the loop, services are available to take Github content and generate a static website, again using Hugo, behind a domain name of my choice. Then came the question: why do I need Microblog then? I could own the whole widget! It’s not that simple.

All this because I’m not satisfied with my current Micro.blog visual appearance. The next step is to dig within Micro.blog custom templates and see how I can update them. I’ll have to refresh my memory about HTML and learn a bit of CSS. The latter seems a bit an arid subject. Oh well.

Dear Micro.blog, where do you plan to go next? (#microblogging #microblog)

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 08:17:46 -0400

Thought of the day for @manton and @jean: there is something that could be improved regarding micro.blog: opening up the evolution and improvement roadmap of the platform. I do appreciate when a service do put out their roadmaps so the community get a better look at where things will be going in the future. Mailbrew, Plausible and Craft are very vocal about their future plans, you just have to find the place where they talk about it.

So, where is Micro.blog heading? In particular, how do you plan to expand on themes support and customizability? Why the web editor doesn’t allow support for Grammarly? Do you plan an opt-in option to see how many followers a user have? Those are just a few questions that I have regarding Micro.blog future plans. Thanks in advance.

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 08:47:38 -0400

Hey @jack! Let’s start a discussion.😊 I’m looking at your sites, your work and the tools and services you use. I’m very curious about how it all fit together. I’m curious about this Hugo thing, Github as a storage service and content editors and how they all talk to each other. Maybe others would be interested to discuss their options and workflow too. Chime in!

Let’s start like this: I started to look closely at Hugo and now I do have a better idea of this engine. What is less clear is this. Suppose I’m running an instance of Hugo on my M1-based Mac mini. Where does Github fit? Why I would use it?

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 14:08:00 -0400

Writing, like so many creative acts, is hard. Sitting there, staring, mad at yourself, mad at the material because it doesn’t seem good enough and you don’t seem good enough. (Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy)

Greg Morris https://gr36.com/5152-2/

I know this feeling really really well.

Giving without asking in return (#bloggerlife #blogging #writing)

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 18:55:41 -0400

Greg Morris recently on his blog about trying hard as a blogger to make something out of all this:

“I asked, I’m giving, and I am still blogging — now more than ever.”

Strangely, pure coincidence I guess, I wrote this last week-end “The journey is the Reward” in which I said:

“It doesn’t really matter if nobody comes and reads my stuff here or there. What matters is the process and the thinking that took place behind my writing. It’s all the small moments where I had to pause, think, read, learn and write. It’s about feeling creative. Alive. The rest is just another tiny drop in the numeric ocean. A few will taste it, and most won’t. That’s the life of a blogger and a writer in a sea of abundance. So, I’ll keep doing it, no matter what.”

The journey is really the reward for me.

Desktop vs Laptop vs Mobile vs Tablet (#blog #bloggerlife #analytics)

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 22:29:06 -0400

Here is something absolutely fascinating and surprising to me. According to my main blog’s visitors statistics, thanks to my recent switch to Plausible, over the last thirty days, the distribution of devices type used to visit my blog puts the tablet far behind the desktop, the laptop and the smartphone. One would think the tablet form factor to be much more popular.

The iPad is massively popular. I’m still in love with this form factor after all these years. These numbers doesn’t jive.

Our secret? Optimizing workflows (#blogger #writer #tools)

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 14:24:21 -0400

I like to see other people talk about their own writing or blogging workflows. Here’s an interesting tidbit from Greg Morris about using Apple’s Shortcut to publish to WordPress:

“Shortcuts is a really robust way to publish to WordPress and not have to use the WordPress app or third-party app.”

Apple’s Shortcuts are also an important part of my blogger workflow. Since I’m using Ulysses, which supports publishing directly to WordPress, I don’t need a shortcut for that. But for many other small things, it is a valuable tool in my arsenal. Shortcuts are an interesting technology within the iOS and iPadOS ecosystem.

Being robbed, again (#stealing #robbing)

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 08:22:34 -0400

Someone stoled my most recent article. I hate when this happens. I guess my article was good enough for this guy to bother.

This morning, I got a pingback on WordPress for an article being published elsewhere as shown below.

Someone copied my latest article “The Ultimate Twitter Tips and Tricks for Mastering Your Twitter Experience”. By doing so, he forgot to remove one of the URL pointing back to another previously published article, “My Review of Mailbrew: a Powerful and Time-Saving Internet Information Aggregator”, I was notified via a pingback. I paid a visit to the “publisher” and sure enough, 90% of my article was reproduced. The guy removed the screenshots but left the captions (weird). The title was modified too. The conclusion was removed. Here is what I wrote to the “published”:

I also posted the same thing on the comment section but comments being moderate, I don’t think the guy will republish them. I will see what happens. This is the second time this happens to me.

Meanwhile, The Startup magazine on Medium accepted my article submission. More than 750K followers can see it from the magazine homepage. 😃

That one was hard (#blogging #writing #article)

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 10:48:23 -0400

I just published one of my most difficult to write article in a long time. It is about transforming your Twitter experience to make it more focused, enjoyable, tailored to your personal interests. I’ve been working on it for the last few months. Along the way of writing this long piece, my Twitter experience was profoundly changed. I’m pretty happy with the end results. If you’re on Twitter, consider giving a look to this guide. Hope you’ll like it.

“The Ultimate Twitter Tips and Tricks for Mastering Your Twitter Experience”

Dear bloggers, let’s not forget about the link posts (#blogging #writing)

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 08:02:02 -0400

In “A Love Letter to the Link Post”, CJ Chilvers lament the lost of link posts from the blogosphere. Link posts marked the debut of so many websites raison d’être back in the nineties:

“At that time, they weren’t even called blogs. You’d simply update the front page of your website every day with a few interesting links you discovered since the day before.”

I love link posts. I follow many bloggers just to have a peek at their discoveries and comments about them. A big portion of my monthly Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is built around sharing a curated content of links that I find interesting. They generally fit within the boundaries of my deep interests. Link posts within newsletters = 🥰

In summary := Link posts > comments on a social network.

