I didn’t want to spend eternity on figuring out a clever name, so we start with “URLs”. Below you will find links I collected recently. As bonus to these links, you can find my commentary/description / recommendation. Enjoy the first edition of The URLs!

Theme: Are we going back to the earlier days of the web?#

Since the beginning of the year, I’m discovering the Internet once again and I’m enjoying the journey. RSS, Mastodon, open APIs, new people and their work… I don’t actually see ads and algorithms. I like it this way.

Sharing is enabling#

Internet is about exploration!

The internet should be about exploring and novelty. When I was younger, I remember the thrill at finding a new author at the library or a book store. For a short time, the internet was like that as well. I am on Mastodon not because I want to “build my brand” or “expand my audience” but because there are so many people in the world that are smart, funny, and creative, and I want to see what they have done

I doubled down on RSS#

I’ve never stopped using RSS feeds and I’m glad people didn’t drop them. Why is it worth to use RSS? What might you learn when you go past their social media feeds? Bonus points: beautiful examples of some peoples’ homepages - check them out!

However, I wanted to see what folks were up to. I like personal websites, but I don’t exactly have a ritual where I visit all of them on a periodic basis. Visiting each person’s personal site let me check in and see all the cool things people are doing in addition to writing blog posts.

I don’t want to log in to your website / I simply won’t read! Solved!#

Monetize, sell, get data, monetize more, sell more, repeat… Life is hard, some people are going to live out of their Internet presence, but some other should remain content with folks simply reading their content (👋🏻, love you all Readers!💙)…

There is a new trend among websites where they want my email address before I’m allowed to read their free content. While I sympathize with the struggles of the media business, I am just going to point out something obvious: not reading is easier than reading — and way easier than logging in.

The mighty rest#

How Good Documentation Can Improve Productivity#

Shopify’s take on writing documentation. They describe the importance of documentation from the productivity and culture perspectives. One thing that we often forget is how much impact can a markdown file make:

Engineers whose primary language is not English may find it difficult to assimilate spoken information. In general, widely accessible tools and documents create a more inclusive environment because everyone has a say and can feel part of something.

It also helps with onboarding, not just with the speed, but also with the new joiner’s confidence.

Onboarding or to a new team is faster. Not everybody is comfortable asking for help or guidance, especially if they’re a new employee or have joined a new team.

Reliability: It’s Not Great#

I’ve started using Fly.io for hosting my API. I didn’t need anything extraordinary, I was rather looking for a free and simple solution. Instead of Heroku, I went with Fly.io this time. When Heroku dropped their free offering, more people switched to Fly.

This post openly shares the problems that the Fly.io team is facing. It’s a good read for anyone who interested in the reliability aspects of SaaS.

And: we were growing about 15% per month. But post-Heroku, we got a huge influx of apps in just a few hot spots — and at 30% per month.

BTW, I’m super happy with the service so far!

Culture viruses#

Currently, a lot of organizations have tough time. Some problems start to be more visible than ever. This post describes a few cultural viruses: Toxic Positivity, Lack of accountability, Burnout, Resourcing and suggests how to prevent them from spreading.

Fun#

Fashion doesn’t know age or gender! ❤️#

😎

Crazy Moment a Horse Gets Out of Fields and onto Course at Strade Bianche Ahead of Demi Vollering#

Cycling is back! But I’ve never seen a horse on the course before

Outro#

That’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the URLs! 💙