#indieweb 2020-08-07
2020-08-07 UTC
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Loqi It looks like we don't have a page for "odd crop" yet. Would you like to create it? (Or just say "odd crop is ____", a sentence describing the term)
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[chrisaldrich] Twitter has a range of recommended photo sizes and uploading images with different aspect ratios may cause Twitter to crop them oddly when they're displayed in the timeline. As an example, most of the images in this thread are fine, but the image in the second tweet has an "odd crop": https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1291498810204618753
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@ChrisAldrich Doctorow apparently drew out the roadmap for Twitter, democracy, and the future of society in 2001. https://boffosocko.com/2020/08/06/metacrap-putting-the-torch-to-seven-straw-men-of-the-meta-utopia-cory-doctorow/ (twitter.com/_/status/1291498810204618753)
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[jeremycherfas] I didn’t know there was a range of recommended sizes for Twitter. I always use six hundred by three fifteen.
# [jeremycherfas] In other news, the Slack on iOS keyboard won’t let me do numerals.
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gRegorLove I think I saw that Twitter crops to focus on text in images, too
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[KevinMarks] And faces now (it used to just centre)
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[Nadja] Have you ever been so illiterate that the alphabet is a foreign language, yet you find yourself in a Slack channel with people who sound like they invented the alphabet? 🙋 The wiki said to swallow your impostor syndrome and ask for help (or maybe I read between the lines a little), so I'm here doing just that. If there's a qualifying level for how much tech know-how I have, I've installed a software wallet. SOS. I know vanilla WordPress org (in t
# [Nadja] But now that I've come across the indieweb principle, I wanna try this stuff out for myself, yet I'm philosophically all-in and skills-wise all-out. So. I'd like to use this opportunity to learn (anything, really - my new Japanese laminator's been on my desk for six months cos I'm too tech-averse to connect it...and not only cos the instructions are in Japanese), but I'm going in circles on my own.
# [Nadja] Tl;dr
# [Nadja] sense that I've owned sites, played around with *basic* HTML/CSS), and I tried out a hosted micro.blog a while ago.
# [Nadja] I'd like to use the easiest possible method that's not WordPress (think GitHub or something similar, keeping in mind I'll have to wrap my head around every single aspect of it...I know nada) to get a site up and running (I already have a domain and web hosting) so that I can use it to experiment with and learn from. Can anyone point me in a direction other than the 50 I've been spinning round and round in? Thanks!
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KartikPrabhu [Nadja]: welcome
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# [MitchWagner] [Nadja] Welcome! Sounds like your tech level is about the same as mine. Like you, I am enthusiastic about IndieWeb but frustrated because the movement seems to assume a relatively deep level of technical knowledge – far beyond my own. And like you I have installed and run wordpress.org so I’m not a complete noob.
# [MitchWagner] If we’re going to get the average, nontechnical person off of Facebook and onto the free and open web, this is NOT the way to do it. IndieWeb as it stands now is confusing and intimidating to normal people.
# [MitchWagner] To answer your last question, I think the easiest possible method to go indieweb is sign up for a micro.blog account (a service run by [manton]) . That’s what I use to host my blog and I’ve been satisfied.
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# [snarfed] welcome [Nadja] [MitchWagner]! and apologies it’s intimidating. everything starts somewhere and gradually grows, and indieweb is no exception. we actually did have to invent and adapt a number of technologies to get all this working, so it’s maybe understandable that it’s started off more technical. but we absolutely do want to expand it to work for everyone over time!
# [snarfed] [MitchWagner]’s suggestion of micro.blog is great, it’s definitely the best turnkey indieweb platform for ease of use right now. also see https://indieweb.org/web_hosting for other options (but really just use micro.blog!)
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# [chrisaldrich] [Nadja] [MitchWagner] I'll say from my experience that I started out were you all are (maybe worse...) not that long ago and by tinkering around here, I'm much further along than I would have been without the help of the community here.
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petermolnar There are programs like https://getpublii.com/ - excellent and fast way to just have a website, but it can be very hard to move on (interacti with other sites, cross-post to services, etc. ) with it from that point.
