(This post began life as a thread on BlueSky.)
I've been writing online for over 20 years, and over time, I've grown increasingly frustrated with the ever-complicating nature of expressing oneself on modern platforms. For me, it’s not about selling a book or building an audience through intricate SEO strategies—it's about the pure joy of writing. There was a time when I felt the excitement of realizing that people were reading my work, but that feeling has long since faded. Now, I simply want to open up a WYSIWYG editor and write without worrying about stuffing posts with the right keywords for search engines to notice.
The pressure to conform to platforms that demand elaborate self-promotion has been inimical to the act of writing itself. The necessity to market oneself, especially when writing for money, detracts from the creative process. Sure, selling a book or earning income from writing requires engaging in a lot of non-writing work beforehand, but that’s something I can accept when I need to. However, for my own online writing, I want nothing to do with that.
Recently, I decided to return to what is now an antique content management system (CMS). This choice represents a deliberate opt-out from the modern digital noise and the constant tug-of-war with platforms like Substack, Ghost, and Beehiiv. While I recognize that platforms like WordPress offer many tools that might simplify blogging even further, I have grown weary of the relentless switch from one platform to another and the associated frustrations.
Moreover, I find Substack’s interpretation of “free speech”—which seems to mean spotlighting fascists and those sympathetic to extremist views—unacceptable. Valid alternative points of view shouldn’t come at the cost of giving undue attention to abhorrent ideologies.
So, I'm simplifying my approach. I’m keeping my Substack account open just long enough to download my posts and subscriber information, with plans to eventually transition to another platform—likely Ghost. However, I’m not set on it 100%.
In the meantime, I’m returning to the simplicity of blogging as it was in 2005, taking a step back from the non-stop demands of modern digital publishing. In doing so, I hope to recapture that original joy of writing, free from the burden of endless SEO tweaks and platform switching.
