Blogging: Weekly Summary (November 17-23, 2025)

A week of blogging notes and small revolutions

This week felt a bit like opening a box of mixed postcards. Some were glossy and shouted for attention. Some were dog-eared and warm, the kind you keep in a shoebox. I would describe the posts here as a mix of tech fiddling, plain feelings about place and people, and quiet arguments for why writing still matters — even when platforms try to tell us otherwise.

You’ll see some clear threads. One is about where blogs live now: on WordPress, on ActivityPub, pushed out to Mastodon and X, or quietly served from a static site host. Another is about why people keep writing: nostalgia, discipline, curiosity, a need to explain things. And then there’s a little tug-of-war about scale and style — niche authority vs influencer reach, the charm of small blogs vs the convenience of big tools.

The protocol conversation: ActivityPub, Mastodon, WordPress

A couple of posts this week brought the plumbing up front. daveverse wrote twice about the same knot: how to make your blog show up as part of the fediverse, how to make WordPress talk to ActivityPub, and how that gets you into Mastodon-style networks. He’s practically evangelical about text features on the social web. To me, it feels like he’s looking for the neighborhood radio station, not the corporate streaming playlist. That analogy sounds odd, maybe, but what he’s pushing for is a simple signal: let the words travel where people already are.

On the other hand, his posts also point out the limits. He mentions Bluesky like someone who’s tried to call a friend and got voicemail. There’s interest in connecting, but not all platforms are equally generous about letting blogs in. Dave’s point, plain as soup on a cold day, is that if WordPress advertised ActivityPub more — showed the world “yes, this site speaks the same language” — then discovery would be easier. Kind of like putting a sign out front that says, “Hey, we deliver across town.”

It’s a small, practical fight. But I’d say it’s one of those fights that matters if you care about independence. There’s a tech side — how to set it up — and a social side — will people notice and use it? For those curious about the how, Dave’s posts point you at the work. And for those who remember the early blogosphere — the days of weblogs.com and simple syndication — it reads like someone trying to start a revival tent meeting.

Tools and trade-offs: SSGs, Netlify, and the comfort of hosted services

A related note on tooling came from kev_quirk, who nudged at a conversation about why folks still bother with complex local builds and DIY hosting. He argues, reasonably, that for a low-traffic personal site, services like Netlify or GitHub Pages are almost too good to pass up. They’re cheap, require no late-night maintenance, and they just work.

To me, that argument sits beside Dave’s. One person wants protocol-level openness; another wants simple deployment. They’re not incompatible. You can host on Netlify and still use ActivityPub with the right bridge. But the tension is real. It’s like choosing between cooking from scratch or ordering the family pot pie — both feed you, but the experience is different, and some people really like the ritual.

Fixes and tiny hacks: the practical advice people need

A few posts were the kind of small, immediate help that makes a blogger’s day. matthew_cassinelli shared a neat trick for when images won’t show up on X (formerly Twitter): append a random query parameter to the URL so the card gets re-fetched. It’s the kind of thing you’d pass on over coffee. Quick, slightly cheeky, and it works.

Similarly, joseph_hendrix gave a very nuts-and-bolts readout of blog metrics for November — sessions, page views, search impressions, AdSense numbers, Moz authority. Not glamorous. But if you keep a blog for an audience, these are the signals you wring your hands over. It’s a reminder that blogging lives in both the heady world of ideas and the spreadsheet of reality.

The personal beat: attachments, insomnia, and why we keep writing

There was a strong current of personal stuff this week. angadh_nanjangud@angadh.com wrote about leaving Northern California and how hard it is to pull emotional roots out of the ground. To me, it reads like someone packing away a vinyl record collection — every item pulls you back. He talks about friendships made at Inkhaven, the ache of distance, and the worry that a routine of daily blogging might falter when the place changes. You don’t need elaborate language for that to hit home. It’s the same feeling you get when you leave a town where everyone knows your name.

A different kind of personal note came from chronosaur_us. The writer rattled off the insomnia blues and the fog that comes with perimenopause. It’s an intimate piece about energy, timing, and the way your own body can feel like a bad landlord. There’s a cultural angle here too — younger generations get lectures about self-care, while those of a certain age are still figuring out how to translate symptoms into language that doctors and friends understand. The post is a good reminder: blogging isn’t always a neat racket of ideas. Sometimes it’s the place you throw down the messy, late-night human stuff.