Optimizing my blogger workflow (#writing #tools #workflow)

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 22:41:53 -0400

This is a test with (redacted) currently in alpha, which introduces support for posting to Micro.blog. I’m a big user of (redacted). This new feature alone could significantly enhance and simplified my blogger workflow. I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time. When the update is ready, on iPad or the Mac, it means that I’ll be able to start the initial writing in Craft, then export to (redacted) using the TextBundle format, finish the editing in (redacted), then publish to Micro.blog. On the Mac, the same sequence applies, rendering MarsEdit unnecessary. How cool is that? Optimizing my workflow is very satisfying. 😎👨🏻‍💻

_This is a first post with (redacted), things could break. _

About My Friday Notes on @Medium (#writing #blogging #medium)

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 13:21:27 -0400

Today, I decided to remove my Friday Notes stories from Medium paywall. In other words, you can read them without paying a penny to Medium. They can be found here, in my Numeric Citizen Tidbits Newsletter. Please, if you like ’em, give ’em some hands claps! Thanks.

Wordpress.com: six years already (@wordpress #blogger #bloggerlife)

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:31:15 -0400

I got this notification in the Wordpress.app this morning. Six years already. Over the years, I became a paying subcriber of their Business plan. Automattic offers great support when you need it. But in the least year or so, I noticed a change in the way they do business with us, paying members. There are a lot of reminders about additional services available to us. which aren’t free, by the way. They keep advertising their ExactMetrics service that I don’t need with tricks that I don’t appreciate as shown in the second screen shot above. Recently, they started to advertise WordPress courses on the main admin page on WordPress.com. I really don’t like the trend. And this story by Alan Ralph doesn’t help either.

Don't forget about RSS feeds (#blogger #rss)

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 15:26:55 -0400

Paolo Amoroso writes on his blog:

Back in the early days of blogging, the tech press bashed RSS out of existence as it was supposedly too complex for ordinary users. To the point new bloggers don't even know what RSS is, some recent blogging platforms don't support RSS, and the blogs of new startups sometimes don't provide RSS feeds.

It’s a shame in a world where open standards are on the way out. RSS feeds are another important part of Podcasts, another open standard where big tech would like to monetize, i.e. make it proprietary.

Amoroso continues:

The readers who subscribe to your RSS feed always see all of your posts. No matter what Google, Facebook, or Twitter decide.

A long time ago I decided my blogs feeds would push the complete content of the articles. As I don’t have ads on my blogs, I don’t really care if the readers consume the content from the RSS feed only. RSS feeds are conduits who escape any algorithm-based feeds. It’s the most direct connexion between a blogger and their readers.

For the best part, Amaroso nails it:

They are the readers you want. The superfans who share your work. They may be bloggers themselves and link to your posts from theirs, or enable other opportunities such as guest blogging or podcast interviews. Those few RSS subscribers are much more engaged and valuable than the many who don’t even click links on social media.

If you know how to use RSS, you’re my best friend, you are more then welcome.

You can find my main blog feed here. For my micro blog, the feed is here. Hope you enjoy.

A new kind of goal for me - writer engagement (#writing #blogger #bloggerlife)

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 13:12:41 -0400

Writing is an important part of my life. It’s all about feeling creative, thinking, taking a pause of everything else. As a blogger, I like when people stop by and take the time to read my blog articles and then response with a comment. It doesn’t happen as often as I would like. I would say, one percent of my visitors will do it.

For 2021, I decided to set a new goal for myself: stopping by, taking the time to drop a meaningful comment on a blog post or an article from someone else. I call this goal writer engagement. Some platforms are easier to interact with than others. I like both Medium and Substack for this. Responding to an article or a newsletter is just a few clicks away.

So, today, I dropped two comments. One comment to a post from MG Siegler about writing more often on medium. The other comment about a way to consider the iPhone 12 Pro Max as a tool for photography, from a too technical point of view.

So, will you drop a comment today? Feel free to engage too and maybe start a conversation, why not!

Why I didn’t write a personal year in review for 2020 (#blogger #bloggerlife #writing)

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 09:52:07 -0400

The year 2020 came to an end without me posting my personal year in review. You might wonder why. I read many reviews in the last few days. Most of them are delightful to read as they contain gems about personal lessons learned, personal discoveries, etc. To write those reviews, you have to be prepared for that particular intention to write about it later. Without notes, it’s nearly impossible and takes too much time to prepare. It also would be too easy to miss essential tidbits.

What about 2021? Good news, for 2021, I want to be ready. Now it’s the best time to get organized. All year long, I’ll be using the excellent notes taking application called Craft. I already started to put things down. The picture at the top of this post is a glimpse at my journaling space structure, where personal notes will be confined all year long. I’ll use a monthly section for each domain or theme I want to touch on in this future year in review. I’ll see where it goes.

Pinboard, Pocket, Raindrop, Instapaper, Notion? Which tools is best for you? (#blogger #bloggertools #writers)

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 09:21:07 -0400

Alan Ralph on Why I Use Pinboard As My Reading List

I’ve mentioned before that I use Pinboard for bookmarking webpages of interest so that I can refer to them later. I realize this might seem like an odd choice, given that there are more obvious candidates such as Pocket or Instapaper, so I’ve decided to summarize my reasoning

I could add other apps and services like Raindrop (which I tried) or even Notion (which I love) as places to save bookmarks. It’s tempting to use more focused tools to fill a very specific part of a workflow. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of preference or workflow optimization (you can read about my recent workflow update).

The Substack "clique"? (#substack #writers #newsletters)

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 10:46:32 -0400

Is Substack the Media Future We Want?

“on Substack, the most successful newsletters are almost always written by people who have already cultivated an audience at traditional publications or built up a following elsewhere.”

and

Substack is a natural fit for the influencer, the pundit, the personality, and the political contrarian.

Starting from scratch on Substack is quite a challenge. From the graph shown above, this is the curve of my subscribers count. It plateaued. The new reader feature coupled with the discovery tab didn’t move the needle at all. We have to wonder if Substack is just a clique in disguise.

You can read my past newsletters by visiting my Substack page. Be sure to subscribe, it’s free!

Thinking of closing my Google Analytics account − who knew (#googleanalytics #privacy @mailbrew @plausiblehq)

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 14:58:20 -0400

Mailbrew shared a blog post about the services they use internally for their needs. As a die hard fan of Mailbrew (see my profile here), it’s interesting to see what SaaS they use for their internal use. Especially interesting to me, Plausible, a privacy-friendly analytics. I’m currently using Google Analytics which is free but, you know, it’s Google and it’s too complex for my needs. On the eve of a new year, it would be a nice time to start fresh in that regards. I’m currently testing the service as I write this! I never thought closing my Google analytics account could be a thing. Every new year is the occasion to do things differently, don’t you think?

