2026: The Year of My Website
Happy New Year
It's New Years Day, 2026.
I just finished some updates to my site. They make the "Alt Text" I write for images available on browsers that would normally hide it. I realized something when posting the first image with the new feature: I don't want to post it anywhere else.
The Contenders
There are three places I post these days:
- Mastodon
- Bluesky
- My Website
That order is representative of the frequency with where I post. Frequent short posts go to Mastodon. Semi-frequently, those posts go to Bluesky. The occasional long posts goes on my site.
I haven't really been posting images anywhere. My head was out of the game. That's changed. I want to get out. To make art again. To post it.
I can do that. As long as there isn't too much friction in the process. Since, posting to three places is an boatload of friction, I'm punting.
Photos will go to my site.
Social networks be damned.
The Home Of Alan
Splitting short form content to the social networks and longer writing to my site felt natural. The size of the prose determining the destination.
Photos don't have the natural split. They fit just as well in any of the locations. But, they're the thing I care about the most. That make the decision to move them to my site easy.
I care about my short form posts too. Thinking about photos made me rethink them. I want them on my site. I could post them on social networks then set up a process to pull them back to my site. But, fuck that.
I want my site to be the source.
Single is Smooth
Posting things in multiple places is friction. Just thinking about it is more than enough to stop me from posting anywhere at all. Yet another poison of social networks.
I'm done with that.
My work will go into and onto my site. The practice will be to avoid posting elsewhere. I'll set up tools to automate distribution to other locations at some point. I'll miss out on "engagement" until that happens. I'm fine with that. Without the line in the sand, I'll never pull the things I make back under my control.
-a
Endnotes
This isn't a categorical ban. I'll still do replies, go live announcements, etc... on social networks. Some long form posts will go out too. The short form posts and images will stick here until automation is in place to push them out.
I've had the idea of doing short, social media style posts on my site for years. I took a few steps that direction. The implementation is far from complete. This move will get me to finish that work.
The is also directly in line with my goal of getting folks to use their own sites. I've crossed the threshold where it's hypocritical to talk about it without fully committing to it myself. There's more than enough bones on my site to support the shift.
This is related to the POSSE approach from the Indie Web movement: Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.
Except I won't be publishing elsewhere for a while. I've done it in the past by posting manually, but that slowed me down overall. Creating a mental friction that made me post less overall.
So, things will only exist on my site until I decided to spend the time to automate the distribution.