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progaardvark View Drop Down
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Crossover/Symphonic/RPI Teams

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    Posted: May 13 2024 at 15:29
So, I'm toying with the idea of starting a blog. It's not going to be a dedicated prog blog, though I may occasionally post something about prog. I'd like to write about a wide range of subjects just to share my thoughts with the wider world, maybe 2-4 posts a month. Topics might include how I built shelving in my garage, baseball card collecting, astronomy, dogs and dog shows, plants, history, genealogy, etc. Basically anything I can think of that I want to say something about. I imagine some posts will be brief, but I anticipate having some rather lengthy ones (like the average length of a non-fiction book chapter).

For those of you who make blogs (whether prog or not), which platform do you like the most? Any pros or cons? 

Do you recommend using the hosting service the blog is available on? Or would it be better to self-host it? I have my own domain name and I currently have a Joomla-designed website hosted by HostGator that I rarely update. I am familiar with HTML coding, but I would rather not have to do that. I just want to write stuff and not spend too much time on design. 

About the only media I anticipate loading are photos if necessary for the topic. If I need to post a video, I can embed a YouTube link (already have two YouTube channels of my own - one for my music and one for collecting baseball cards - so I know how this works)

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.
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lazland View Drop Down
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Points: 13627 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote lazland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 14 2024 at 00:22
I use Squarespace, which slightly restricts what you can do in terms of their design, but means you do not have to bother with all the code stuff, which would instantly lose me. I like its layout and it is user-friendly. I know others use Wordpress, but I don’t particularly like the layout.
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progaardvark View Drop Down
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Points: 51036 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote progaardvark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 14 2024 at 08:30
^Thanks Steve. I appreciate your taking the time to comment. Squarespace is in my list of possible candidates.
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Points: 10617 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Easy Money Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 14 2024 at 09:13
Good luck getting this going. I'd like to see some of your baseball cards, I used to have a nice collection, 1950s to mid 70s.
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progaardvark View Drop Down
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Points: 51036 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote progaardvark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 14 2024 at 14:02
^Thanks. Those were some great years for collecting. I started in 1979 when I was 10 years old. I stopped collecting in 1991 due to college expenses, bought a few things in the mid-1990s, then took a hiatus.  I returned to the hobby in 2021, like a lot former collectors did during the pandemic and dug out all the boxes sitting in a spare bedroom closet. I don't have very many 1960s cards, even less from the 1950s, but mostly from the 1970s and 1980s, with scattered stuff between 1990 and 2021, and quite a bunch since 2022.
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Points: 17510 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 15 2024 at 06:31
Hi,

I'm thinking less of the "blogging" thing than I am with the podcasting idea. The advantage is that the blogging thing usually has a record of previous shows (Guy Guden's on Blogspot a good example) ... which can be nice and fun. But in terms of podcasting ... now it's different discussion, or is it not?

I haven't made any decisions either way, although a podcast like thing is more like me.
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Points: 7 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote creganstark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 16 2024 at 04:41
twitter, blogger or instagram 
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progaardvark View Drop Down
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Points: 51036 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote progaardvark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 27 2024 at 15:50
Thanks for chiming in folks. Much appreciated.

I don't think I have the time to put together podcasts and many of the topics I want to cover might not be suitable for that medium. I'm not going to rule out the idea of pursuing it in the future, but right now I just feel like writing stuff. 

I already do videos, which I understand some podcasts work in this format, but on the subject of baseball cards. It doesn't really fit the podcast style, but is more focused on product openings and tours of antique malls hunting for baseball cards. See: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCkwLsQHveBwvY78igS1Mvg

I have looked at Blogger. I understand this is open-access, which is cool. But I'm kind of leaning towards hosting it on my own domain, so for now I'm thinking of using WordPress because it's an easy install using Hostgator's cPanel. I was impressed with Squarespace, but ultimately my hosting fees on Hostgator are cheaper than Squarespace and I would have to pay an additional fee to transfer my domain over there. If I don't like WordPress, I can always reconsider. It looks like it would be rather painless to migrate from WordPress to Squarespace if the need arises.

Twitter and Instagram are too limited for my needs at this time. I've already been using Twitter (still can't call this X) as a place to post gibberish: https://twitter.com/xaagmabag

Anyway, it will be nice not to have to code HTML or CSS anymore. Even though Joomla allows you to make a website without knowing either, I found I needed to code every now and then to get what I wanted. It was fortunate that the CSS I coded never needed any updates once I got it to work properly about 17 years ago, but the website design I used looks ancient these days. It's time to move on to something new.
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nothing beats a good video about fractions
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Points: 17130 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote verslibre Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 27 2024 at 16:30
Originally posted by creganstark creganstark wrote:

twitter, blogger or instagram 


I wouldn't recommend X/Twitter. It's a quagmire of ads and timelines and is a platform beholden to doomscrolling.
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Points: 18269 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 27 2024 at 21:24
If you aren't going to do one specific niche (ie prog rock) and you plan on writing about a variety of things then plan on not making a whole lot of money from it and keep it as more of a hobby. Apparently that's the way it goes with youtube also (which I was thinking about starting and still might). Then again I suppose you can't really make much money with prog regardless of what you do unless your name is Steven Wilson or something.

One more thing (or maybe two) please don't show your feet! LOL The wacked out poetry is fine though.


Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 27 2024 at 21:26
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progaardvark View Drop Down
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Crossover/Symphonic/RPI Teams

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Points: 51036 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote progaardvark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 28 2024 at 05:49
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

If you aren't going to do one specific niche (ie prog rock) and you plan on writing about a variety of things then plan on not making a whole lot of money from it and keep it as more of a hobby. Apparently that's the way it goes with youtube also (which I was thinking about starting and still might). Then again I suppose you can't really make much money with prog regardless of what you do unless your name is Steven Wilson or something.

One more thing (or maybe two) please don't show your feet! LOL The wacked out poetry is fine though.

Understood. I wasn't planning on making any money doing this. I lean more to the "open source" or "open access" culture where we freely share what information we have and hope somebody can learn from or use this information.

YouTube has rules for receiving a cut of their ad revenue. The first one is that you have 1,000 subscribers. I'm about 2/3 of the way there. I probably will monetize when I reach that level. Since YouTube is already running ads in my videos, it only seems fair that I get a share of that. I don't expect it to be much (I think it averages about $18 for every 1000 views), but I can funnel any ad revenue back into my baseball card hobby. I think the other rules YT has involves copyright issues and things of that nature; something I'm not concerned about because all my videos are original and when I do antique mall tours I use voice-over only because the music that these stores play in the background can get you a copyright strike.

I agree. Not much money to be made in prog circles. That's why most musicians have day jobs. 

I'll try my best to not show my feet! No promises. The writing will be in first person, so it will have an autobiographical slant to it. Since my feet are a part of me, well, you never know... LOL
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that's a happy bag of lettuce
this car smells like cartilage
nothing beats a good video about fractions
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Points: 5358 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Hrychu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 28 2024 at 05:51
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