Blogging like it’s 2008 again

Why am I starting a blog in 2024? The truest, most encompassing answer is that I’m satisfying an urge.

I’ve spent years posting on social media sites to which I feel no lasting allegiance, over which I have no control, creating content that isn’t exactly mine. At the same time, I’m becoming sort of a tech hippie, with a growing desire to have more ownership over the tools I use and the data they generate.

The blog is a natural outlet for those two feelings, a place to shape my thoughts on a site that is fully my own. While I have a couple of independent publications already in Cord Cutter Weekly and Advisorator, they both revolve around somewhat rigid weekly newsletter formats, and neither are conducive to veering off topic.

There are other motives as well:

I’ve been toying with a third newsletter concept for quite a while now. If that happens, it’ll make sense to use this site as a hub for everything I’m working on.

Related, I can envision doing monthly wrap-up posts of what I’ve published, both on my own sites and as a freelancer. Maybe there’s even room to deliver those posts in a quick newsletter format.

I’m intrigued by the idea of building off the stock WordPress theme, and this is a low-stakes place to experiment with it.

I’m aware that announcing a blog and then letting it languish is as storied a tradition as blogging itself. But I’ve also tried to make the process as frictionless as possible by publishing directly to WordPress via Obsidian, which I can easily do from any device. I’ll also be auto-sharing new posts on social media (Mastodon and Bluesky for now), so there’s added incentive to write in here instead of just out there.

I’ll look at RSS support next. Also: Blogroll?

Update: Duh, RSS is built into WordPress. Subscribe here.