Julia Evans

I was thinking about how I have hundreds of programming comics I've posted to Twitter over the last 5 years that aren't on Mastodon anywhere. Would folks be interested in a "b0rk_reruns" account where I have a bot post older comics?

I think the main hard thing about that would be figuring out captions, I only started writing captions pretty recently and backfilling is hard

Jan 12, 2023 at 6:36pmWeb
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
(the reason I don't want to post reruns on main is that whenever I do, people reply with lots of interesting comments/suggestions, and I find it distracting because I'm not actively working on that comic and am not going to make any changes)
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023

Since a couple of people have suggested putting the comics on a website or printing collections of them -- those things actually exist already! :)

There's a searchable (by title) list here: https://wizardzines.com/comics

And you can buy print copies at https://wizardzines.com

wizard zines

wizard zines
Show threadBen Lee-CohenJan 12, 2023
@b0rk do you have a projected date for the next run of the zine set? Can't wait!
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@ben a proof of the debugging zine is in the mail on its way to me right now, the plan is that they'll ship around end of January!
Show threadBen Lee-CohenJan 12, 2023
@b0rk very exciting, thanks!
Show threadalcinnzJan 12, 2023
@b0rk I've been enjoying them for a while now via RSS!
Show threadDrezil Jan 13, 2023
@b0rk Make it possible for people to enter descriptions.. so you maybe only have to check them before feeding them to your post-bot-backlog.. πŸ˜…
Show threadsuldrew πŸš²πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆJan 12, 2023
@b0rk I would follow!
Show threadChristian TietzeJan 12, 2023

@b0rk Discovering that account might be hard πŸ€”

I wouldn't mind if you had a bot that re-posts your stuff. Instagram comic artists I follow do this, too, and it's great: because I'm not glued to the screen 24/7 I'm bound to miss stuff, so even old strips are interesting.

At low volume, maybe 3 per day to cover many timezones, I think it'd be okay on main. You can make these posts non-comment-able if you send the API request just right. Would that help?

Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@ctietze do you have of any examples of instagram artists who do this offhand? I'd love to see how they approach it
Show threadChristian TietzeJan 12, 2023

@b0rk Sure!

https://www.instagram.com/mrlovenstein/

https://www.instagram.com/extrafabulous_comics/

https://www.instagram.com/poorlydrawnlines/

https://www.instagram.com/thejenkinscomic/

After a couple years, I do notice the re-runs.

J. L. Westover (@mrlovenstein) β€’ Instagram photos and videos

853K Followers, 105 Following, 1,472 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from J. L. Westover (@mrlovenstein)

Show threadJack Coates πŸ€Jan 12, 2023
@b0rk that would be awesome, if possible to do without distracting you
Show threadJohn MinnihanJan 12, 2023

@b0rk

maybe pull them all out into a nice printed volume + offer it for sale

Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@jbminn i'm way ahead of you: you can buy nice printed versions of all of them here :) https://store.wizardzines.com/products/zine-12-pack-print-pdf
Zine 12-pack (Print + PDF, PREORDER)

Show threadJohn MinnihanJan 12, 2023
@b0rk awesome
Show thread🌈 Andrew β˜„οΈJan 12, 2023
@b0rk I reckon don’t just make it a rerun account so it can continue to post them when you’re caught up
Show threadOkonaJan 13, 2023
@b0rk yes, please!
Show threadshinypbJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Unequivocally yes πŸ‘
Show threadAnkit SharmaJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Yesss
Show threadAncaJan 12, 2023
@b0rk That would be awesome! I really enjoy your programming comics on Twitter, and it would be great to get them on Mastodon.
Show threadXandris βœ…Jan 12, 2023
@b0rk
yes i would
Show threadMichael W Lucas Jan 12, 2023

@b0rk Yes, we would. A caption a day would give you practice.

Or--set it up on your web site, with captions, and RSS it to here? You know, controlling your platform and all that?

Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023

@mwl writing a caption a day sounds very reasonable and smart but I know from experience that it's completely impossible for me, I'll do it for 5 days and then stop forever :)

I have some ideas for ways that I can make it work though

Show threadMichael W Lucas Jan 12, 2023

@b0rk Yeah, I'm of the "do them all in one glorious week-long binge and then collapse forever in abject horror of the project" school.

But I don't recommend that.

Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@mwl yeah it's the only way :)
Show threadNorman WilsonJan 12, 2023
@b0rk @mwl You are my sort of person.
Show threadClaudius (legacy account)Jan 13, 2023
@b0rk @mwl I don't think this needs any kind of schedule. Just post one whenever you want. I would suggest tagging them with something like #rerun or #repost or similar.
Show threadAdam BarnettJan 12, 2023

@b0rk who is going to see this and say anything other than a variation of "oh yes please that would be awesome thank you"!?

