I was late to myspace, and when I got to Facebook, I was really on the cusp of it dying off. I enjoyed Tumblr, but it always felt like I wasn't contributing, only ever consuming.
Twitter is was a place where you could shout into a void that would occassionally shout back. Was the shouting productive? No, but who said social media had to be.
Mastodon, and other ActivityPub friends, have really allowed that community aspect that I was always missing to flourish. But it still meant that I would have my "content" be on someone else's server/website/app.
Jump to heading Making my blog
I have talked about my feelings while creating my blog. It was rewarding. It has also given me a place to try out dumb ideas that would be hard to sell to a client.
It feels like I am in a transitioning period. I am still able to shout into the void, but this void is all encompassing and hungry, swallowing any content thrown at it.
There's ways of usurping or pleasing the algorithm gods (and I've implemented some of them). The content isn't going to be designed to attract subscribers or donations. My blog isn't for "10 tips for improving your VSCode Extensions" style tech posts, I am aiming for more of a "I found this trick or explanation helpful, so let's talk about it."
Jump to heading Too many characters
Being restricted to 120, then 240, now whatever the new amount is on Twitter, simplified the process. You could justify them as a fluttering thought that would come and go.
Blogging feels so much more personal. A tweet is ... a tweet. It comes with the caveat of "This is Twitter." If I make a dumb blog post, it is a true reflection of myself and what I am "about".
Jump to heading Practice makes...
Better. I know I will get better at blogging, at filtering the good ideas from the "oh god, really, you want to put that onto the internet?"
I had the same issues with myspace, and Facebook, and Tumblr, and Twitter. It goes something like "this feels pointless, what is the use, well here is a use" and now I am a user.
With my blog, I am not a "user". I don't log in to my site through a VC funded login portal that is built off the latest technology. I am writing into a markdown file that is then processed into HTML. I am writing content for me, and doing it the way that I want
Ultimately that feels like the point of owning your own domain and posting to your site. It is for you.