The future of this website

on article #programming #life

I haven’t posted here in a while, mostly because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this blog website. Recently, the Indie Web has gained popularity as an escape from algorithm-driven content and AI-generated noise. Another thing that resonated with me was the essay A programmer’s loss of a social identity which put some of the feelings that have been bothering me in the past months (often subconsciously) into words. All of this (and many other things) made me realise I don’t want to give up on this website yet; I just need some inspiration to shape it.

Journalling

I’ve been interested in journalling probably since I learned how to write - like every kid in the early 2000s, I had notebooks with silly little locks. In high school, I discovered MySpace - one of the best things to ever exist on the internet. It taught me basic HTML and CSS skills before I even decided to study Informatics. Later came Facebook, but I didn’t stick around long after it became mainstream and I became interested into privacy, along with other Reasons why I don’t use Facebook. I also tried blogging on LiveJournal for a few years but eventually moved ✨here✨. My Twitter account, originally created for a job interview, lasted until it stopped being called Twitter. The only social media account of mine that survived* is Instagram - though it’s unrecognisable from the simple photo-sharing app it was in 2013. I keep it to stay in touch with friends, follow interesting content creators and watch the occasional silly reel, but one day I might get mad enough at Meta to finally deactivate it.

* that excludes sharing my analog photos on Lomography and Flickr which fall into the photo-sharing community category

Online identity

Reflecting on the various the social media profiles I’ve held, I realised that these platforms are inherently transient. This website is the only piece of my online identity that I truly control. My main struggle with maintaining a blog was that my topics felt disparate - it was never stritly a “tech blog”, nor was it purely about hobbies or daily life. I value consistency, yet I could not force my interests into a single box. Everything clicked after I discovered the concept of now page. Moving away from traditional, chronological blogging toward digital gardening feels like the right path for me. My online identity doesn’t need to be perfectly curated; after all, I’m only human. The collection of random things I care about is exactly what makes me who I am.

It’s a start

  • Jekyll Upgrade: I’ve used this static site generator from the start and finally updated it to the latest version. The process was much less painful than I anticipated, and while there are newer alternatives out there, I’m sticking with what works for now.
  • Remove Disqus: I finally removed Disqus because it’s become a bloated, ad-heavy corporate tool.
  • The “Now” Page: My goal is to update it every few months to keep this “garden” alive.