Tempted by Vimeo, again. (#vimeo #YouTube #experiment)

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 10:55:25 -0400

I have too many projects on my plate to complete and experiments that I want to try. Today, I’m thinking about subscribing to Vimeo, again. I used to have an active account where I would publish photo processing session recordings with voice over. These sessions are still available by the way (one example here). I stopped doing those because they were time consuming to create and publish.

Subscribing to Vimeo’s first paying tier is not cheap. I know what you’re thinking, why not use YouTube which is free!? First, I don’t like YouTube and the business model behind it. I don’t like to depend on Google for my stuff. Vimeo is better in my opinion as a video content platform, for what I want to do. I prefer their embedded video player compared to YouTube’s. I don’t want ads on my feed and on my content. For all these reasons, Vimeo > YouTube.

My Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/numericcitizen

Now you know. 😎

What do you use as a shortcut menu utility on macOS? (#apple #macOS)

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:59:34 -0400

I’m currently writing a piece about the tools and services I use to help me be more efficient in my blogger workflow. Currently looking at Shortcut Bar - Instant Access on the Mac App Store. I had this utility in my list that I never bought but the features are exactly what I would like to get. Is there any alternatives to this utility? It’s a bit on the expansive side and is not yet updated for M1 Macs and Big Sur look and feel.

A few thoughts on Twitter's Space feature (#twitter #experience #audio)

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:26:57 -0400

Today, unexpectedly and for the first timr, I had a chance to experience Twitter’s Space. It’s a virtual room of twitter users who can speak to each other. When there is an open space, a small icon appear at the top of your timeline among twitter fleets. Tapping on it allows you to enter the space. By default your mic is disabled. You have to request permission first in order to be able to speak. There is a speaker who controls people’s requests to speak. People who are listener can react using emojis. It’s pretty interesting, much more interesting than audio tweets in fact.

I spent maybe ten minutes chatting with the space owner about things like COVID-19, confinement in Christmas time and how to use Twitter space. Others in the room were just listeners. It was pretty cool. I can see myself using this instead of doing a podcast for example. It’s easier to setup up, doesn’t require a distribution platform to maintain. I could setup a space to talk about Apple, photography, privacy or climate change. Can’t wait to try it out with my followers, once the feature officially rollout.

The unexpected good side effect of COVID19 on me as a blogger (#writing #blogging #blog)

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 14:14:13 -0400

Who knew COVID-19 would have a very positive side effect on me. It started on March 13th of 2020, and it’s still going on nearly uninterrupted. What is it? I have more time than ever to focus on my writing and publishing activities. Why?

As I’m working from home from mi-March of this year, I no longer have to commute. I save countless hours per week just because of this. On top of that, consider many activities on the weekend that no longer can take place because of the on-and-off restrictions in place.

I never wrote or published as much stuff in the last nine months as in the last year or so. I have a lot of projects in my head, small and more significant. I did spend quite a lot as I no longer travelling on software, services, work-from-home equipment. I also have more time for reading than before, it makes a difference.

COVID-19 is transformative at the society level but also a personal level. There are things that I don’t want to return when COVID-19 is no longer among us. Time is a precious resource, once you have it, you don’t want to mess with it.

Too bad @AppleNews, this could have been fun 😔 (#applenews #blogger #bloggerlife #writer)

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 10:12:56 -0400

Now it’s official, Apple is no longer accepting blogs on their news platform, Apple News. I got my rejection mail today (read about my original submission). I understand Apple News as being a… news platform, yet I think Apple is missing an opportunity here. Why? One word: Substack. Another word: Medium. Apple could have done to the written space what they did for the audio world with podcasts. Apple could have created a special place on Apple News for individual writers, not only bloggers per se. This would have been a message of inclusion, diversity and openess. Instead, Apple is again sending a message about begin a walled garden, exclusion, elitism. Too bad.

Where are you all? 🤔 👀 (#blogger #bloggerlife)

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 16:56:11 -0400

Fridays are always slow, it seems. Are people simply taking time off social networks, blogs, etc.? Maybe. In any case, I want to send a “have a nice week-end” to my dear readers and followers. 👈🏻 I do have a lot on my plate for this week-end: writing, writing, writing. And some time off too.

Photo credit: Jonas Jacobsson / Unsplash.

How Synology NAS can improve my blogger workflow (#synology #nas #storage #blogger #tools)

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 08:40:11 -0400

As an IT guy, looking at what Synology has in store for 2021 makes me pretty excited. I wrote about that yesterday but I took a deeper look at what is coming in DSM 7.0, their NAS operating system. I didn’t pay too much attention to their photo management software that comes with a Synology NAS, but that might change. In my blogger workflow, there is something I can optimize is the use of a photo management to store all my screen shots, stock photos, visual assets, etc. Synology Photos could be the tool I was looking for for a long time. I don’t want to use Apple’s Photos application as I don’t really like to see screenshots intermixed with family pictures. If Synology Photos is as solid as it looks, if their mobile application is much improved to their current version, I’ll certainly give it a serious try. On top of that, this photo feature also enable remote access to the photo library. Very interesting.

I’ve been shopping around for a home NAS for a long time and only made the plunge this year. After much thinking and reading, I settled on Synology because I saw a mature company offering mature products with a solid reputation. Again, DSM 7.0 brings a lot of new features and improvements which makes me feel happy about my choice of going with them. Can’t wait to try what’s new.

The modern business card? (#blogger #writer)

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 16:05:56 -0400

Over the last two years, I expanded my online presence. Maybe a bit too much; it’s hard to keep up. I came across something interesting recently: Linktr.ee. According to their website, the purpose of the service is to “Connect audiences to all of your content with just one link”. It’s exactly a case of “you don’t know you need it until you see it!”. Building the mini-website is quick and easy. There are enough layout options to make your page look like your own. I opted for the paying tier which enables more design choices and better analytics. Hope you like it and pay a visit to learn the breath of my online presence. I think of it as some form of a modern business card.

I started to replace my links to the following one which makes things simpler in places like my Twitter profile page. Check it out: https://linktr.ee/numericcitizen

Podcasting (#podcasting #blogging #writer #blogger)

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 21:04:18 -0400

My podcast adventure was too short (The Numeric Citizen Podcast). I prefer written words over audio. I prefer photography over video. There is something about moving content that I find difficult to grasp, as a creator. I’m may be too old for podcasts creation or YouTube, I don’t know. I loved creating those episodes (in French), though, using Ferrite.

