In 2024 I retired from being a university lecturer. I wanted something to keep me writing, but not full-on academic writing. A blog seemed to fit the bill.
Blogging and empowerment
When blogging first emerged in the 1990s I thought it was amazing. Until that point if you wanted to get written words out in public you had to get corporate or organised news or a political platform to publish your thoughts, whether on paper or online. This involved hawking around what you had written and having to conform to the publication's requirements. You couldn't just talk freely and get it out in the world. And your chances of persuading someone to publish your words weren't high; so often you would just not try in the first place. People were effectively silenced from getting their contribution out unless they got lucky, had contacts, or stifled their creativity for conformity.
Then people started putting up personal blogs. Writers were free and could write what they liked. Of course, their reach was more limited than posting through political or corporate media. And bloggers did not have social media like today to publicise their writings. The word had to get out in other ways. But they could make their writing public. And the timescale for publishing was immediate.
Some thought it was arrogant for ordinary people to think others would be interested in what they had written. But I thought it was great that getting your thoughts out in public was no longer monopolised by professional journalists or politicians. Blogging democratised writing and opened it out. People were empowered.
Starting blogging
Lots of bloggers post on blogging. Bloggers write about what they do and think about, so blogging gets covered. What I'm talking about here is personal blogging; not multi-author blogs or organisations' blogs. And proper old school writing on your own blog, not micro-blogging on social media like X, Facebook, or Instagram. On a personal blog you can write things which may not be publishable by multi-author or organisations' blog sites - musings, for instance, yet ones that are worth writing and maybe worth reading by some.
I'd long wanted to have a blog, from the early days when they first appeared. I wrote for other blogging platforms, political or academic ones. But I was nervous about having my own. One reason was that it would mean not going through a filter on another platform, where an editor would check what I had said and stop me from saying anything stupid. This has occurred.
I also felt reluctant to blog about personal stuff, it seemed a bit self-indulgent, for instance on books I have read, life, music, recommendations etc. I was worried in case I wrote something too personal or misjudged; then, on going into work and encountering people, I would feel an arse for it (based on the optimistic assumption - but, nevertheless, fear - any of my workmates might have read my thoughts).
I needed more time to do it properly, a step of separation from institutional life, and a bit of courage, to have my own blog. Retirement cracked it. I felt I could now write about personal stuff, had time to actually come up with something worth saying, and felt it was a bit more allowed now for me to be indulgent in what I wrote about. It also made sure that retirement wasn't too much passive consumption (see thought 18), like reading which I love, but that I kept something creative on the go. So I started.
I decided to call my blog 'Luke's Notes'. Some deemed this boring and unimaginative. But the reason was, firstly, that I hoped it took away pretension, being labelled as 'notes'. Secondly, it echoed the idea of 'morning pages' where you just put down a stream of consciousness of notes of what's in your mind, not to be read (not even by yourself), but just to get it down and fire up your creativity, a technique I did try once for a few weeks, first thing in the morning every day. This is not exactly how I (or most others) blog. But it does capture the idea of just writing stuff down that's in your head, just getting it down, something which is basically what blogging is for many people.
I had the option of turning on the 'comments' facility on my blog. I decided not to, instead giving my email address for any feedback (after 5 months of blogging I've had 2 emails from blog readers; that's 2 more than I thought I would). This was partly because I didn't want trolling, but also because I got into blogging just for writing and putting it out there. I didn't want public communication on the actual blog about it. That sounds unsociable, but that's how it was.
Being discovered
Blogging, for me, is an alternative to corporate social media like Facebook and X and lots of bloggers are anti-social media and refugees from it.
I don't want to thrust my thoughts into someone's timeline, or have others thrust into mine. I publicise some (a minority) of my blog posts on alternative social media - Mastodon is the only written social media I am active on now (I also post photos on Pixelfed). Otherwise the visibility of my blog is just through links to it from my university webpage, Mastodon profile, or links page, all of which are rarely visited. I'm generally happy just to have written a post and for people to stumble across it (or not).
Blogging is more passive in posting than micro-blogging on Facebook or X. I just put a post on the blog. Then people usually only come across it if they actively choose to visit or sign up for post notifications (through email or RSS). It also isn't subject to some algorithm. Whether a post is seen depends only on whether you follow that person.
I like to post something in part for my enjoyment writing it and in part so it can be found. But that it can be found is enough for me. Whether it is found much or at all is less important. Being discoverable is more important than whether discovered.
While writing this someone advertised a new blog directory and I submitted my blog to be included. I immediately thought I'd contradicted my claimed desire for just find-ability, rather than pushing myself into timelines. But, on reflection, I thought I hadn't. The blog directory just puts you there to be discovered. It doesn't put you in someone's feed unless they choose that.
Being liked
One reason I chose Mataroa as my blogging platform, was that I liked their statement about analytics (information on visits to your site), saying don't worry about them, the site is for writing, not about how many people visit your post.
The analytics for Mataroa are brief and provide limited information about visits to your posts. They just give you hits over the last 25 days. Analytics more than 25 days old disappear. There's no count of how many visits you've had in total, nothing about referring links (the page your visitor came from), or the location or IP address of the reader, or what time they read it. Just how many visits any post got any day in the last month. The outcome is that you don't pore over analytics and dissect them. There aren't enough analytics to get preoccupied with the details.
