PhoneBoy Says

@matigo Houston

In the SkyClub once again

@JeremyCherfas “gated community” is a very apt description of micro.blog.

/@matigo @js

@sumudu if you are not:

• Mac/iOS/IndieWeb centric (i.e. you only use Android and a PC)
• Technical enough to set up your own blog
• Willing to give Manton Reece $5/mo

Then “the barrier of entry” is pretty high, I’d say.

@gtwilson cult of Manton and IndieWeb.

@JeremyCherfas As I wrote several months ago [phoneboy.com], the potential audience for micro.blog is relatively small, namely people who are some combination of:

• Mac/iOS/IndieWeb centric
• Technical enough to set up their own blog
• Willing to give Manton Reece $5/mo

This excludes a lot of actors with nefarious intent, but it also excludes a significant group of people who might otherwise be excellent members of the community.

It may be right for someone but I don’t know that it’s right for me.

/@matigo @js

@matigo The minute you talk about investing time or money, you're already erected an insurmountable barrier for some.

// @js

@js which is funny because they talk like it was founded to be inclusive, touting open standards and the like. In reality, they've chosen specific "barriers to entry" that are, by their nature, exclusionary.

The same thing happened on ADN, which in fact had many of the same barriers initially.

As much as I like the idea of micro.blog, I’m not sure I like the reality. The community is very self-selecting with a high-barrier of entry, resulting in not enough diversity of people or conversations.

Maybe people are fine with that, not sure I am

@konrad platforms don’t change and evolve without, you guessed it, people.