You don’t have to blog like me.
You don’t have to differentiate by post kind.
You don’t have to put full contents in your feed.
You don’t have to keep a library of “maybe-some-day”
drafts so long that you’ll never reach the bottom.
You don’t have to have a comments form.
Or reactions. Or webmentions.
Or a guestbook. Or drawings?
(But give me some way to say “hi, you’re cool!”)
You don’t have to have a feature image.
You don’t have to keep posts up forever.
You don’t have to have tags.
You don’t have to syndicate to the socials.
You don’t have to stick to one topic.
Or three. Or seventeen.
Or be able to answer “what’s your blog about?”
It’s yours, and that’s enough.
You don’t have to post on a schedule.
You don’t have to use your real name.
You don’t have to have a podcast.
You don’t have to tell everybody.
You don’t have to use any particular tool.
Bloggers who spend their time arguing
About vs vs ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ vs
Could be reading and writing instead.
You don’t have to have a plan to “monetize”.
You don’t have to write your own theme.
You don’t have to be run your own server.
You don’t have to make every post your best.
The Internet is ours.
It belongs to the humans.
Not to the companies and the robots.
To us.
And every human voice.
Every single human voice.
Makes the world a little richer.
You don’t have to blog like me.
(You don’t have to use “blog” as a verb.)
You just have to blog.
And if you mention your blog in the comments, below, I promise I’ll go read it.
Amen! I think, like most hobbies, many of us can fall prey to the vagaries of choice that we are faced with. Every time you visit a blog you see another thing you could add, or a different design, or a ‘better’ CMS… I’ve found it freeing to have my blog set up how I want it and to just write.
Hi G! I already follow your blog, but I really mangled my comment on your post about this post, didn’t I? What a mess!
i have a severely outdated microblog where i sometimes dump how im doing and whatever: https://ihatetehbsod.neocities.org/blag
I love a microblog! Me: I throw my tiny idea dumps onto Mastodon, but sometimes they make it here as notes, too. But these things have gotta have a feed, in my mind! RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, h-feed… something!
That’s my hot take.
Anyway: I clicked the link because I promised I’d click every one anybody commented and I realised I’d already been there, ‘cos I’ve stalked you from Melonland before! Your website reminds me of my… first? Second, maybe? When I was about your age, anyway!
i have a microblog i guess https://candyether.space/personal/journal
Cool! I love your aesthetic! Also, I just learned from you that Balatro – which I’ve been playing on-and-off for years – is moddable. I had no idea!
My blog: https://shojiwax.com/
That’s some kickass photography you’ve got going on! I ended up posting comments on a few of your posts, too: I don’t always agree with you, but I love that ou make me think: nice one!
Amen to that, Dan.
Thanks. I’m commenting here because I’m using it to keep track of whose blogs I’ve checked-in on yet, but you’re already in my feed reader so you don’t get any special treatment, I’m afraid!
This post got me to write another post on my blog. https://256-32.com/blog
There’s no RSS because I don’t think anyone cares enough about my blog.
Even without RSS, your list-of-posts page is easily parsed: I could use my usual XPath Scraping technique on it, as I do with some other sites that should have RSS feeds but don’t!
stumbled on this browsing around. thanks for this reminder. :) check out my site & show some love to someone new to the #indieweb community.
Thanks for sharing. Your page transitions are cool as hell. Also; howdy, fellow Obsidian fan!
sometimes i have thoughts that I want to share with people, but i don’t want to get caught up in arguments over passing remarks. I feel like blogging might be how I can shout into the void, and see what happens. no idea what the setup would be like.
this comment is a mess
if and when i setup a blog, i will reply to this comment
posting incomplete comment so i don’t get perfectionismist
3 2 1
Typically excellent post from @dan
“You don’t have to blog like me”
I don’t think what I have is blog. Although, there are dated entries there. I took a step back and tried to recreate an even older concept. A home page. It’s a peaceful life.
A list of entries, each of its own topic, with a date attached to each? If it walks like a blog and quacks like a blog…
(Also, with an RSS feed? Definitely a blog, in my mind!)
But a personal site can be multiple things. It can be a blog anda home page. And a web garden. And a shrine or a link tree or a capsule or… or… or… The personal Web is a beautiful thing, and part of that comes from that fact that it defines itself, over and over: inventing and reinventing ideas, sometimes becoming something new by becoming something old.
Your site is beautiful, and it’s yours, and you can call it what you want. (But I’m definitely calling it a blog. Among other things.)
Hi Dan, this has inspired me to write one more post on my blog this Sunday. Meanwhile if you visit my website then I would like you to read these posts:
1. https://varunbarad.com/blog/replying-to-jedda
2. https://varunbarad.com/blog/first-bookbinding-project
Nice! Thanks for sharing! Have you looked into #100DaysToOffload? Feels like it might be the kind of challenge you’d enjoy?
(Also: great to see a fellow fan of the Horizon games out in the wild!)