Blogging: Weekly Summary (October 06-12, 2025)

There was a lot going on in the blogging world this week. It felt like walking into a busy farmers market where everyone has slightly different jars of chutney, and some people are handing out recipes while others are arguing about what makes a good tomato. I would describe the posts I read as practical, occasionally cranky, often affectionate, and more than a little stubborn about what personal publishing means. To me, it feels like the crowd is split between tinkering with the tools and worrying about how the internet is changing the actual work of writing. I’d say there’s also a steady undercurrent of care — people are trying to keep spaces that matter to them, even if those spaces are messy.

Tools, builds, and the small victories

A few posts dug into the mechanics of publishing. Leon Mika walked through the grind of setting up Blogging Tools and deploying a Hugo site to Netlify. It’s the sort of post I like because it shows the trips and stumbles. There was a Git remote reference kerfuffle, a scratch container that needed directories, and the little detail about making sure the commit author is set right. In the end, a podcast clip feature landed on the site. The styling was still pending, but the feature worked. This is hands-on, under-the-hood blogging stuff. If you’ve ever spent an evening trying to make a build step behave, you’ll nod along.

Related to that, Ben Borgers shared a tidy bit on calculating related posts with vector embeddings. He used a local embeddings model and built similar-post suggestions at build time, caching embeddings so it runs fast without hitting external APIs every time. To me, this feels like that clever thing you do in your kitchen to save time: batch-cook on Sunday and heat it up over the week. It’s not flashy, but it makes the blog feel smarter without adding much runtime cost. If you want the technical crumbs, Ben lays them out simply and you can follow the trail.

Jim Nielsen’s post about social share imagery is a small policy change with practical impact. He changed his mind on the subject and started embedding og:image-like previews directly in markdown via a data-attribute trick. It’s one of those moves that makes a site feel considered on social platforms without turning every post into a billboard. I would describe his approach as pragmatic: imagery as invitation, not obligation. If you care how your posts appear on feeds when someone hits share, Jim’s note is worth a quick read.

And then there was the Octothorpe progress update from Anthony Ciccarello. Tagging, microformats2 harmonizing, and webmention sending. It reads like the scaffolding of discovery channels for personal blogs. If you think of the web as a neighborhood, Anthony is fixing the street signs so people can find houses again.

Platforms, moves, and the itch to go home

Moving platforms came up more than once. Greg Morris wrote twice in the week, once about moving back to Ghost and another time about not giving content away for free. His move reads like deciding to cook at home rather than eat out. Ghost costs money, sure, but it gives control and the simplicity of posting without social features that felt awkward or unwanted. He also critiques the idea that being on a social network equals ownership of your work. I’d say his posts are a reminder: you can trade convenience for control, and some people are choosing control again.

There’s a matching note from Jason Journals — he returned to Feedly and also wrote about quitting social media. His tone is weary. He talks about the overload of hot takes and AI-generated fluff, and how the feed economy favors noise. His Delete Day note is almost ceremonial. To me, it feels like tidying up a garage: you throw away old boxes and discover whole things you forgot you owned. Jason hopes a back-to-blogging movement might nudge people into more real conversation.

Those moves intersect with the question of what a blog should be. Robert Birming talks about juggling two blogs — a slow, serious space and a playful micro.blog one. He found comfort keeping them separate. It’s the digital equivalent of having two pairs of shoes: boots for heavy walking and sneakers for goofing about. He admits it’s indecisive at times, but the separation helped. That’s a small, humane suggestion: you don’t have to force your voice into one shape.

Community rituals: Blaugust and the afterfeels

Blaugust is part contest, part campfire. Nik Kantar wrote about the Afterfeels: awards, progress, and that strange mix of pride and relief at the end of a challenge. He wrote more than in the previous eleven months, but the consistency wavered. His takeaway is about community as much as output. Community nudges you forward. It’s like being in a choir — you might miss a note, but the group keeps the song alive. Nik’s reflection is honest and a little tired, in a good way.

That sense of longevity shows up again in Seth Werkheiser posting DO IT FOR A DECADE. His piece argues for sticking with the long game instead of chasing quick wins. The tone is old-school patient: treat blogging like building furniture slowly rather than buying a shiny cupboard and hoping it lasts. His 25 years of blogging is a quiet rebuttal to optimization-first thinking. If anything, it’s one of those reminders you put on the fridge.

The craft of writing, the itch to make different work

A few posts lean into the writerly side. Matan Abudy wrote about breaking a six-month silence and wanting to write without worrying about the perfect homepage. He name-checks combatdavey and Simon Willison as folks who inspired him and wants to lower his own bar for what counts as worthwhile posting. That’s relatable. I’d say it’s like deciding to sketch again after years of hoarding pencils.

Manu — writing as Linda Ma — shared a personal arc from Budapest to Berlin with design and sociology in the background. It’s less tactical and more intimate. It reads like an interview with an old friend who tells you stories about family dinners and design projects. The post is generous, and it reminds readers that personal blogs are often where identity and work blur in interesting ways.

There’s also the sex blogging piece from Girl on the Net. It’s a careful, almost ethnographic look at how small details matter in sexual memory and desire. The tone is thoughtful and very specific. The piece treats desire like a hobby, like collecting stamps. It’s a reminder that niche blogs can be places for deep attention, for noticing the tiny things that matter.