Not sure how you'd feel about crowdsourced captions, but I imagine there are people here who would be willing to try to help.

Show threadGabriel PettierJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes, or you could rerun them manually piecewise when you feel like it, over the next 5 years, adding the caption as needed. No rush :).
Show threadキャγƒͺγƒΌJan 12, 2023
@b0rk I just tested a comic panel with Apple’s default text recognition and it worked at recognizing most words with mostly correct spelling. Some automation like that might speed up the captioning process for previous work.
Show threadBJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes, but I also think it would be great if you reposted them on main too!
Show threadGreg WilsonJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes please - or blog them in batches and give us "this week in b0rk"?
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@gvwilson the batches are basically just the zines at https://wizardzines.com :)
wizard zines

wizard zines
Show threadGreg WilsonJan 12, 2023
@b0rk cool - thank you
Show threadCarl-EricJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes please
Show threadJaycieJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Yes please!
Show threadJoop #LoCovid #NoPlanetBJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Would be welcome! I'm sure I missed many of those when I was on the bird site.
Show threadPhil Dennis-JordanJan 12, 2023
@b0rk This person found that Apple’s OCR is very good, maybe that’s an option?
https://findthatmeme.com/blog/2023/01/08/image-stacks-and-iphone-racks-building-an-internet-scale-meme-search-engine-Qzrz7V6T.html
(Incidentally, the author says the same API was slow on their Mac - I suspect the OCR performs similarly well if not better on M1/M2 based Macs as on iPhones, so I have my doubts it’s necessary to fiddle about with phones.)
Image Stacks and iPhone Racks - Building an Internet Scale Meme Search Engine

Anyone who’s spent any amount of time on the Internet has a good idea of how prevalent meme usage has become in online discourse. Finding new memes on the latest happening and sharing them with various friend groups to share in the humor is a long-enjoyed pastime of mine. Working in tech and in the InfoSec field has netted me an unsurprisingly β€œterminally-online” groups of friends who all do the same.

FindThatMeme.com Blog
Show threadhalama_immunoJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Yes please!
Show threadJan StetteJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Yes please, very much so!
Show threadFrankJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Yes please, that would be great!
Show threadAnna MiriamsdochterJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes! We could do a captioning party?
Show threadChris KellyJan 12, 2023
@b0rk that would be radical!
Show threadMarcin LulekJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes. I would love to see them again or in a webcomic form. Maybe that would be even better.
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@ergo They're all actually on the web already at https://wizardzines.com/comics
wizard zines

wizard zines
Show threadCaliJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes! Let! the classics return
Show threadmillaguieJan 12, 2023
@b0rk yes please yes
Show threadMichael SokolovJan 12, 2023
@b0rk "AI write a caption for this comic"
Show threadAnthonyReimerJan 12, 2023
@b0rk I am in favour of a @best.of.b0rk account that occasionally posts favourite comics. Even once every week or two would be frequent enough. You could also do a Zine of the month, where the comics were selected from a particular Zine. This should help expose new followers to your back catalogue.
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@AnthonyReimer that's a fun name suggestion, thank you!
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@AnthonyReimer (I also already have a mailing list version of this called saturday comics https://wizardzines.com/saturday-comics/, maybe that's what the mastodon version should be called too :))
wizard zines

wizard zines
Show threadAngela AmbrozJan 12, 2023
@b0rk Yaaaaa
Show threadMaggie ZhouJan 12, 2023
@b0rk if you wanted the captions to literally say the words it might be a fun CV project to auto generate captions lol
Show threadJulia EvansJan 12, 2023
@zmagg yess i have already written more software than i should have to auto generate captions :). no computer vision yet though, just terrible hacky svg scripts that do matrix math to figure out the text's position
Show threadBenJan 12, 2023

@b0rk

I've been coding and using the command line for 20 years, and I still learn and use things from your comics.

If you have the time to do a b0rk_reruns, I'd definitely follow it - just looking at wizardzines page, there's loads of them that I've not seen before.

Show threadTindraJan 12, 2023

@b0rk YES!!!

And it’s totally fine if they slowly fill in as you figure out captions.

Bonus points for writing a bot to handle the scheduling and looping once you’ve run them all.

Show threadSherri W (SyntaxSeed)Jan 13, 2023
@b0rk Why not post "reruns" to your main account? Refreshers help with memory. 😁
Show threadJulia EvansJan 13, 2023
@syntaxseed the reason I don't want to post reruns on main is that whenever I do, people reply with lots of interesting comments/suggestions, and I find it distracting because I'm not actively working on that comic and am not going to make any changes
Show threadsmartwatermelon Jan 13, 2023
@b0rk obviously yes. Count me in if there's a crowd sourced captioning party, too.