We wonder often if what is created by AI has any value, and at what cost to artists and creators. These are important considerations. But we need to also wonder what AI is taking from what has already been created.
Oh, this is a very handy service from Paul—given the URL of an RSS feed that only has summaries, it will attempt to get the full post content from the HTML.
Well, this is depressing.
Great stuff from Maggie—reminds of the storyforming workshop I did with Ellen years ago.
Mind you, I disagree with Maggie about giving a talk’s outline at the beginning—that’s like showing the trailer of the movie you’re about to watch.
I was content-buddying with one of my colleagues yesterday so Bobbie’s experience resonates.
Gosh! And I thought I had strong opinions about markup!
Maggie Appleton:
An exploration of the problems and possible futures of flooding the web with generative AI content.
I like how Luke is using a large language model to make a chat interface for his own content.
This is the exact opposite of how grifters are selling the benefits of machine learning (“Generate copious amounts of new content instantly!”) and instead builds on over twenty years of thoughtful human-made writing.
Imagine a collaboratively developed, universal content style guide, based on usability evidence.
Good writing advice from Matt.
This piece by Giles is a spot-on description of what I do in my role as content buddy at Clearleft. Especially this bit:
Your editor will explain why things need changing
As a writer, it’s really helpful to understand the why of each edit. It’s easier to re-write if you know precisely what the problem is. And often, it’s less bruising to the ego. It’s not that you’re a bad writer, but just that one particular thing could be expressed more simply, or more clearly, than your first effort.
The day we started to allow email clients to be full-blown web browsers (but without the protections of browsers) was the day we lost — time, security, privacy, and effectiveness. Now we spend all our time fighting with the materials of an email (i.e. color and layout) rather than refining its substance (i.e. story and language).
I really, really enjoyed this deep dive into practical HTML semantics. Sit back and enjoy!
I think, with the sheer volume of functionality available to us nowadays on the front-end, it can be easy to forget how powerful and strong the functionality is that we get right off shelf with HTML. Yes, you read that right, functionality.
I only just found this article about those “mad libs” style forms that I started with Huffduffer.
The only person who wants a carousel on your site is you. That’s it. It’s a self-serving vanity project so that you can showcase all of your babies at the same time without telling the world which one is your favorite.
This is a great series of short videos all about content design. The one on writing for humans is particularly good.
A thorough deep dive into generated content in CSS.
Cassie’s enthusiasm for fun and interesting SVG animation shines through in her writing!
I like this idea for a minimum viable note-taking app:
data:text/html,<body contenteditable style="line-height:1.5;font-size:20px;">I have added this to bookmarks and now my zero-weight text editor is one keypress away from me. You might also use it as a temporary clipboard to paste text or even pictures.
See also: a minimum viable code editor.