Blog Questions Challenge

I saw this challenge making the rounds last week and thought I’d give it a go. Back in the day, challenges like this were really fun and helped draw connections between interesting corners of the open web. It’s also a productive exercise for me to reflect on blogging as a practice. From what I can discern, we have Ava to thank for kicking this off…so, thanks! Here we go…

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I came of age during the dawn of the internet in the mid-1990s. At that time the web was like the Wild West. There was an energy about it. It was fresh and new and it was bringing people together in meaningful ways. I wanted so badly to understand how it worked, so I dove deep under the hood of my favorite sites to learn how semantic code generated pages.

From that point on I was hooked, and threw myself into creating my first site – on Geocities. Sunset Strip, represent! This was circa 1996 and blogs hadn’t been invented yet, but I did publish my writing on the Geocities site, so I do consider this my first blog.

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

I currently use Micro.blog to power StaticMade.com. I’m very happy with it and think Manton does a great job developing it.

When I was looking for a platform upon which to relaunch my personal website last year, one of the most important elements for me was to find a platform that embraced the open web. Micro.blog’s simplicity and flexibility, combined with robust feeds integration and on-board syndication to several Fediverse platforms make it the perfect fit for my needs.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Having written on the web since the ’90s, I’ve used my fair share of blogging platforms. To the best of my memory, here they are in chronological order: Geocities, Blogger, Tumblr, Ghost (self-hosted), raw dog HTML files, Ghost (hosted), Micro.blog

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

Most of the time I use the Micro.blog editor, either on my laptop for longer posts like this one, or in the Micro.blog for iOS app on my phone for shorter or image-based posts. Sometimes I get workflow envy when I read about how some folx have sexy workflows that publish static pages, but writing in the browser gets the job done for me quickly and efficiently. These days I don’t have the time to reinvent my publishing workflow process.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

Inspiration comes at the strangest times, doesn’t it? I’ll often see something online – a post or an article – and that can spark the muse. That’s the way this post originated. Other times, posts come from deep reflection about something going on in my life. And yet some other posts are completely spur of the moment. I use those posts as a way to document meaningful or intersting things in real time.

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

I always tend to post immediately after writing. I’ll read it over a few times, to catch typos and tweak wording, and then tap publish.

What’s your favourite post on your blog?

One of the first posts I published after relaunching this site in August 2024 was Death to the Algorithm. It’s a manifesto of sorts. I think it does a good job summarizing why I do this and why it’s important.

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

I’m happy with Micro.blog and I don’t have any plans to migrate elsewhere, but I’m always tweaking things. Most recently I added a ‘Reply via Email’ button to all posts, as well as a cool feature in the footer that displays the song I’m currently listening to. So I’ll probably continue to ship things like that, along with incremental design updates. The web is never finished!