Manton Reece

I blogged years ago about how I started writing in a journal, originally in books and then in Day One. I’m trying to get back into the routine of writing regularly, so this week I upgraded to the new version of Day One. I had been sticking with the classic version because I liked syncing with Dropbox, but it stopped being supported on iOS in favor of Day One’s own syncing.

These journal entries are so important to me, I don’t really want them permanently encrypted in the cloud, where the data is opaque and could be lost. I’ve been thinking about a couple options:

• Export as plain text from Day One every month or so. These exports could be archived on Dropbox. Day One’s export options are great, even including printed books!
• Switch to using Micro.blog for journaling. Long-term, I really want all of my journal entries published on the web, but there needs to be some distance from the events. For example, maybe there could be a feature that automatically published entries older than 10 years.

For now, I’m enjoying using Day One. It’s well worth the yearly subscription. I may experiment with eventually moving to something blog-based, or look at adding Day One import to Micro.blog for anyone who wants to keep their journal and microblog in sync.

Version 1.8 of the Micro.blog iOS app is available. From the release notes:

• Added “Posts” menu for editing your recent posts. Designed for quick updates and typo fixes for Micro.blog-hosted blogs. Can also be used to publish drafts or delete posts.
• Switched to system font and tweaked colors and layout through the app.
• Fixed a few issues including missing push notification text.

Here are a couple screenshots of editing recent posts, similar to what the macOS version has had for a while:

You can download the update on the App Store.

We’ve been talking for a while about offering a “teams” plan on Micro.blog that would be great for small businesses, schools, and family blogs. With more people working from home, we’re already adding podcast hosting to all plans through April, and we think that podcasts and short videos could be valuable tools for teachers who are adapting their lesson plans for online classes.

We don’t want these teachers to wait until there is an official teams plan that schools can subscribe to, so today we are giving teachers free hosting for the next 6 months. This is a full Micro.blog account that can host blog posts, podcast episodes, and short videos.

To get started, email help@micro.blog with your school name and we’ll reply with a special invite to Micro.blog. We can’t wait to see what you use Micro.blog for.

I’ve added some info about creating draft blog posts to Micro.blog’s Micropub API help page. It also documents a new preview URL that can be used by third-party apps to send the user to a preview web page, with an option to finish publishing the post.

The preview renders the Markdown text, but does not process it through Hugo, so it might not exactly match the published HTML on your microblog in some cases. I plan to further improve this in the future to send it through Hugo.

Along with the new preview URL for the API, I’ve also fixed a bug creating draft posts with the JSON flavor of Micropub.

We’ve shipped version 1.7.3 of Micro.blog for iOS. From the release notes:

• Fixed issues and improved colors in Dark Mode.
• Fixed crashes when sharing some photos to Micro.blog from other apps.
• Fixed blurry thumbnails when selecting or filtering a photo.

There were several Dark Mode-related glitches fixes in this update. Dragging to view a conversation looks better, navigation bar colors update when switching to Dark Mode without restarting the app, and we’ve switched the timeline background color to use full black instead of very dark gray.

You can grab the latest version in the App Store. And if the official Micro.blog app isn’t your cup of tea, remember that there are other great third-party iOS apps including Gluon, Icro, and specialized tools like the new Mimi Uploader.

It is really easy in times like this to feel lost, unsure of how best to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Micro.blog is a tiny company where we all already work from home. Jon Hays has even written a series of blog posts recently about working remotely with a team.

We wanted to do a little something extra for everyone who now finds themselves working from home, or needing to take time off work, to encourage everyone to stay creative and positive. Here’s what we’ve come up with: free podcast hosting for all hosted microblogs through April.

Merlin Mann was also thinking about how the world might see new podcasts right now:

Remember how there were (supposedly) so many pregnancies that happened during the New York Blackout?

I hope we get that but for really good new podcasts.

Go! Inseminate!

Amuse me, you magnificent bastards!

— Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies) March 14, 2020

Jean MacDonald is working on some resources to help those who have never made a podcast before get started. Details will follow next week. In the meantime, we have a help page with the basics.

We’ve said since the launch of podcast hosting on Micro.blog that everyone has a story to tell. That’s probably even more true right now. We are also extending all Micro.blog accounts that have already expired for an additional 30 days.

And if you already have a paid subscription but you’re getting hit hard financially right now, drop us an email and we’ll credit your account for the month. Take care, everyone!