I Built a New Blog, But Will I Use It?
Matt McQueen · 1 min read
Originally, this blog was called Matt Also Writes. Strictly speaking that was true, but it was a little generous.
So welcome to the rebranded blog: Matt Rarely Writes. All my old posts (which I'm sure you enjoyed) have been lovingly copied over from Wix.
I mentioned in my last post there that I would be leaving Wix, and probably dropping to its free plan to continue my occasional posting. However, now that I'm back at work, I wanted to try a side project to learn more about using AI as a software developer.
That's what this is – rather than using Wix, WordPress etc., I've put together my own site builder. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that those sites have, but why pay for things you never use?
It also gives me more freedom over things like advertising, and new features I might want to add.
Other site builders let visitors comment on posts. This would be nice to have, but I'd spend all my time moderating comments.
For this blog, because my favourite social media platform is Bluesky, I've come up with this:
When I create a new blog post, the site can automatically create a post on my Bluesky account linking to the new blog post (too many posts in that sentence - Editor).
If, or when, someone replies to that post, their reply will appear as a comment on the blog post here.
At least, that's the theory. Claude and I haven't tested it live yet, and I'm still getting used to being the human in the loop.
If you'd like to help test it, reply to my Bluesky post about this one and see if your reply turns up below. Replies will be shown here, so only reply if you're happy for yours to appear on the blog.
Anyway, this is the first new post on the new blog. A lot has been happening, so it won't be too long until the next post comes along.
Famous last words.
