Musing About External Links

🔗 When I write articles or blog posts, like this one or this one, I’m trying as much as possible to include external links. For link posts, it’s obviously mandatory for citing the source and the context. For other types of content, external links might guide the reader to read complementary content. Whatever the reason, adding external links can be time-consuming. My experience (and analytics) show that less than 10% of the visitors will click on them. I wonder if the time it takes to include these links is worth it. Do you visit external links when reading an article or do you find it distracting to do so? 🧐

#blogger #writer #musing

Discuss…

Learning as I write.as...

🧠 Every day, I learn a few new things about write.as. Today it’s about using tags and the reader mode. I went back in time to add those to most of my past posts. They are helpful, for the reader and for me the writer.☝🏻

#tools #writeas

Content Expiration Date

Today, I deleted 54 blog posts from my blog at https://numericcitizen.me. This blog is where it all started for me, in 2018. Unfortunately, most of these posts were of very low value or simply outdated. This brings me to the question of content value on the internet; things move fast, value often declines quickly. It’s the case for my content anyway.

#blogging #writing

My Oldest Post

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.

On Content Portability

🚀 A message to content creators out there: be wary of content portability when selecting a writing platform. It’s not that easy to move things around. There are always issues of all sorts that can make your experience miserable and time-consuming. ⚙️

#tools #platform #cms

Challenge of the day: exporting posts from WordPress to Ghost

Well, well, well, it seems that data portability among CMS is an issue. Who knew! I’m trying to find an easy way to move a few posts from my WordPress blog into my Ghost website. Exporting data from WordPress seems like an all-or-nothing situation. There are a few plugins available for this. The problem is that the content isn’t easily imported into Ghost. The latter does have a plugin, but it doesn’t support selecting posts. I don’t want to do this manually.

Any idea or suggestions?

Update 2022-02-16: There is a follow-up to my quest, read all the details here

Digital Citizen

🤨 I wish I could have used Digital Citizen instead of Numeric Citizen as my pen name. Digital > Numeric in English, from the word meaning perspective and the idea of being a citizen of the digital world. Oh well. 🤦🏻‍♂️

#thinking

Peeking at AirDrop in the Coffee Shop

☕️ Going to the coffee shop today after six weeks of sanitary restrictions. Those were lifted recently, at long last. After setting up my MacBook Air, I open up AirDrop in the Finder to see who’s there. Naturally, I don’t know anyone from the list of available devices. It’s just for fun. Available devices vary a lot for each visit. Today was a great crop. 👨🏻‍💻😜

#musing

Weekly Posts Digest from Numeric Citizen Microblog

Write.as. Why am I looking at Write.as now? Aren’t WordPress, Micro.blog, Ghost and Blot enough already? Is this a disease? I like the concept of Write.as, but the lack of any native apps bugs me a lot. There is a deal right now running through Feb 16th. Gosh.
2022-02-08

On Sideloading on iPhone — It’s OK, I’m Changing My Mind numericcitizen.me
<script src="https://micro.blog/quoteback.js"></script>

I’d love to get feedback on this subject, from this community, here on MB…
2022-02-09

Health of Developer Relations with Apple in Free Fall

According to this year’s Six Colors Report Card, relationships between Apple and its developers’ community is in terrible shape. The trend isn’t looking good either.

Marco Arment said, “Apple’s tightening grip on App Store fees, attempts to reach into other parts of businesses that they don’t deserve, and extremely entitled and galling statements on the matter continue to be distasteful and extremely damaging to their reputation. It seems like a huge strategic blunder to inflame developer relations, generate bad PR, invite more regulatory scrutiny, and risk governments imposing much worse changes for such a small percentage of their revenue.”

Is Apple still able to read the room temperature, or it is blind because of its financial successes? For once, I think Apple should copy Microsoft’s leadership.

2022-02-10

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! ☺️
2022-02-11