Blogging: Weekly Summary (December 29 - January 04, 2026)

A quick walk through this week’s blogging chatter

This week felt like walking down a high street where every shop sells something similar, but each owner has their own smell and story. I would describe the posts as a mix of looking back, trying to steady the shopfront, and debating whether to sell coffee or keep burning the midnight oil writing long essays. To me, it feels like folks kept returning to the same few questions: why keep a personal blog, how to make it sustainable, how to be independent from the big platforms, and how discovery actually works now. You’ll see those threads again and again.

Money, incentives, and scaling the craft

Money and incentives came up bluntly in a post that treats blogging like a small business that everyone expects to run for free. @HumanInvariant writes about practical ways to push people into blogging more and to help those already doing it scale — things like proactive and retroactive funding, grant matching, and mentorship. It reads less like a dream and more like a plan for an arts council for bloggers. I’d say that suggestion lands somewhere between Kickstarter and a local co‑op — familiar, useful, maybe awkward to organize, but possible.

Chris Coyier (/a/chris_coyier) makes a related point about money but from another angle: per‑click monetization is dying, and that nudges creators back toward formats like blogs and RSS that keep the reader relationship direct. That’s like preferring to sell bread door‑to‑door rather than pay for a billboard. The bread sells more reliably when the baker knows the customer.

There’s an implicit tension here. Some posts want to make blogging a career. Others want to keep it a practice, hobby, therapy. When people talk money, it’s often about survival and fairness. When others talk art, they worry funding will change the art. That is an old conversation. It’s honest when writers say: we need support to keep doing the work without turning everything into clickbait.

Why people still write: therapy, craft, and occasional fame

A surprising number of posts are quietly proud of longevity and the small wins. Dries Buytaert wrote about 20 years of blogging. That’s not a flex. It’s like someone telling you they’ve kept a little garden through every season. Simon Dalvai and Simon Willison both nudge at the same thing: the value of having a place you control and the weird joy of readers showing up. For some it’s therapeutic. For others, it’s a slow build of reputation and connections.

There are other snapshots: Matheus Lima describes an unexpectedly large readership — 230,000 people in a year — and credits posts about the human side of engineering. That’s telling. Technical content is everywhere, but insights on managing people and relationships are rare. Readers notice. It’s like showing up with a good pie when everyone else brings the same prepackaged snacks.

A few people make it sound personal and necessary. Manu talks about continuing to write because it’s therapeutic and grounding. Hari argues the website itself is ephemeral; the writing is the point. Those are small, stubborn truths that keep coming up.

IndieWeb, personal sites, and the tension with social media

The IndieWeb conversation is alive. There’s a nuanced distinction in John Lampard’s pieces: he separates being a ‘small i’ indie web publisher from being part of the formal IndieWeb community. He muses about POSSE, webmentions, and the idea that your website should stay distinct from social media. That’s a useful split. Some people want all the niceties of social networks on their own site. Others want a site that’s quiet and different. John’s voice makes me think of someone who prefers writing at a kitchen table while everyone else is shouting into the square.

Venkatram (thisdays_portion) pushes this further, warning against recreating social media on your own domain. He values the separation: keep the personal website as a different genre. That’s like having a private diary and not installing a loudspeaker in your living room.

There’s also practical talk about protocols. Posts about webmentions and RSS — and how those small standards keep the relationship between reader and writer real — resurface. James' Coffee Blog writes about community search tools and IndieWeb Discover. It’s the sort of nerdy optimism that imagines a neighborhood noticeboard instead of a corporate billboard.

Discovery, feeds, and the fairness problem

Discovery and visibility came up as well. Herman’s blog (/a/hermansblog) critiques discovery feeds and suggests ways to keep things accessible for newer voices. There’s worry that pre‑existing audiences dominate every algorithm, and the idea of adding upvote or curation mechanisms pops up as a fix. It reads like a town with a favorite café: regulars get seats, newcomers stand at the door. How do you get a fair chance?