Why people keep at it: decade-long threads and career notes

Rachel Thomas wrote a piece that’s both a pat on the back and a how-to. She’s been at it for ten years and reflects on what it takes to keep writing things people actually read. Her voice is citizen-scientist meets schoolteacher. She pushes back on common narratives in tech and education, challenges the easy moral assumptions about AI, and underlines that good work takes time and careful reading. She’s the sort of writer who makes you feel smarter and guilty in the same paragraph. I’d say her posts are the sort you go back to when you want to ground an argument.

Bryan Caplan similarly turned toward gratitude. He talked about the shift in audience — from academic referees to everyday readers — and why the blog format lets him make original points without the slow churn of peer review. It’s a tiny manifesto for the blog as a place for quick, careful thinking.

And then there was a writing-focused entry from thezviwordpresscom called "On Writing #2". It touched on authenticity, daily practice, AI’s place in the process, and the danger of optimizing for influence rather than clarity. It echoed a pattern I noticed across multiple posts: people are wary of the influencer model. They want to write because they have something to say, not because they want to hit some follower metric. It’s like preferring honest home cooking over a flashy food truck stunt.

Personal blogs are back — and niche blogs might be next

Two posts dug at the question of scope. john_lampard@disassociated.com wrote about the comeback of personal blogs and wondered whether niche blogs could stage a revival. His tone was a little mournful about the loss of quirky, specialized media swallowed by private equity. He’s both protective of the odd corners of the web and a realist about the market. He wants a return to reliable, well-researched niche writing — the kind that’s not engineered to be sharable on demand.

That idea shows up again in "Why Write Online?" by daniel_industries@daniel.industries. He argues for the enduring value of niche and personal writing in a world full of attention farms. To me, these posts feel like people trying to keep a garden alive while developers build shopping malls nearby. They’re suspicious of shiny metrics and long for focused communities.

Then there’s "Niche blogs are just too weird, their presence cannot be tolerated," also by john_lampard@disassociated.com, which flips from lament to a sharper critique about the homogenization of media. He points out how outlets that were once delightfully odd got absorbed and sanitized. It’s a cultural complaint, sure, but it’s also practical: who’s going to care for the smallest, oddest niches when investors demand scale? The answer feels bleak unless readers take a role. Maybe you and I have to be the patrons. I’d say that’s a call-to-arms disguised as nostalgia.

Feed readers and blogrolls: small rituals that matter

Lars-Christian Simonsen posted his November blogroll twice this week — maybe a duplicate, maybe an insistence. He talks about managing a feed reader full of treasures and trash. The point is charmingly old-school: subscribe, skim, surprise yourself. He admires writers who keep a distinct voice. He likes clarity and the personal stamp — the sort of thing that makes a blog worth visiting on a rainy afternoon.

There’s something comforting about the blogroll idea. It’s like a farmer’s market where people show up with their best jars. You can find a narrow thing — a blog about knitting historic socks, say — and it will be ridiculously satisfying. Feed readers are a tiny, overlooked infrastructure for that pleasure. They’re as important as good bookmarks.

Creativity and daily making: Dogroll, Daily Creates, and the joy of the process

CogDogBlog had a piece that reads like a friendly nudge: "Dogroll in Space: Making a Daily Create." The author walks through the joy of sharing the messy middle of a creative project, specifically a playful digital art exercise using Photoshop’s Generative Fill. It’s not a deep technical paper. It’s a wink: show your process, not just the glossy final thing. And that’s the heart of many blogs. We like to see the recipe, the spilled flour, the burnt bits.

That creative impulse is a small but steady current across the week’s posts. People like sharing the journey, the odd bits, the studio shots. For readers, it’s like watching a friend build a birdhouse: you learn, you cheer, and you might get inspired to try your own.

Celebrations and anniversaries: WordPress turns 20

John Scalzi dropped a short note celebrating WordPress’s 20th birthday. He’s grateful, calmly so. He credits WordPress for letting writers focus on content and community rather than fiddling with every last technical detail. If you’re into tools that let you just write, this is the kind of thank-you note that makes you nod. It’s a practical love letter to a platform that became reliable, like a good pair of boots.

The weird and the wide: Atlas of Links and eclectic digressions

Étienne Fortier-Dubois put together an "Atlas of Links" that’s all over the map — literal and figurative. He spans history, tech, art, and micro-nations. It’s a reminder that blog writing can be an online parlor: you sit down, pour tea, and someone starts telling an oddly specific story about how color in medieval art matters. It’s delightful and scattered in a good way.

Those link roundups do something important. They teach readers to be interested in the connectedness of things. They say, in effect, "Look at this small thing, and now see how it opens to another." If you want a taste of intellectual curiosity, these are the posts to skim and then follow the rabbit holes.

