Brad Enslen

So I'm dealing with my tendency for blog proliferation again.  I thought about starting two new semi-private or private blogs.

1. A themed blog for practicing my fiction writing skills or world building or both.  I don't want to syndicate this one anywhere.  I'm not sure about blocking search engine crawlers probably yes.  If I make it open to anyone who stumbles upon it I would want comments on.

2. I thought about a blog that is just for musings and notes mainly my thoughts/plans for my other online websites.  I'd at least start with this as private.

Neither one of these are going to ever become popular so they both could be hosted on a subdomain somewhere.

The age old problem is it's easy to start a blog but can you sustain it?  Will I spread myself too thin?

When I get this itch, my solution is to procrastinate like I pro.  Doing a self-hosted Wordpress install seems like way overkill so I started researching blogging hosts, feature sets, costs.  Also trying to figure out if both should be on the same host or split up. 

Conclusions

After looking at about 100 blog platforms *pounds head against wall* the sad truth is Blogger.com has just about everything I want and need for at least one of these blogs.  But I don't like or trust Google, Blogger's owner, because I think they are dangerous.  

Wordpress.com would have been my first choice but they now have a new block editor which I don't want.  For these projects I just want to write, I don't want to have to fight the editor.  

Micro.blog has two major hurdles for me: 1. I'm not on an Apple device, so long form writing is either with their web UI or nothing.  I'm experimenting with Quill so that may be a partial work around.  2. No public comment capability on posts.  That's a problem for me.  Micro.blog has added some great features over the years but these two remain sticking points.  I also like the community but these blogs are loners, not intended to be part of a community.

Write.as looks good but I still have not confirmed if they have comments on their Pro hosting plan.

Bear Blog - has potential but is not quite there feature-wise.

Mataroa Blog - is close. No pages feature though. I give them an award for having the best no nonsense feature list right on their front page.  Other blog hosts ought to take note.

I'm hoping that if I procrastinate long enough maybe this urge to start new blogs will just go away.  It's worked before, but not always.  

Disregard this is a test posting from [Quill](https://quill.p3k.io/) to Micro.blog

Browser spell check works! Yea! That is a major Thing.

Markdown test:  *italics*  **bold**

If this works it solves a big blockage for me with the Micro.blog web editor not having spell check. Because 1. I'm Mr. Typo, 2. I'm a bad speller 

Downside of Quill is you have to be online.

Workaround, if not online or need to save for later, could be some sort of text editor.

Say what you will, with a sniff of derision, about Wordpress.com and Blogger.com being old fashioned blogging platforms but at least they have both comments and pages as features. Seems like a lot of newer platforms either have one or the other but not both.

And who the heck writes the copy for these different newish blogging platforms? If you have to be coy about your feature list it means you have a shit product. Features are a list of what people get at each cost level. That isn’t hard.

And it should not take three pages of reading your copy before I figure out that you only have a script not a hosted blog service and that the blog script has no web interface for posting and that, I don’t know, you burn your words in a bonfire and they rise in the smoke to Github where you can host it for free. Fucking Github. Shoot. Me. Now.

Asthetically “minimalist” means something. But in copywriter, Web 2.0 marketing speak it really means “doesn’t have shit, doesn’t do shit.” Same thing for “light weight”.

You know, maybe you don’t get a belly button ring and a free tamborine at Blogger or Wordpress.com, but you get the basics, and they work, and they are robust, and they are protected against spam and you don’t have to go to fecking Github. Ever.

Seems like most retroweb (think Neocities) websites have a guestbook. This got me thinking about blogs and the question, Should blogs have a guestbook? Of course this is a matter of personal preference but I cannot think of a reason why a blog should not have a guestbook. And I should point out that there is a difference between a contact form which is a private communication and a guestbook which is public.

##Guestbooks Fell Out of Favor

Things fall in and out of favor all the time. I’m not sure guestbooks were ever a big thing in blogging but they were around. For instance blogrolls also fell out of favor in blogging but have had a recent resurgence. The evidence of guestbooks on blogs is that there are a number of old guestbook plugins for Wordpress.

Guestbooks were folksy and folksy became uncool in web 2.0.

One huge reason for guestbooks falling out of favor was spam both human posted and robotic. If you are going to have a guestbook today, make sure it has anti-spam protection.

##Who Should Consider Having a Guestbook?

A guestbook is an invitation. It is an invitation for feedback, greeting and meeting. Almost all corporate sites have a blog but they are not going to have guestbooks. A guestbook is a signal that your blog is written by a real human being and visitors sign it as real human beings.

Blogging can be a lonely pursuit. Sometimes a little feedback, just to know people are reading, helps keep a blogger writing. It’s a good way to get a remark in passing without the expectation of a reply.

1. Some blog hosts have no comment feature so visitors have no way to respond.
2. Some bloggers turn off comments.
3. Topical blogs might benefit. If you have a blog about a single subject: gardening, 1930’s movies, Godzilla or whatever, people may want to express their appreciation about the entire blog, not singling out one article.
4. Some bloggers are better networked than others and receive comments all the time. But if you are alone, shy, new to blogging and just don’t know anybody you might try one.
5. Any blogger. It makes the Web and the theme driven Blogosphere seem less impersonal, less cold and uninviting. Fun is a big part of the non-commercial web. Non-commercial blogs are a part of that web. If you think adding a guestbook might be fun, do it. You don’t need permission from anybody. :)

##Where do I get a Guestbook?

*If you are using self-hosted Wordpress there are several free plugins available. This is the easiest and IMHO best option. *There maybe scripts available if you are on a server with access to Php and if you know how to install these scripts. *For the rest: Micro.blog, Wordpress.com, Blogger, etc., you may well need a hosted guestbook. You can find some hosted scripts here.

Note: all of these are advertising supported. Also you want one that has protection against spam posts. You also want one that you can delete abusive posts from.

##Conclusion

Ultimately it’s up to you. Guestbooks are common in the self made static site web. We are all part of the non-commercial Indiependent Web maybe bloggers can take a hint from them on this.

My Retroweb Project List

1. I’m working on making a proper webring again except I’m stalled for the last couple of days. I found a new (beta) webring host but I don’t think it’s ready for prime time yet. I have a clever backup plan but it will be a lot of work.

2. I want to build a retro static HTML page, just for the hell of it. Last time I built a webpage from scratch(ish) was pre-HTML 4. I’ll probably cheat and use the host’s website builder. It will probably have a guestbook. You can’t be retro without a guestbook and it’s an easy way to get feedback.

3. I need to make a 88x31 button GIF.

4. I may need to make a square logo GIF. I hate graphics.

5. I need to hunt down a good online meta tag maker. Yeah I know, it’s the Year of Our Lord 2022 and we’re still talking about fecking meta tags. Gotta find a maker that isn’t spammy and does not require registration before using.

6. I have a bunch of long form blog posts swirling around in my brain-pan. Must write those Real Soon Now.

I’m almost out of coffee. That’s my list for now.