My need to write a blog post generally starts with a bunch of thoughts swirling around my mind, begging to be tamed. My process of writing is largely an exercise in simplification, focus, and organization.
Simplification starts with throwing out as many thoughts as possible. Most thoughts end up on the floor, others are filed as possible content for future posts.
Focus comes from identifying the key idea.
Organization starts with an outline to hold the remaining, core thoughts.
The process quietens my mind and gives me insights into what is actually important to me.
Recently I’ve been wanting a more powerful blogging platform. I wanted to express ideas more visually, and to organize posts in ways that help me to see and represent connections between ideas.
For several years I have been using Google’s blogging platform, Blogger. I was starting to feel constrained by Blogger’s limited set of features and was ready for an upgrade. I bit the bullet and moved my blog to a content management system, WordPress.
WordPress “powers” about 30% of the Web, or so the claim goes from the WordPress organization. Big hitters like The Disney Company, New York Times, and CNN rely on it.
The effort to move to WordPress is not for the faint-hearted. I exported existing posts and comments from Blogger to a WordPress server. Next, I set up a Web site, added code, adjusted settings, and created a navigation structure. Finally I changed nameserver settings for my domain, tomwilson.com, to point to the new blog.
Testing was important. I discovered several issues, including:
Images in posts were still being served by Blogger, rather than WordPress. Once I shut down the Blogger site, images would fail to load. I installed a “plug-in” to copy the images to WordPress.
Links to posts had a new format. Links to my posts from other sites, including Japan’s national tourist office, would fail. I changed a setting so links would continue to conform to Blogger conventions.
The site has rough edges, but you can see the results right here on your screen. I’ve aimed for minimal presentation and navigation that adapt to a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone.
I am looking forward to playing with new features, including taxonomies, to better classify and interrelate posts. A huge selection of “plug-ins” lets me create more visual and interactive posts.
This is my hobby: the effort is engrossing and fun.