Tag: postkinds

In reply to a bookmark by John Johnston

The templates contain what I want to have inside a blogposting for a reply, favourite, bookmark, rsvp or check-in. I apply them before I submit something to WordPress, so they are fully outside of my blog and get send as HTML to my blog.

Two main ways: if I type something in my editor (e.g. WordPress back-end or in my local text editor) I have text expansion snippets that paste the right template into my text. The little header above this post with the SVG image and the bit that contains the right microformat, I add by typing .ureply, and I have similar set-ups for .ufav, .ubmark, .ursvp and .uplaze. This is what I did to reply to you now.

A second way is that I have integrated these same little templates into the response form I have in my feedreader, and in a little blogform on my local device. There I indicate with a radio button if something is a reply etc, and the php script that processes the form adds in the right HTML before sending it to my WordPress site’s micropub endpoint.

I wonder if these are an alternative to IndieBlocks or something else.

John Johnston

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I disabled the PostKinds WordPress plugin, created by David Shanske. I stopped using it 3 years ago for new postings but disabling it then would have broken many older postings.

What makes the plugin useful is that it allows you to turn postings into different, well, kinds of posts. Such as a reply, or a check-in, rsvp, bookmark or favourite. It adds the right microformats so that computers can semantically analyse a post’s purpose, and adds the styling to display them.

My main issue with it was that it places key elements such as the weblink you’re responding to outside the posting itself. It gets stored in the database as belonging to the PostKinds plugin. Meaning if you ever switch it off, that gets wiped from your posting (although it’s still in the database then). This was a dependency I needed to get rid of.
For new postings from summer 2021 I did that by deploying small templates that allow me to mark a posting as reply, rsvp, favourite, bookmark, or check-in, within the postings I’m writing.

I used the PostKinds plugin heavily for 3 years, and most heavily in 2019. That legacy from 2018-2021 was still there, requiring the PostKinds plugin to remain enabled. Until today. Over time I had slowly changed posts when I encountered them, and in the past week I did the remainder.

Another issue is that PostKinds only works in the classic WordPress editor, and not in the now default Gutenberg editor. At some point that would hinder the ability to upgrade WordPress.

Solong PostKinds, thanks for all the fish!

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Houtje-touwtje, literally ‘small stick-short rope’, or cord loops fasteners in English, is the more down to earth and old Dutch phrase for putting stuff together with duct tape (known as MacGyver tape to many here, after the 80’s tv series). After messing around in the FreshRSS back-end last weekend, yesterday I made a houtje-touwtje working version to let me post more easily about the things I find in my feed reader.

In my previous post I mentioned I want to support three different reactions:

  • favourites, something I liked, or want to let the author know I appreciated
  • bookmarks, something I (want to) read, and keep reference to for my notes
  • replies, something where I comment on or reply to a posting and its author directly

Four labeled posts in my feed reader

The way I mark postings in my feed reader is attaching a label to them (favourite, bookmark, reply)
Then with the SQL statement from the last posting I pull out those labeled postings (label, url, title, author, and content).

Yesterday evening I attempted to bring it a step or two further, but ended up with something that works.
I created a php html page that shows me, using the SQL query, every labeled posting and for each posting shows a webform. That webform is needed because I want to be able to add two things to every labeled posting (though they’re not mandatory)

  • My motivation for favouriting, or bookmarking, or my reply
  • A quote of the bit in the original posting I am picking up on

The form for me to add motivation and selected quote

Next to that the form is needed to forward the other information (link, title, URL) to the next stage, along with my response and quote. This simultaneously allows me to clean up URLs, shorten the title or provide the actual author name if the post only contains a shortened username e.g.

The webform also contains a field for the total number of labeled items (hidden), and a field for the label itself. Again needed to forward them to the next stage of the process.

The second stage is that submitting the form, calls the same php page again, but this time to process the submitted form information (no longer the database query)

Based on the label (fav, bookmark or reply) it selects a template for how I want to show those in my blog (each have their own svg-icon and first sentence), uses the right microformat, and adds in the url, author, title and my reaction and selected quote in the right spots. The microformat is relevant for when my posting sends a webmention to the website I’m reacting to, and lets that site know if it’s a reply (to show underneath in their comments), or a bookmark or favourite. Assuming that the other website can receive webmentions that is.

Resulting HTML

The result of that is then shown to me in HTML. I paste that HTML into my blog editor, add things like posting categories and tags, and hit publish. In essence I’ve replaced what the Post Kinds plugin, that I stopped using, in my WordPress blog did before: automating fetching some info, and adding it into my posting. It is akin to what I had previously, where I weekly posted links to my blog from my Evernote bookmarks using e-mail.

