Its 2025 and I am writing (blogging?) using WordPress… version 6.8. When I first published anything online it was pre-internet days, 1991 or 92 and I was creating pages on a TriBBS (or a Wildcat or even I think a Spitfire implementation wow old memories) bulletin board running on my gateway2000 to talk to my other friends with computers and modems… swapping geek stuff and mostly leaving messages or chats with each other.
I was instantly entranced by that the connection, sharing ansi graphics and text files of old phrack magazines etc, but also building and configuring the bbs itself planting early seeds for what would become a big part of my life. That all stopped not too much later as I discovered skateboarding (one Mike Carroll nose manual heelflip out at EMB and I was done for) and moved south where the weather and my new friends meant skateboarding was every day all day for a long time.
Tech moved on and by the time I was publishing anything online again that wasnt for a class or job, it was 2005 or 6 and I was 7 years late to Blogger. WordPress was 2 or 3 and I found myself paralyzed by the prompt and possibility. I can say whatever I want and the whole world (somewhat) can read and respond and yet I couldnt find the words and to this day, as much as I actually love writing, I still am paralyzed by the public prompt.
More then 20 years later and after an entire career focused on CMS’s and digital communication I struggle to find a voice or reason for publishing my own thoughts. I am in an attempt at growth, attempting to change that – to see if I can build a new muscle, realize the benefits of slowing down, processing my thoughts and then saying something in writing.
Maybe it sticks this time… I am back again for (if you count the BBS days) for what I think is the 5th or 6th version/attempt to update my own home on the web. I feel inspired now by nostalgia and a feeling of loss for what the web could have been against the walled gardens of Meta and social media (the terrible algorithms, time suck and brutal effects on society). When I moved back to Maine – the first barrier I ran into was trying to communicate with our schools and public programs without being on Facebook. Almost impossible and yet Facebook is terrible – objectively poor U/X, optimized for engagement to the point of hurting people, and ruthlessly and illegally selling our data cause they can afford the fines. The open web needs to succeed to support a better society, we certainly can’t trust the current social media titans to maintain the public square and so the work of open source communities and advocacy needs to continue. Writing blog post wont do anything at all to move the needle, but I like staying connected to the technology as a user not just a builder.
1993 – 2025 Time is a flat circle.