*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@social.cleverlibre.org

Saved the page, it's just started and not published yet. But there should be a preview available here: https://rgx.vivaldi.net/?p=13&preview=true

A Quick look at a more complex Blog setup.

Along with trying out the Write.freely open source, fediverse compatible system, I went and opened up a free blog at Vivaldi.net. This is the company providing the Vivaldi browser, and they also offer a free email account and a free blog if desired.

For curiosity and comparison purposes, I went ahead and started a first post. The blogs at Vivaldi are using WordPress, and offer a lot more controls, formatting options, online image hosting, but at the price of a more complex interface to be learned.

It looks interesting, but will take some time getting used to and knowing the tools and options.

The write.freely seems aptly named - as there's very little to distract you from writing away, concentrating in the words, less distractions.

Leaving here a screen shot for the record.

For first time users, I would suggest the write.freely ones, unless you are prepared to cram for a few days to get over the learning curve quickly.

I am including two snapshots - the editor area can work in either Visual Mode, with images displayed in full size.

Or in Text Mode, where you see Raw HTML, tags and nitty gritty, but sometimes can be a nice way to work, fix glitches.

Do note there's a lot more visual clutter around. 😛

For the record, @freemo had recommended to me write.freely and I think that is a good recommendation for casual users, to get started, it will be easier.

@rgx@wordsmith.social

Experimenting is needed, not all places offering blog hosting have the same features.

write.as which has a nice video, showing easy fediverse connections, also has a lot of limitations for Free accounts.

The Fediverse instances list for write.freely can be useful -- Although a lot of them are NOT open to registrations, check the rightmost column.

https://fediverse.network/writefreely

From that page, I looked at a couple of instances, there's one in Canada: https://fediverse.network/personaljournal.ca

...and settled in another one, located in France, under better European Union privacy protection rules. https://fediverse.network/write.tedomum.net

This last one, I created a new blog, copied my test post, and did the searching for the account here in Mastodon.

It did work, the account was found. After I published the page there, it showed here as a Toot, which I can click to view (has link to web page hosting) and reply with comments to.

@rgx@write.tedomum.net is my current testing page. Click on the username and it will show a typical Mastodon user page, with stats and toots listed.

@rgx Tested and works as expected, the barebones first post is getting prettier. I like it, edit and saves are very fast.

Now, if I can reduce the number of TABS open here... That would greatly help. 😜

@rgx

The blog editor only allows formating via html tags. You can type in easier ones, but a time saver can be an extension for your browser that natively supports markup languages.

Found one, I have used a similar in the past for Forums, with BBcode tag formatting.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bbcodewebex/

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Hello blog world.

@rgx

https://wordsmith.social/rgx/a-first-post

Write.freely is the open sourced software that is in use at Write.as.

There are other instances, offering different levels of services, number of blogs supported, free or paid levels, etc.

* A summary of instances of write.freely is here: https://writefreely.org/instances

* List of features of Write.freely: https://writefreely.org/features/

* About write.freely page: https://writefreely.org/about

Looking for a blog space, so I can collate and have a permanent home for my tests, reports, ideas, etc.

Write.as is a blog platform for Writers, part of the Fediverse and can easily connect to other instances running Mastodon or Pleroma.

This video demonstrates how well that works. Quite cool - it's sad how many times we see well written blog posts without any feedback or comments, since people don't want to register to comment.

Here, people can see your new pages, and read and comment from their own instances. Thumbs up. Well done.

https://video.writeas.org/videos/watch/cc55e615-d204-417c-9575-7b57674cc6f3

*RT* " Holiday shopping reminder…

Mozilla tracks privacy/security concerns for some tech: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/

If, like me, you already have Google Home Listening Device, just remember to unplug it before you discuss your plans to seize the means of production."

OP by Adrian, https://toot.cafe/@aardrian/103255753769984047

The Economist's last issue's cover deserves its own post. Great art and satyre.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/12/05/britains-nightmare-before-christmas

And thanks to the magic of the Firefox (or Chrome) Birdsite browser extension, we can bridge the Divide and tease the bird users with our own Toots here.

Screenshot from post above , as cross-posted and in my TW account.

** See details, where to get it, step by step guide on my own post: https://qoto.org/@design_RG/103244781718208800

Panettone is delicious, and even better if #homemade.

#christmas #comfortfood #food #Italian #omg

BBC Good Food programme's recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/panettone

Christmas will soon be here

#christmas #santa #fediverse

OP: Dave Sutton, https://pluspora.com/posts/d234dab0ee8f01377d64005056264835

A New and interesting Mastodon Guide project is being developed. I saw a post from one of the authors yesterday on birdsite, he was looking for translations for French and Spanish.

Gave it a read later, it's probably a Mid Level guide - I learned things I did not know until now, for example.

But I think a bit too detailed for a totally new user. Maybe moving the extensive section on Instances down further into the guide, or as subsection, could help.

https://rame.altervista.org/mastostart/

Including here some screenshots of something that until now baffled me -- the bizarre way threads break out into tangents if people do not keep the same @ attributions and people in their post.

Coming from the Forums world, that is weird for me, and a Bug, not a Feature as far as I am concerned. 😜