What's wrong with Medium's stats…? (@medium #writing #bloggerlife) 🤔

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 08:16:51 -0400

What’s wrong with Medium’s “reading time" stat? Here, this story “Thoughts on ‘One More Thing’ - The Ultimate Mac Transition”, got 34 views so far, 12 reads, 2 two responses, 4 fans, 53 claps but the total reading time is 50 seconds? What’s wrong with that? 12 reads x 11 min estimated reading time = 132 minutes. Someone wrote: “very informative talk”! Did this guy really read my story or he is trying to get some attention? 🤨

Hourra, Ulysses ! (#macosbigsur #writingtools #blogger @ulyssesapp)

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:00:52 -0400

My go to app for blogging, Ulysses, is now ready for macOS Big Sur. Yeah! I’m doing my part, as I’m going to order this M1-based Mac mini today so I can run Big Sur on its own machine and experience the future now. And that icon is lovely, not too iOS-ified, enough Big Sur-ified to feel at home! Ulysses 21, Pt. 2 - Ulysses Blog

Measuring my success (#blogger #writer #newsletter)

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 17:22:40 -0400

As a blogger and a content-creator, how can I measure my success? Well, it’s not an easy one to answer. Each blogger could have its own way at looking at this. Personally, I could pay attention to my blogs visitors statistics, but there is one thing that I keep an eye on these days. I recently started publishing a free monthly newsletter on Substack. The membership is increasing, but what I'm looking for is easy: following a new issue of my newsletter, how many are unsubscribing? None, so far. To me, it’s some form of success.

Basic Apple Guy but gorgeous! (#apple #blog #discovery @basicappleguy)

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:22:52 -0400

Thanks to an article from John Gruber’s website, Daring Fireball, I discovered a new Apple-centric blog yesterday: Basic Apple Guy. After spending a few minutes on it exploring the content, I kind of fell in love with it and and started to wish it was mine. I’m impressed by the simplicity and the content quality. RSS feed already added to my collection.

I kind of like what I’m seeing (#myblog #blogger #bloggerlife)

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 21:43:40 -0400

This is my Micro.blog.

Using the popular Newsify RSS feed reader, I used my own feeds to see how it would look through it. I was pleasantly surprised by the end results. It’s been a while since I found the best way for me to post on Micro.blog. All posts have a title, hashtags, a picture and use at least 280 characters so the boundary where a title becomes available. Without it, Micro.blog cross-posts the whole text on Twitter which I don’t want to happen; I prefer a summary titled.

A follow up to @mattbirchler on why opting for Newsletters instead of a blog? (#blogger #blogging #writing #substack)

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 15:07:17 -0400

In a recent blog post, the well known blogger and content creator, Matt Birchler, wants to understand why so many people are opting for emails (newsletters) over the web. I want to give my perspective on each of his questions.

What about writing in a newsletter is more enjoyable than writing for a blog?

My Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is a monthly one. I start writing the next issue at the beginning of each month. I hit “Publish and send” at the very end of each month. It gives me four weeks to nurture its content. When the end of the month approaches, the newsletter content is mostly complete and I like how it evolved from the beginning. It is a satisfying process. Then, I take a pause and look forward to start the next one. I like the regular beat of all this process. I wouldn’t do a weekly newsletter, though, as it requires much more time to do.

Are newsletter audiences more engaged than blog subscribers?

I’m not sure about this one in general. For me, it is too early to tell. My gut feeling is that people are more or less engaged the same way as they are with blogs. I’d like to be wrong, though, and have people engage more with newsletters.

As a reader, do you prefer reading in your email app to an RSS app (or just the web in general)?

I use Substack to build and send my newsletters. Each of them are also available via an RSS feed. Depending of the client used, the reading experience can be enjoyable on both type of clients. Personally, I do subscribe to Hey and reading newsletters with their client is really nice and provides a nice clipping feature which is very handy.

Do you not miss things like link posts and “going viral” which are much harder, if impossible to do with emails?

Link posts can be done in newsletters and they won’t go viral for sure. But, I’m not really looking for this kind of fame to be honest.

Is it easier to get people to sign up for a paid subscription compared to the web?

I’m still building this stuff and my newsletter is free for now. I get new subscribers regularly but not as much as I would like. I guess I still have to get the word out and be more “famous”.

Secured. (@medium, #blogger, #blog)

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 07:27:21 -0400

A word about my other home: Medium, which I love. Following their latest update, they now offers publishers to secure their own domain name as well as allows better customization of publisher’s profiles. This is mine).

Im still pondering how I’ll make use of Medium’s new love for bloggers.

I’ve been robbed by... @duggu24 (#bloggerlife #blogger)

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 08:19:55 -0400

For the first time in my numeric life (at least, from what I’m aware of), one of my article has been robbed by another guy. After discovering it, I asked for immediate removal but without success. So, today, I’m calling him out.

The robbed article is the one about upgrading from an Apple Watch Series 4 to Series 6 published on my main blog on October 3 of 2020 and on Medium. You can see the stolen article there. This article was then pushed on this fake Twitter account with 1628 followers. This Twitter account is apparently owned or operated by this guy, the thieve who is following four people and has only one follower (poor guy).

This hosting website seems to enjoy quite a bit of traffic. Good for him. All his articles is stolen stuff without any mention of the source. He must be proud of himself, I wonder if his parents are, though?

The main take out: I’m must be a good writer after all so people are starting to notice and copy my stuff.

On newsletters rising popularity #blogger #blogging #writing #writers

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 16:48:38 -0400

The rising popularity of paid newsletters is good news for many reasons. First, it’s a signal that people are willing to pay for great content without ads all around it. Second, some people value the direct relationship feeling with the writer compared to a traditional website. Third, the popularity of independent writing is rising which is giving back control to the writers.

In a recent article by Nick Heer on Pixel Envy, the author writes:

Yet, despite all of these clear advantages, I still find it difficult to think of my email inbox as somewhere I will go to find something enjoyable to read.

I find newsletters a wonderful medium that cut the noise from social networks. The reading experience can further be improved with a great email client like Basecamp’s Hey which provides a specific reading mode for newsletters call The Feed. You can read my review of this email client here.

