Have you ever marveled at LinkedInfluencer posts? Sure, they’re shallow, tone-deaf, privileged endlessly self-promoting, and most likely AI generated.

But they’re also formulaic, highly structured, and very rhythmic.

(Check out /r/LinkedInLunatics for endless examples of this — that subreddit is a gem.)

They’re tailor-made for their environment — LinkedIn feeds:

• Which truncates posts(so you have to lead with a catch)
• Rewards concision and velocity of reading (so you have to have short, staccato paragraphs and bulleted lists)
• And rewards engagement (so you have to ask a question at the end to try to spur engagement.

In this issue I argue that the LinkedInfluencer post is a genre of poetry, which I’m calling Algorhythmic Verse (we’ll see if I still love that by the time I’m ready to print).

(Yes, I know prose isn’t always poetry but this feels like it fits into both camps. it can be

It may not be good poetry, but hey, that’s what this zine series is about: finding poetry in the little tech nooks and digital crannies that surround us.

Curious what this may look like in practice? Check out these posts I made on LinkedIn to play around with the form:

• The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
• This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams
• Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
• Ozymandias by Percy Shelley
• Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
• Harlem by Langston Hughes

Submit an Algorhythmic Verse tribute to your favorite poem

As with most other issues of 404 Magazine, the best content comes from the community. Keen on trying out this prose style for yourself? I’d love to check it out and perhaps run it in the zine.

You can submit it in the form below ⬇️ , or email it to me at andy@welfle.com.

A few things to note:

• While AI-generated LinkedIn verse is pretty much the point, I’d love for these to have some element of human creativity. So if you’re using an LLM to generate this, please edit it! or if you write the base, you can use an LLM to refine if you’d like! This is all about the relationship between you and the LLM to optimize for engagement.
• I have no budget for this, so I can’t pay you. (the money I charge for issues go straight to materials and shipping) I will send you a couple copies, though.

If you’re just interested in seeing where this goes, and buying a copy of the zine or two when it’s out, head over to my zine shop and subscribe with your email address at the top of the page.

Happy writing, and stay tuned!