Relaunching old, launching new, and reactivating a dormant account
Posted on Monday November 9, 2015
This blog post is atypical to me: it is not a long-form essay. But it may be the most important post I will write in a while. Keep on reading to see why.
Relaunching the blog
First of all, I am relaunching my blog. And yes, you are right, this “relaunch” does not come with any major changes to the look of the blog. All the changes are under-the-hood changes that should make the blog more accessible and easier to browse[1]. Actually, some of these changes has been live for a while, so you may have noticed them already[2]. The most notable things are that there is now a main page for the blog that shows a summary of the latest few blog posts and that there are similar summary pages for the various tags I have used in my blog posts.
Furthermore, there is now an RSS feed for the blog that you can subscribe to. That feed will contain only the blog posts, but in case you want to subscribe to all future changes of this site (that are not necessarily announced as blog posts), feel free to subscribe to the main RSS feed. Note, however, that neither of these RSS feeds will contain all my blog posts but they will start with my previous blog post. That means that this blog post will be the second item in those feeds.
I hope this relaunch of my blog will posivitely drive me to write more on the blog. I have written maximum 2 posts per year since I started with this site, and in my opinion that is way too seldom. I am not giving any promises how often I will write, but I hope I can start doing it fairly regularly.
Launching my new microblog: Blips
Alongside with the blog relaunch, I am launching my new microblog, Blips. Why I am creating my own microblog when there are popular existing microblogging platforms, like Twitter and even App.net (that is still alive)? The reason is the very same as for Manton Reece and many other indie web people: I want to own all content I produce. That way I can ensure that everything I write does not go the way of the dodo when the latest and coolest microblogging platform goes belly up[3].
In addition to the main Blips page, the microblog posts will be available as an RSS feed if you want to subscribe to them that way. Unlike the blog RSS feed, the Blips will not be included in the main RSS feed of my site.
Blips will be short, max 140 characters long quick posts that will contain quick comments, questions, et cetera. Why do I call them “Blips”? Because they are short and most likely they are published fairly seldom[4] and at random schedule, they are something relatively small or inconsequential within a larger context[5]. Then why they are max 140 characters long? Well, I think you already guessed…
Reactivating my Twitter account
Yes, you read it right. I am indeed reactivating my Twitter account, @JussiPekonen and I have made it public again. However, you should note, that my tweets will be crossposted Blips and other updates of this site (I will be using the main RSS feed). Furthermore, like my bio says, I will not reply to @mentions nor I will be following anyone. I will, however, receive the mentions and I will read your comments. If you are behaving badly, I will block you. Furthermore, some of the Blips will be posted to my LinkedIn account too, but only when I choose to do so.
What does this reactivation of my Twitter account mean to my App.net account? Absolutely nothing. I will continue using App.net until the bitter end, and I will be replying to mentions there. However, I will be crossposting my Blips also to App.net, which means that my NiceRank may take a small hit, but I think I can live with that. I have not cared about these kinds of things before, so why should I start now?
In summary, this website will become my publishing hub for all kinds of content. Everything[6] I will write will be published here first and crossposted to other media after it has appeared here. If you do not like that, you can stop following me now.
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However, I am not adding search functionality to this site. I will write about why I chose to do so in a future post. ↩
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Of course you have not noticed, you have not been here since my latest blog post, right? ↩
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Yes, when. It is only a matter of time. The platforms cannot either make it or people get bored of them. ↩
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By seldom I mean a handful of times per week. More often than I will write blog posts, though. ↩
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I found that definition to match the best, though the other definitions also describe them well. ↩
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Well, almost everything. I will be still posting to App.net as I have been. ↩