Wednesday, 21 July 2021

The 3 kinds of posts you will find here

Complaining about the “context collapse” inherent to Twitter has become almost a cliché, but it’s still something I relate a lot to. You can never really control the context in which your tweet will be received, nor its intended audience. It can make authentic connections more difficult, though for me it’s only paralysing; it makes me second-check myself whenever I have a thought I’d like to share, and in the end I just stop tweeting altogether.

I created this secret home in large part to escape this context collapse, and I’ve decided to be very explicit about the intended audience and the mindset behind each piece of writing, so it feels more comfortable for me to use.

You will find 3 kinds of blog posts here, and each will feature a short contextual note at the beginning. Here they are:

Personal diary entries

This is a diary post

This is a personal diary entry.

It is meant for a limited audience of friends and strangers interested in the same interests as I am.

More importantly, please consider it just like you would if this were a physical diary —the writing here is entirely personal and subjective. I write entries like this for myself first, though I do find it fun to open up to a limited audience online too. But that’s all there is to it!

Other articles elsewhere on this blog may be different and meant for a larger audience. You can learn more about these here.

For the most part, I think I’ll use this category for tumblr-style microblogging! Quick, short, personal posts.

Do you like seeing text posts from your favourite tumblr mutual about their musical discoveries, or the walk they just took in the park? Then you’ll like these kinds of posts.

Fully public articles

This is a public post

This article is fully public.

I’m comfortable with complete strangers getting to read it, in any context. Feel free to share it with anyone who could enjoy it, in any online community you may think of—I’d love for this piece to be read widely!

Other entries elsewhere on this blog may be different and more personal.
You can learn more about these other kinds of blog posts here.

This should be self-explanatory: this category contains writing that can be shared widely. In practice, I think I’ll use it for two purposes:

I don’t expect to use that category all that often! “Real” articles require a certain amount of care and attention, and I’m not sure I’ll have enough motivation to do extend it consistently.

Semi-public notes

This is a semi-public post

This note contains semi-public thoughts.

It is personal and subjective, like a diary entry, but I still hope it can be enjoyed and understood by strangers online. Feel free to share it around with friends or in communities you’re a part of!

Just bear in mind that this remains a piece of personal writing at the core. It most likely deals with something I care for, or I wrote it in the hope that it would speak to other people… but I cannot guarantee that this will be the case at all.

Other posts elsewhere on this blog may be different and either more public, or more private. You can learn more about these other kinds of posts here.

The more ambiguous category of posts.

I think a lot of writing on Twitter goes into this category, and that when people say they miss blogging, that’s what they refer to. It’s the kind of writing which comes from the heart, and that you care about.

The kind which requires a slight leap of faith, but that you still want to publish at the end of the day.

The good thing with a blog is that at least you get more space to make your point palatable.

There may be a good deal of writing in this category!
Not all of it will be polished or very long, but I hope I can write semi-interesting thoughts consistently, that they can speak to at least one person every time, and that they’ll find a better home than in the Twitter void.