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Manuel Moreale. Freelance developer and designer since late 2011. Born and raised in Italy since 1989.
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Personal philosophy

2024-12-02 00:25:00

Last week, Carl and Kevin both published posts related to their life philosophy. Both are excellent and you should read both if you’re interested in this type of content. Carl has also told me I should write a similar post myself and so here we are.

There aren’t many principles that guide me in my life and I don’t claim to have developed anything special for myself. I just have a set of core beliefs that keep staying with me as I grow and change, and those beliefs are:

Always be curious: about everything and everyone. There are lessons to be learned everywhere and every person might have something interesting to share.

You can never be too kind: there’s no reason to not be kind to strangers. And even a small act of kindness can improve the life of others tremendously.

Never make too much noise: this is both literally and figuratively. Silence is important and the world is already a noisy place. There’s no need to add to that noise unless I absolutely have to.

Communication is key: nothing great can be achieved without communication. Communicating with others requires time and effort. And like any other skill, it’s something I can get better at the more I practice.

Never pass on the opportunity to help someone: if I’m in a position to help someone, I should try my best to do it.

Try to maintain the middle path: life’s an act of balance, and it’s important to try to follow the middle path. This is a metaphor I keep returning to over and over again. I look at life as a walk on a mountain ridge. As I walk through it, I can see what’s happening both on the left and on the right side of it. But as I start descending in either direction, I quickly lose track of what’s happening on the other side. And not only that, the more I go down one side, the harder is gonna be to climb back up.

And that’s pretty much it. But honestly, I just try to not be a dick and to be helpful to others while also trying my best not to go insane myself. Depending on what’s going on in my life, that last part can be a little challenging.


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P&B: Lucy Bellwood

2024-11-29 20:00:00

This is the 66th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Lucy Bellwood and her blog, lucybellwood.com

To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

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Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

My name's Lucy! I call myself an Adventure Cartoonist, but in truth I struggle to stay faithful to any particular discipline. I write earnest reflections on mortality and draw goofy reviews of sex toys. I translate cutting edge oceanography into comics and give talks about "making it" as an author while being on food stamps. I carry both US and UK passports and can never seem to choose where I feel most at home. I spent many moons working as a deckhand aboard various tall ships. I built a life as a cartoonist in Portland, OR for twelve years before moving back to my hometown of Ojai, CA to become a caregiver for my dad in 2021. Since then my work and world have radically shifted to focus on community, care, and carving out a space for creativity in seasons of deep grief. I'm always trying to find the thing that will let me blend everything I love into one beautiful, messy, enthralling project.

What's the story behind your blog?

I started writing online in earnest in 2007 as a way to keep friends and family up to date during my gap year. (I just checked and that blog is still up? Nothing dies on the internet.) I was seventeen. Back in those days the comments were all from people I knew in the real world, the posts painstakingly uploaded to Blogspot from internet cafes across Europe. I kept it up for the year I was away, then fell off at the start of college. The first post on my current site in 2010 saw me trying to use the new blog as a way to carve out space for myself amid the endless rigors of my undergraduate degree. (Rereading it for the first time in god-knows-how-long, I'm struck by how my site still serves exactly the same purpose: to remind me that I can have a space online that is simply mine.) I've been writing there with variable consistency ever since.

These days (and increasingly more so since the decline of Twitter and my general withdrawal from social media), the site functions as the one-stop-shop for my entire career. This can be a challenge, since it encompasses creative experiments like Rambles (audio blog posts), online comics (whose gallery features constantly seem to be breaking), talks, essays, and more. From a branding perspective, it sometimes feels like a disaster. But I think that's okay! A blog isn't a billboard, it's a garden. It can be a space for everything.

