David Enzel Profile Photo

David Enzel

Washington, DC

Blogs

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    Why Blog? ‘A record of the roads I’ve traveled’

    Jack Baty:

    First, I like to share things I’m thinking about. This can have the effect of exposing others to things they might not have known about or considered. But just as important is that blogging about my interests provides me with a record of the roads I’ve traveled, so to speak. I find this hugely valuable, even if it sometimes seems it’s the same roads over and over again.

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    Blogging About Blogging

    Manuel Moreale, an Italian freelance developer and designer, has a weekly newsletter entitled People and Blogs. In each issue of his newsletter, he invites one blogger to describe his or her blog. I’m enjoying learning what motivates other bloggers.

    Previous editions include :

    You can subscribe here.

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    Are Social Media Worth the Time and Effort?

    Jehtan Mehta:

    I don’t want to wake up to a social media timeline of any sort

    No, not even the ethical ones like Mastodon or Micro.blog. Heck, I don’t want a separate timeline for videos (YouTube) or podcasts either. Or one for news or newsletters. Everything, and I mean everything, that I want to follow or subscribe to from anywhere on the Internet goes into my organized RSS reader because of its unmatched efficiency and control. Now I have a single feed to check, which I do when I want to or need to. It doesn’t notify or nag me, doesn’t screw up the order of posts, and doesn’t recommend things. It can be trusted to do nothing on its own.

    No posting on social media, or even my microblog

    Most people don’t blog, sadly, but tend to have three places to post: a Twitter-like network, an Instagram-like visual space, and LinkedIn. But microblogging is a terribly contextually deprived way to create and consume things, one hiding behind a gratification trap. It often felt like I’m sharing purposeful things there but had the interface not artificially limited me to 300 or 500 characters—and had I not been writing for (algorithmic) reader reactions—I often had more nuance and references to share. And so I’ll not post on any social media. I shall only blog now, a slower but more thoughtful way to communicate publicly. This way I also own the connection to my readers based on open technologies that have stood the test of time: Email and RSS.

    I found this interesting but I would not personally go this route. For exampIe, I enjoy those I follow on YouTube and Micro.blog. I have an Instagram account but spend far less time there than before. The primary place I share my photography is Flickr, which I value.

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    A Nice WordPress Gallery Plugin

    My hobby is photography and I’ve been looking for a WordPress gallery plugin I like to display image galleries in blog posts. I’ve tried many but they would not do everything I want or were cumbersome to use.

    I just found GT3 Photo and Video Gallery Pro and it does everything I want it to do. It’s also easy to use. The free version does a nice job but the Pro version adds a lot of nice features and cost $19 for a one year license. This is an example of a gallery I created with the plugin. And I think the gallery looks great on mobile as well. All the settings are available in the block editor which I find ideal for me. This post includes another example a GT3 gallery.

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    Blogs I Like

    I like traditional blogs, which harken back to the early days of the internet when people wrote to share for the joy of sharing. The main goal wasn’t to make money via advertising or subscriptions. It was people sharing and connecting with other people. There aren’t as many blogs like this around anymore. I value the ones that remain and share this list in the spirit of sharing and connecting person to person:

    The list is in no particular order. Please suggest other blogs to follow.

    Last updated: February 14, 2024

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    A Useful List of Blogging Platforms

    Manuel Moreale, an Italian freelance developer and designer, posted this list on his blog. He’s been blogging since 2017. I can’t tell what platform he’s using and I’m curious.

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    Why Publish?

    Why I Do This - Sulluzzu:

    But why do I feel the need to publish this writing? Why do I not just write these in a diary or journal?

    I think the answer is that writing to publish, and the idea of someone reading it, helps me to make it the best writing I can. I don’t actually know how many people read these little articles but you (whether you are real or not) are important to help me distill these thoughts down to their essence.

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    Blogging Myths

    Julia Evans, a Canadian software developer, offers eight blogging myths that discourage people from blogging:

    I found this list and her explanations helpful. In the end, it’s the author’s blog and it can be whatever the author wants.

