This will potentially be just a stream of consciousness since I don't have a specific topic to talk about. The general throughline should be about "blogging", this hip new thing I hear all the kids are excited about but it should discuss some other topics about this website and what I want to do with it.

Blogs are an interesting form of communication that are basically unique to the internet. Previously people might give public speeches or write letters or pamphlets etc. but none have the same purpose or use case as a blog. The etymology as a weblog which is shortened ^[0] to blog explains its origins to some extent but it's not really a log. It's more a medium of communication that could be about anything. They tend to be personal and semi-regular.

Blogs are cool but I have various gripes with them. One issue is that people don't know when a new one is published. The solutions to this are either custom tech solutions that combine them into a feed that can be read. ^[1] However unless this is trivial to setup most people won't. (When I say most people I usually mean me as a substitute for the common person) The other way of publicising blog posts are just telling people about it on other social media platforms so they can see it but this makes it dependent on other sources. The key there is to hook into people's daily habits so they can have the chance of viewing something they might find interesting.
Another problem with blogging as a writing form is just that writing and reading long form doesn't seem to be in vogue. I think that blogs can incorporate multimedia aspects though; images, videos or sounds could accentuate or help to explain certain concepts if used well. Ultimately people will always want to read good writing I believe. Probably there should be some payoff in terms of something learned or some great insight which leans into the next point.
The other issue is to do with always needing to produce or publish or drown. This is an issue about "content" in general, accentuated heavily by the internet and the way in which websites' algorithms work and it has many negative consequences. It's why youtubers will publish lazy videos for the sake of putting out a video rather than something that's meaningful. In some way that's inevitable for anyone who does it as a job though. People don't do blogging as a career though, except in cases where people might write on behalf of a corporation which has a very distinct feel and purpose.

I don't have dates on any of the pages on this site since I think a website should be a living thing that evolves and changes. I think my blog should ^[2] adher to the following principles for my own sake.

• Should be because I have some topic that I wish to pontificate upon.
• Must not have any advertisement or monetary incentive.
• May have cool/fun media elements, especially fun animated images or interactive pieces.
• Should be fun to create - don't force it.
• With above point, don't rush something for its own sake.

[0] - Apparently it's called rebracketing or metanalysis according to Wiktionary here which is quite interesting.

[1] - The main way of doing this is RSS which is cool but people don't really seem to use it that much. I don't either so I can't say much about it.

[2] - The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.