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Activity tagged "fediverse"

Posted:

On "What I learned in year four of Platformer"

Really cool to see Casey Newton's update on how things are going over at the Platformer newsletter after they left Substack. A lot of it resonates with my own experiences:

It also feels like more honest, durable growth than we saw in 2023. ...
 First and foremost, we have an honest-to-goodness website now. One where we can easily modify the design, add new features, and grow our offering over time. One reason why I write so often about the decline of the web is that I love websites as products. And our new setup gives us almost unlimited flexibility as Platformer evolves. ...
Another key benefit of leaving: We’re much less vulnerable to platform shifts than we were before. I had long worried that Substack’s unprofitable business would eventually lead it to make decisions that were not in the best interest of our readers or our business. (Besides not removing literal 1930s Nazi content, I mean.) I still have that worry for my friends who choose to build their businesses on Substack anyway. But whatever happens, it will no longer affect Platformer, and that gives me me real peace of mind. ...
It’s a decision I’m proud of — because it’s a decision we made as a community. ... Having principles can be annoying and expensive. (And make you insufferable to talk to at parties.) But it beats the alternative.

It's also cool to hear that Platformer has enjoyed solid growth, which I know a lot of people worried about when leaving the promised network effects of the Substack ecosystem:

I’m proud to report that despite leaving Substack, revenue was up about 11 percent year over year. 

Not many newsletters operate on the scale of Platformer (mine certainly included), so I'm sure their experience is unique in many ways, but it's great to have another success story from a newsletter choosing to go the even more independent route.

"What I learned in year four of Platformer".
Casey Newton in Platformer.
Ever since Platformer left Substack in January, readers have been asking us how it’s been going. Today, in keeping with our annual tradition of anniversary posts (here are one, two, and three), I’ll answer that question — and share some other observations on the state of independent media over the past year.
Read:
"Highlighting journalism on Mastodon".
Eugen Rochko in Mastodon Blog. Published .
To reinforce and encourage Mastodon as the go-to place for journalism, we’re launching a new feature today. You will notice that underneath some links shared on Mastodon, the author byline can be clicked to open the author’s associated fediverse account, right in the app. This highlights writers and journalists that are active on the fediverse, and makes it easier than ever to follow them and keep up with their future work—potentially across different publications. Writers often work with different publishers over the span of their careers, but Mastodon is the perfect platform to amass a loyal audience that you, as the author, truly own, and can take with you across the fediverse.
Listened to:
"This Publishing Platform Sees the Future, with Ghost's John O'Nolan" (Podcast).
Mike McCue in Dot Social. Flipboard. Published .
I think to have journalism with integrity, you have to have technology with integrity. And in my mind, open source is the way to have technology with integrity. And I want the best journalism to win because it's the best journalism, not because they have the best platform.
Posted:

So excited to hear that the Ghost blogging software is going to support federation via ActivityPub! https://activitypub.ghost.org/

If you sign up for updates, they have a survey where they're asking for feedback. Now's your chance to get your suggestions in!

Cool to see Ghost taking this step, while Substack is over there trying to build walls around their product to trap people in.

Ghost's post is also how I learned that Buttondown is working on ActivityPub support! 🙌 Exciting times.