{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Peter Marcano", "home_page_url": "https://marcano.io", "feed_url": "https://marcano.io/rss/feed.json", "description": "Your blog description", "icon": "https://marcano.io/favicon.ico", "author": { "name": "Peter Marcano" }, "items": [ { "id": "https://marcano.io/articles/announcing-tweet-sweeper", "content_html": "

TL;DR — I made an app called Tweet Sweeper that automatically deletes old tweets from your timeline, keeping your outdated ideas out of future conversations.

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I joined Twitter in May of 2009. Just before college.

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At that time, Twitter was sold itself as a way to send quick updates to the people you knew in real life.

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There were no hashtags, retweets, or threads. And people tweeted via text message from their flip phones.

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Oh boy, have things changed.

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Twitter ultimately became the global, real-time, viral chat room. It brings together like-minded people and keeps you in the know.

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Today, its home page makes that clear.

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Mastering the real-time nature of Twitter can be life-changing.

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I've witnessed talented people stand out, land jobs, build businesses, and even make close friendships with people they met on Twitter.

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But we're human. We learn things, form new opinions, and (maybe) share just a little too much from time to time.

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I thought my Twitter timeline should reflect my current thoughts and ideas, not my old ones.

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So I hacked together some code that I eventually called Tweet Sweeper. It's a dead-simple app that automatically deletes my old tweets.

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With a few clicks, I can set how long I want to keep my tweets and turn on Tweet Sweeper.

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In a true set-it-and-forget-it fashion, Tweet Sweeper now does the heavy lifting of finding and deleting old tweets, every day.

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Now my timeline is timely and relevant, just like Twitter itself.

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Tweet Sweeper is available to everyone. Just sign in, and set a duration.

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When you're ready to start sweeping your tweets, it costs just $29/year. The fee helps me keep the lights on, add new features, and fix bugs.

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If you have questions, you can tweet me @pbmarcano.

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Let's keep improving, leaving our past behind, and moving forward.

", "url": "https://marcano.io/articles/announcing-tweet-sweeper", "title": "Auto-delete old tweets with Tweet Sweeper", "summary": "I made an app called Tweet Sweeper that automatically deletes old tweets from your timeline, keeping your outdated ideas out of future conversations.", "date_modified": "2022-05-16T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Peter Marcano" } }, { "id": "https://marcano.io/articles/designing-around-frustration", "content_html": "

When I was a kid I used to get into play fights with my little cousin.

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Our play fights would get heated and, occasionally, she would get hurt. Seeking to avoid trouble at all costs, I would do everything in my power to get her to laugh instead of cry.

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I can’t count the amount of times I have been ferociously waiting for an app to load or a video to buffer.

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Granted, this is pretty high up there on the list of my first world problems… but I have things to do and places to be!

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Staring at the word “loading” leaves me helpless, impatient, and frustrated with your shitty app!

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About a month ago, I was mindlessly scrolling on Amazon and reached what seemed to be end of Amazon’s “recommended” items.

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For a second I thought Amazon ran out of semi-useless things to sell me. Then I quickly found myself spiraling down the nine circles of hell loading.

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All the sudden, something made me giggle.

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Beep-boop-beep…

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Some saintly designer at Amazon knew reading the word “loading” would piss me off.

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Instead of doing what countless others in the software industry do, this beautiful mind decided to turn my frown upside down.

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Why doesn’t every error/status message do this?

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Forgot your password? Click here

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Could just as easily become…

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Passwords suck, right? Forgetting one happens to the best of us. How about we take a second and get you sorted.

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Designing around frustration seems like something obvious to get behind. Yet, every day I am still bombarded with boring, frustrating, and useless error/status messages.

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If you want the people to enjoy your app, design for scenarios where things go wrong. Make error messages personable and friendly. Make people giggle.

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If you can make someone laugh when they’re prepared to cry you will make their day. Heck, they may even write about it online!

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Be like Amazon and beep-boop-beep people out of frustration and into happiness.

", "url": "https://marcano.io/articles/designing-around-frustration", "title": "Designing around frustration", "summary": "Amazon made some small design tweaks to keep their users happy during a much too familiar moment of frustration.", "date_modified": "2016-01-21T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Peter Marcano" } }, { "id": "https://marcano.io/articles/facebooks-little-notification-icon", "content_html": "

If you are still a Facebook user, you’re probably aware of the little tiny icon of Earth that represents your notifications. You know, it’s the first icon you click after you open Facebook…

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Yeah, well I noticed a recent change in that icon on my phone and in my web browser. After a little digging I had found this “Slate” article. It turns out, this icon is now different for Facebook’s users depending on where they live in the world. As I am currently in Europe, my notification’s icon now illustrates the other side of the Atlantic.

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When companies spend time on little details just to make a little better experience for their users, I tend to genuinely enjoy it. I just thought I’d share the little things that make my day.

", "url": "https://marcano.io/articles/facebooks-little-notification-icon", "title": "Facebook's Little Notification Icon", "summary": "Facebook made a small design tweak to make people all over the world feel like facebook was made just for them.", "date_modified": "2014-08-03T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Peter Marcano" } } ] }