… Aaaand she’s back.
I tried using the Indonesian language in my previous post, and I found myself feeling “stiff” on using it. I know, the irony, I’m an Indonesian and here I am, feeling uncomfortable using my own language. I know some Indonesians out there who would love to sling mud at me because of this.
Nevertheless, I feel English would be more helpful, in a sense that not only my friends from Automattic can still read this comfortably (hello!), but it also gives me a good outlet to practice my English writing. While I’m comfortable using English and can use the language just fine on a daily basis, nothing beats the practice of writing the language. As long as I can ignore these… squiggly underlines, courtesy of Grammarly. Thank you, Grammarly, for your service, but sometimes we need to drone on and on about mundane things. You would have a blast with the late Umberto Eco.
So! I’m back using English, hahah. Also, yesterday’s posts seemed helped me getting through the blogging funk and my memories dealing with users when I was still a Happiness Engineer. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job as a Happiness Engineer, but some cases could be… A bit much. Those cases, unfortunately, somehow stuck with you more than those who didn’t. That said, I faced Site Editor bravely and even switched this blog’s themes to several classic themes such as Misty Lake. I love themes with sidebar, I can’t explain how much I love them. When I was in Automattic, I usually complained commented the lack of sidebar on our newly published themes, so when we finally had one, my teammates at that time (Jordan and Adeline) pinged me like crazy, “RETNO! WE HAVE SIDEBAR! WE HAVE SIDEBARRRR!”
I also checked Blogger because I mused on the probability of switching sides, and I found myself immensely disappointed. Say what you want about blogging, but for me, blogging is a niche. It used to be a trend, a fad when everyone and their uncles and dogs and cats had a blog, and now we don’t see the same gusto compared to, say, 10-15 years ago. The world itself still lives on, though. People still blog, and they do so with such commitment (5+ years assisting them here), but the lurking problem is the network. Remember blogring/webring? “Adopt a pixel”? “Trade blog links”? I know I do.
Blogger used to be so good at it. Heck, even WordPress.com used to do that, too. Folks could see newly published posts on the service’s homepage, or “Blog of the Month” posts, or “Blogs of Note”.
Look at it. Look how the community thrived and pulsated with new posts. No, the homepage was not minimalist or “professional” or “catered to businesses”. It was filled with texts, information, and news rivaling a PowerPoint presentation by a 100+++++-year-old Japanese company (trust me, I know. I used to do an internship with a Japanese company with a long history.) It was alive.
Now, I don’t think I can look at those services’ homepage without feeling anguish. That’s the least I could do. I usually screamed.
I checked Blogger using my GMail account, and I found myself confused: Say, I’m a new blogger and I wanted to start a blog. My first thought would be to find inspiration, but it’s really hard to find one in this social media, 140-character limit, and rage-inducing spaces. I hoped I could find and see some blogs out there, from the same service, so I know what to expect in terms of look and design, and perhaps follow them! New friends!
Nada. Zilch.
The things that I see on the screen are:
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… And blog posts from the Blogger team dated 4 years ago.
I clicked the linked “here” text, hoping that I could get some recommendations, but no. Again, only a:
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At least, at least, WordPress.com is doing better. You can find recommendations and discover new blogs on the Reader. Reader has always been one of, or perhaps THE ONE, my favorite elements on WordPress.com. Call me biased because I used to work there, but I haven’t seen similar service as Reader on other website hosts (I did check Hostinger, the host of this website, and they only have their company blog. The closest thing to “find new blog” is their client’s success stories.)
I’m not sure how Reader is being managed now. When I was still at Automattic, while the team was passionate and REALLY good at it (send your kudos to Dave Martin), I felt that the focus and the effort from the top levels outside the team were not intensive enough (cough cough, those who know me might realized that I tried to be as delicate and harmless as possible when saying it.) I hope this has changed. I really love Reader, I know some folks who have equal love for Reader — even more, and there is tons of potential there. I did see some improvements on the space, though, so that’s great.
That said, while we have the space, there is a concern about the quality of the content. I really like Stuart’s writing here: AI is going to replace me someday. With the risk of sounding “in the olden day”-vibe, the quality of our blog world is no longer there. We used to be so enthusiastic in building our communities because we knew those words were written by actual human beings. The posts were humane, alive, rich, and filled with emotions — real emotions. To create a community is to connect. The desire might be less now because we are not sure whether the posts published like a clockwork are from a living breathing human or from a freaking prompt. I also hate how people are side-eyeing actual correct grammars and punctuations, thinking those were AI works, like, EXCUSE ME, some of us actually studying, learning, and honing the craft. Who can forget that “a sure-sign of an AI work is when you see em dash on it ( — )”? That’s such an insult to the whole craft and profession. In summary: Finding a blog with well-written words from humans are such a gem. A gem, I tell you.
If I’m being honest, I have a room-temperature vibe with AI. Slightly closer to the boiling point, but still lower than a whistling kettlepot. I know its potential, I used ChatGPT to translate my comments from English to Chinese for connecting and communicating with folks on the Xiaohongshu app — I am now learning Chinese on Duolingo, BTW — but I also have my… thoughts on its generative nature. I always believe that the human arts will always triumph over everything. I mean, hey, AI won’t be able to generate those pictures, videos, and writings without stealing using the original works by actual human beings in the first place, right? 🤷
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