Major structural updates often happen in frantic gluts of activity followed by total amnesia. I'm not sure I can even remember when I transitioned from a free Wordpress blog to a hosted site. As far as the design goes, I've only used a couple different themes over the years. I do make the odd adjustment to try and personalize the look of the place, but it's nowhere near what I'd like to be able to achieve. (I envy people like Robin who are always rethinking and tweaking and adjusting their sites in idle moments.)

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

Blogging, for me, is all about letting ideas talk to each other. I'm always reading a handful of different books and obsessing about a couple different subjects at any given time. Inevitably there are echoes. Something slots into place or ricochets off something else and makes a noise. Whether I call it the electric pinball machine or the conspiracy string layer or something else, it's really just the realization that two (or more!) ideas could co-exist in the same container. And then you get to build the container for (and out of) those ideas.

Posts themselves take a couple different forms: for short stuff, I'll throw links or quotes or half-formed thoughts into Things as to-do list items or drafts in Wordpress to remind myself to get back to them later. (When my mental health is in the pits those collections get a bit out of control.) I'm big on breadcrumbs. Creative energy always, always comes back around, so when the mood strikes it's great to have stuff to jump off from.

For longer pieces I write drafts in Bear, which I like for its simplicity and markdown features. Snippets and chunks that don't seem to fit get cut and pasted to the end of the document, which I read through far too many times to be good for my eyesight. I don't have anyone else read my writing before it goes up, but I'll often frantically republish things immediately after posting them because of course that's when you see the typos.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

Absolutely. I love early mornings. I love my Logitech K380. I love a hot cup of Yorkshire Gold tea steeped for three minutes with a hefty splash of whole milk. I save brown packing paper and draw enormous mind maps on it in Sharpie. I sit in a hideously stained Humanscale Freedom office chair that I tore down and rebuilt from scratch after salvaging it from a Buy Nothing group in town. I get my best ideas walking and talking on the phone with a faraway friend or recording an audio update for my Patrons. I love being able to see the books I'm reading concurrently in a big stack on my nightstand. I usually write to oscillating brown noise or wordless music or silence. Given my druthers, I'd rather be outside.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

I'm minimally tech savvy when it comes to websites, although blessed with patient friends who will help me pull things off when I have a specific project in mind. My blog runs Wordpress, hosted by Flywheel. My domain is registered with Godaddy, which I feel gross typing out, but I have a vague memory of trying to figure out what it would take to change it and then getting overwhelmed (you can see how I approach running a website, yeah?). For writing: I draft posts in Bear and then copy them into Wordpress in my browser. I run my newsletter (part of my blog, I'd say) through Buttondown.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

LEARN TO CODE.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

  • $35/year for my domain
  • $250/year for Flywheel hosting & keeping Wordpress updated
  • $12/year for Akismet Anti-spam
  • $14.99/year for Bear Pro (technically a separate thing? But I use it a lot for blogging)
  • $108/year for Buttondown (newsletter, which I feel is part of the blog)

$35 a month! Man, I've never done this math before. I should get writing!

I spend a lot of time thinking about how creative people are supposed to navigate making a living online. Personally, I like keeping all the stuff on my website—especially my blog—free for anyone to read. Partly this has to do with the fact that writing isn't my bread and butter. As a cartoonist, it's kind of a novelty to even have a written blog. That helps me feel like it's "just for nice." I can afford to do this because I have a Patreon (which is a more explicitly gift economy-exchangey kind of place) that functions as my personal Universal Basic Income. I feel very lucky to have the support of those folks; it's what makes my whole freewheeling, experimental career possible. Over the years, I've come to realize that giving things away for free is a great way to eventually receive financial support from people, but it's not a linear relationship. That can be stressful.

I do love seeing more journalism coming out that's directly supported by readers, as well as watching friends launch paid newsletters and crowdfunding pages for their own creative projects. Whatever the platform, I try to be careful to think about relationships when I consider financial exchange for work—especially creative work—online. Am I respecting the people who are willing to come with me on this exploration? Am I creating clear expectations of what I will (and won't) produce? Most people can smell a get-rich-quick vibe from a mile away, but that doesn't mean all financial support has to be transactional.

