Blog Questions Challenge

I’d seen this set of questions about blogging start to circulate and felt compelled to chime in after Scott Boms posted his replies.

Long ramble ahead

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Why did you start blogging in the first place?

Reasons have evolved but at first I simply wanted to connect.¹

I was a late bloomer, coming out in my mid-twenties. Awkward and unsure of myself, I found a supportive community on LiveJournal. One great feature of the platform was the ability to publish entries to specific groups. These “locked” posts created a space to speak freely and segment audiences from content they might not appreciate (like the best chili in Cincinnati).

Some of my closest friends to this day stem from these formative online years.

When the site was sold to a Russian company, most everyone abandoned the platform.

I kept at it as I was connecting with friends, family, folks from work and beyond.

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Have you blogged on other platforms before?

My LiveJournal years began in 2003, I ported everything over to Typepad (2005) and then to WordPress (2009). Luckily all the data and comments made it through this gauntlet intact.²

At this point in the timeline, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram emerged and many folks simply migrated.

In addition to the journal, I saved thousands of links on Delicious, which was sold to Yahoo! and eventually Pinboard.

I also had tons of static pages of my website built with WYSIWYG editors: GoLive Cyberstudio → Adobe GoLive → Macromedia Dreamweaver. (That old site is archived here.)

My goal was always to combine these disparate parts.

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What platform are you using now and why did you choose it?

Everything moved to a new highly customized WordPress site in 2021 (thanks to Kay). All those legacy photo posts, 12,000 bookmarks from Delicious and the static pages have been folded together with custom post types.³

My long view is the platform doesn’t matter as long as the data is portable. The important thing is to keep at it.

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How do you write your posts?

Poorly!

(I write everything in the WordPress block editor.)

Some ideas are formed in Notes. On rare occasion I’ll refer to Apple Journal entries which is a new practice where I just talk about the day and have it transcribed.

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When do you feel most inspired to write?

Whenever I’m supposed to be doing something else!

My favored approach includes framing an entry after work (download and edit photos, add tags, write some) and then button things up the next morning.

That said? I’ve gone long stretches where I don’t post at all.

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Do you publish immediately after writing, or let it simmer as a draft?

I try to let things simmer, if anything to ensure all the parts of a post are addressed. Even with an overnight simmer I’ll find typos and nonsensical phrasing. I edit for clarity, sometimes years later.

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What’s your favorite post?

I wish I knew. Seriously it’s a major flaw not to have some on ramps and guideposts.

I started a ‘pinned’ tag to try and capture some of what I thought were better entries.

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Any future plans? Maybe a redesign, move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

Oh goodness, yes! I’ve a long list of improvements I’d like to make collected in this to-do list.

Another is related to the ‘pinned’ concept from above: Elevate longer form posts that are more than just day to day journal entries, identify patterns and group them (Design, Personal, Processing).

There are structural issues to address: Why a separate section for favorites? Navigation with just thumbnails isn’t great (though most everything has alt text at least). There’s no pagination of single posts within a section or topic. The list is endless…

At the end of the day, I look at this place as a garden to tend. There are always weeds to pull (dead links and typos abound). But the real fun is to imagine what new things to plant.

One lingering item is to clean up the footer, it hasn’t evolved as things have gotten out of hand. (See sketch below)

There’s always something to do!

Footer sketch: Inheriting link color for background, including errors of doubled links

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Next?

I’d be curious to know how every blogger would answer these questions, but to narrow it down I’ll ‘tag’ Kevin and Kari.

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Also…

If this sort of topic is of interest, Manuel Moreale has a robust series called People & Blogs that highlights individuals and their approach to publishing independently.

And if you’ve a question, drop a line or a comment!

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1. All these years later my reasons still include wanting to connect, but other facets have emerged. By no means a gratitude journal, reflection has been helpful for my well-being — it helps frame the days. Aside from observation, this archive has become more important as I’ve seen loved ones and friends deal with memory loss. I’m hoping this practice helps keep me sharp and provides a reference when memory is fleeting. ↩︎
2. One challenge of porting has been those locked Livejournal posts for specific groups, I had them automatically set to be drafts for review. Many hundreds linger in limbo (probably for the best.) Every once in a while I’ll sort through a stack of those drafts and set them to public, private or delete altogether. ↩︎
3. There are five major post types, some interconnected: Journal, Characters, Projects, Bookmarks and Favorites. Not everything has made the leap. Sections to port include a Timeline and a revised Travel Section ↩︎