Read more comments from Mr. Heer in his blog post. I started a newsletter a few weeks ago. For now and the foreseeable future, it will be free. I have to prove myself that I can meet the deadline every month with quality content. I’ll see how it goes.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

On Ulysses Latest Release for iPadOS 14

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 08:15:51 -0400

Using the latest release of Ulysses for iPadOS 14, it is a joy to write on the iPad. Now, what am I writing, you might ask? More than 1700 words to express my current view of iOS 14 widgets: where are we, what’s left and where it could be going. It was supposed to be a 5 min reads… now I’m at more than 7 min. Oh well. Should be out in the coming days on my main blog at https://numericcitizen.me

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 09:50:45 -0400

I’m currently testing the beta of the upcoming reimagined Medium mobile app and I love it 🥰. For once, a redesigned experience is not synonymous of going backward. More on this soon.

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 07:13:40 -0400

My Numeric Citizen Introspection newsletter is out! Check it out, it’s free! Lots of stuff about Apple, photography, privacy and climate change! #newsletter #apple #photography #privacy #climatechange

The second edition of my Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter is on the launchpad!

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 07:33:32 -0400

My upcoming (and free BTW) Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter for September is done. I’m just waiting for September to conclude before hitting the send button. Crafting newsletters like this is so fun. Meanwhile, why not give a look at the first edition?

Micro.blog 2.0 - Testing, 1-2-3, Testing...

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:51:48 -0400

I really like what I’m seeing here on macOS. Only request is the default view of a New Post window should show the Title and Categories by default. On the web, the improvements are massive. I’m surprised the Bookmarking feature is available in a new Premium tier only. I want this feature but not the others (podcasting, richer media support). I’ll give it a try while it is free and I’ll see. On iOS and iPadOS, the workflow of selecting a photo from the library is still broken, otherwise, I love the changes. There seems to be speed improvements too. In other words, it is snappier!

All in all, I like where Micro.blog is going with these updates.

Testing an embedded bookmark here.

For the Micro.blog 2.0 launch week, we’ve enabled the new bookmark archiving and highlights feature for everyone to try out. You can upgrade to Micro.blog Premium at any time and also get podcast and video hosting.

Read: www.manton.org
Manton Reece https://www.manton.org/2020/09/29/for-the-microblog.html

Thought of the day for bloggers and written content creators

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:26:17 -0400

Competing against Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram et al. In order to grab users attention is impossible, even with great content to a certain degree. Coupled with the general trend towards more visual content instead of written words, It’s hard to build things like newletters or even simple blog with a reasonable readership. I guess this is the numeric world we must accept to live in. Your thoughts?

numericcitizen.substack.com

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 11:44:01 -0400

While I’m already preparing for released of the second Numeric Citizen Introspection Newsletter, slated for the first week of October, I’m pleased with the visitors and subscribers numbers. Thanks to you all! #newsletter #blogger numericcitizen.substack.com

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 10:58:44 -0400

Dear Flipboard users, did you know that I publish my stuff there too? flipboard.com

Numeric Citizen

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 10:38:08 -0400

When you get the hang of it, Notion is very powerful and can be what you want it to be.

twitter.com/mattbirch…

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 07:46:02 -0400

Just in case you missed it, I started a newsletter touching subjects like Apple, photography, privacy protection and climate change. You could be surprised to see how often these are interrelated. It’s free. #newsletter #blog numericcitizen.substack.com

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 08:23:02 -0400

There you have it. #newsletter #blog #writing #blogger Hoping for a long series.

https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/numeric-citizens-introspection-newsletter

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:17:47 -0400

And we’re ready for launch, tomorrow! All systems are ready! Weather is a go too! Don’t miss the officiel launch of my newsletter and subscribe NOW! It’s exciting! #newsletter #writing #blogging #blog #apple #photography #privacy #climatechange numericcitizen.substack.com

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 13:04:26 -0400

It came to my mind that preparing and sending my first newsletter is like putting a message in a bottle and dropping it in the sea. #writing #writer #blogging #blog Picture from Javardh from Unsplash. numericcitizen.substack.com

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 07:03:55 -0400

I’m close to finishing up my first newsletter on Substack. I’m quite happy of the end results for a first try. Can’t wait to share to my subscribers this week-end! It’s time to get in the train, ladies and gentlemen! numericcitizen.substack.com

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 08:18:38 -0400

Finding my newsletter purposes. #blogging #blog #newsletter #writing

https://numericcitizen.substack.com/

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 07:15:01 -0400

I’m building something new. Again. Can’t wait to share the final results and the start of something new. Why not give a look at the beginnings. #newsletter #blogging #blogger numericcitizen.substack.com

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:13:47 -0400

A few words about my online presence and how it is related to finding my upcoming newsletter niche. #blogging #blog #writing #newsletter

https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/my-online-presence

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 08:31:43 -0400

Thought of the day: I think that blogs and newsletters are more than ever critical conduits for crafted content in a world of AI-generated feeds. #writing #newsletters #blogging #blog

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 08:28:19 -0400

Substack is getting competition from Medium. And I like it. #blogging #blogger #writing #tools #platforms #newsletters

https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/competition-from-medium

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 22:14:10 -0400

Not bad. Or is it? medium.com/numeric-c…

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 19:46:23 -0400

I’m already feeling the pressure. 😰

https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/already-feeling-the-pressure

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 10:53:33 -0400

Reflecting on the purpose of my new experiment with Substack.

https://numericcitizen.substack.com/p/a-newsletter-about-what

Quick comparison of writing platforms based on my experience of putting something online. You might be surprise!

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 12:35:57 -0400

Here is an interesting observation based on my experience with four popular writing platforms: WordPress, Micro.blog, Medium and Substack. If I could place the efforts of putting an article online on a scale for each of them, this is what it would look like: from high to low.

WordPress (10) > Medium (7) > Substack (4) > Micro.blog (1).

Your results may vary.

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 10:38:56 -0400

I wish we could see more collaborative work among bloggers, just like in the podcasts sphere. Why is it not common or is it? #blogging #blogger #bloggerlife #writing #collaboration

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 09:19:50 -0400

I love Telegram. I’m not a big user of it but when I do, I find it well executed and feature rich. You can follow my publications here: t.me/numericci… www.macrumors.com

Telegram Messaging App Gains End-to-End Encrypted Video Calling

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:11:28 -0400

You thoughts on Substack as a publishing platform for bloggers? #blog #blogging #blogger Substack

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 18:45:26 -0400

Reflecting on my Twitter presence. Increasing my Twitter followers count is so hard. Even being retweeted to 38K Twitter users won’t move the needle. People come but leave. Is Twitter still a thing? I wonder. #blogger #blogging

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 18:14:21 -0400

I wish I could schedule a post on Micro.blog.

