diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'posts')
| -rw-r--r-- | posts/zunzuncito.md | 66 |
1 files changed, 66 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/posts/zunzuncito.md b/posts/zunzuncito.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d54f1a --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/zunzuncito.md @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +title: Introducing zunzuncito, a microblog +date: 2021-06-12 +author: Wolfgang Müller + +Writing things is hard. So hard, in fact, that the dearth of posts here is not +for lack of ideas or things to talk about, but instead for limits on how I want +to spend my time. There are plenty of things I'd love to write longer posts +about, but doing that takes at least three to four days if not an entire week. +True, this is partly down to my obsessing over documenting everything and need +to get every detail right, but in a sense I also cherish that, so I don't want +that to go away. + +Clearly not everything needs that kind of treatment, however. Some things can be +said with brevity and perhaps do not deserve an in-depth look at that particular +moment. But since I've long taken this site as a space to write longer-form and +truly developed articles, breaking with that notion here seems unwise and +inconsistent - this site is just not built for short posts. Still, I have long +felt the need for a platform that is meant for that kind of content. + +## Platforms aplenty, all broken + +Modern microblog platforms like Twitter seem to mostly take care of that need +for other people. I've tried a few times now to keep a Twitter presence going, +but never really felt a deep connection to it. Attention-grabbing design choices +always put me off of it after a few months. It wasn't really a space I felt +comfortable in, I felt like I had to market myself to others. + +Mastodon is the same by virtue of being designed like Twitter, a decision I +understand on a technical level[^1] but one that I deeply dislike on an ethical +one. I do not think that Twitter's problems[^2] will be solved by federation +alone. There will need to be changes to the core experience and a rethink on how +social networks affect people. Neither is a space for me. + +## A humming microblog + +Instead, I decided to build my own. A place for all the smaller things +that I would still like to share with the world. A place that I have full +control over and can cultivate by myself. + +Check zunzuncito out [over here](https://zunzuncito.oriole.systems). It's +named[^3] after the [Bee +hummingbird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_hummingbird), the world's +smallest bird. + +zunzuncito runs on [Zola](https://www.getzola.org/), a static site engine. +Initially I wanted to use the tried and true combo of +[lowdown](https://kristaps.bsd.lv/lowdown/) and +[sblg](https://kristaps.bsd.lv/sblg/), but there were some annoying limitations +like the lack of easy pagination. Make no mistake, however, using Zola still +results in a number of limitations that make this a bespoke solution at best. + +I expect to be iterating on this design as I use it. If you want to follow +along, check out the [git repository](https://git.oriole.systems/zunzuncito). + +[^1]: It arguably also was the easiest thing to do and an obvious marketing + decision. The platform wouldn't have grown the same had it provided a + completely different and new experience. + +[^2]: Really these are no longer *Twitter's* problems, but rather problems on + the societal level, as people have internalized the sort of culture and + context shared on these types of platforms. + +[^3]: Spanish [zunzún](https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/zunz%C3%BAn) (an + onomatopoeia) + + [-cito](https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/-cito#Etimolog%C3%ADa_2) (a diminutive + suffix) |