Most of my outbound creative support these days goes to other folks on Patreon. (It's hard to notice how much you're spending when they just pull it out of your monthly payout.) And since I've got a small soapbox to get up on here, I'm going to come right out and say it: my pet peeve is supporting people on Patreon who pause billing on months when they're lying fallow. LET ME PAY YOU TO REST! I want to give you money because I want you to have the freedom to pursue your weird whims and curiosities wherever they lead! Including TO BED! Or ON A WALK! I want to give you money to specifically not always be working! CONTROVERSIAL! BUT TRUE!

Okay that's it that's the end of the soapbox.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

  • I have a huge creative peer crush on fellow cartoonist-with-blog Reimena Yee (Especially this sprawling portrait of her work and influences.)
  • Mandy Brown's blog, A Working Library, makes me add books to my to-read list faster than anything else—and it's lovely to look at
  • Reading Rob Wychert's ongoing log of his site redesign makes me wish I knew more about building websites
  • Anna Iltnere is an absolute icon who's been stewarding a growing library of sea-related books out of her home in Latvia for years
  • Sumana Harihareswara's clarity and pragmatism are bracing, but also deeply human
  • Brendan Jerich is a good egg

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

  1. It's not listed anywhere on the homepage, but I really enjoy this dictionary and RSS feed of new words I've learned recently. (Due to the vagaries of the plugin I use, if any of those words show up in a blog post, they're automatically underlined and defined. Hilariously, this only seems to happen when words show up inside other words, e.g. "aureate" → "laureate")
  2. If you're passing through Ojai, I offer sporadic open hours at my new studio (918 East Ojai Avenue). If the blinds are up, I'm in there.
  3. You can write me a postcard at PO Box 734, Ojai, CA 93024

Bye!


This was the 66th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Lucy. Make sure to follow her blog (RSS) and get in touch with her if you have any questions.

Awesome supporters

You can support this series on Ko-Fi and all supporters will be listed here as well as on the official site of the newsletter.

Jamie Thingelstad (RSS) — Piet Terheyden — Eleonora — Carl Barenbrug (RSS) — Steve Ledlow (RSS) — Paolo Ruggeri (RSS) — Nicolas Magand (RSS) — Rob HopeChris Hannah (RSS) — Pedro Corá (RSS) — Colin Walker (RSS) — Sixian Lim (RSS) — Matt Stein (RSS) — Winnie Lim (RSS) — Flamed (RSS) — C Jackdaw (RSS) — Kevin Humdrum (RSS) — Fabricio Teixeira (RSS) — Rosalind CroadFrank Meeuwsen (RSS) — Mike Walsh (RSS) — Markus HeurungJuan Villela (RSS) — Michael Warren (RSS) — Chuck Grimmett (RSS) — Robin Harford (RSS) — Bryan Maniotakis (RSS) — Barry Hess (RSS) — Ivan MorealeKhürt Williams (RSS) — Ben Werdmuller (RSS) — Cory GibbonsLuke Harris (RSS) — Lars-Christian Simonsen (RSS) — Cody SchultzBrad Barrish (RSS) — Nikita Galaiko — Erik Blankvoort — Jaga SantagostinoAndrew ZuckermanMattia Compagnucci (RSS) — Thord D. Hedengren (RSS) — Fabien Sauser (RSS) — Maxwell OmdalNumeric Citizen (RSS) — Jarrod Blundy (RSS) — Andrea Contino (RSS) — Sebastian De Deyne (RSS) — Nicola Losito (RSS) — Lou Plummer (RSS) — Leon Mika (RSS) — Veronique (RSS) — Neil Gorman (RSS) — Reaper (RSS) — Matt Rutherford (RSS) — Aleem Ali (RSS) — Nikkin (RSS) — Jeremy Felt (RSS) — Hans (RSS) — Mark Pitblado (RSS) — Matt Katz (RSS) — Ilja PanićEmmanuel OdongoKev Quirk (RSS) — Peter Rukavina (RSS) — jsrn (RSS) — Adam Keys (RSS) — Alexey Staroselets (RSS) — John LMinsuk Kang (RSS) — Kechi Ladapo (RSS) — Naz Hamid (RSS) — Lincoln Stewart (RSS) — Ken Zinser (RSS) — Jan — Grey Vugrin (RSS) — Luigi Mozzillo (RSS) — Alex Hyett (RSS) — Andy PiperHrvoje Šimić (RSS) — Rhodia Square — Travis SchmeisserDoug JonesVincent Ritter (RSS) — ShenFabian Holzer (RSS) — ZenpenCourtney (RSS) — Karl Prieb