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:32:46 -0400

I love the new plug-ins for Micro.blog, but does it put itself on the same path as WordPress? 🤔

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 21:03:05 -0400

I told you that @mailbrew + HEY was a killer combination. Clips. 👊🏻😎👨🏻‍💻

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 21:22:03 -0400

Thanks to a good samaritan, I’m now on HEY! So far so good. Strait forward onboarding. Very approahable in general. Enabled 2FA and email forwarding. Stay tuned for a more complete review sometime in the near future. 😎👨🏻‍💻

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 22:20:46 -0400

I think hey.com could work wonderfully with Mailbrew… If only I had an Invite for Hey…

So, what’s up with Automattic and Tumblr? 🤨🤔🧐

Sat, 13 Jun 2020 10:30:25 -0400

Question of the day: what’s up with Automattic and Tumblr? 🤨🤔🧐 This question came up to my mind this morning as I reblogged a post from someone I follow on Wordpress. The reblog action was popularized by Tumblr if I’m not mistaken. Since Automattic bought Tumblr for a few pennies, I was just wondering.

Sun, 24 May 2020 14:33:40 -0400

In case you missed it: it’s still a good idea to read my review of Universe, a website creation service. The more I use it, the more I love it! #blogger #blog #photography numericcitizen.me

Fri, 22 May 2020 16:48:49 -0400

Questions regarding RSS feeds analytics. How do you track how many people are subscribing to your RSS feeds (hosted on WordPress)? #blogger #bloggerlife

Fri, 22 May 2020 11:05:09 -0400

Friendly reminder of my Mailbrew public profile. Feel free to subscribe to my newsletter. app.mailbrew.com/apple_obs…

Tue, 19 May 2020 21:12:55 -0400

Oh, another nice update. Stay tuned on why.

Sun, 17 May 2020 15:49:22 -0400

Happy to learn that my last article got selected for distribution on Medium. Great way to get compensated for my work. 😊😎

link.medium.com/kZjWOeSmz…

Sun, 17 May 2020 12:47:30 -0400

Don’t know why but my websites trafic is way down today, is everybody outside taking advantage of eased confinement rules all around the world? 🤔🧐🤨🤷🏻‍♂️

Whatever the reason, stay safe.

Sun, 17 May 2020 09:14:45 -0400

Ethical question: I produce a weekly newsletter with my content powered by Mailchimp. I want to move to Mailbrew and so informed my subscribers to make the switch. But my subscribers are not updating. Is it ok to make the switch for them?

Sun, 17 May 2020 08:02:42 -0400

I’m testing something really intriguing, different, unexpected. Built #onuniverse. the-perfect-imperfections-series.onuniverse.com

Sat, 16 May 2020 21:13:39 -0400

Can’t wait to try, oops, to test this! We Want YOU to Test Ulysses 20 - Ulysses Blog

Sat, 16 May 2020 15:35:03 -0400

When publishing a new article on Medium, the wait to see if it will be selected for wider distribution is unbearable. It feels like Russian roulette.

Fri, 15 May 2020 07:45:28 -0400

Seeing people go is always sad. Micro.blog for me is helping me strike a balance between lightweight blogging and more heavy duty stuff on my main blog with WordPress. Unmooring from Micro.blog – Alan Ralph

Sat, 09 May 2020 17:45:08 -0400

Never being satisfied with the look of something. I just switched to a new visual theme on my Micro.blog. I think it’s better now. Your thoughts?

Noto - A Wonderful app

Sat, 09 May 2020 16:09:45 -0400

Please, help me find a use case for this wonderfully designed note taking application. As an avid user of Notion, I don't see much use for Noto, but is looks so great!

Noto · Noto:

Day #4 of my Ghost experiment

Fri, 08 May 2020 07:16:56 -0400

Ghost.org has been under attack in the last few days, prompting them to force a password reset. It leaves a sour taste. I'm currently writing down my thoughts and findings. Expect a blog post in the coming days. Spoiler alert: it's not good.

Thu, 07 May 2020 08:44:50 -0400

Another great looking application that I would use if I wasn’t using Notion. twitter.com

Wed, 06 May 2020 22:30:05 -0400

This little utility looks great. Simple design. Very focused use case: bookmarking websites. But for me, Notion is filling this need. Abyss Saves URLs for Later from iPhone, iPad and Mac • Beautiful Pixels

Wed, 06 May 2020 07:02:16 -0400

Day #3 of my Ghost experiment. I already know that I won't go ahead with this. The lack of iOS native app is a deal breaker. No free tier. Simple to setup but Micro.blog is too. I applaud the open source nature of Ghost though. But I think it is not for me.

Tue, 05 May 2020 07:19:31 -0400

My Ghost experiment is to try to find a better solution to replace this. So far, I don't see the plus value of switching, even if Ghost general experience is positive.

Tue, 05 May 2020 06:52:11 -0400

Day #2 of my Ghost experiment. Where is the Media library? How can I re-use a previously uploaded picture in a new blog post? Another thought: the quality of the service's visual themes library contributes to its attractiveness. I found a very simple yet beautiful theme. 😎

Mon, 04 May 2020 12:56:13 -0400

Each time I see an update to the Tumblr.app poping up in the App Store, I wonder if this is the update many were waiting for since the acquisition of Tumblr by Automattic… #tumblr #automattic #wordpress

Mon, 04 May 2020 07:40:57 -0400

Day #1 of my Ghost experiment. Simple CMS. Well designed. A bit desoriented at first, coming from WordPress. No iOS / iPadOS app. Not good. macOS app not really native. Relies on Zapier for basic cross-posting stuff.

Sun, 03 May 2020 10:29:11 -0400

Just finished consolidating all my blogger workflow updates on a single page. You can find it here: [numericcitizen.me/about/how...](https://numericcitizen.me/about/how-is-it-done/)

Sun, 03 May 2020 08:39:30 -0400

Contemplating Ghost as an alternative to what I’m currently using and … this critical vulnerability impacting all of their services is not very a good first contact.

[status.ghost.org](https://status.ghost.org)

Sat, 02 May 2020 20:21:20 -0400

My blogger workflow just got updated. [numericcitizen.me/2020/05/0...](https://numericcitizen.me/2020/05/02/my-updated-blogger-workflow-as-of-2020-05/)

Let's try this again!

