Always Learning

For the better part of the past decade, I’ve self-hosted my blog on WordPress. Sure, I dabbled here and there with just about every blogging platform under the sun, but WordPress was my home.

Over the years, WordPress evolved and I didn’t. I like writing in a basic text box. I don’t want to bother with creating blocks and dragging stuff around the screen. That sucked when the early Web 1.0 apps did it, and it still sucks to me today. Then again, maybe I’m just too lazy or stubborn to learn how to do it.

Part of the appeal of hosting my own WordPress is I’m my own master. I’m not reliant on anyone else to provide me with the tools I want, nor to protect my data.

Over the past year or two, I branched out. I was frustrated with the minor inconveniences WordPress and self-hosting created, so I dabbled with a variety of IndieWeb platforms. My blog made appearances on Micro.blog, Listed.to, BearBlog, and Scribbles while I experimented on the side with Ghost, Pika, Haven, and a few others.

Part of the appeal of the IndieWeb was finding an online community that valued the same things I did. A better internet. A place where people are treated fairly and platforms weren’t created to exploit the user. It felt good to give to these platforms/developers, because they were creating the type of products I wanted to use without the massive greed and corruption of Big Tech.

Sadly, once I found myself engrossed in a few of the communities, I realized that it wasn’t all that different from the Big Tech sites. Extremists still had the loudest voices, too many people spent time complaining about politics, and all that goodwill and talk about a better internet, truly didn’t mean much. It was just another tag line.

This week, I was reminded why self-hosting is so important. Without it, you truly are at the mercy of others. I don’t like that. It isn’t good for me, and honestly, I think I’m done supporting IndieWeb projects for the time being.

So, I made the move back to WordPress. This time I managed to ensure my blog links would match what I had on Scribbles, so no link should be broken. However, I was unable to move my RSS feed over. And I can hear you now, “Dammit Brandon, get your shit together. I just had up to update my RSS feed like a month ago.” I know, I know… I wish I was more talented to make it so you didn’t have to resubscribe, but I’m not. I apologize for the inconvenience. If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure I’m never leaving WordPress again.

Here is the new RSS feed link.

My Granny’s Recipes blog will remain on Scribbles, as well as a new mini project I’m working on called Seeking Calmness. It will be a collection of photos, quotes, and short ideas related to finding more peace in my life. Scribbles is the perfect platform for this type of site, and I think it’ll give me a nice little outlet to share photos and short posts without cluttering up my main blog.

This site is going to need some work. I have to manually upload all the images and clean up my posts. I’ve gone through the past month’s posts and fixed them, but if you look into the archives you may see markdown links or photos that aren’t responsive to the browser. This will all be fixed in due time. I may also change up the theme, but that won’t matter unless you visit the actual site.

I appreciate your patience and understanding. We are always learning and adapting, and this is just the latest lesson in my life.