Simon Willison shares a data‑driven post on the most popular blogs on Hacker News in 2025. That’s the scoreboard side of discovery. It’s useful and a little cold. In contrast, Khürt Williams credits consistency and community engagement — sharing to the Fediverse, comments that mean something — not raw rankings. Those two takes are not mutually exclusive. Numbers explain parts of reach; community explains stickiness.

There’s also the micro issue of feed vs algorithm. If your content flows into a reader, it’s different than hoping a social feed algorithm will pick you. Chris Coyier warns that RSS is more direct. It’s like getting a letter in the mail instead of a flyer shoved under the door.

Platform churn, themes, and the desire for stability

A lot of writers complained about moving platforms or changing themes. Jack Baty admits to platform hopping and wants to settle down to three main blogs for stability. Later he writes about a loophole where he keeps changing the look but not the platform. That feels human. It’s like moving your furniture around instead of moving house.

Plenty of people talk about platform grief. Monkeynoodle.Org noticed traffic dips after moving from Blogger to WordPress.com. That’s the practical sting — the SEO and the audience that sometimes don’t come with you. Clayton Errington celebrates projects and new tools he built in 2025 and wants to keep momentum. Some posts simply say: keep it small, keep the tech stack simple. Simon Dalvai mentions a minimal stack and direct feedback as being more valuable than analytics. That’s the “less is more” camp.

Metrics, comments, and what actually matters

There’s a clear split: some writers chase numbers; others chase people. Khürt Williams and Ruben Schade both talk about comments and conversations as a meaningful metric. Comments feel like a bench in a park where an actual chat happens.

Then there are the folks who tracked subscriber counts and traffic with pride. Linch Zhang celebrated 1,000 subscribers in six months and lists favorite posts. That’s a reminder: numbers can be fuel and a scoreboard, not a definition.

But a small rumbling appears: metrics aren't the whole story. Joan Westenberg — quoted in Manton Reece’s post — insists that longer posts and thoughtful writing deserve a home. She’s arguing for a craft where small hits don’t erase depth. That’s a pushback against attention being the only currency.

Long form, uncertainty, and the case for slow thinking

Several posts argued for the long read. Roberto Mateu (/a/roberto_mateu@5typos.net) writes beautifully about blogging as a place for uncertainty and iterative thinking. That’s not a new opinion, but it’s warm to see it defended. It’s like keeping a sketchbook even if your phone takes better photos. The process matters.

Manton Reece (/a/manton_reece@manton.org) and others repeat a similar theme: blogging lets you leave a small trail of thinking. You don’t have to be right forever; you can edit, correct, and iterate. It’s comforting. It’s also practical — an archive for later thinking.

There’s a real human quality to this: writers wanting space to explore ideas slowly. A few posts also worry that automation and POSSE make blogs too convenient and, thus, less reflective. Venkatram’s voice comes back here: don’t reproduce social media on your own site.

Small practical things: templates, related posts, themes

Not everything was philosophy. İsmail Şevik offers a hands‑on tutorial for adding a “Related Posts” feature to Blogger. That’s the sort of post you bookmark and come back to when you’re trying to keep someone on your site. Simple code, immediate payoff. There are also theme troubles (Jack Baty again) and the nitty‑gritty of renaming images to make featured images work. These are the gardening tasks of blogging — boring, small, necessary.

Tracy Durnell (/a/tracydurnell) and Clayton Errington (/a/claytonerrington) wrote posts that mix life updates with tooling choices. Reading them is like visiting someone for tea who also happens to be a tinkerer, showing you a new gadget and then telling you about their compost pile.

Niche posts, hobbies, and the small pleasures

Hobby blogging thrives in the dataset. Stuffed Crocodile recounts roleplaying games and conventions. That’s joyful and specific. The Wallflower Digest blends personal milestones, fitness, and everyday anxieties. These posts remind you why people keep a blog — to mark small, meaningful things that don't belong on a timeline.

Even the squid post (Schneier on Security) is charming in its oddity. It’s a reminder that blogging can carry whimsy and personality alongside heavier essays.

