I started a blog this summer thinking I would use it to chronicle my exploration of all things AI. I've only posted once. I think the hard thing is just staying disciplined enough to post regularly.
That's the joke. If you don't care about tools and throw a dart to pick one, you'll land on something with enshittification. I went from Blogspot > WP > Medium > Posthaven > Hashnode > HTML on my own site that nobody reads. At some point, the tools matter.
I like the metaphor of a digital garden. A garden is a work in progress, not a finished product. I publish things and refine them over time. Sorting posts by publishing date does not make sense if they get complete rewrites on occasion.
I have a "timeless posts" section above the stream for posts that are always worth a read. I also have sections for projects and recipes.
The website I live for is organised more like a knowledge base. I also review the content there frequently, even though I publish infrequently. You can find a link in my profile.
I had a super popular Tumblr for a few years, hundreds of thousands of followers, but when Tumblr went conservo and de-platformed adult blogs, blog "no more was".
I could have moved it to another platform, of course, but the tedium and volume didn't satisfy my means-ends. I had no backup strategy, mechanically abdicating to Tumblr's platform and its theretofore liberal content policies.
Had I self-hosted, it would still be live and popular.
In short, consider your host carefully. Self-host with a backup strategy would probably be best.
For me, I used to blog on a shitty platform before (livejournal or lifejournal, not sure; shortly it was very popular long ago). But I was writing back then! Also I had a blog on Tumblr, was writing for a while, but shorter. Then there was Medium for a while.
Now, I don’t write. But I’d like to start my own self-host blog. Possibly a bunch of *.org files compiled to HTML.
My takeaway: start self-hosting early, but prioritise writing over not writing. As your posts could be moved to where you want, especially if you back up all that somehow sometimes.
I would wonder if I really want to write a blog (where people arrives, typically by chance, and never goes back) or build an online app (where people go back because it is useful for them).
21 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 35.2 ms ] threadIt’s really about me practicing writing and articulating thoughts more than it is gaining followers.
Though if something I write is helpful to another, all the better.
Having as many readers as possible is not my idea of a blog. Writing is the core idea. Laying out thoughts to yourself and to whoever it concerns.
You can always spread the link to your post via social networks, but you don't have to.
People can find your useful posts years later via search engines amd they don't need a login for the full reading amd commenting experience.
- Make it a PERSONAL website. Not a brand, not a content marketing experiment, just a place where I post things that I'm interested in.
- Publish and finish. Post things and improve them over time. I now have "timeless posts" above the more ephemeral posts.
- Sometimes chronological order is not enough.
I like the metaphor of a digital garden. A garden is a work in progress, not a finished product. I publish things and refine them over time. Sorting posts by publishing date does not make sense if they get complete rewrites on occasion.
I have a "timeless posts" section above the stream for posts that are always worth a read. I also have sections for projects and recipes.
The website I live for is organised more like a knowledge base. I also review the content there frequently, even though I publish infrequently. You can find a link in my profile.
I had a super popular Tumblr for a few years, hundreds of thousands of followers, but when Tumblr went conservo and de-platformed adult blogs, blog "no more was".
I could have moved it to another platform, of course, but the tedium and volume didn't satisfy my means-ends. I had no backup strategy, mechanically abdicating to Tumblr's platform and its theretofore liberal content policies.
Had I self-hosted, it would still be live and popular.
In short, consider your host carefully. Self-host with a backup strategy would probably be best.
Now, I don’t write. But I’d like to start my own self-host blog. Possibly a bunch of *.org files compiled to HTML.
My takeaway: start self-hosting early, but prioritise writing over not writing. As your posts could be moved to where you want, especially if you back up all that somehow sometimes.