Bluesky and Enshittification

Two days ago, Cory Doctorow’s daily Pluralistic post showed up in my RSS reader, and the title caught my attention: Bluesky and enshittification. I’ve read a number of his previous posts regarding “enshittification”, a term he coined to refer to a pattern in which online products and services decline in quality, and so I started skimming this article to see what Bluesky had done to catch his attention.

The details are probably not ultimately important for this blog post, but the short version is that Bluesky raised $15M in a series A funding round, led by venture capital fund Blockchain Capital. Many in the fediverse are concerned by the effects venture capital can have on platforms, and are especially skeptical of anyone involved with blockchains (see this article on The Fediverse Report for more details).

Site Redesign

After weeks (or maybe even months) of considerations and playing around with various themes, I’ve decided to migrate from the venerable Hugo-Coder theme to a custom fork of the Bilberry Hugo Theme.

Why? For a couple of reasons.

First off all, every time I work on my website, I’ve felt that the design was getting a bit long in the tooth, and that it was time for either a platform change (migrating to a different static site generator), or at least a theme change. I’ve yet to find a different SSG that I’m ready to dive into yet, and so investigating alternate themes has been my primary focus.

Removing giscus Comments

Back in January, I added giscus comments to my blog, as a potential way for readers to comment and react to my posts. At the time, I didn’t necessarily have expectations that anyone would, and that has borne out over the past few months.

And so, I’ve decided to bring the giscus experiment to an end. It’s one extra thing my website doesn’t need, and as I continue to reconsider how I use my website, removing cruft and visual clutter is high on the list of potential improvements.

Quiet Weekends

As I’m typing out this blog post (in Obsidian, if you want to know), I’m sitting quietly in my living room, listening to the occasional sounds of vehicles passing by, and sipping on my final mug of coffee for the day. It’s Saturday, and while that has meant a day off from work for years, and often a day to relax, I’ve increasingly turned it into a day where my only interaction with others is virtually, and even that is limited.

Bad Days in History

A couple of weeks ago, while browsing through the book selection at my local Barnes & Noble (yes, they still exist!), I ran across a type of daily reading that I’ve never considered before: Bad Days in History: A Gleefully Grim Chronicle of Misfortune, Mayhem, and Misery for Every Day of the Year. My normal choice for daily reading is generally either a devotional, or some kind of thought-provoking or inspirational reading, so I picked the book up with the intent of a quick glance… but definitely not a purchase.