What is microblogging
Microblogging is a form of online communication that allows users to share short updates with limited number of characters. Unlike traditional blogging, the number of updates is often more frequent. Microblogging posts can include text, images, videos, or links and users can interact with posts through comments, likes, or sharing.
The most known microblogging is probably X (formerly known as Twitter). Twitters started back in 2006 with offering a service for sharing 140 character posts (later they expanded it to 280).
After Elon Musk took over Twitter he renamed it to X.
There are some alternatives like Mastodon (decentralized), Bluesky (in development) and Threads (Meta), but X is still the biggest with an estimated 350 en 400 million active users every month.
My microblogging experiences
Back in the time Leofinance announced a microblogging I did like the idea of microblogging on Hive under the name 'Project Blank'. This project promised that we would be able to share short posts on Hive about any subject you liked.
I'm an amateur photographer that often sees interesting things I want to photograph. I thought it would be cool to share these pictures on Hive. But Project blank was announced, but it took a long time before it was launched under what we now know as InLEO Threads.
Around the same time I discovered Noise.Cash (Noise.App), a microblogging subsite of Read.Cash. On Noise.Cash users could upvote posts with BCH which they got donated by the platform.
I've been using it for over a year and apart from earning some BCH (I sometimes received $5 for a single post!) I really enjoyed the interaction with the users that appreciated my posts. I gained a lot of followers and followed other people that posted interesting content.
But when the sponsor stopped donating BCH to be distributed Noise.App slowly died. I have visited the site recently, but there isn't a lot of activity left.
The rewards were the biggest incentive to keep posting there...
Microblogging on Hive
On Hive we have quite a few microblogging platforms at the moment.
As you can read above InLEO launched Threads; which became very popular from the start. But we also have HiveBuzz, Ecency Waves and Liketu Moments. These platforms have in common that there is no censorship and that you can earn some rewards with it too.
I have tried a few of them. I like the fact that they are integrated on Hive and make use of the network I have already built up on here.
They all offer the capability to share short posts and get rewards for it. Each one has his own pros and cons. But somehow none of these tools really got me. Maybe because I hardly used the interfaces they are built for.
I've also questioned whether we need all these different microblogging platforms, but we also have different front-ends for Hive, so there is freedom for everyone to choose what he/she wants to use. And some of them offer a stream which contains multiple microblogging posts which is convenient.
Recently the team behind PeakD released their own microblogging platform; Snaps.
As PeakD is the front-end I'm mostly using for visiting Hive it is not more than normal that I would give it a try. And below you see my first snap!
PeakD Snaps
Snaps is the microblogging platform which has only been released about a week ago by the PeakD team for their front-end.
You can find it in the menu bar in the 'normal' browser version or under Feeds & Snaps under the 'Hamburger menu' in the mobile version.
Apart from that you can also find the snaps of each user under their profile (like you also have for blogs) and you can see the snaps of a community (when they have turned it on) in the community profile page.
I've been using snaps for a couple of days and I must say I really like it. @asgarth and the @peakd team have done a great job. In the first few days they released a couple of updates already. Most of them came from feature requests from the early adapters.
Above you see an overview of the interface in a web browser. On the left you see the menu where you can select some other micro blogging platforms too and even see them all in one feed. The 'all' only shows the microblog posts from the people you follow for now. Adding the new and trending too will requite a bit more work I was told by @asgarth in Discord, but I think they will be working on that too.
In the middle you can choose for the feeds of the people you follow, the newest, the trending or your own snaps. On the right you see the top communities, tags and top users.
The interface is quite intuitive to use and fast.
My experiences & opinion
I was quite excited when I saw PeakD launched Snaps. Because the PeakD interface is used by a lot of Hivers Snaps was adopted quite quickly by a large group of users.
The PeakD team reacted quickly on some requests and made some good adjustments in the first few days. For instance they introduced tags, editing and reblogging snaps. Snaps is quick and has an intuitive interface.
What I like about is is that you can post small updates; a photo with some additional info, a newsitem you found, a quote or even post a question.
I noticed that there is quite a lot of interaction under the posts. Because of the size of the posts you can go through a lot more posts and find other interesting users that might share the same interests as you. It's an easy way to build a network. I have started following quite a few new users in the past few days based on the stuff they posts on Snaps. And I also gained a couple of new followers after my Snaps posts as well.
The rewards are quite small, but that is normal considering the amount of effort you put into it (compared to a blog), but the possibility to share your thoughts and build a network really make it a great tool!
I'm really looking forward to what this will grow into when even more users will join!
Have you already used Snaps? And what are your experiences?
Come on and join us on Snap: https://peakd.com/snaps/snaps/newest
I'm happy to receive positive and constructive feedback on my photo blogs, so please engage with me in the comment section!
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