I also prefer blogs to social media because, for me, when I blog I'm not looking for likes or shares as social media encourages you to. So when I write something that's it. It's just about the writing of it and maybe some people reading it.
The Bear blog platform has a discovery list. New posts on Bear get listed there as they appear and there is a ranked list of trending posts. The latter is decided mostly by the liking/upvoting of posts by readers. As an outsider, I enjoy looking at the discovery lists, more the new posts than the trending list. I wouldn't like it, however, if I was on Bear. It carries the temptation to monitor if your posts are upvoted, how often, and whether they get onto the trending list.
It's a double-edged sword. On one hand, the discovery feature enables you to find others and them to find you. Consequently, it also potentially builds a bit of community. It allows you to feel liked. On the other, it could breed competitiveness and concern with your ranking and upvotes. For anyone who becomes trending there is another who doesn't. It feels like this replicates an aspect of social media many bloggers and their readers are trying to get away from. I'm happy to be an observer of the discovery feature rather than a participant in it.
Beyond privacy
When I decided to start a blog, I wanted a platform that was alternative to the big corporate money-oriented machines like Wordpress and Substack; just a small independent platform with some ethical principles, not harvesting my personal data, and about the blogging rather than the money that can be made from it. The first provider I came across that looked interesting was Write.as. Then I found out about Mataroa which is the one I chose and that you are on now. I investigated Bear which Mataroa is based on, the latter providing an even more minimalist version of the former.
Privacy
There are no ads or tracking on Mataroa. In fact, unlike most other sites, you don't have to provide personal details like an email address to sign up. Other blog sites, like Write.as and Bear, also stress ad and tracking free privacy features. But, as I've discussed in relation to alternative email, it's also good (yet rare) to find providers that have ethical standards beyond privacy. Mataroa goes beyond just no ads and tracking privacy ethics.
Money
Mataroa is run by just one guy, Theodore, and I liked his philosophy. Mataroa is cheap. The fee for blogging is about £7 a year (9 dollars, or 8 Euros) as opposed to the usual £4-5 a month or so with most platforms. I liked this because I wasn't sure I would blog that often and I didn't want to pay £50-60 a year to post just two or three posts. A £7 annual fee better fitted with that frequency of posting. (As it happens, I've ended up posting more often than that). In fact, Mataroa is really free because the £7 gets you a couple of minor extras which many people would not need (using your own web address and monthly emailed backups - you can make your own backups without this). Everything most people would want comes with the free tier. So it's effectively free for most people's purposes. But I paid the £7 to support the project and its developer. Theodore says he's not out to make money from the project, and he undoubtedly could make more by charging more or attracting outside investment and ads. There's no facility for bloggers charging paid subscribers. Uploading images comes with the free tier, which is not the case with all providers. I liked that Mataroa is about writing for love not money.
Appearance
Mataroa's philosophy is that it's all about the writing, and anything that distracts from that (eg analytics) is pared down. So there's only one theme, a very plain one. All you can do is tweak the font slightly. Most other blog sites have multiple themes you can choose from and adapt. Mataroa is not about messing with how it looks. Without that, you are thrown back to just the writing. Although, this point can be overdone. It is possible to spend time carefully crafting a design for your blog site and still write great posts.
Transparency
I also like that Mataroa, unusually, has a business transparency page, outlining the number of users, number of posts, income, costs etc.
Leavability
It's made easy for you to leave Mataroa. The site, again unusually, will redirect visitors to a new blog site if you migrate elsewhere. It being easy to leave makes me more inclined to stay.
Accessibility
The minimalism of Mataroa goes beyond its appearance. Bear, for example, has some complex settings you can use which, for the less techy, may be confusing. Mataroa is simple. If you're new to blogging and not technically minded it's fairly easy to use. I have enough knowledge to use the Bear settings, but prefer Mataroa because they make it simpler for those who don't. Mataroa don't emphasise their accessibility, but it is one merit of the platform.
Beyond privacy
Bear and Write.as have a privacy focus and, relative to other providers, are also quite minimalist in style. But otherwise they don't have a real statement of wider philosophy as far as Mataroa does and not most of the broader values mentioned. I've been tempted to go to Bear now and then (it is really nice), but then these wider principles of Mataroa make me stay - about the primacy of writing, money, transparency, simplicity, accessibility, leave-ability, not to mention an environmental dimension I haven't mentioned.
Finally ....
There are lots of left-wing blogs but, to be honest, I don't read them much, as I find they just tend to echo my thoughts. Where there is interesting leftist commentary that I do follow is on Mastodon, a more micro-blogging area. But I enjoy following personal blogs.
Many personal bloggers (or just people with personal websites) go beyond blogging - they have links pages to things they're interested in, including 'blogrolls' of blogs they like. Some have 'digital garden' pages of creative ventures that they are working on. There are also 'now' pages where people list what they're doing ('now' defined as recently) and update these from time to time.
There's a world of amazing personal blogs out there. Some I've linked to in this post. It's full of interesting and (extra)ordinary people with interesting and (extra)ordinary thoughts.
Related post: Alternative Email