The posting on the blog

This ‘houtje-touwtje‘ set-up doesn’t do the fancy things yet, like posting itself automatically to my blog through micropub (UPDATE January 2022 it now does!), or providing me this functionality within my FreshRSS reader’s interface. Also, after posting things, I need to manually delete the labels, so they don’t resurface the next time I run the php script.

Another path to explore is using the same or similar workflow to put labeled posts into my personal notes.

This morning I tested out the workflow, and I was pleased with the result. I loaded up the feed reader, and did my usual reading. I marked things for follow up. I ran the script, added my motivation and selected quotes. Pasted the resulting HTML into my blog, added categories and hit publish. This definitely feels smoother and less time consuming. It’s been a while I posted more than 1 thing based on my feedreading that day, let alone four (1, 2, 3, 4) within minutes of reading it. The ‘normal’ routine was ending up with a bunch of open tabs in my browser, and at the end of the day giving up and hitting close-all for those I didn’t get around to during the day.

[Update: the php script is available in my GitHub account]

Favorited Feeling locked in by open source by Boris Mann

I see your point, Boris. I think the phrasing in this case comes from over time having tried some of the actions you suggest, where some weren’t well received and others are well outside my capabilities. That over time builds up to a sense of powerlesness very reminiscent of your definition of lock-in. From a regular software user point of view, closed or open source isn’t much of a meaningful difference when it comes to their everyday experience with the functionality, design patterns and practicality of a tool. Of course with open source it’s a more reasonable assumption that one has a way out, and I’m not without agency here. I can in fact remove this particular dependency altogether with a certain level of effort that ís within my capabilities.

Don’t feel locked in!

Boris Mann

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I’ve been using the Post Kinds plugin for a few years on this WordPress site. It allows you to easily style a specific type of posting (a like, bookmark, reply, rsvp, read, check-in etc), it automatically pulls in the relevant information form the posting you’re reacting to, and adds the right machine readable micro-formats so that if you ping the source website that site can see if it is a direct reply, a like, a regular mention etc.

David Shanske deserves a lot of credit for creating and maintaining this valuable WP plugin, and for his contributions to the IndieWeb community over the years. Yet I always kept some reservations even while I’ve been depending on the Post Kinds plugin. One thing was the ability to shape how these post kinds look, meanwhile addressed. One is it prevents me from adopting Gutenberg in WordPress, even while others (of the few) plugins I use are moving to a Gutenberg only stance, meaning conflict and/or hard choices lie in the near future of this blog.

Most of all however I balk at how information around a post kind gets stored. To me the thing I am reacting to is an inherent and equal part of my posting. Because pointing to the thing I’m reacting to is nothing other than a hyperlink, the core feature of the web itself. That in the case of a post kind such a hyperlink is more fancily handled and presented does not change that. However the thing I am reacting to gets lifted outside the posting and is stored differently in the WordPress database by Post Kinds. This has as a consequence that should I switch off Post Kinds the connection between my postings and what it is reacting to is severed, even if it is still in the database. It changes “Reply to hyperlink.tld: That’s a great idea” to “That’s a great idea”, which is a serious loss of meaning. In that way Post Kinds becomes a lock-in and a potential single point of failure that breaks the web, at least my part of the web that this blog forms. The two images below demonstrate the effect:


A ‘like’ posting with Post Kinds enabled


The same posting without Post Kinds, which means a serious loss of information because the actual hyperlink to the thing discussed disappears

So I want to break out of that lock-in, and find a work around. This means all relevant info about the thing I am reacting to should be in the actual posting. My current idea is that I will create simple templates for the post kinds I actually have used until now, and put them behind a keyboard shortcut. That way I can ensure the right micro-formats are used for others to interpret. Over time I can replace the existing Post Kinds dependent postings (about 900 in this blog) in the same way, clearing the way for switching it off entirely. This should increase the autonomy of keeping this blog, and decrease dependencies.

Bookmarked Identifying Post Kinds in WordPress RSS Feeds (by Dan Q)

This is something I might add to my RSS feed too. Because, just like in this posting, I always post my own remarks above the thing I am bookmarking, liking or replying to, it is sometimes confusing to readers what I am referring to in those first sentences of a post.

I do wonder how it looks in my case though, as I usually don’t add titles to bookmarks, likes and replies, and this little snippet of code adds the post type to that non-existent title. Main question is would it indeed help to reduce confusement? Added to the list of site-tweaks to do.

….But for people who subscribe (either directly or indirectly) to everything I post, I imagine it must be a little frustrating to sometimes be unable to identify the type of a post before clicking-through. So I’ve added the following code….

Dan Q