Blog questions challenge

John tagged me on this little ditty and finally, a week later, I've completed the task! I'll tag Padraig!

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I think I've been 'blogging' in some shape or form since I was a teenager. Mercifully old iterations of sites have been deleted long ago. I recall some abominations on Geocities (rife with javascript mouse-tracking nonsense and green-on-black spinning skull-and-crossbone hacker themed gifs). It's kept me adept with writing. Not that I'm good at it, or have a particularly good 'voice' when writing. But I've kept it up, at least.

This longer-form blogging thing has been around before the social media craze. So I think we leaned into having little websites with blog-type sections to spout off in more detail than we could in IRC channels, and later social media. But these days, I do it more as a moment-in-time log.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I've used them all. Bloopdiary in the olden times, aforementioned Geocities, Wordpress, Ghost, etc. But this site, and my little video games site are both hosted as static sites using Gatsby, sitting on Netlify servers.

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 completely offline in an Obsidian file vault. When I complete/write a post, I just run a command line to rebuild the site and deploy the changes straight to Netlify. Getting setup was a bit rough-and-tumble, but today it's genuinely easy to manage and work with.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

I write a lot for work. So inspiration isn't hard to come by. But with this site I forced myself to write every single week, and I've done so consistently for a few years now. I've altered the formats a bit. It started more like a load of random thoughts generated through the week, where now I tend to anchor on a specific subject/topic that springs to mind.

I have an incredibly busy work and home life, so I have to steal time to do it. But I do enjoy it. I tend not to have time to curate the work, edit a lot, etc. Which, I do think adds a nice flavour to the 'content.' Right now, for example, my wife is upstairs getting the kids to sleep so I'm stealing the time while the dishwasher whirs away beside me.

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

Depends. I tend to publish weekly, on a Friday or over the weekend. Sometimes I write the content way earlier but hit publish on-schedule. Sometimes I write and publish in a single block of time.

What are you generally interested in writing about?

Things that spring to mind. Honestly, I don't feel beholden to a single subject, thought, structure or anything. Which is why I enjoy it. Because of my interests, I will tend to circle the drain on tech, society, how they both intersect, the future, etc. etc. And a bit of automotive, sport, music and the like because they're big on my list of things I like paying attention to. I wind music and photography into my posts each week regardless of what the main subject is for the post.

Who are you writing for?

Honestly myself. My little, very inaccurate stats suggest I've a nice little following. But 0 people could view and I'd be fine. My interaction with the site is through my Obsidian vault, not the website. So I'm almost a very different kind of reader than you, dear reader, are right now.

What’s your favourite post on your blog?

I don't know if it really counts, but I quite like having my little, kinda up-to-date bookshelf. It's right there in the menu bar!

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

Nope! Simple is good. This is a static site for very logical reasons.