i.webthings is a subset of jenett.webthings, an independent web and networking initiative. Two of its projects, the dailywebthing linkport and dailywebthing daily pointers, born of my long-term appreciation of the potential of hypertext and the medium, have similar motivations behind them. I’ve been curating and sharing links online since 1997 and have continually done so because I enjoy doing it so much and get to help others discover new things in the process. The linkport and daily pointers are in my blood.

more important now than ever

Last Fall, my enthusiasm for what I do on the web was somewhat rejuvenated, sparked by initiatives like Micro.blog and the IndieWeb and by people like Brad Enslen whose [human-edited web directory](https://indieseek.xyz/about/ “About Indieseek.xyz Indieweb Directory”) appeals to me and Kicks Condor who provided helpful feedback to something I wrote in December as part of an ongoing conversation between us (I also like his directory btw). Both of these guys made me more aware of the concept of human-curated links, new ways to find them, and the benefits of new tools (webmentions, etc.) we now have at our disposal. They’ve inspired me big time. Thanks Brad and Kicks.

learning some other things

I recently learned one needs to be careful when cross-posting to social networks, particularly when one has two linkblogs that update every day set to automatically cross-post to a single social media account. After only 2 days and having cross-posted from each linkblog once each day to my new i.webthings account on Mastodon, I received a message from the instance admin:

Your account was reported for spam, which is against our Code of Conduct. I have silenced your account (people can still follow you but you won’t show up in the local/federated timelines). Let me know what I can clarify, have a good day.

Nothing like this to curb one’s enthusiasm! After a total of 4 cross-posts in 2 days, my mission to share links was somehow mistaken for advertising or excessive promotion or they thought i.webthings is a bot. That’s about all I can glean from said Code of Conduct.

I’m probably more sensitive to spam, advertising, and self-promotion than most people and regret I didn’t foresee this happening considering my linkblogs are updated daily. It never dawned on me that someone might mistake my promotion of others’ sites to be self-promotion. Oh well.

I didn’t care to argue the point with anyone and decided to simply delete the account and move forward with what I learned and modified my plans accordingly. I don’t like it but I do get it.

When it comes to what I do on the web, the positives have always outweighed the negatives. That’s why I’m still here and remain even more determined and committed to my mission.

Carry on.

3 thoughts on “I’m on a mission here”

Bookmarks

  • Kicks Condor

Mentions

  • Chris Aldrich