Looking back at a year with WordPress

It was approximately one year ago that I migrated my web site to WordPress. In a way it felt like going home again, as I’d used the predecessor to WordPress, a blogging system called b2, for a couple of years around the turn of the century. I liked b2, but it lacked moderation capability and my blog was becoming a spam magnet. Had I been able to hang in there a few more months, WordPress would have come to my rescue, but I didn’t, so my migration took about a decade longer than it could have.

Better late than never. And it’s been a good year.

WordPress makes my writing easier. It stays out of the way, for the most part, and it makes some things, like linking to earlier content, much easier. It makes finding related content much easier. I can think about writing, let the computer handle things computers are good at, and it lets me spend more time writing and less time doing tedious stuff.

I also made a conscious effort during this year to write more often. Once a day, ideally, but I didn’t stress out if I missed a day or two here and there. I wanted to know if I could still do it. And in that process, I learned a lot. I learned more about what people look for, and I learned what I can still deliver. Fortunately, those two things intersected quite a bit over the last year, too.

I’ve always been outspoken about whether it’s necessary to post something each and every day. Sometimes you just don’t have anything to say, and on those days it’s probably better to remain silent than to force it. Some days you have three or four, and then the question is how much of it you post, and how much you save for a day you have nothing to say.

I can’t promise I’ll maintain the pace I’ve kept over the last 12 months. My new job is different from my old one, and for a while will be more demanding of my after-hours time. The flip side is that new demands lead to inspiration–if not immediately, then eventually.

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