Excursions

I was very lucky with today’s Wordle. My attempt to figure out the characters got me the right result. Was it easy? Well it always is subjective with this game.

Wordle 314 2/6

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I read a lot many long-form posts that are published with Substack these days. I know that’s anecdotal, but I wonder if Substack is becoming a blogging platform of choice for folks now. Or newsletters are newsletters no more? Well, what is a newsletter?

I like when a newsletter is more than just a list of links. Or a bowl of jumbled, unrelated recommendations. Not that I don’t enjoy them — I appreciate the effort that goes in curating these best-of reads. I have found them useful many a time. But deep down, I love reading letters. It reminds me of the days when I used to post handwritten physical mails to my family and close friends. Those words had an innate charm and closeness. I enjoy a newsletter that’s a letter first.

That tangential thought aside, I believe Substack is a publishing platform for newsletters first. But given the way it is set up, it is also a publishing platform for the long-form posts. If you don’t subscribe to a publication, most probably you are going to read it as a blog post. That’s what seems to be happening to me.

I wrote a long post yesterday which, as I read again now, am glad that I did not publish. I had made so many foolish assumptions, ideas half-baked. Thoughts not really thought through. I don’t want my long posts to be any of that.

Holding back on completed posts for a day or two, even after I have taken time to write it, has helped me.

When there are too many things I want to write about, I can’t publish any. I usually then take a pause, scribble a few words and save them as draft in Ulysses. The dashboard interface of Svbtle was pretty unique in that sense - a flow of unpublished ideas it was called. I wish the blogging platforms were bolder with Dashboard’s designs.

After a break of 3 weeks, I sent out the email letter with posts from the last weeks. The posts weren’t many, but I like to write and share these letters. I usually do not write them ahead of time. I do so when I receive the schedule reminder. It gives me a chance to think about and share what’s at the top of my mind now.

Of course, there’s a downside. When life keeps me busy, as it has for the past few weeks, I can’t word these letters. But I have stopped making it too much of an issue. It’s ok if I cannot send the letter out. Anyway, I am not doing this to gather a follower base, but to send a personal letter to the few interested friends.

The Micro.blog Android app has improved a lot over the last 30 days. I must have missed a few updates from @vincent for sure.

Not visiting timelines was refreshing. I don’t think this experiment will stay though. Being stagnant online is not something I like. That’s what I become when I’m not reading other’s thoughts. Funny how our minds work – you give it more space, it stretches and goes to sleep.

I have settled on a platform for my blog which works the best for me — Micro.blog. There are reasons why the other platforms don’t interest me. And I want to talk about them. Why now, you say? Well, recent and sudden interest in the Write.as platform among the folks I follow the words from made me momentarily pause. So here’s the write up, first on why what in Micro.blog works for me.

For starter, it suits well for both the micro and long-form posts. It has apps for all platforms that I primarily use Mac and Android (Web is good for Windows, though I would still love an app there). Quick notes are best made with the apps, especially so from smartphone. For such posts that are long, titled, Ulysses works perfectly well for me. No other CMS can ever work as well as a native application.

The platform is built on Hugo. And I love Hugo. I hosted my blog for the longest with Hugo. I love the submodule systems with Hugo. Building extensions in your templates is so easy, and I have gotten comfortable with it. For a few, it might be PHP and WordPress. However, I could never get comfortable with that.

Manton has added just enough around Hugo to make it even more useful — the APIs, the apps, the social aspects, the open plug-in and theming systems and, the most valuable, its community. I visit the platform for inspiration, and many posts start right there. All this makes Micro.blog a lot more powerful, getting rid of the issues I had with Hugo, mainly the editing workflow with the static site. And I am not even talking about the smarter features life filters, bookmarks, microcasts, newsletters and bookshelves.

Do I use all of them? Of course, not. But the fact that one plan provides me so much over and above the basic blogging functionality is priceless for me.

But what about other platforms?

I have hopped through a lot more platforms than what I am proud of. So, I know what works, and doesn’t work for me. Let me be brief and focus only on what doesn’t work for me with the most frequently talked ones. I don’t want to consider the costing aspects — I can work a way to use them so that they cost effectively the same.

The below notes also give me a ready reference when I get lured by a new platform next time.

WordPress is too busy, too bloated for my liking. I don’t like the CMS. I don’t like the themes. For my style of blogging, frequent quick posts than scheduled thought-out essays, the options and features become a hinderance. I don’t want to think about the title or the tags or the categories or the url. Or excerpt. Sure, I can customise this system just to get it right. But I don’t know (neither do I like) PHP.

Ghost blog looks pretty. Polished. Majority of my posts aren’t that. And again, it bundles too many features that I just can’t connect with. I am not a media publishing house trying to build a business with my blog. I am a dumb person with very basic needs. No “audience”. No business.

Blot is brilliant. Another of those services I have a lot of love for, driven also from my respect to David, the mind behind the service. A brilliant guy, just like his service. But my editing workflow is just not files driven. When I write, I don’t always do that in my text editor. I want a web editor. I want apps. And, having said that, I also want text editors. Not something that Blot supports currently. For some, that’s the ultimate selling point of the service. Not for me.

What about Write.as, the recent entrant? Well, I like the service. I like the simplicity of the editor (I wish Manton got inspired from this one). But it feels far too fragmented. Each feature is a different product. I had noted this recently about the service.

I land on a page which is a blank one with a blinking cursor. Brilliant! But what next? There’s nothing else if you don’t know where to go. I can see my blog posts, edit them. Do you want the community? There is a different product. Pictures you say? That’s another different product.

The workflow is not natural to me. It is a nice, easy service. But it doesn’t work for me. Plus, it lacks the app support. Without mobile apps, I just can’t publish those quick notes anymore.

Of course, I could pick and choose, make multiple platforms host different types of posts for me. I have done that. But I have realised, after a lot of pain, that it’s another hurdle in my posting workflow. Any decision my mind is to make before publishing slows it down, killing my writing productivity completely.

In conclusion, it’s a wonderful time to be blogging again. There’s such a rich set of platforms that can suit every writer’s style. For me, though, Micro.blog works the best, and I am going to stick with it for now. Does that mean I will never consider new or even the above platforms? Well, knowing me, I can never say never.

I am observing huge performance improvements with blogs hosted at Micro.blog recently. I click publish and the post is available both on my blog and the timeline. Wasn’t the case earlier. @manton looks to have done some magic to the backend. If so, kudos!

I’m spending too much time passively reading through the timelines, especially Micro.blog as it’s both my blog host and the social platform I enjoy hanging out at. With it recently becoming the center for my side projects too, it’s been difficult to keep the interests separate.