Chris O’Donnell didn’t tag me in his post on this topic, but I liked the idea and I want to write more in general, so I figured I’d do it anyway.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

Let’s ask 2008 Ben:

I’ve started this blog as a platform to discuss the more technical side of my life. Let’s face it: the people who read my Live Journal aren’t very likely to care about Linux discoveries and web design. People who care about Linux and web design aren’t very likely to care about my personal life. Now I have an outlet for both.

So that explains the start of this particular blog, now nearly 17 years ago. But clearly I was already posting on Live Journal at that point. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and blogging offered an opportunity to do that in a way that I could inflict share my thoughts with others.

What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why do you use it?

I use WordPress because my hosting provider at the time offered a one-click install. I’ve stayed with it because it works well enough for my purposes and I don’t feel like going through the effort to migrate to something else.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I used Live Journal in the aughts. Some of my early Facebook statuses were somewhat blog-like. (And of course, there are “microblog” platforms like Twitter, App.net, Mastodon, and Bluesky.) I’ve also used Webflow and Hugo for work blogs.

How do you write your posts?

Typically I sit down in WordPress, bang out some words, and then I’m done. Occasionally I’ll plan ahead and write an outline or something. Mostly, though, it’s words-until-I-run-out.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

When I have the least amount of time to actually do it? A lot of my posts are reactive, so the motivation comes when I have a strong opinion to share about something. I do have a huge backlog of other ideas, so sometimes I’ll find myself with a bit of time and I’ll get some writing done then if I can.

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

I typically schedule posts to publish in the morning. Usually I aim for a Monday or Friday since I publish Duck Alignment Academy posts on Wednesday and I want to not overwhelm people. Since I’ll sometimes write several posts in a burst, I want to keep them well-spaced. But typically, once I’ve scheduled the post, I don’t come back to it. It’s in the CMS, so it’s out of my mind.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

I’ve published just over a thousand posts here. That’s a lot. I don’t remember most of them. But there are a few posts that have helped total strangers solve problems, and I love when that happens. Since I enabled Jetpack stats in 2015, the top posts are:

• Solved: ports on ThinkPad Thunderbolt dock doesn’t work with Fedora
• Date-based conditional formatting in Google Sheets
• Solving the CUPS “hpcups failed” error
• #inaction bcotton
• Hints for using HTCondor’s credd and condor_store_cred

As you can see, most of those were of the “I solved a problem I had and here’s how I did it.” They didn’t make the top posts, but I’m also particularly proud of “When your HP PSC 1200 all-in-one won’t print” and “Building GEMPAK on Fedora” in that vein.

Any future plans for the blog?

Nothing huge. I want to keep writing — and maybe even write some more — as I grow weary of major social media sites being shitty. If Matt Mullenweg’s temper tantrum causes long term sustainability problems for WordPress, I’ll look at switching to another platform (but I really don’t want to do that).

Who will participate next?

I’m not going to tag anyone. Do this if you want. Or not. But if you do, please let me know!