First blog post for my new blog!
Motivation for blogging
As Chris Coyier said, let’s Bring Back Blogging!
I really miss the days of Google Reader. It was nice to be able to control what content you consume using RSS, rather than being fed from an algorithm that optimizes engagement. Twitter sort of let you control your feed with the chronological timeline, but with the new ownership it seems like fewer people are using it.
Migrating from Medium
I decided to migrate from Medium for a few reasons:
- Pages were bloated: uBlock Origin blocks 15 scripts per article, and without it an article loads over 3 MB of resources and takes over 1 second to load.
- No syntax highlighting for code snippets: I like to write about code every so often, and it is nice to be able to share the code in a readable way.
- No MDX support: It would be nice to be able to include interactive demos in more technical articles, which is not possible in Medium.
Of course there will always be downsides as well:
- Maintenance: Medium handles all the technical parts of blogging so I can focus on just the text. Now any technical problems are my own fault!
- Network reach: Medium gives you access to a community of writers, where others can clap, respond, or highlight your work. Apparently I had 233 followers as of Feb 10, 2023!
- Email updates: Medium sends a nice newsletter every week with your view stats and highlighting your top stories. If I wanted to replicate this I would want to use something like Netlify Analytics.
In the end, I decided it was still worth moving since I had a few ideas in my head I wanted to write down but couldn’t on Medium. I would rather build a new blogging platform than try to figure out how to move to another platform!
Tech
I decided to build this using Next.js’s Portfolio Starter Kit. I considered using Astro for a bit, but ultimately decided against it. Even though Astro is faster on initial load, I liked how Next.js let you navigate between routes instantly.
I’m hosting using Netlify and Google Domains on https://blog.leyanlo.com/ for now as I get things set up. I plan to slowly migrate all my other content from https://www.leyanlo.com/ here, and replace the www subdomain with this once complete.
Goals
I’ve always wanted a place to link to all my projects and performances, and also where I can write about what I am learning. After Xanga, LiveJournal, WordPress, Blogspot, Tumblr, and Medium, I am now trying to build my own platform. This is my new home, and I hope you like it!