A fact I've observed. Most programmers who work on web content systems not only aren't writers, they don't make an effort to know or understand writers.
The really good products, the ones writers like to use are not surprisingly written and designed by programmers who are also writers.
I mention this because we're having this silent debate in the feed reading world.
the programmers don't want to allow writers to write stuff without titles.
everything must have a title. if it doesn't we must arrange it so it does. and we will do it wrong just to punish the writers for not being obedient.
writers: huh? who are you?? and why do you think you have any idea of what i do??
programmer: we are blessed and we understand everything you poor peon, don't you know that.
I don't think anyone wants titles. What we need is previews, a short snippet for the summary view because we're not going to scroll through two hundred full texts to find the three we want to read.
Email does this, has for many decades. Usenet also for many decades. Why not here? I don't think it's rocket science.
On the other hand, I hear there's this thing called "the bird site" that let's you do what you want
@davew ALTER TABLE article MODIFY COLUMN title varchar(255) NULL;
We good then?
@davew I had a similar reaction when starting personal blogging. Ended up developing my own system for a variety of reasons but one was this. The posts don’t have titles and contriving them just to satisfy the software is backwards.
I do make myself fill out a “description” field which is used in the index, meta tags, and feed summaries, but it’s a substitute for the post, not a part of it.
@davew This is the new "what programmers don't know about names"?
Just give everything you write the title "Lord Creepington Bumbersnoot +1337C"
Have you noticed that many would-be bloggers never seem to get around writing because they are endlessly searching for the perfect tools. Best server configuration; right CMS; best editor, and on and on. They like the idea of blogging but not the act.
this is why i named my second company UserLand. i didn't want anyone to misunderstand who we served. not some mighty architecture god, but people who want to express themselves using the stuff we make.
@davew Poor product design is everywhere. It’s not just a problem for writers.
Tho I am curious what you do think are good products for writers, written by writers.
Dave Winer ☕️
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Resuna
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Design by Adrian
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AHG
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