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 17:05:11 -0400

Well, cross-posting from MB to WP with IFTTT is a no go. Now, testing a much cleaner solution, a WP plugin which allow a better control over what is imported and how it is inserted into WP. I’m currently testing the whole process as I write this. Posts are inserted in Draft mode so I can release them as I wish.

If it works as expected, I’ll be able to keep my main blog in sync with very specific content that I put here with minimal efforts.

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 10:28:20 -0400

Well, cross-posting from Micro.blog to WordPress via IFTTT doesn’t work. IFTTT is having issues creating the post as draft. I don’t know why. On top of that, I’m afraid of creating a loop as my posts on WordPress are automatically cross-posted to Micro.blog. 😅

(xpost)

Starting a small experiment

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 08:56:43 -0400

Up until now, I didn’t want to have my posts on **Micro.blog** to show up on my main blog on **WordPress**. But since I’m posting ten times more here than on my main blog, I have a feeling my readers are missing a lot. So, starting today, I’s starting a small experiment. Some of my posts here will be cross-posted to my main blog with the help of IFTTT. I’ll see where this goes.

I’m sill undecided on the cross-post format: full content replication or just linked-post.

(xpost)

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 08:34:54 -0400

One quick question: is it possible to cross-post from Micro.blog to my WordPress blog?

[Update: I think I have to use IFTTT, something that I already use a lot. ]

Still far from fully recovered from Google's search algorithm changes of last November

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 07:10:16 -0400

Last day of April. Time to look back at this month's stats. It was a great month for my main blog visitors but still far away of full recovery of the big Google search crash of last November. I wonder if I will every recover from it, despite all my efforts to write fewer but longer and higher quality posts. On a brighter side, I’m faring much much better on Medium. (xpost)

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 17:52:22 -0400

A great summary of Ulysses version 19 release by MacStories. As a blogger, I’m loving Ulysses more and more. 😃 Ulysses 19 Brings iPad Cursor Support, External Folders, Material Sheets, and More - MacStories

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 17:28:00 -0400

I’m getting good numbers on @Medium as an indie writer. But as much as I like it so far, I’m not sure they always do a great job of selecting which theme or channel a story is being pushed over. Do they look at the categories the author selects?

Sun, 19 Apr 2020 13:59:49 -0400

The satisfying moment where you hit “Publish” after so many hours of hard work.😊

Hoping you like my review of Notion.

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 14:53:39 -0400

In the following image, how do you call this graph style and what application can generate them? Very curious about this.

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 09:58:33 -0400

Pretty happy with the near final draft of my review of Notion. More than 1900 words to explain how this service is helping me be better at blogging. Stay tuned.

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 17:00:20 -0400

Testing MarsEdit 4.4a2… just having the categories shown on the right of my post being edited is enough to be an instant buy for me. Even in alpha.

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 13:22:40 -0400

If emails are still a thing for you, well, why not subscribe to my Newsletter! 😁Sent once a week, every Saturday, at 8AM, just in time start your week-end. You bring the coffee. #blogger #blogging app.mailbrew.com/apple_obs…

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 09:15:37 -0400

As a blogger, making money is not one of my goal, but when I do make some money, it feels really great and encouraging. The following story published on my blog and on Medium is having a lot of traction. I mean, a lot. link.medium.com/E1ERVC1tE…

Sat, 11 Apr 2020 20:34:24 -0400

Testing SquareSpace. 👀

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 13:12:51 -0400

In case you missed it: My review of Mailbrew: numericcitizen.me

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 21:56:55 -0400

Exactly my feelings with my own blog. 🤷🏻‍♂️#blogger #blogging #blog aows.co

Never be satisfied with your work

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:12:28 -0400

Fun to read past post… knowing a complete re-write is coming up. Very soon. numericcitizen.me

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 14:10:45 -0400

Working hard to publish a full review of Mailbrew. Can’t wait to share this to the world.

I'm always looking to cut the noise. Here is something new.

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 07:15:06 -0400

I’m trying something new. It is always a good idea to cut the noise when looking at the news these days. To help me achieve that, I subscribed to 1 year of @mailbrew service. Here is the fruit of this new beginning. app.mailbrew.com/apple_obs…

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 12:18:44 -0400

Finally got an article submission accepted by Medium after the last try. Three previous submissions didn’t get approved. #medium #blogger #bloggerlife

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 12:10:21 -0400

My latest blog post was a big effort for me. Notion was at the center of my work all along. I perfected my use of this platform and should be more efficient for my next blog post. #blogger #bloggerlife #bloggertools

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 12:33:38 -0400

Blogger’s joy: the satisfying moment when you hit “Publish”. #blogger #bloggerlife numericcitizen.me/2020/03/1…

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 16:26:49 -0400

Install poll for bloggers: is the COVID-19 crisis modified your publishing habit? Answer by following link to CrowdSignal poll. Thanks. #covid19 #blogger #bloggerlife poll.fm/10520620

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 14:12:00 -0400

If you see this blog post, it is because I’m now using Drafts to publish to my Micro.blog. And this is cool. Just wish Ulysses could do the same.

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 08:45:06 -0400

I’m working on something new. Again. 😎 📷 #photographer #creativity numericcitizen.me/series/th…

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 17:09:55 -0400

Just discovered that within WordPress, with Automattic at least, there is a free library of very high quality, royalty-free stock images available at my fingertips. Very cool. I love Unsplash but these are very good too. I’m an happy camper.

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 08:35:42 -0400

The more I experiment with Notion, the more I find it interesting, powerful and useful. This thing can be a personal CMS for any blogger. I should write a blog post about this.

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:13:17 -0400

Thought of the day: for bloggers, it is taboo thing to do to share the blog visitors statistics on social media. #blogger #bloggerlife #blogging

On bookmarking apps and services

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 17:39:00 -0400

Bookmarking apps and services like Pinboard are great but they offer limited features… (I was a user of Pocket before). For me, I decided to use more versatile tools like Notion.io instead. More complete, deeper learning curve but way more than bookmarking service. (I was evaluating Raindrop.io but stopped because of lack of support of multitasking on iPadOS. I wrote the developer about it. Still didn’t get a response). alanralph.co.uk/3721-2/

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 12:38:30 -0400

Another tool that I’m learning to fully take advantage for my blogger workflow: Linky. Wow. More to come in my next update to my blogger workflow.

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 17:11:18 -0400

I almost forgot that I have a Podcast (in french). My last recording goes back to last summer. I didn’t mention it on my blogger workflow. Too insignificant I guess.