Want to support P&B?

If you like this series and want to help it grow, you can:

  1. support on Ko-Fi;
  2. post about it on your own blog and let your readers know about its existence;
  3. email me comments and feedback on the series;
  4. suggest a person to interview next. I'm especially interested in people and blogs outside the tech/web bubble.

Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

Email me :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month :: See my awesome supporters :: Subscribe to People and Blogs

On Bluesky

2024-11-23 00:15:00

Some of you may have noticed that I have an account on Bluesky. Fear not, I have no plans to start using it. The only reason why I have it is because I wanted to see how painful it was to connect my domain name after a conversation I had with Rob since I was telling him that it was time to abandon the sinking Twitter ship. And if it wasn’t for the fact that Mattia is also on Bluesky now and I logged in to give him a follow—because it costs me nothing to support friends—I’d not have noticed that people have spotted me on the platform.

Do I want to be on a social platform? No. Do I think Bluesky is kinda interesting as a social media experiment? Yes. Do I plan to do anything with that account? Other than following friends absolutely not. That said, I noticed that I can use it to log in on micro.blog and that means I can finally comment there when someone posts something quoting a post of mine. So maybe I might use it just for that. We’ll see.

This blog is and will remain my digital home.


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P&B: Em

2024-11-22 20:00:00

This is the 65th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Em and her blog, conscienceround.com

To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you're enjoying the People and Blogs series and you want to see it grow, consider supporting on Ko-Fi.


Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

I go by Em. My favorite hobbies are reading and writing. I think of myself as an ordinary person with an ordinary job. This covers the fundamentals but, if you’d like to know more about me, the “life” category on my blog is fairly revealing.

What's the story behind your blog?

Looking back on my early life on the web, I remember being an avid lurker of many blogs. I was also, for a time, an active participant of a now-defunct writing forum. I think I always liked the idea of having my own blog; eventually, on an unremarkable Saturday, I wrote and published my first post. I don’t know why exactly I started blogging though now, with the benefit of hindsight, I can come up with a few hypotheses. I think I appreciated the kind of impersonal intimacy that anonymous blogging can achieve; there’s nothing that an anonymous writer online needs to prove to an anonymous reader (assuming a small readership—I imagine that bloggers or, more broadly, “people online” with a larger readership feel all the pains and perils of celebrity). I was conscious of a kind of mysterious dual reality—that I didn’t know anything “real” about the bloggers I followed, but that I nonetheless was reading entries from their diaries that were illustrative of feelings that they hid in the context of their “real” lives. In reading these blogs, I probably felt a fantasy of kinship that endeared me forever to confessional writing. I was, after all, a teen prone to melodrama (and am now, for better or for worse, an adult prone to melodrama).

I will also freely admit that loved the sense of excavation intrinsic to blogging experiences; uncovering a new Blogspot was like plunging a shovel into the sand and finding a chest that could be unbolted to reveal a long confession printed on dusty, yellowed vellum. From what I’ve heard, the earlier 2000s and 90s yielded greater possibilities for discovery of personal hobbyist sites—but even in 2008, I felt like inventive, original writing was only a click away. I liked to think of my blog as one of many in this landscape—a tiny, cheap token that could be excavated from the sand and then flung back into the dunes.

