Broadside is a curated community-based publishing tool for writing once and posting to multiple social networks simultaneously (e.g. Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, LinkedIn, Instagram).
Posting
As a user you can write a post using the Compose page. A live counter shows you the character limit for each service so you know where you are, you can add an image if you like, and link previews are generated automatically from the first URL in your text. When ready, you can choose your platforms (if they are not connected, you’ll be taken to Settings). You can then post, or schedule a time to post – there’s a Queue page where you can see what’s scheduled and cancel things if you need to.
The Compose page also gives you a log of the things you’ve posted: it’s just a log, clearing it doesn’t affect your posts.
Reading and researching
Everything you publish is saved to your own personal Bindery. This is a personal archive of all your posts with search function, and an RSS feed. The link is accessible publicly, so you can choose to share it or use other apps to grab your RSS feed for whatever you want to do with your own content.
You’ll see a research link: Broadside uses your public post’s content to feed GROQ and ask it for relevant links, but only from a curated set of websites (e.g. wikipedia, Guardian, HackerNews). This is an experiment to see if we can use AI to be helpful, and to work out how to link interesting things together against the tsunami of slop heading towards us.
Commonplace & Murmurings
The Commonplace collects posts from everyone on the instance, also searchable and has its own RSS fee that can be subscribed to.
You also have a Murmurings page that aggregates all your social feeds into one place: only you can see this.
Deleting posts
You can delete your own posts on your own Bindery page – please note that deleting on your bindery does not delete the posts on your social feeds. If you do post something you then want to delete, first click all of the linked posts to each of your socials (there are direct links on each of your posts) and delete them from each individual site, then delete your bindery one. This is just a safer way to do it all.
How can I join?
Login at https://broadside.dgen.net/
Broadside is invite-only. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to try it.
If you’re reading this you’ve likely been given access, just connect your accounts in Settings and you’re ready to go.
To learn more about why Broadside is, please read my introduction post.
Privacy, Terms and Code of Conduct links