I discovered the #blogQuestionsChallange hashtag on Mastodon a few days ago. Initially, Ava on Bear Blog came up with the challenge, which was bear-blog-specific. Kev Quirk liked the idea and adapted the question to be platform-independent. And long story short: I like it. Here are my answers. 🙂
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I like blogs. It’s a great way to share knowledge, thoughts, and rants in a way you feel comfortable. Do you like long-form writing? No problem. Or maybe you are like me and prefer creating shorter posts? Your blog, your choice. This concept always resonated with me. Also, coming from a software development background, blogging for some reason felt like a good useful thing to do.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
Simple question, not so simple answer. Let’s start with the fact: At the time of writing, my blogging platform is WordPress. I chose it because of its convenience. Here are a few of my reasons
- The block editor is really awesome and makes writing super simple
- Adding images is easy and with the “Instant Images” plugin you can upload images from Unsplash, Giphy, and other platforms with a single click
- The WordPress app on my phone makes it easy to create drafts on the run
- WordPress updates automatically (at least the minor versions) ❤️
- It runs on my server on Uberspace (best hoster ever) and the installation was super straight-forward, thanks to their documentation
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
Yes. I was tempted to answer with “Yes, on all of them”, but that might be slightly exaggerated. 😄 But the truth is, I have blogged on a range of different platforms before, with a lot of different domains. 🙈
If have blogged on
- WordPress
- Hashnode
- Squarespace
- Hugo
- Blogger
- a custom blogging engine I created myself using C#
It was a lot of fun to create a custom blogging platform. I learned a lot about authentication, rendering markdown, and so much other stuff. But it turned out to be quite some maintenance effort for such a platform (who would have thought it 🙈). That’s why I switch to a more standard platform again.
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 already mentioned that in a previous question. I use the block editor on my WordPress instance. It’s really comfortable.
If I’m on the run, I use the WordPress iOS app to drop my thoughts into a draft. Later when I’m on my laptop, I use the block editor to do the actual writing of the post.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Hard to say. There is no specific scenario or setting that sparks inspiration for me. It can be on the train, during a video call with my colleagues, while sitting on the couch, or in any other setting. The most important thing in that moment is to have the possibility to quickly note down my thoughts.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
#teamPublishImmediately (after proofreading of course).
What’s your favorite post on your blog?
I’m not sure I have a favorite post, but I’m super happy whenever someone tells me he/she found something useful or inspiring on my blog. Even though I’m mostly writing for myself, it’s cool to see that others benefit from my blog posts as well.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
I just moved my blog to a new platform (WordPress) and with that also to a new design very recently. Therefore, my most important plan for this blog is to be more consistent with my writing. In the past, I wrote only a few posts every year. I’m shooting for at least one post every month. But we will see how this turns out. 😄 As mentioned before, I’m in #teamPublishImmediately. So I don’t write posts in advance and give them a publishing date somewhere in the future. Whenever I have a post ready, it will go live.