Looking to add Google Analytics Widget to my iPad Home Screen - help

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 08:35:10 -0400

Asking my dear network of friends: I’d like to be able to put a widget of Google analytics on my iPad home screen. Do you know of any iOS apps that can do this? I’ll pay for it if the design is up to my taste. Something along the line of this one (which is no longer being maintained). Thanks. 🙏🏻 apps.apple.com/ca/app/ga…

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 19:48:19 -0400

Because I’m a freak of visitors statistics in general, I just enabled Google Analytics for this micro.blog. Just another way to see if I get any attention (I’m not attention freak though!). 😊

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 08:34:28 -0400

Why, oh why? If I was blogging for fame, I would close all this shit right away! So, why am I doing all this? That’s the question that’s lingering in my head this morning. I guess this is a typital thing to ask myself, dear blogger. #blogger #bloggerlife #blogging

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 10:42:47 -0400

He made my day. #blogger #blogging #bloggerlife #blog twitter.com/mattbirch…

On Medium as a platform for bloggers

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 10:12:24 -0400

For those wonder about using Medium as a publishing platform. Here is a summary for my last four publications. See the difference when a story gets approved? The last three stories were not approved for publication behind their paywall. Not cool. It is a hit or miss and so you don’t want to build too much confidence in the platform to help build any form of sustainable revenue, even small.

Where is the date of publication?

Sat, 15 Feb 2020 09:37:00 -0400

Here is something that I notice quite often while browsing the web: the lack of a publish date on articles, blog posts, etc. While living in the age of fast content consumption, where content relevance is depleting fast, it seems important, more than ever, to put a publishing date. I know we can sometimes infer the date from the URL but to me it isn’t the right way to do it.

A content creators, If we suspect content we publish will age well, let’s put a publishing date on it! If we do think this is ephemeral stuff, a publishing date helps put some context for the content. Makes sense?

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 16:38:00 -0400

Remember Flipboard? Who is using this app / service these days? Is it a ghost town?

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 16:09:40 -0400

I’m putting the last efforts on something special that I’ll be sharing really soon. I’m kind of proud of the end results. So, if you are a blogger or want to start a new blog, you should pay attention to this space. 👨🏻‍💻☝🏻#blogger #blogging #writers.

To all content creators: RSS feeds as facilitators, use them!

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 10:07:55 -0400

My goal as a blogger is to get people read my stuff. RSS feeds are a way to help users access my content. Trying to be protective is counterproductive for me. The idea is to remove friction to the users. If they want to read via Reeder for example, why not! On that note, If a website doesn’t provide an RSS feed, which is sad, I’m let interested to stay in touch. Just sayin. Is RSS Just Giving Your Site Away for Free?

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 20:29:20 -0400

Question to people here on Micro.blog: what are the choices of themes? Are the ones (nine or so) the only one available? Asking for a friend of mine. 😊

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 08:33:35 -0400

Here is an insider note, from a blogger. Each and every single morning, I spend about 45-60 minutes doing things related to my blog: writing, reading, researching, bookmarking, designing, thinking. Every single day. It’s a passion I guess. #blogger #bloggerlife #writing 👨🏻‍💻😎

Do many things, so,little time

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 13:43:35 -0400

Here is one of my problems: I don’t have enough time in a day to write about all the things I’d like to post here and on my main blog. So many things I would like to write about. One such thing is about my blogger workflow (what tools do I use and why, what platforms, etc.). 🤷🏻‍♂️

Learning new things about micro.blog everyday.

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:25:00 -0400

Just found out why for longer posts (> 280 characters) a title field shows up while editing my blog post. Nice touch. One thing though, I’d like to have the post categories always shown instead of having to hit the ellipsis button each time. Consider this a feature request. 🙋🏻‍♂️

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:42:38 -0400

After so many months here on micro.blog, I think I found my reason to be here. Never too late to get it! My main blog being for long posts, micro.blog for link posts and random thoughts. Make sense? I feel better now. #blogger #blogging

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 19:00:00 -0400

This weekend I did all the things that I love do most. Being with my family. Writing. Blogging. Doing photo stuff.

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 11:54:40 -0400

From time to time, I go to my blog and see how it looks. I ask myself if it meets my goals as a blogger sharing about his passions. Today, I did it. And I’m quite proud of my work. ☺️ #blogger #bloggerslife #blogging #writing numericcitizen.me

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 08:22:25 -0400

Not knowing how many followers I’ve got on Micro.blog is killing me. May be I’m talking to an empty room.

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 12:21:40 -0400

Never skip a beat @ Numeric Citizen Blog, sign up for the mailing list: eepurl.com/gjlTqr

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:03:41 -0400

Micro.blog profile details are minimalist. We don’t know how many followers we’ve got, who follows who, etc…. in the age of maximum connections between people, this seems a bit strange at first…

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 09:48:37 -0400

One small critic I would say about Micro.blog is the general speed… I find it to be quite slow at time on iOS and on the web… especially when browsing pictures… anyone have the same feeling ?

Categories?

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 09:09:14 -0400

Just discovered post categories on Micro.blog. I created them and assigned them to each of my posts. I don’t know if this will be reflected on the web site though.

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 20:13:46 -0400

Oh my, ambiance on Micro.blog is so much different than on Twitter… I feel being in a quiet living room… drinking, listening to music and listening to conversations… #feelinggood

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 11:12:57 -0400

I don’t know how many people are following me on Micro.blog… but to them, I want to say that my presence here is real, not only a cross posting from my main blog @ ‪numericcitizen.me‬ ☝🏻🙂

Sun, 20 Jan 2019 10:18:52 -0400

Now a proud paying member of Micro Blog. Trying to be part of this endavour.

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 22:46:23 -0400

Micro.blog is probably the only social media where people welcome you when you start blogging… 😊

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 16:57:26 -0400

I used to be active on @Medium. medium.com/@jfmartin… Stopped publishing there because of what Medium became… trying to monetize us instead of rewarding us. Hope this won’t happen here on Micro.blog.

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 10:36:55 -0400

Testing the native Micro.blog macOS client. Very simple. Very clean. Can add a picture. Here is one from me. I don’ really like to show picture of me but hey, this is for testing purposes.

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 10:10:08 -0400

I don’t know how I din’t know about Micro.blog for so long… where was it? Why so few people are talking about it ? Could this be the platform that Twitter or Tumblr should have become over the years ? Could this become my new numeric home ? I have ten days to find out.