andyc’s posterous

Lots of identi.ca folk use XMPP clients to post and consume identi.ca.

I already use Google Talk (personal) and Pidgin (work) IM clients and have tried on more than one occasion to embrace gTalk to be my sole interface to identi.ca

Advantages:

1. No need to refresh. IM is just a constrant real-time stream.
2. Google Talk is available for the iTouch which is the mobile device I use to access identi.ca.
3. The identi.ca tracking service is also managed via XMPP.
4. Direct messages are supported in the XMPP interface.
5. Favourit’ing a notice is also possible in XMPP - fave <user>
6. Speed - XMPP is undoubtedly the quickest way to consume identi.ca.
7. Any Jabber/IM client may be used.

Disadvantages:

1. No character count to ensure you are within the 140 character limit. IM just reports ‘You sent 183 characters and limit is 140’ although I guess you soon become aware of the position of the 140 threshold.
2. No automatic URL shortening - assists with #1
3. Separate windows needed for identispy (tracking) and identi.ca. Some identi.ca clients (e..g LaTwit) intregrate these into a single stream.
4. Not possible to examine a user’s profile when you see an reply to a user.
5. Not possible to quickly switch into the ‘Public’ stream just to listen and potentially discover new interesting topics and users.
6. Not possible to use the ‘Replies’ tab.

Update: A character count plugin exists for Pidgin.

Louis Gray issues a cry for help ‘Every Time I Try To Embrace Twitter, They Push Us Away’.

Contrast this with identi.ca. Every time I try to embrace identi.ca, they warmly embrace me, invite me in, offer me prawn volavons, get me a drink of my choice and ask what new features I would like.

Seriously, though, the next major release of identi.ca (0.7) is imminent (to coincide with the first OMB conference in Hamburg) with groups together with lots more fixes and features.

I can already get instant, real-time updates from identi.ca using XMPP.

I can already use identi.ca on my iTouch.

I can already seamlessly connect to federated Laconica instances if my friends choose to hang out elsewhere.

I can already build my own Laconi.ca instance to delve under the covers and be able to offer ‘Sure - you can use my endpoint for testing’.

I can already display identi.ca notices on my blog.

I can already use the API with no limits or throttling.

I can already track keywords using IdentiSpy whether I’m online or not.

Of course, identi.ca could have all the functionality in the world but there’s one other thing that remains the major differentiator between Twitter and identi.ca.

The community - oh yes, how could we possibly forget the ‘community’ - identi.ca has a better community too.

The #EFF are the effing EFF - it’s recursive like GNU.

Me

To the extent possible under law, Contrôlez-Vous, Inc. has waived all copyright, moral rights, database rights, and any other rights that might be asserted over the UR1 Database.

Freedom loving ur1.ca site

'So what are you listening to ?'

'Anything'

'Oasis ?'

'Not really'

'Manic Street Preachers'

'Who ?'

'Arctic Monkeys ?'

'A couple'

'Nirvana ?'

'Teen Spirit'

'Hey - who is this ?

'R.E.M. (Supernatural Superserious)'

Both offer a similar service. Posterous offers more flexibility posting (images) from email (and presumably mobile).

Both services look great although Tumblr offers a range of themes and you can create your own.

Some people dismiss Tumblr because it didn't support comments out of the box whereas Posterous does.

Hmm - well that post took 3 hours to appear. Let's give Posterous a chance and try again.