# [chrisaldrich] If you remember which wiki page you were on that you had to "read between the lines" let us know and we can make it more explicit. dddddddddddddddd
# [chrisaldrich] [MitchWagner] if you're game for WordPress walk through of IndieWeb tech/plugins and some basic configuration, GWG and I did a pop-up session this past weekend. It was recorded and has some notes here: https://indieweb.org/2020/Pop-ups/GettingStartedWithWordPress
# [chrisaldrich] What is quick start?
# Loqi One of the quickest ways to start owning both your online identity and your own data in an IndieWeb friendly fashion is to choose a pre-existing platform that provides a variety of building blocks https://indieweb.org/Quick_Start
# [chrisaldrich] There are a few other turn-key options in addition to micro.blog on that page ^^
# [chrisaldrich] What is Github Pages?
# Loqi GitHub Pages (aka gh-pages) is a static content hosting service offered by GitHub where you can host your static sites https://indieweb.org/GitHub_Pages
# [chrisaldrich] [Nadja] you might find some basic ideas for starting out on that GitHub Pages link.
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# [chrisaldrich] I tried it out in March/April and had some fun with it. I documented some of my process here: https://boffosocko.com/2020/04/04/self-hosting-tiddlywiki-with-github-pages/ though obviously you can do almost anything (and not necessarily use TiddlyWiki like I did).
# [Nadja] Thanks for the responses, everyone. And massive credos to the team, I can tell how much work you've done on the wiki to make it as user-friendly as possible, even if - despite your best efforts - it's still above my paygrade 😋 It has opened up a new set of life goals ("Understanding the easiest difficult wiki on the internet"), so there's that. In all seriousness, here's where I drop my probably very stupid question (teachers, no use telling your
# [Nadja] students there are no such thing lol):
# [Nadja] So my question is: Can I use one platform (say micro.blog) and still experiment with things like TiddlyWiki on the same site? Maybe what I'm asking is as preposterous as "Can I install a WordPress site on Facebook" 🙂 If something like micro.blog doesn't have those capabilities, is there anything that does? (Even if I don't end up using it anytime soon, I'd like to just know what I'm potentially working towards.)
# [Nadja] Thanks a big fat bunch for letting me pick your brain!
# [Nadja] I did get as far as narrowing down that I'll probably use micro.blog (mostly cos I just wanna get started ASAP and I'm already familiar with it). But one of the things that's caught my eye the most is the concept of eating what you cook. I'm not a wannabe dev, but I've been frustrated too many times with knowing exactly what I want only to find it doesn't exist, so if only to satisfy that part of me, I'd like to learn and try stuff out.
# [Nadja] ↩️ [chrisaldrich] I've actually seen this write-up yours already and it was one of the reasons I thought there might be a realm of possibility where I could get TiddlyWiki to work. Thanks, it was very informative!
# [chrisaldrich] [Nadja]++ for asking for help
# [Nadja] ↩️ I thought as much, looking at examples of other people's sites. But is this something all platforms/hosts are capable of, or will a provider like micro.blog not be able to make allowance for something like that?
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# [chrisaldrich] As an example, I've got https://boffosocko.com as my "main" site running WordPress, and a subdomain https://tw.boffosocko.com that is TiddlyWiki running through GitHub pages. I've also seen some people running old WordPress blogs on their own domain and using micro.blog on a subdomain or at a different path or "folder" like example.com/microblog
# [Nadja] ↩️ Thanks, I had no idea you could run a sub off WP if that's your main, so it seems there's a whole other world out there for me to explore. Maybe it's best, then, to start with what I know (WP) as a main site for the minute and experiment with subdomains on other platforms till I feel more comfortable with it.
# [chrisaldrich] Depending on what you want to play around with, you can also start with micro.blog and spend some time customizing your theme. https://help.micro.blog/2019/about-themes/
# [chrisaldrich] [Nadja] that sounds like a good plan for having something to use on a regular basis while you play around with other tools.