My site has always been simple in design. Outside of the first few years (when I included a cartoony rendering to serve as an author’s photo and a banner featuring a large, pixelated eye), I have tended to avoid images and color in the design elements. I don’t have any particular aesthetic preference for minimalism—I just lack coding knowledge and have therefore always relied on customizable templates, usually one-column.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

I write mostly for personal catharsis. For me, the desire to write is also related to the desire to imagine, to play, to create. These desires can serve as inspiration on their own, if followed with enough willingness.

External sources—books, film, music—are also fonts of inspiration for me. The best cure for writer’s block is to read a passage from a book you love—this instinct has never steered me wrong. I’m often inspired by words or by groupings of words that stick out to me. While I don’t have a specific process for writing, I do often start by writing out a list of words (my drafts are littered with such lists). As an example, here’s a list from a draft from this year:

cure, unreproachable, imposition, pulse, risk, band-aid

I typically write the bulk of a post in one or two goes and then spend a subsequent twenty drafts agonizing over a single word or a specific configuration of words. That said, I don’t ever attempt to achieve perfectly polished posts. I like writing that is weird, confessional, overwrought, overlabored, pained, and not couched in artifice.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

I’ve always written on a computer. My first writing companion was a bulky desktop eMachine and, likely as a result of that initial experience, I have always preferred keyboards to pen and paper. It’s not particularly romantic, but it’s functional.

I don’t have too many requirements for the place where I write. Most of the time, I’m slouched over on the sofa, with an old, groaning netbook propped up on my knees. I am not proud of my terrible posture.

I do think the physical space around me can influence my creativity in the most direct sense. When I read back some of my writing, I can see the places where the world bled in. But at the same time, my favorite entries are ones that feel the most distant from the physical world, and that tapped into a “zone” outside it.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

I write using Wordpress. The Wordpress theme that I use (and would wholeheartedly recommend for its simplicity and user-friendliness) is called "Marianne".

I’ve tried all manner of blogging platforms, so I’m not particularly wedded to any one site. I’m not “techie” in any sense but, with all the platforms available today, I don’t think that should stop any sufficiently motivated would-be blogger. That said, I do think the world of blogging today (if it can be called a “world”—perhaps “island” is more apt) can be intimidating for non-“techie” people, and the result is that most people do not consider owning their own domain to be a viable approach and instead prefer to share their writing in the walled gardens of social media. I do understand that preference—it’s much easier to find community that way. Still, I cling to my blog in all its strange outdatedness, if only because I think it’s the main reason that I have been able to maintain a consistent writing habit over the past fifteen years of my life.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

I would likely opt for a different name. “Conscience Round” is the name I chose as a macabre adolescent, and I think that shows. A “conscience round,” purportedly, is a blank round of ammunition provided, in secret, to a random member of a firing squad, so that all members may preserve the fiction that they did not fire the killing shot. I don’t precisely remember why I chose this name, but I think it may have had something to do with the fact that it recalls the first sentence of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (the novel that was my first love).

I very much enjoy perusing the handcrafted sites of the “small” web and, though I don’t have a coding background, I have often thought about creating a more personalized layout for my site. I’ve had the minimal look of my site engraved in my mind for so long that it feels difficult to change but, if I started today, I think I would put more effort into the aesthetics of the site, because I do think aesthetics can tell a story. As is stands, the look of “Conscience Round” suggests that the blogger cares purely and exclusively about the text which is part of my story, but perhaps not the whole of it.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

The cost of the blog has varied over time. I currently spend about 30 USD per year on the domain name and on the hosting.

