One month into my blog launch and I am seeing on G4 traffic from “flipboard/activitypub”
What does this mean?

It’s visits coming from my federated Flipboard magazine not just from inside the @Flipboard app itself.

👉 It means my content is reaching beyond Flipboard into the broader audience (Fediverse). Readers are clicking through from there.
Maybe it’s time to look at the Fediverse more closely #fediverse #flipboard #blogging #publishing #content

One month into my blog launch and I am seeing on G4 traffic from “flipboard/activitypub”
What does this mean?

It’s visits coming from my federated Flipboard magazine not just from inside the @Flipboard app itself.

👉 It means my content is reaching beyond Flipboard into the broader audience (Fediverse). Readers are clicking through from there.
Maybe it’s time to look at the Fediverse more closely #fediverse #flipboard #blogging #publishing #content

By chance, does anyone reading this write or publish nonfiction books? If you do, please take a moment to read about my experiences as a reader.

I keep encountering nonfiction books in which most of the text is large black letters on a plain white background, which I can read. However, other text in the books is difficult or impossible to read, due to a lack of contrast between the text and the background. In some books, special information is contained in boxes that have gray backgrounds. In other books, especially books about wildlife and nature, there are full-page photos with black text ON the photos. For example, one book had black text on a photo of the ocean, which meant that the black text had a gray-blue background. In still other books, pages are of random colors.

If you have good eyes and can read black text on a dark background, you are fortunate. Please be aware that not all of us share that good fortune. If you want to reach a wider audience, please ensure that all black text is printed on a light-colored background.

This applies to all books, including books for children. There are children with low vision. There are also countless adults with vision problems who read to children or who simply like children's books. (The large print in many nonfiction books written for children makes them especially attractive to adults who lack 20/20 vision.)

Some people reading this post may be thinking that technology provides the solution to unreadable text. Although technology is great, there is no substitute for being able to read a book directly. For example, if I'm riding a bus, I use one hand to hold onto the bus and the other hand to hold onto my book, and there are no hands left for holding a gadget that could read the book to me.

Thanks for reading this.

#books #publishing #accessibility #vision#LowVision

By chance, does anyone reading this write or publish nonfiction books? If you do, please take a moment to read about my experiences as a reader.

I keep encountering nonfiction books in which most of the text is large black letters on a plain white background, which I can read. However, other text in the books is difficult or impossible to read, due to a lack of contrast between the text and the background. In some books, special information is contained in boxes that have gray backgrounds. In other books, especially books about wildlife and nature, there are full-page photos with black text ON the photos. For example, one book had black text on a photo of the ocean, which meant that the black text had a gray-blue background. In still other books, pages are of random colors.

If you have good eyes and can read black text on a dark background, you are fortunate. Please be aware that not all of us share that good fortune. If you want to reach a wider audience, please ensure that all black text is printed on a light-colored background.

This applies to all books, including books for children. There are children with low vision. There are also countless adults with vision problems who read to children or who simply like children's books. (The large print in many nonfiction books written for children makes them especially attractive to adults who lack 20/20 vision.)

Some people reading this post may be thinking that technology provides the solution to unreadable text. Although technology is great, there is no substitute for being able to read a book directly. For example, if I'm riding a bus, I use one hand to hold onto the bus and the other hand to hold onto my book, and there are no hands left for holding a gadget that could read the book to me.

Thanks for reading this.

#books #publishing #accessibility #vision#LowVision

Indirect but I do love it when capitalists that hate public infrastructure realize that their capital depends on public infrastructure as well. How Cuts to Library Budgets Will Impact Publishers https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/98371-public-libraries-must-further-trim-their-budgets-how-will-it-impact-publishers.html#Publishing#Library#Libraries

Indirect but I do love it when capitalists that hate public infrastructure realize that their capital depends on public infrastructure as well. How Cuts to Library Budgets Will Impact Publishers https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/98371-public-libraries-must-further-trim-their-budgets-how-will-it-impact-publishers.html#Publishing#Library#Libraries

Earlier this week Ghost announced a major update. With it, every Ghost publication is now on the Open Social Web.

This is a huge step forward for the Open Social Web and a real testament to how work across the Social Web is benefitting creators and organisations away from Big Tech.

If you want to learn more, check out the changelog: https://ghost.org/changelog/6/

#Ghost#SocialWeb#Fediverse#Publishing#OpenNetwork#Community#Blog#Newsletter#Mastodon

Other authors, I actually have enough audio to make a little Sightless Scribbles starter pack audiobook of sorts. Thing is, I am literally the worst with math, so if I tried to do any royalties, I would be in court quicker than you can blink because of my inadequate math skills, so what audiobook platform is everybody using? I don’t want to go with ACX because #Audible hates creatives and is actively trying to harm multiple creators, so does anyone have any other suggestions? Is there a platform that would handle these royalty payouts for me? I’m also not even sure if narrators get royalties or not? I paid for all of these narrations in the past. I’m just collecting them now. #Publishing#Author#Authors#IndieAuthors

Other authors, I actually have enough audio to make a little Sightless Scribbles starter pack audiobook of sorts. Thing is, I am literally the worst with math, so if I tried to do any royalties, I would be in court quicker than you can blink because of my inadequate math skills, so what audiobook platform is everybody using? I don’t want to go with ACX because #Audible hates creatives and is actively trying to harm multiple creators, so does anyone have any other suggestions? Is there a platform that would handle these royalty payouts for me? I’m also not even sure if narrators get royalties or not? I paid for all of these narrations in the past. I’m just collecting them now. #Publishing#Author#Authors#IndieAuthors

Earlier this week Ghost announced a major update. With it, every Ghost publication is now on the Open Social Web.

This is a huge step forward for the Open Social Web and a real testament to how work across the Social Web is benefitting creators and organisations away from Big Tech.

If you want to learn more, check out the changelog: https://ghost.org/changelog/6/

#Ghost#SocialWeb#Fediverse#Publishing#OpenNetwork#Community#Blog#Newsletter#Mastodon

As we hear more about publishers not doing a good enough job of editing and factchecking, and even turning things over to AI, it seems to me it's a good time for experienced scientists to share which journals in their field they still trust to show the kind of academic rigor and integrity we should expect of academic publishing.

Please reply with which journal/s in your field you still respect, and why.

@plantscience @academicchatter#Publishing#Science#AcademicChatter

As we hear more about publishers not doing a good enough job of editing and factchecking, and even turning things over to AI, it seems to me it's a good time for experienced scientists to share which journals in their field they still trust to show the kind of academic rigor and integrity we should expect of academic publishing.

Please reply with which journal/s in your field you still respect, and why.

@plantscience @academicchatter#Publishing#Science#AcademicChatter

As we hear more about publishers not doing a good enough job of editing and factchecking, and even turning things over to AI, it seems to me it's a good time for experienced scientists to share which journals in their field they still trust to show the kind of academic rigor and integrity we should expect of academic publishing.

Please reply with which journal/s in your field you still respect, and why.

@plantscience @academicchatter#Publishing#Science#AcademicChatter

Have you ever felt the world around you is feeling kind of absurd in some peculiar aspect but were never able quite to articulate this creepy feeling? Yep, me too.

LLMs can help bring that feeling to life, even if you're not a Shakespeare.

It may not be literature, but it sure as hell beats anything I would ever be capable of writing and it is my own idea:

https://bjoern.brembs.net/2025/07/edgewise

#openscience #openaccess #journals #publishing