"Real-time sharing of short text messages and links — so-called “microblogging” — is the heart of social networks from LinkedIn to Twitter.

"Real-time sharing of short text messages and links — so-called “microblogging” — is the heart of social networks from LinkedIn to Twitter. But articles and blog posts, with finer details, deeper thought and more analysis, are a crucial part of what the Web is for..."

the term microblogging is confusing. it's a social news feed. what's unique here is the "boost". not just posts/links, but just add #ActivityPub and any media can go viral. we decide together what deserves attention. #SocialWeb

@wjmaggos

Sometimes, people think of new things in terms of old things.

Some other examples (in addition to micro-blogging) include:

• horseless carriage (for cars),
• iron horse (for locomotives)
• wireless phones (for mobile pocket computers),
• etc.

@wjmaggos "microblogging" is more about informality and semi-ephemerality, which comes from self-imposed length and formatting limits. the "boost" isn't unique to microblogging, and you don't need activitypub for that either. people share things all the time without activitypub. you could share *anything* with a link if only your software would let you. i could "boost" anything on the web but mastodon won't understand it except for an incredibly tiny subset of the web.