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    Why Blog? - ‘You just might want to say hello’

    The late Nora Ephron writing on HuffPost in 2006 explained that:

    getting heard outside the world of blogs occasionally requires that you have something to say. And one of the most delicious things about the profoundly parasitical world of blogs is that you don’t have to have anything much to say. Or you just have to have a little tiny thing to say. You just might want to say hello. I’m here. And by the way. On the other hand. Nevertheless. Did you see this? Whatever. A blog is sort of like an exhale. What you hope is that whatever you’re saying is true for about as long as you’re saying it. Even if it’s not much.

    Among her many accomplishments, Ephron wrote the script for the lovely romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally. She died in 2012.

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    Blogging Without a Plan is OK

    The author of but she’s a girl . . . writing about the 20th anniversary of her blog:

    When I started this blog 20 years ago, I had no real plan in mind. I still don’t. I write about what interests me and makes me happy, and that is the only theme that runs through it. People still seem to find it and discover interesting things to read, but to be honest, I would probably still write if no-one was reading, just to amuse myself.

    but she’s a girl . . . is also on micro.blog.

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    Always Write for Your Audience

    From the About Page of Derek Sivers, who I believe pioneered the concept of the Now Page, — a webpage describing what a blogger or website owner is doing “now”:

    I always write for my audience, not for myself, so this feels indulgent. When I think of expressing this kind of “about me” stuff in an article, I stop myself because it’s not directly useful to you.

    So this is just one big page where I can write all about myself, without feeling the need for it to be useful. And some day this site will be all that’s left of me, so I might as well write my own mini autobiography.

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    A Substack Publication Shares Subscription Data

    SpyTalk is a Substack publication covering national security topics, with an emphasis on U.S. intelligence operations, both foreign and domestic. In other words, spy stuff.

    On December 18, the publication shared some interesting subscriber numbers:

    Subscriptions more than doubled, from 4,840 in the last week of December 2021 to this week’s 10,474. Fully paid subscriptions . . . rose nearly 25 percent, from 510 to 636.

    The publication charges $99 for a year or $9.95 for a month so that would translate to gross income of about $6,300 a month. Less than 1% of subscribers pay.

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    Blogger Describes Move from Squarespace to Ghost

    Blogger Chris Lloyd moved his blog from Squarespace to Ghost and is happy with Ghost. Still he shares Ghost’s negatives:

    • Bulk editing of posts - Maybe not essential when you are just starting, but you can’t bulk edit posts, for instance, to change tags. This functionality exists in WP and would be very helpful. I suspect you can do it if you are self-hosting or can code.
    • Images - It is primarily a text-based tool. So probably unfair to judge it on images, but there are two areas I find annoying. It does not store images you have used (like WP does), so if you want to use a separate post, you need to upload it again. There doesn’t seem to be a way to move an image from one post to another if you decide to combine two drafts. Only small things, but a little annoying.
    • Coding - Any changes to the theme require coding. That means you cannot edit anything if you don’t know how to code.
    • Links - Probably my ignorance, but I can not find a way to set it up, so external links open in a new tab.

    […]

    • No app - There is no native app for editing on your phone. Although it is relatively good on safari on a mobile
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    Why Creating Links to Open New Browser Windows is Probably Not a Good Practice

    I want to thank Sven Dahlstrand for taking the time to explain to me why opening external links in a new tab is probably not a good practice. Sven helpfully referred me to a page written by usability experts   Jakob Nielsen and Anna Kaley explaining:

    Since 1999, it’s been a firm web-usability guideline to refrain from opening new browser windows for several reasons. All of these also apply to opening new browser tabs and are still valid today:

    • More windows or tabs increase the clutter of the user’s information space and require more effort to manage.
    • New windows or tabs can cause disorientation, with users often not realizing that a new window or tab has opened. This problem is exacerbated on mobile, where the old window is never visible.
    • Less-technical users struggle to manage multiple windows and tabs, especially on mobile. (On tablets, where users can have both multiple windows and tabs for the browser, it’s even more confusing.)
    • New windows or tabs prevent the use of the Back button for returning to the previous page and force the user to spend effort to find their way back to the previous content.
    • New windows or tabs are not inclusive for blind or low-vision users — especially when they open outside of the area that’s magnified.