Formats, multimedia, and the slow adoption of video

Rubenerd wrestled with how to write about retrocomputing. New hardware messes with the impulse to write. He admires video creators for conveying motion and detail, and floats the idea of recorded livestreams. He isn’t trying to become a polished videographer overnight. Instead, he’s considering casual recordings as a compromise — like taking a shaky phone clip to capture a moment instead of staging a full production. To me, it feels like a sensible experiment: if writing is getting stuck, try another medium for the same idea.

Podcast clips showed up too. Leon’s new feature is about short audio snippets attached to posts. It’s not full podcasting, but it’s more than text. That small bridge between text and audio keeps the blog feeling alive. There’s a practical rhythm here: text is searchable, audio feels immediate. Both have value.

Discovery, metadata, and the quiet plumbing of the web

A few people are thinking about how posts find people. Anthony’s Octothorpe work is one thread. Jim’s social imagery trick is another. Then there's the short note about tagging and discovery. These things are the pipes and labels of the web. They don't look sexy, but when they work, you can find posts weeks or months later without squinting.

Technical folks like Ben and Leon are quietly doing the plumbing — embeddings for related posts, CI/CD for reliable deploys. It’s like fixing a leaky roof: boring work, but everyone sleeps better afterwards.

Ownership, value, and the temptation of the quick like

There’s a running argument about where value lives. Greg’s Free Content post pushes back on the myth that being on a social network equals ownership. He argues people misread participation for proprietorship. He also said he doesn’t want to give everything away for free. It’s a tone that is half-economic, half-practical: if a platform decides the rules, your content is at its mercy.

Kev Quirk’s note about influencer language versus classic blogging hits a similar chord. He contrasts calls to like, share, and subscribe with the quieter norms of blogging — the idea of writing to start a conversation, not to engineer growth. Kev’s piece is a gentle moral argument. To me, it feels like being told to leave the megaphone off now and then.

At the same time, Jason’s Delete Day piece warns of AI-created low-quality content and the divisive effect of algorithmic feeds. His vision of a group quitting social platforms and returning to blogs reads like a mass exodus back to village life after a bad season in the city. It’s hopeful and a little unreal, perhaps, but the desire behind it is clear: people want slower conversations.

Small experiments and personal projects

There are smaller notes that sneak up and stay with you. Anthony’s microformats harmonizer is one. Jim’s data-attribute trick is another. Ben’s embeddings are practical. These are the type of posts that don't scream for attention. They quietly change how your site behaves. If you run a blog, you might shift something after reading one of them without thinking much about it.

There’s also the short, excited updates. Jason Journals returning to Feedly is basically saying he wants a simpler front page for reading. Matan lowering his expectations is an invitation to write badly to write more. These are little course corrections.

Style and voice: personal, stubborn, and varied

Voice matters in these posts. Some are intensely practical and a touch dry — the CI/CD notes and embeddings piece. Others are lantern-lit: confessions about long silences, moving countries, or moving platforms. A few get jazzy and niche — Linda Ma’s cultural notes or Girl on the Net’s sensual focus. The mix is wide and that’s good.

To me, the week’s collection feels like a neighbourhood with a hardware store, a cafe, and a few people playing bluegrass on a porch. You get tool talk, you get stories, you get philosophical grumbling about the platform dynamics. I’d say the recurring themes are clear: control versus convenience, slow publishing versus quick reach, and the art of sticking with the long game.

Threads that knit many posts together

• Control and platform choice: Greg’s move back to Ghost, Robert’s two-blog solution, and people worrying about social networks all point to the same tension. Do you want the polish of a platform or the mess and freedom of your own space?

• Discovery and plumbing: Anthony, Jim, Ben, and Leon are all, in different ways, fixing how posts are found, previewed, or linked. It’s nerdy but crucial.

• Format play: text, audio, short videos or livestreams — Ruben, Leon, and a few others are experimenting with bringing other media into the blog.

• The long view: Nik’s Blaugust reflection and Seth’s decade advice are companions. People are thinking about keeping blogging as habit, not as rapid-fire growth.

• Value and ownership: Free content, influencer talk, and quitting social media — authors are asking where real value lives, and who gets to set the rules.

You’ll find disagreements too, but they are small. Most people seem to agree that blogs are worth tending. They just disagree on how to do it, and that’s kind of the point.

Little tangents and final curiosities

There are a couple of small tangents worth mentioning. Accipiter Nova took a detour into naming instrument characters after a new track by Thomas Bergersen and hinted at a future post about AI and copyright. It’s a neat reminder that blog topics jump around. Also, Ruben’s longing to record livestreams might lead to more tactile retrocomputer posts. If people try these experiments, the next week could look different.

If you want to dig deeper, follow the links. Read the deploy horror stories, the slow-moving personal essays, the microformat plumbing notes, and the debates about value. There’s something usable in almost every post — a config change, a permissioned view of how to live with a platform, or a reminder to keep writing. It’s like borrowing a recipe for jam and then realizing you prefer the lemon zest in your own version. The recipes are there, but the final flavor is yours.