Blog Questions Challenge

London

I’ve been tagged by Naz Hamid to answer the Blog Questions challenge! So here goes:

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I started blogging “properly” only fairly recently, since the first iteration of this version of my website, which I’ve built in 2020. The goal was to document the stuff I work on, but it became a much looser collection of writing, which I’m not unhappy with.

I had several false starts in blogging over the previous decades, which didn’t stick mainly because I had failed to look for my own voice, but was rather trying to emulate the early bloggers whom I admired, and, as a result, wrote for what I imagined their audience might want to read. Never a good idea. This time around, I’m writing for myself first of all, so it is much easier to keep up the habit.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

This website is static: plain HTML, CSS, and images, without any dynamic content. I use Jekyll to generate it from a bunch of templates and Markdown files. The site is stored in a Git repository over at GitHub. When I push changes to it, GitHub Actions generates the complete website, and uploads it to my server, which is a basic VPS hosted at Hetzner and running OpenBSD (see this post from Derek Sivers on why OpenBSD is a solid choice). The GitHub bit is all optional, though: I could as easily build the site on my laptop and publish it directly to my server.

Back when I started using Jekyll, it was the default option for static site generators (although there are many other options now!), and I also happened to be comfortable with Ruby, the language Jekyll is written in, so sticking with it and extending it over the years to fit my needs has been a natural choice.

I got interested in static site generators because I was drawn to the simplicity of storing my writing, photos, etc, as just regular files on my hard drive, rather than being tied down in a database somewhere. I’ve since started to apply this principle to other areas of my computing life, and I now generally prefer to store my work and media in simple formats that I know I would be able to open again in a decade or more.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I’ve tried many: Wordpress, Movable Type, Textpattern, Posterous, Tumblr, Squarespace, just to name a few. None of them allowed me the simplicity and control that a static site generator provides, though, which also contributed to each iteration being short-lived.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?

I write most of my blog posts in my text editor, Emacs. For longer pieces, I sometimes use iA Writer, for its focus mode, and then import it to Emacs to add metadata and the like. Emacs is my preferred program for working with text: I write code with it, study with it, use it for planning projects, knowledge management, and more.

I keep a text file with ideas for blog posts, but in practice I rarely refer to it, and each new post tends to be in response to some external impulse that nudges me to write about it.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

As a parent to a 2.5 year old, I rarely have the luxury to rely on inspiration coming to me. I tend to write when I have something specific I want to write about, AND I have some time that is not earmarked for something else, which is increasingly rare.

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

It really depends on the post. With some posts, I can be quite spontaneous, but others sit in drafts for a while, and end up being rewritten a few times. I’ve also experimented with asking people to help editing a post, which turned out to be a positive experience.

What are you generally interested in writing about?

I want to use this website as a notebook, to keep notes about my various projects and the things that interest me. I don’t think I am succeeding in that yet, but that’s what I’m striving for.

Who are you writing for?

Because I try to make this blog an extension of my projects and interests, I write for myself, first of all. Hopefully, someone else will find some of this interesting, as well, but I am not attempting to write for any specific audience.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

Maybe the post about my name. It took me a while to write, and I collaborated with a few smart people to edit it. I’m happy with how it turned out.

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

Messing with the website’s design and adding new features is an excellent way to procrastinate on the writing!

That being said… even though I like Jekyll, I have a few new features in mind for my website that would stretch its capabilities a fair bit, so I’ve been toying around with the idea of writing my own static site generator (which is a nerd rite of passage of sorts). I started building something while exploring Common Lisp last year, but it is still unfinished.

Tag ‘em.

I would love to read the answers to these questions from Pirijan, Cabel, anh, Thomas, and Vlad!

Thank you for reading!