Politics, policy, and persuasion

There are a few posts that look at blogging as a tool for persuasion or civic work. Thomas Diluccio (/a/thomas_diluccio) writes about helping political figures with blogging — and the moral choice in doing that. He argues writing can be dialogue, not just marketing. That’s an important, slightly fraught thread: blogs as instruments, not just diaries.

It’s interesting to see the same medium used for quiet self‑work and for trying to sway public opinion. That tension is natural and worth keeping an eye on.

Small experiments in search and discovery tech

A couple of authors tinker with the plumbing: James' Coffee Blog builds community search ideas and Artemis, a personal reader. Simon Willison made a popularity contest for Hacker News blogs. These are nerdy but not irrelevant. They’re the people building alternative paths to discovery — local maps, not Google Maps.

That technical optimism reads like someone making a better bicycle for a small town. It won’t replace the highway, but it might make local travel nicer.

A few common refrains you’ll notice

• People want stability. Many mentions of platform hopping and a wish for fewer changes. It’s the digital version of wanting a steady job or a house that doesn’t leak. Jack Baty and others come back to this point.
• Community beats raw metrics, over and over. Comments, direct messages, and Fediverse shares feel more meaningful than traffic numbers to a surprising number of writers.
• Indie protocols (RSS, webmentions, POSSE) are worth fighting for. They are old‑fashioned tools, but they preserve the direct link between reader and writer.
• Long writing is back in favor. A lot of authors want room to think, revise, and leave traces. That’s less glamourous than virality, but steadier.
• Monetization is messy. There’s a need for sustainable models without turning blogs into ad farms.

Little cultural notes and neighborhood references

Some of the posts carry a regional flavour or cultural references. One writes in French (Cafélog). Another dips into Turkish with practical code notes. There’s talk about Glasgow and the Azure user group. It feels like a small, international village: a Glasgow meetup one week, a Paris café reflection the next. The tone is often like a local pub conversation — you get the gossip, the plans, and the occasional bar fight about which blogging platform is best.

There’s a bit of nostalgia too. Twenty years of blogging, people who remember when RSS felt cutting edge, the first time they installed a blog theme. That nostalgia is gentle. It’s like looking at an old vinyl record and smiling.

Who’s arguing and who’s agreeing

There isn’t a big fight. Mostly, people agree on values: independence, slow thinking, and the value of community. The argumentative bits are small: how much automation is too much? Are metrics useful or misleading? Do we aim to monetize or to persist as a public diary? Those arguments are the sort you have over tea.

If you want a sharper disagreement, find the pieces on discovery. Algorithmic feeds and hand‑curated discovery both have defenders. Herman’s blog worries about fairness. Simon Willison gives us data on who actually got traction. They’re not enemies. They’re measuring different things.

A few posts I’d click through to read right away

• Matheus Lima on writing for people and the surprising human interest in soft skills. If you care about how technical communities learn, this one matters.
• @HumanInvariant for the policy‑ish ideas about funding and scaling blogs. If you think of blogging as a public good, read it.
• Dries Buytaert for the two‑decade perspective. It’s steady and quiet, and those takeaways last.
• James' Coffee Blog and Simon Willison if you like tinkering with discovery tools and data.
• Venkatram (thisdays_portion) if you want a clear head about not turning your blog into a second social feed.

Small digression — on names and tags

You’ll see a lot of writers using aliases, simple handles, or just a first name. That feels like indie music bands naming themselves after their dog: it’s personal and sometimes unclear, but it’s honest. Also, a handful of posts use different languages, which reminds you blogs aren’t just Silicon Valley— they’re global kitchen tables.

A final beat (not a conclusion, just a last note)

There’s a modest energy in these posts. Not explosive. More like embers under ash. People are trying to steady routines, keep readers close, and not let the platforms eat their independence. They want to write things that last a little, reach a few people, and maybe earn enough to keep the lights on. That feels familiar. It feels like a neighbour fixing their roof in winter while still making time for tea. If you care about the small, stubborn craft of public writing, there’s likely something here you’ll nod at, click through, and file away for a rainy afternoon.

Read the posts. They’ll take you deeper. The brief notes here only point to the doors. Open a few.