Ava started this, Kev modified this, and Saptak egged me on to write this. So here goes …
What the home page looks like in 2025
1. Why did you make the blog in the first place?
I write for me mostly. Because writing helps me think. My thoughts are too scattered otherwise. I can’t not write. I’ve always written. Privately, publicly, there’s always been some place where I’ve jotted things down.
2. What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
I use Hugo to generate the site, which I host on my own Hetzner VM. I use it because I outgrew my previous tool, Nikola, which still holds a dear place in my heart. While Hugo is enormously complex, it is also deceptively simple enough to get started with. And it’s fast. That’s what I love about it. It lets me write. It does not get in my way. It lets me preview what I’m doing with its live server. And it’s unbelievably fast.
3. Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I’ve been writing in some form or other since the late 90s. So … yea :)
Livejournal, Blogger, self hosted Wordpress, wordpress.com, Posterous, Tumblr, self hosted Wordpress, self hosted Ghost, Nikola and now Hugo. It’s been quite a ride!
4. How do you write your posts?
I write them in Emacs (in Markdown, using Markdown Mode) on my desktop, with Hugo Server running alongside giving me a preview of what things will look like. Once I commit it to my self hosted Forgejo instance, an action publishes the site automatically
5. When do you feel most inspired to write?
I never do. I write because it helps me function. And yet, it always feels like a chore.
6. Do you publish immediately after writing or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
I always publish it immediately. I almost never write something that is deeply thought out, that needs to stand the test of time. It’s the process, the writing, the putting words out of my mind, through my fingers down to paper, that leads to the result, the thought, the opinion, the aha, the insight. So I’m never quite done. Which means if I ever wait for finished, the post will never get published. The moment I publish something, is invariably the moment something needs changing. So I just go back and edit it. I never notify folks about updating things on the first day. If I ever edit something much later than a day or two, then I do.
7. Your favorite post on your blog?
None. All. They’re my thoughts, so depending on my mood, they’re either worthless or priceless gems!
8. Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, changing the tag system, etc.?
Not really. For all my wandering, I’ve only ever moved when my tools outgrew me1, or I outgrew my tools. For now, Hugo does all I ask of it, without getting in the way. The day that changes, will be the day I move.
I’ll ask Priyanka, Sreeram, Sandeep, Pradhvan, Rahul, Bhavin, Elia, Mandar, Saptak, Farhaan, Robin and Kushal to share more, if they have the time, energy and the inclination.
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Wordpress.com too restrictive, Ghost stopped serving my specific needs etc. ↩︎