You don’t have to blog like me

You don’t have to blog like me.

You don’t have to differentiate by post kind.
You don’t have to put full contents in your feed.
You don’t have to keep a library of “maybe-some-day”
drafts so long that you’ll never reach the bottom.

You don’t have to have a comments form.
Or reactions. Or webmentions.
Or a guestbook. Or drawings?
(But give me some way to say “hi, you’re cool!”)

You don’t have to have a feature image.
You don’t have to keep posts up forever.
You don’t have to have tags.
You don’t have to syndicate to the socials.

You don’t have to stick to one topic.
Or three. Or seventeen.
Or be able to answer “what’s your blog about?”
It’s yours, and that’s enough.

You don’t have to post on a schedule.
You don’t have to use your real name.
You don’t have to have a podcast.
You don’t have to tell everybody.

You don’t have to use any particular tool.
Bloggers who spend their time arguing
About vs vs ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ vs
Could be reading and writing instead.

You don’t have to have a plan to “monetize”.
You don’t have to write your own theme.
You don’t have to be run your own server.
You don’t have to make every post your best.

You just have to blog.

The Internet is ours.
It belongs to the humans.

Not to the companies and the robots.
To us.

And every human voice.
Every single human voice.
Makes the world a little richer.

You don’t have to blog like me.
(You don’t have to use “blog” as a verb.)

You just have to blog.

And if you mention your blog in the comments, below, I promise I’ll go read it.

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9 comments

  1. G G says:

    Amen! I think, like most hobbies, many of us can fall prey to the vagaries of choice that we are faced with. Every time you visit a blog you see another thing you could add, or a different design, or a ‘better’ CMS… I’ve found it freeing to have my blog set up how I want it and to just write.

    1. Dan Q Dan Q says:

      Hi G! I already follow your blog, but I really mangled my comment on your post about this post, didn’t I? What a mess!

  2. juanp32 juanp32 says:

    i have a severely outdated microblog where i sometimes dump how im doing and whatever: https://ihatetehbsod.neocities.org/blag

    1. Dan Q Dan Q says:

      I love a microblog! Me: I throw my tiny idea dumps onto Mastodon, but sometimes they make it here as notes, too. But these things have gotta have a feed, in my mind! RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, h-feed… something!

      That’s my hot take.

      Anyway: I clicked the link because I promised I’d click every one anybody commented and I realised I’d already been there, ‘cos I’ve stalked you from Melonland before! Your website reminds me of my… first? Second, maybe? When I was about your age, anyway!

  3. Colin Walker Colin Walker says:

    Amen to that, Dan.

  4. 256 256 says:

    This post got me to write another post on my blog. https://256-32.com/blog

    There’s no RSS because I don’t think anyone cares enough about my blog.

  5. Sol Nova Sol Nova says:

    stumbled on this browsing around. thanks for this reminder. :) check out my site & show some love to someone new to the #indieweb community.

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