I've seen this challenge on Herman's blog. I liked it, so I decided to do my own version, even though I'm not using the bear blog. For the same reason, I slightly adapted the original questions.
Why did you make the blog in the first place?
Since I first got online, I've wanted a personal website - a piece of internet I can call my own. I had a few websites over the years, but none of them are online anymore (and I don't have backups). Then, in my late twenties, I decided to try again. As someone who loves programming and making things, I've gathered plenty of material to share over the years. I also wanted to change the fact that I hadn't written much since high school. I've never been a fan of social networks, so starting a blog felt like the perfect thing for me — I could have my own website and share the things I'm working on.
This blog has been up since 2016, and I'm really proud of it. While the frequency of my posts has gone down, I like to think the quality has gone up.
Why did you choose Bearblog Zola and GitHub Pages?
Before Zola, I used Jekyll, which is tightly coupled with GitHub Pages. GitHub Pages restricts you to the default Jekyll configuration, so I couldn't customize all the stuff I wanted. I started looking for a replacement and stumbled on Zola. It seemed very nice — fast, a single binary, with a sane templating language. After trying it, I really liked it and decided to stick with it.
I kept it deployed on GitHub Pages because I think they're great. Free and fast hosting, and the fact that I don't have to mess with deployments myself — thanks, GitHub folks!
However, for a long time now, I've wanted to write my own small static site generator. It would support interactive posts/components and use JSX (I think that JSX is a great templating language) . If I ever do it, I'll open-source it.
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
As mentioned above, this blog used to be a Jekyll blog.
Before that, I tried keeping a blog a few times, but only one attempt is worth mentioning. At university, a friend set up a WordPress blog, and I ended up writing alongside him for a while.
How do you write your posts?
I use Visual Studio Code, but if I get an idea on the run, I put it in the notes app on my phone.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
It's when I get excited about something and want to write about it. I don't really have a specific time of day.
Do you publish immediately after writing or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
This changed since I started this blog. I used to publish posts quickly after I wrote them, but they were shorter and simpler. As the blog (and myself) matured, I now take days, even weeks for some posts, before publishing them.
Your favorite post on your blog?
It is probably Draw SVG rope using JavaScript. It went through many drafts, and it took me a while to finish it. By the time I published it, I already had a love-hate relationship with the post. I was really excited about it, but I wasn't sure if it was any good. Luckily, it got recognized and exploded on Hacker News.
To this day, it is the most popular post on my blog.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, changing the tag system, etc.?
I always have a backlog of things I would like to improve on my blog. I'm thinking of a redesign, but I currently lack the time to achieve the level of polish I want. Some other things on my to-do list are:
/nowand/usespages- Table of contents for posts
- A global system for interactive posts
- Re-do the dark theme
- A few easter eggs which I'll keep a secret for now
Who's next?
There you have it, those are my answers.
Some people are also tagging others to join in and answer the questions. I like that idea too, so David, I would like you to do one of these posts too!
Of course, I invite everybody to join in — these posts are fun to read.