write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
Write.freely is the software and host for my new blog. I am enjoying the experience - had meant for a long time to put down in writing ideas, stories and images from projects, travel, etc.
A "Writer's Guide at the developer's page"is helpful.
While the plain interface of write.freely has no distractions (just a screen to type on. Dark mode is available, very few buttons), to make text look nicer on screen you will eventually want Bold, Italics, bullets, etc.
The Guide helps learn those.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@design_RG
Hello Rob! Is this a Blog on Fediverse? Could you give any link explaining what is this? I have no knowledge in this.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@shibaprasad Hello Shibaprasad,
and yes, Write.freely is a blogging platform that is part of the fediverse, a nice incentive to use it since people can see and follow your posts even from their Mastodon instances.
I had intended to create a blog for some time, but never sat down and went at it, focused and spending the time to learn how it works.
Had mentioned WordPress, which is one of the large blog alternatives. I wouldn't want to usee Blogger, probably even larger, but controlled by Google.
Dr Freeman suggested Write.Freely, saying WP was hard, and this one was federate-friendly.
I spent a day or two looking at instances running it. Created accounts and made test posts to see if I could see them from here, and in various cases, I couldn't.
But them I made an account at my current home, https://write.tedomum.net/about , and I could see my account and Follow it too.
@rgx is the fedi-friendly address.
A screen shot showing the info on the control panel.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
The Write.freely project's home is at https://writefreely.org/
Their pages have an instance listing here: https://writefreely.org/instances
I found Tedomum.net on this list, and there is also the Fediverse Instances list at : https://fediverse.network/writefreely
Tedomum has one disadvantge in that it only allows ONE blog per user account, some others allow 5 or more (say, with different focus and interest all together). But their blog accounts DO show up here in fedi, others that I tried I couldn't see them.
A lot of the listed ones might be not open to new registrations, more of a private place for the owner's to write and publish, but some ARE open.
The editor and feel of WF is quite nice - very minimalist, few controls in sight, and simple ones only to draft a new post.
There's a Dark Theme, which I love since it's nicer on the eyes and similar to what I use on mastodon.
Long post, sorry. I will eventually collate the info and prepare a proper new user info guide for Write.freely.
Ask any questions if you like. You do have Privacy controls on the blog and can keep it fully private until you are happy and decided to open it; or use a password to allow only certain people to read it.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
An update, happy now!
Added all my following list to another new instance account just now, and that one shows my posts in the Blog account at Tedomum.net as it should.
Saves me having to write to them and inquire.
Somehow QOTO only shows 1 post, which is off by 5 currently.
Screenshot below, taken 5 min ago.
Second taken 5 seconds ago, here at QOTO. @freemo , why is it off synch here?
🇳🇱
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@freemo
It showed the account right after I created it and made a first test post. It hasn't changed since, I was assuming it was broken at the other end. Looks like not.
I had tried other Write.freely instances and gave up on them since I dd not see them in Fedi space; maybe they were working after all.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
And I just checked, and from another instance, my account at Write.social is also working. Dam.
I discarded them as a blog instance since I couldn't see it from here.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@freemo And it shows it here too. OOPS.
Got to make some new post there and see if it updates. It did not show last week when testing and looking for a home instance for my blog.
Bummer, they allow 10 Blogs per user, much more than my current place.
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@design_RG So there are different instances like Tedomum Wordsmith?
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@shibaprasad Yes, there are some, not as many as there are mastodon ones.
And what they offer does vary. I had seelected Wordsmith.social at first, since they are open for new accounts, have a number of users and are likely to stick around (very small ones, who knows?). And -- they also allow 10 Blogs per user account.
so you could separate things into different blogs, 2 or 3 as needed.
Avoids a confusing mix of family, travel, fediverse, photos, etc all in one stream.
I wanted it, but could not see if to follow via Fediverse.
so I kept looking, and found Tedomum.net, which DID work when tested (I used eh same test, short first blog page. Copied between tabs, from one that has page, to an empty new one. Hit save, see how it looks.)
Rigth now they both seem to be working.
And -- one of the new things today was MarkDown language. I found a tutorial, read and tried it as it's interactive.
Then, practice and ended up with a Better version of a complex post, with numbered lists, bullets, I couldn't get it perfect before.
Now it is 🆗 -- and I am happy.
I posted a message on the MarkDown tutorial thread with links to the before and after.
See that post here : https://qoto.org/@design_RG/103304482025820415
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@shibaprasad You are very welcome. 😺
write.freely Writer's Guide - formatting explained
@design_RG
As helpful as always. Thank you!