No Socials

I’m not on social media. You might think that is crazy, but that’s how it is.

If you’ve been on a social platform for long enough, you’ve come across two main things. A change of management (moderators), and that one group of users.

When management changes, things change. Be it rules, or the general feel of the place. You might not like the new direction it’s going, or the new rules, or just the new person running the place. That can make things rather not fun.

There’s also those users. Those with extreme opinions, and don’t like people who don’t share them. Be it the Twitter days of old, or modern day BlueSky or Mastodon, if you don’t fully agree, or even disagree with them, they will try to chase you off that platform (and in the case of Mastodon, maybe your whole server). That makes things rather not fun.

Enter a blog.

What’s a Blog?

A blog (short for web log) is a just a website, that posts get added to. There are many types of blogs, but this is a “Personal Blog”. It’s my website, that I make, where I can post what I want, under my own rules.

You can make a blog look however you want. You could go simple, or fancy. You can host it yourself, pay a service to host it, or just use a blogging service, that does all the web stuff for you. You decide how you want it to look, and what you want on it. And there are no post length limits in sight.

So, where’s the social bits? Blogs are slower paced. There are (usualy) no replies. Or at least, not how you’re used to. Most personal blogs will leave an email address, for you to send replies to.

As for following people (know as subscribing), RSS is king. RSS is a program (or website) that lets you check for new posts, on any number of websites, without going to them (or seeing ads). Here’s an example.

How to Get Started

If this sounds interesting, and you want to jump in, great! Here’s a few things to keep in mind.

1. You aren’t joining a platform, you’re making a website.
2. Blogs are much slower paced, and prefer long form content.
3. Your blog is for you, and others can enjoy it.

With those things in mind, where to start. There’s a thousand different ways to make a website. Some easy, some hard. Some expensive, some cheap.

I make this site locally on my Mac using Hugo, and send that up to my web host. This is cheap (around $1/month for hosting), but has a big learning curve. A super easy way to get started is with Write.As. A super simple, easy to use, blog host. They do all the work for you. All you have to do, is write.

So grab an RSS client, start a blog, and take your presence on the web, back into your hands.