The internet is a natural network, just build your own website.
I've committed myself properly this to building my own personal platform. No fancy tech. No new tools. No distractions with the latest fad.
It's taken me longer than expected. The year has been stressful. I've had lots to clean up, personally and professionally. Digitally and IRL. Merging of different places I have been writing into one place.
Our tech landscape has changed a lot too. It's kind of tiring. I can't be bothered. And I'm bored with much of what is going on. Maybe I should be excited about AI, but I am generally not.
I've been clearing my inboxes. Unsubscribing from a ton of stuff. Tidying up my RSS reader. I'll always have a sense of chaos and disorganisation around how I maintain my digital spaces. I'll never have enough time to do all the things I want, but tidying up and creating boundaries seems like a good and logical thing to do.
I'm really good at getting certain things done. Like at Rosieland...I continue to show up pretty much 2-3 every week writing something. I'm at over 650 posts now, I think. I guess I may reach close to 1000 in 2025. Now that's an interesting stretch goal, hah. 😅
Then there are other things that I've been terrible at. My email box has been a mess and I'm generally terrible at responding to people. TBH, anything that doesn't align with what's directly a project of mine is where I'm less likely to action things. I guess it's partly my capacity, but also part of my neurodiversity.
The thing is, we seem to have forgotten that simple blogs and websites are the best thing that we can invest into. Especially ones that care about the open web, transparency and building upon protocols. My default platform for this is Ghost, it's gained a lot of great and increased support over the years, their non-profit status and ethic goals are to be admirable too.
Our own websites can have a natural network effect. We can build in habits. Anyone can visit them. You can define your own terms around them and not be threatened with digital displacement.
Polywork is a recent example of this, it seems their VC funding ran out and they just couldn't find a way forward. Another recent example are LinkedIn audio spaces being killed with barely any noticed. We had been using from a Ministry of Testing perspective, and we always knew the risk, but it's just another example of how these tools and networks will make decisions that kill our network potentials.
Anyhows, this is my reminder, to myself and to anyone else who wants to listen:
- most of us don't create real network growth through other platforms
- blogs are a valid way to build your own network
- success is usually down to showing up, consistently
- a blog is not hard to set up, creating the processes and commitment around showing up are
- the open web feels exciting again
- I have regrets when I stopped pesonal blogging many years ago, I also have regret about social media reliance, I don't think I'll have regrets going back to personal blogging.
- my personal blog is my social network, that's my mindset going forward
- the internet is truly the best natural network, let's not forget that!
Polywork is shutting down. I never really used it, but it’s another reminder to not jump on using these kind of tools. The internet is a natural network, just build your own website.
— Rosie Sherry (@rosiesherry.com) 2024-12-30T23:42:29.383Z
PS. I write posts on Bluesky, then scroll back through them as reminders of what I should write about.
