Why I'm Posting on Bear Blog
I already have a blog and my own website so anyone who is reading this is probably wondering why I've started posting here. Not that I'm assuming every reader should know who I am but as a new user on this platform, my posts aren't discoverable so the only people who would know about this blog are people I shared the link to the previous post with.
My current website takes itself too seriously and it's become exhausting to post on it. I've treated it almost like a magazine. I've expected guest writers to contribute more often than they ever will. For that matter I've expected readers to return more often than they ever will. A site like that is built for a time period that is long gone and no amount of wistful longing for the old Internet will bring it back.
Increasingly I want to disassociate from it and work on something else. In the past when this would happen, I would start a new idea and stick it on a subdomain. But because the project I want to get away from is the root domain, any new chapter I could start would be associated both to readers and myself.
I could move the old blog to a subdomain and redirect links to it while having a new thing at the root. But this is a level of commitment to the new idea that you have to be fairly confident in before starting and I'm just between ideas really.
In some ways I don't want to run a website at all anymore. I don't think it's possible to get a return on the amount of time put into it; and, I don't mean a monetary return. It's difficult to get even the validation of returning visitors.
It reminds me of the early 2000s when everyone who had E/N websites suddenly gave up running them and was on LiveJournal because we all had the same realization even that far back.
The discoverability is perhaps the most appealing feature at Bear Blog for someone who already knows how to run their own sites. It's somewhat locked away but I'm curious to find out if it helps with feeling like your posts are being read. Part of me knows that's an unrealistic expectation but I hope to see for myself (Hello Herman).
Something I take away from the old blog is: Don't take yourself too seriously (and don't expect anyone to collaborate with you). Posting here helps a lot with the first thing. While there is certainly the urge to question if this post is worth publishing, the fact that it's on a service that reminds me a bit of old LiveJournal helps to allay that and encourage not taking myself too seriously.
This could be the next thing. It could be an intermediary thing.
That's why I'm posting here.