# [chrisaldrich] My IndieWeb-tangential friend Alan Levine also has some useful tutorials and walkthroughs he's made for self-hosting set ups and managing domains/sub-domains. It's listed on the wiki at https://indieweb.org/A_Domain_of_One%27s_Own#Tutorials
# [Nadja] ↩️ [manton] Good to know, thanks! So I'd, say, have a WP main and create a micro sub following these instructions? https://help.micro.blog/2015/custom-domains/
# [Nadja] ↩️ Even though I have so many IndieWeb links in my Workflowy that it's starting to look like I'm running a copy site, I have _not_ seen _this_. Thanks!
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# [KevinMarks] also, if you're running wordpress.org the #indieweb-wordpress channel can help you when you get stuck indiewebifying your WP site
# [Nadja] ↩️ [KevinMarks] Ok I'm sold, you had me at "help" 😄 I saw the channel but didn't register it might be helpful down the line. Thanks!
# [Nadja] ↩️ [chrisaldrich] Thank YOU for being so helpful! The only thing worse than being scared to post is wondering why on earth you were so scared in the first place 😋
# [chrisaldrich] [Nadja] By the way, what is your domain address?
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# [Nadja] [chrisaldrich] It's http://nadjabester.com/ but it's offline atm, busy changing hosting companies. Hoping to get it up and running again ASAP so I can start playing around 😄
# [MitchWagner] [chrisaldrich] I do appreciate the recommendation but I do not want to spend a lot of time tinkering. I just want to post. And I want to tinker on my own schedule when I do — not discover some error in wordpress that requires immediate attention and now that’s what I’m doing this weekend.
# [MitchWagner] That said, eventually I may go back to wordpress for blogging.
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# Loqi It looks like we don't have a page for "tinkering" yet. Would you like to create it? (Or just say "tinkering is ____", a sentence describing the term)
# [chrisaldrich] I thought it explicitly implied /fun? and for exploration/experimentation?
# [chrisaldrich] Thought [MitchWagner]'s usage implied both sides of the meaning.
# [chrisaldrich] s/Thought/Though
# [chrisaldrich] That's not entirely true. Depends on your desire for heated seats... Since it's open source and extensible, not only can you make heated seats for yourself (or buy them if you can't build it yourself), but you can then give away heated seats to anyone else who wants them. 🙂
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# [chrisaldrich] And you should know better Enzo Shanske, one of the people who's giving away Ferrari engines to the community. GWG++
# [chrisaldrich] To [KevinMarks]' post though, I think one can do both tinkering and "riding"... Now, as to whether one can do them both either simultaneous or well, those we might debate.
# [KevinMarks] it is a satirical post, yes, but thereis some truth in it
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# [MitchWagner] [KevinMarks] nails it. When I was running my blog on Wordpress.org I was a tinkerer. Now I want something I can rely on to post and serve content.
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# [chrisaldrich] I suppose some of it comes down to how you use WordPress and what you're using it for. This recent article about the auto-update feature that's about to arrive in the next update lays out some of the various use cases and types: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/08/wordpress-auto-updates-what-do-you-have-to-lose/ Perhaps this coming functionality will help lower the admin tax for a variety of users who just want that?
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# [snarfed] this is kind of fascinating: https://publicsuffix.org/ . seems roughly the same idea as “pay level domains,” ie it lets you determine whether a domain is a “real” domain, ie someone registered it and controls its DNS, or whether it’s a subdomain
# [chrisaldrich] What is managed WordPress hosting?
# Loqi It looks like we don't have a page for "managed WordPress hosting" yet. Would you like to create it? (Or just say "managed WordPress hosting is ____", a sentence describing the term)
# [chrisaldrich] managed WordPress hosting is a concierge-like service where all of the technical aspects of running WordPress is managed by the host often including security, speed, updates, backups, website uptime, and scalability.
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# [tb] I was thinking using the public suffix list as a fail fast validation on incoming webmentions [snarfed]
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# [chrisaldrich] Has anyone else noticed that Twitter is now enumerating Quote Tweets in their UI now? https://twitter.com/zachleat/status/1290998533106040833
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@zachleat “you see, the giant JavaScript bundle actually makes the page faster…” https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeqLWsXXYAEHNeS.png (twitter.com/_/status/1290998533106040833)
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