My Blogging Journey From Technology to Content

After delving into the Chinese blogging community, I found that most active Chinese blogs are run by people passionate about technology. They change themes, swap frameworks, and even write their blogs from scratch. This passion once led me to explore these areas, chasing faster loading times, using static website frameworks, and deploying CDN. But looking back, it seems ridiculous. My blog has little traffic, yet I wasted so much time on these technical details.

Reviewing my accumulated blog posts over the years, I noticed an interesting trend: when I stopped obsessing over technology, I produced better content; conversely, when I was engrossed in technology, I often had little to show for it. This led me to rethink—what is the true purpose of my blogging?

For me, blogging is primarily about sharpening my thinking skills, keeping my brain active by recording life events and reflecting on current affairs. Secondly, it serves as a journal that I can look back on when I have the time. Additionally, the blog is a place where I can meet like-minded people; we don’t need to meet in person or know each other’s true identities, we can connect through words alone. I need a relatively free platform for expression, preferably independent, without third-party content review.

Looking back now, I’ve realized that the true goal of my blog should be writing and publishing articles, not exploring new technologies. I can no longer let the tools become a burden. So, I’ve decided to choose a stable blogging platform—whether it’s WordPress, Ghost, or a static blogging framework, they’re all good options.

I was once attracted to various blogging frameworks like WordPress and Gatsby.js. Their loading speeds and low operational costs are indeed appealing. However, when I needed to change themes, I found I had to rewrite metadata to fit the new theme’s requirements. Even with the help of ChatGPT, the process was tedious. As for WordPress, although it has a long history, it feels somewhat outdated. Finally, I decided on Astro, which is content-focused and fits my needs as an independent blogger.