Metrics, money, and audience care

A few of the week’s entries remind you that blogging is also an attention economy. Joseph Hendrix gave us the spreadsheets. Bryan Caplan acknowledged the readers who make open writing possible. The tension shows up again: if you want to be independent, you still need an audience. If you want an audience, you must decide whether to chase growth or build trust.

John Lampard’s pieces worry that consolidation — private equity buying quirky outlets — strips the web of its flavor. That’s a real threat to the kind of trust you get from long-running niche blogs. But there’s a counterweight: passionate readers who subscribe, tip, or simply share. It’s an old economic pattern. Think of your local corner shop versus the supermarket chain: one has personality; the other has scale.

Style and practice: clarity, honesty, and the writing life

Across the week, writers returned to a few craft ideas. Writers want clarity. They want daily practice. They dislike optimizing for virality. thezviwordpresscom pressed on authenticity, and Rachel Thomas preached careful research. These aren’t revolutionary prescriptions. They’re more like the rules you tell a young baker: keep the oven honest, weigh the flour, taste as you go.

There was also a thread about audience engagement that’s worth noting. People are more likely to respond to personal honesty than slick headlines. They’ll forgive uneven formatting or a ragged sentence if the writer is real. I’d say that registers in the tone of many posts this week: plain language, small digressions, and a tolerance for little imperfections.

A few recurring disagreements

If you look for friction, it’s there but soft. One debate is about infrastructure — control versus convenience. kev_quirk likes the convenience of hosted services. daveverse pushes for openness at the protocol level. You can sit between them and be happy, but the tension colors other choices: who owns discovery, who pays for maintenance, who controls interoperability.

Another disagreement is cultural. john_lampard@disassociated.com is sharp about the erosion of odd corners by commercial consolidation. Others ask whether niche blogs can monetize without becoming bland. It’s the same old problem: how to keep the shop small and soulful without starving.

Little technical gems and practical takeaways

• Want images to reappear on X? matthew_cassinelli suggests appending a random query string. It’s dumb-simple and it works.
• If you run a static site and care about not babysitting servers, check out Netlify or GitHub Pages. kev_quirk makes the case for convenience over obsessive control.
• If you want federated reach, daveverse reminds you to make ActivityPub visible and to promote the connection. Think of it like putting up a sign that your place speaks the same language as the neighbors’ radio.

These aren’t deep how-tos, just nudges. But often a nudge is enough to get you moving.

Who’s speaking to whom

The voices this week were mostly seasoned. There’s warmth, a little weary pragmatism, and a steady dislike for performative influence. Rachel Thomas, Bryan Caplan, and thezviwordpresscom carried the writing-and-reason camp. johnlampard@disassociated.com and danielindustries@daniel.industries sounded more cultural alarm bells about the fate of niche voices. daveverse pushed the technology angle. CogDogBlog and Étienne Fortier-Dubois reminded us of the joy of eccentricity.

It’s a friendly chorus, honestly. They disagree sometimes, but they’re mostly pleading for varied, careful, local writing.

Little tangents that matter

I found myself returning to small images: a blogroll is like a front porch you visit on Sunday; ActivityPub is a shared post office; niche blogs are heirloom seeds. These metaphors are a little silly, but they stick. And they help explain why people are fighting small, local fights instead of marching for grand change.

There’s also the emotional thread. The piece about leaving Northern California is about physical place but it’s also about identity. The insomnia post is about the body reclaiming its voice. These personal moments are a reminder that blogging is where people practice being alive in public.

For the curious reader

If you want to poke around deeper: read daveverse for the ActivityPub nudge, matthewcassinelli for the X image trick, and angadhnanjangud@angadh.com if you like moving-aways and the small griefs that come with them. Rachel Thomas has the decade-of-writing reflections if you want to learn how someone keeps an audience’s trust. For a practical, numbers-driven look, check Joseph Hendrix. If you like a smorgasbord of links and detours, Étienne Fortier-Dubois will give you rabbit holes.

These pieces are short invitations rather than full courses. They point, they sketch, and sometimes they fix one small problem so you can get back to work. If you’re a reader, you’ll find something to click. If you’re a writer, you’ll find both company and a little friction to think about.

So there it is: a week where some people fixed images, others mourned odd little corners of the web, and a few insisted we keep the plumbing open. It’s like a little town council meeting where some talk building permits and others talk the town square. Read the posts if you want the full flavor — each link tastes different, and some of them are surprisingly comforting, like grandma’s stew. Happy reading.