I have never tried to monetize the blog, though I have toyed with the idea of e-publishing a low-cost collection of short stories so that readers could support me if they so choose. I certainly don’t think there would be enough interest in this to make it a moneymaking endeavor, but it could be fun to try—and isn’t this the purest reason of all, just to give something a try for the possible joy of it? Possibly the entirety of my blogging “life” can be summarized in this way.

I think it’s lovely thing if a creative person can supplement their income or make a living from their work. I wish more artists could dedicate the fullness of their time to their art. I can also respect the view that monetization introduces the incentive to create and to edit to suit an audience. It can also tie the act of writing to the expectation of external validation. I don’t regard these outcomes as universally positive, healthy ones for a writer. I personally prefer to let my own interests guide me, rather than the assumed preferences of an audience (though if these ultimately coincide, then so much the better). I try to resist the urge to write with a vision of a reader on the other side.

Over the years, I think I’ve struck a good balance in that I endeavor to write habitually, always for myself, but with true appreciation for those who wish to read. If I didn’t want to be read in some capacity, I wouldn’t publish online—but I don’t expect to be read, and indeed I don’t write to be read.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

I want to recommend FigCat and the creator behind it, Wargaluk. While FigCat is not a “traditional” blog, I think the entries are sufficiently blog-like to merit a mention here. Wargaluk curates lists –“Dreams, visions, allegories, and otherworlds before 1600” was the first of these I encountered—that are developed and organized with such diligence and care. I know a labor of love when I see one. I hope seeing his name here might encourage him to set up a blog in earnest.

It makes me sad to realize this, but I no longer read very many blogs. As I wrote in an earlier answer, it used to feel easy to find other writers online just by clicking around. I took this for granted. Now, when I look up the blogs I use to follow, the links are all dead. Every so often I look up a broken link on the WayBack Machine to peruse a familiar land (one of my old favorites is technicolor.org).

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

Some of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had on the web have involved strangers reaching out to me to collaborate on small passion projects (a story, a tiny game, a penpaling exercise, etc.). Most of these projects eventually fizzle out but it’s never about the finish line for me. So, if you have a project in need of a writer like me, I’m always interested and available.

As a final note, if you could permit me the indulgence of trying to offer advice, I also want to say that, if you are a person who loves to write, or loved to write, or wrote as a child but gave it up as an adult, or has never written and wants to start, or to restart, then do yourself a kindness both small and huge and start today.


This was the 65th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Em. Make sure to follow her blog (RSS) and get in touch with her if you have any questions.

Awesome supporters

You can support this series on Ko-Fi and all supporters will be listed here as well as on the official site of the newsletter.

Jamie Thingelstad (RSS) — Piet Terheyden — Eleonora — Carl Barenbrug (RSS) — Steve Ledlow (RSS) — Paolo Ruggeri (RSS) — Nicolas Magand (RSS) — Rob HopeChris Hannah (RSS) — Pedro Corá (RSS) — Colin Walker (RSS) — Sixian Lim (RSS) — Matt Stein (RSS) — Winnie Lim (RSS) — Flamed (RSS) — C Jackdaw (RSS) — Kevin Humdrum (RSS) — Fabricio Teixeira (RSS) — Rosalind CroadFrank Meeuwsen (RSS) — Mike Walsh (RSS) — Markus HeurungJuan Villela (RSS) — Michael Warren (RSS) — Chuck Grimmett (RSS) — Robin Harford (RSS) — Bryan Maniotakis (RSS) — Barry Hess (RSS) — Ivan MorealeKhürt Williams (RSS) — Ben Werdmuller (RSS) — Cory GibbonsLuke Harris (RSS) — Lars-Christian Simonsen (RSS) — Cody SchultzBrad Barrish (RSS) — Nikita Galaiko — Erik Blankvoort — Jaga SantagostinoAndrew ZuckermanMattia Compagnucci (RSS) — Thord D. Hedengren (RSS) — Fabien Sauser (RSS) — Maxwell OmdalNumeric Citizen (RSS) — Jarrod Blundy (RSS) — Andrea Contino (RSS) — Sebastian De Deyne (RSS) — Nicola Losito (RSS) — Lou Plummer (RSS) — Leon Mika (RSS) — Veronique (RSS) — Neil Gorman (RSS) — Reaper (RSS) — Matt Rutherford (RSS) — Aleem Ali (RSS) — Nikkin (RSS) — Jeremy Felt (RSS) — Hans (RSS) — Mark Pitblado (RSS) — Matt Katz (RSS) — Ilja PanićEmmanuel OdongoKev Quirk (RSS) — Peter Rukavina (RSS) — jsrn (RSS) — Adam Keys (RSS) — Alexey Staroselets (RSS) — John LMinsuk Kang (RSS) — Kechi Ladapo (RSS) — Naz Hamid (RSS) — Lincoln Stewart (RSS) — Ken Zinser (RSS) — Jan — Grey Vugrin (RSS) — Luigi Mozzillo (RSS) — Alex Hyett (RSS) — Andy PiperHrvoje Šimić (RSS) — Rhodia Square — Travis SchmeisserDoug JonesVincent Ritter (RSS) — ShenFabian Holzer (RSS) — ZenpenCourtney (RSS) — Karl Prieb

