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Syndication Links now supports per-post syndication to Micro.blog from WordPress

The inimitable David Shanske released the 4.2.0 version of the Syndication Links plugin for WordPress this evening.

In addition to some other useful upgrades and bug fixes, the big new feature this release adds is excellent syndication support for Micro.blog.

While many people use RSS feeds, JSONfeed, or other plugin methods for syndicating their WordPress website’s content to Micro.blog, this plugin now provides for a per-post decision about exactly what content to send to Micro.blog. It also naturally provides a syndication link from your site back to the Micro.blog post. To my knowledge no other method provides this  syndication link functionality.

As I suspect many may already be aware, if your site supports Webmention (typically done with the Webmention and Semantic-linkbacks plugins), then Micro.blog will notify your site with replies and comments to your post as they appear on Micro.blog. This provides one the ability to do two-way communication between the two platforms.

Set up and configuration for Micro.Blog syndication

If you don’t already have it, install the plugin and activate it, otherwise update it within your site’s administrative interface.

Add your Micro.blog account username to your user profile on your WordPress site. This is typically found at /wp-admin/profile.php. In my case I simply added c to the field labeled Micro.blog username.

screencapture of the WordPress user interface
Enter your Micro.blog username (not the full URL) in the appropriate field and save your profile.

Adjust your WordPress Syndication Links settings page (typically found at /wp-admin/admin.php?page=syndication_links) to include Micro.blog by using the appropriate checkbox. Be sure to save the setting.

Screencapture of the Syndication Links settings UI
I obviously have a lot of syndication targets. Micro.blog is always one of them. If you’re also using Micropub clients like Quill that support the feature, you can choose Micro.blog as a syndication target in those interfaces.

Remove, if necessary, any of the RSS, JSON, or other syndication feeds from your Micro.blog account so you’re not accidentally duplicating the syndication.

Add the JSONfeed URL from the bottom of the Syndication Links plugin settings page into your list of feeds at https://micro.blog/account/feeds.

Screencapture of the Syndication Links settings UI

Create a post, select Micro.blog as an endpoint in the relevant meta-box, and publish your post.

Once published, your post will ping Micro.blog’s server to indicate the new content which will then be displayed in your timeline. The Syndication Links plugin will then find the permalink URL of your post on Micro.blog and display it on your post (as per your settings) along with any other syndicated copies. This notification process is roughly real time, but may take a minute or two for your post to display and the syndication link to appear on your site based on the processing times on the relevant servers.

Screencapture of a post on my site featuring the new Syndication Links features for micro.blog
Here’s an example of what Syndication Links looks like on a post recently syndicated to Micro.blog. This example was syndicated to both Micro.blog and Twitter.

As an added bonus, Syndication Links plugin will also find the syndication links from Micro.blog in your current feed and add those to your original posts.

If you have any questions, need clarifications, or find bugs with regard to your set up, you can file issues for the plugin on GitHub.

 

Published by

Chris Aldrich

I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history. I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.

8 thoughts on “Syndication Links now supports per-post syndication to Micro.blog from WordPress”

  1. Dit is mooi nieuws zeg. De Indieweb plugin Syndication Links maakt het je mogelijk om op je blog artikelen, notities en andere berichten te plaatsen en deze vanaf je blog door te zetten naar andere plekken. Zoals Twitter, Mastodon en nu dus ook Microblog. Chris Aldrich legt alles erg goed uit in zijn blogpost dus daar verwijs ik nu liever naar.
    Wat betekent dit? Wat maakt het uit? Het vereenvoudigt interactie tussen platformen, in dit geval tussen Microblog en je eigen WordPress site. Je kunt op het netwerk van Microblog nu berichten posten. Daarnaast worden de reacties op die berichten teruggepost naar je blog en verschijnen ze onder de originele blogpost. Zo wordt jouw blogpost op jouw site met jouw domein de centrale hub van de conversatie in plaats dat dit op allerlei andere netwerken plaatsvindt.
    Het werkt allemaal nog niet zo eenvoudig als een tweet plaatsen of een notificatie bij een LinkedIn post waar je direct op kunt reageren. Maar de stappen worden gezet om een decentraal netwerk van losse domeinen en sites te laten samenwerken als een centraal sociaal netwerk. Zonder centrale leiding, besluitvorming, algoritmes en winstmaximalisatie op basis van jouw berichten.

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