    I had been opening external links in a new tab in the hope of keeping visitors on my site but I had not thought about the confusion this can cause, especially on mobile:

    Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user’s machine, the strategy is self-defeating since it disables the _Back _button which is the normal way users return to previous sites. Users often don’t notice that a new window has opened, especially if they are using a small monitor where the windows are maximized to fill the screen. So a user who tries to return to the origin will be confused by a grayed-out _Back _button.

    Jakob Nielsen

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    Blogger Explains Move from Squarespace to Ghost

    Appsntips:

    I decided to move my blog away from Squarespace. The main reason behind the move was that Squarespace is a full-fledged website builder and not necessarily focused on publishers. That meant, I had to deal with many unwanted problems. The biggest problem being the site speed. My website was incredibly slow on Squarespace and I wanted something fast and nimble.

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    Since the backend of Squarespace is built to help you create a website with simple drag and drop tools, it is bloated. That means the backend is very slow and you will feel it every time you create a post.

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    Another reason Squarespace is not good for publishers is website speed. Google punishes you heavily for a slow website, and my blog on Squarespace was excruciatingly slow. It constantly scored below 10 and 40, in mobile and desktop page speeds respectively. That not only means that Google was not ranking my articles, it also meant readers had a bad experience on my website.

    This completely jives with my experience. Jakob Nielsen, a web usability expert, explains that slow response times are the worst offender against web usability: “Users don’t care why response times are slow. All they know is that the site doesn’t offer good service: slow response times often translate directly into a reduced level of trust and they always cause a loss of traffic as users take their business elsewhere.”

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    Blogging Makes My Writing Better

    Steve Hodgson explains why he blogs rather than just writing in a diary or a journal:

    I think the answer is that writing to publish, and the idea of someone reading it, helps me to make it the best writing I can. I don’t actually know how many people read these little articles but you (whether you are real or not) are important to help me distill these thoughts down to their essence.

    Steve has been blogging for more than ten years. He calls his blog “Sulluzzu” because it is his wife’s favorite word. It means hiccups which Steve says seems to fit with how regularly he updates his blog.

    It’s interesting to learn what motivates bloggers.

    Steve is on Micro.blog as @BestofTimes.

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    Squarespace Sites and Google PageSpeed Insights

    Studio Mesa, a website that sells premium Squarespace templates, explains:

    Even with all the optimization in the world, Squarespace websites are doomed to a poorly-performing status due to it’s built-in CMS. To put it simply, Squarespace uses a Content Management System (CMS) to make it easy for users to build sites. Instead of writing code, you’re able to visually drag-and-drop blocks. This is great for designing, but this ease is what causes the performance to drop catastrophically. This is bad news for virtually ALL Squarespace users, no matter the version, amount of content, or efforts to optimize.

    Even so, today his site is on Squarespace

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    ‘Getting back to actual blogging’

    Christina (CJ) Jones explains her blogging history and why she is resuming her blog in 2023:

    My first blog was on Blogger, then transitioned to Livejournal. I owe a lot to Livejournal. It’s where I found my passion in design, friends from different places and understanding a world outside of my small town in North Carolina. My writing was all over the place, mainly middle and high school angst, and I didn’t care what people thought of my when I wrote it. Here’s to tapping into that mindset again.

    Jones blogs on Squarespace. It’s a nice looking blog.

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    Personal Websites Provide Creative Freedom

    Matthias Ott, a web designer from Stuttgart, on the value of personal websites:

    Your personal website is a place that provides immense creative freedom and control. It’s a place to write, create, and share whatever you like, without the need to ask for anyone’s permission. It is also the perfect place to explore and try new things, like different types of posts, different styles, and new web technologies. It is your playground, your platform, your personal corner on the Web.

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    Blogging: ‘A Space of My Own’

    Vincent Ritter explaining why he blogs:

    This site acts as portal to my past and present self that one day I can look back on, on my steps forward and also missteps along the way. Life isn’t a straight road, so it’s nice to have a space of my own to share and reflect on.

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