Want to support P&B?

If you like this series and want to help it grow, you can:

  1. support on Ko-Fi;
  2. post about it on your own blog and let your readers know about its existence;
  3. email me comments and feedback on the series;
  4. suggest a person to interview next. I'm especially interested in people and blogs outside the tech/web bubble.

Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

Email me :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month :: See my awesome supporters :: Subscribe to People and Blogs

Media diet

2024-11-22 03:45:00

Sometimes I spot posts like Chris’ Media Diet in my RSS feed and I’m always amazed by the fact the people manage to keep up with movies and TV series and the rest of the media landscape. I was chatting just a few hours ago with Mattia and I was telling him that these days I watch maybe a few movies a year. I can’t even tell you the last time I sat on the couch in front of the TV to watch something. It has to be at least more than a month. And it’s not like my life is full of other activities. How do you all manage to keep up with endless TV series and movie franchises and music concerts and sport events and everything else? It’s impressive.


Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

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An appreciation of the “mark all as read” button

2024-11-17 05:20:00

Social media timelines are designed to be an endless stream of, well, mostly garbage these days. Platforms are doing their absolute best (worst?) to exploit every single one of our psychological weaknesses to keep us hooked on their stupid platforms. And that’s precisely why I love, LOVE, RSS. RSS was and still is an incredible invention, one that I strongly believe is gonna be the antidote to much of the insanity that’s plaguing the modern web. There are two things in particular in my setup that make RSS the perfect tool for media consumption. The first is the ability to control syncing.

I set it up to only refresh manually and that means I can leave and come back to my RSS reader and I’m not going to find a million new pieces of content waiting for me, triggering some stupid FOMO. New content will only land when I specifically ask for it. And that brings me to the second amazing feature, the subject of this post: the mighty ”mark all as read” button.

These two options, working in tandem, are the antidote to modern social media. Every time I open my RSS feed, there’s nothing there. I can’t doom scroll through it. Because there’s nothing there. So I only open my RSS reader when I want to read something and I have some time to spend reading some of the great blog posts that all you wonderful human beings out there are writing. And so I click a button and my RSS reader gets filled with dozens, sometimes hundreds of entries. I can then scroll through, see what’s there, read a bunch of them, save a few in my favs and when I’m done, rather than leaving all there I can mark everything as read and get back to a neutral state. And just like that, I’m done with my timeline. Isn’t that amazing? A social web with a beginning and an end. Nothing gets thrown at me by a stupid algorithm. There are no ads, no intrusions. No recommendations. Only content. Only GREAT content. Written by human beings who care about the content they create. RSS is fucking awesome and thank god it’s still here.


Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

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