Blogging in the Atmosphere

Hi my name is Richard and I am a blogger. Maybe a lapsed blogger, but recent developments in the Atmosphere are making me rethink the “social web”…and, well, here I am on Leaflet again.

I run an internet history blog called Cybercultural and for the past 2-3 years I’ve been writing about one article per week, on average; most of them over 1,000 words. Initially I didn’t call it a blog, because these articles were more formal than what I traditionally thought of as blog posts. They also didn’t have comments or trackback, although I did experiment with Webmentions for a bit. I wasn’t happy with how the Webmentions were integrated into my site (which is run on Eleventy, an awesome static site generator), so I ditched them. I tried to call my site an “online magazine”, but eventually I gave in and called it a blog. Because it’s just me writing it and it makes no money…so I kind of feel like I’m back in 2003-04.

I love blogs, I used to run one in Web 2.0 called ReadWriteWeb. And I remember when I started that, way back in April 2003. It was just me writing informal posts, like this one. Not thinking too much, just exploring a topic I was passionate about (web technology) and seeing where it would go. I was a nobody from New Zealand, working as a Web Manager for a power company at the time. I wanted to explore the cutting edge of web tech, beyond what I worked on in my job. This was pre-Web 2.0…actually more like post-Dotcom bust. Things were being experimented with, but there was no business model in the web at that time. Kind of like the Atmosphere right now!

It was also pre-social media. Boy I hate social media. I was always really crap at microblogging, including at Twitter when it came along (I joined in April 2007 I think). But I’ve never been a good shitposter or the type of personality that spouts random opinions every 15 minutes. So I’m actually pretty bad at Bluesky too. I prefer writing blog posts. And so I’ll try again to partake in the Atmosphere using Leaflet. I’m very interested in the standard.site initiative. I’ve seen the recent discussions about whether to call your AT Protocol account an “internet handle” or an “atmosphere account.” I think the latter sounds better (well done @quillmatiq.com), but regardless the concept is intriguing — having one account that covers various tools.

Plus…you mean with Leaflet and similar blogging tools, I don’t have to be a microblogger to participate in the social web? You mean comments and “trackbacks” (whatever linking back is called nowadays) can come from Bluesky, Blacksky, and all the other Atmospheric apps? Count me in.

So, here’s a blog post to kickstart my Leaflet blog again. Party like it’s 2003.