This will be a quick and short post I promise. I have loved the sudden surge of creative energy these past few weeks. This also includes some updates to the site and ways people can interact if they so desire. I’m also a big proponent of upfront and transparent communication, which plays into several of the items.
First off, there is now support for comments on posts thanks to a a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) called Comentario. Currently the only means of logging in is by creating an account. If there is interest, I can also add support for single sign-on providers. Right now it’s an idea on the back burner, but the software does support it. For those privacy minded folx, the entire setup is self-hosted on a local server I manage and expose via Cloudflare tunnels. My main ask is that people be kind and empathetic if they choose to leave comments. There is always the option of replying to any newsletter email as well.
Speaking of newsletter, I’ve been leveraging it to send emails to people when posts go live as well as a weekly digest. You have the option to adjust those subscription settings on your own if you only prefer one of the options. I won’t send you spam and absolutely will not sell any list data. The weekly digest includes extra goodies that aren’t really worth a full blog post. That could include: random idiomatic expressions that don’t make sense to my neurodivergent brain, books I’ve read, or other random tidbits.
Most recently. I’ve added a way for people to optionally support my work if you feel so inclined. This utilizes the Buy Me a Coffee platform, which is similar to Patreon, but has better support for one-off donations instead of focusing on different tiers. There’s a small block of text at the end of each page and a link on the homepage. I was wavering on this, but after some discussion and encouragement from a few friends, I decided to make the option available. Writing takes time, averaging 6 hours a week, not including general research and reading I’m already doing. I have no desire to ever implement a paywall or advertising. Those deeply conflict with my anticapitalistic views and preference towards mutual aid. If you appreciate things you have read and would like to support me, I’d be delighted if you would consider using this service. For clarification it isn’t a literal coffee, but a representation of monetary value.
The last update is also more likely of interest to any privacy minded folx. It’s helpful to have analytics. At the same time, Google is a pretty wretched company when it comes to privacy and is a hard no for me. After some research and exploration, I found another FOSS option that is lightweight, private, and compliant with GDPR and CCPA. Umami—interesting name I know—anonymizes user data, doesn’t utilize cookies, and also allows self hosting as an option. This allows capturing and reviewing helpful analytics, without all the creepy lack of privacy implications.
It’s been a busy 2 weeks working on different feature development in the background in addition to the typical content. Thank you to everyone who has read and shared what I’ve written so far. I have a growing pile of topics in the brainstorm queue. I’ll conclude with a semi-related thought, if you are curious of how I landed on the name behind the site and the implications of it, let me know in any of the various mediums mentioned above.