my blog discovery spree
I've been searching more blogs to follow this month. I've been following too little blogs and most are fairly inactive now, and I get the impression that Bearblog's Discovery feed has a bit of a slow time lately.
My first instinct is to ask people to give me a list of their favorite blogs or check out their blogrolls; I like personal recommendations more than having to deduct anything based on just a name or a screenshot. I like when people write little blurbs about who this person is and why they're on that list. And chances are, if I like someone's blog, I'll like what they read, too, at least some of it. But that hasn't been as successful as I'd like! It also seems like we Bearblog people are a bit silo'd, since we're mostly consuming other Bearbloggers, but I wouldn't mind breaching out a bit.
So I remembered my discover page and went through most of these directories.
I've found I'm really a bit too rigid and not trusting enough. I can't bring myself to just middle-mouse-button-click the top 20 links of some page or filter to open in a New Tab and see what it is about. Instead, something has to pull me in - the name, a brief description, an intriguing design in the screenshot, or the fact that I've seen them around before. I'm less likely to actually go from link to link to link than I'd like to. I'm also suddenly easily overwhelmed by too many tabs open. Yes, I am one of those people that only ever has 1-4 tabs open and immediately closes unneeded ones and reads everything the same day, and I guess I am barely used to deep dives like that anymore (except for university exams). Don't know how to feel about that.
I'm also a bit biased against certain designs, I have to admit. It's not personal, I'm sure those sites are great for whoever they're made for, but if I see a huge "Hi, I'm (name)!" with the handwave emoji, I'm out. I think I've seen this design too many times before, and it also seems to be the standard design for when you want your blog to be a portfolio for your applications in the tech sector. Which is good for you! But not what I am looking for.
There is another type of blog or personal site I've been learning to avoid for myself, and it's ones with way too many columns and boxes. The content is spread out over the entire screen (on desktop) and there's a top bar to click multiple links on, but the most recent post is on the left with a giant picture, then there's other posts on the right, and below that is the latest picture they snapped, next to that is the latest book they read, and right next to that is a link collection of their postroll, and then here are multiple categories with images to quickly signify what they're about... it's all so much! My eyes dart around and I'm unsure what to do next and it feels overloaded and a bit chaotic depending on the execution and sizes. I think I prefer less images, a bit less or no boxes, and a text of links or a list of blog posts to read, centered on the page, with some unused space.
I admittedly have a negative connotation to accompanying posts with a picture and presenting each post as a little box with said image to click on. It reminds me a lot of clickbait, of monetized, SEO-optimized WordPress blogs and engagement at all costs, of old advice that treats your viewers like babies attracted to color. I'm not saying the people who have these kinds of sites that I explored feel that way, but unfortunately that's the message that comes across to me because of my own experiences.
Searching through blogs, many make it too hard to find their RSS feed link. Some of them are broken. With others, it's hard to find an about page, or an easy list of blog posts to get an overview what they talk about.
Many seem to hide when a post was written, which was an inconvenience because I wanted to find out how active the blog is and when the latest post was. No point in following if the last post was 2 years ago, and I wanna know how active you are in general.
Some were also a bit messy in separating the categories (some were both blog posts and notes), others made it unclear visually where a post ends and another begins.
When I see that most of your posts are just about changing the blog design, changing the hosting, changing the delivery method, changing what editor you write the posts in, and all that changes like every 3 months... I am not hopeful that you will ever get to the actual meat of it. Which is fine! Maybe your blog is about testing out all the tools you can use for that and reviewing it. But it just seems like those blogs were not originally set up to do that and instead, they hope to find the ideal conditions until they feel perfect enough to post. I wonder if that state will ever happen, when every tool is presented as the one that finally fits just to also fail as a new shiny thing comes along. I appreciate letting us see under the hood of it all, but I prefer a balance to the blog upkeep posts.
In the end, I think I added about 6-8 new sources to my web reader, many of them magazines and less than I'd like! But I'll keep looking.
the type of blogs i like
After criticizing websites, it's only fair to also talk about the positive things I saw and liked.
I really appreciate when you have a doodle-y, self-designed look (example). Not a must, but definitely a bonus.
I like when there's a button for light and dark mode (I have to implement this myself; both light and dark mode are there, but it checks your device/browser setting instead).
It's great when there's an introduction on the landing page or an easy to access About page that quickly lists your personal information (that you're willing to share) and interests and what you're blogging about, maybe already mentioning the different tags and categories you blog about.
I prefer white, black, gray, muted colors and pastel to overly aggressive or neon colors :)
I like blogs that are similar to mine! Some opinions and thoughts, some personal life, even mundane things. Code stuff can be mixed in, but not as the main thing or in a way that is hard to understand.
I like when you have a garden section with lots of links to follow, like about yourself, the blog, your interests, postrolls, blogrolls, bookmarks, shrines and more.
I like the following topics a lot (not a conclusive list): Zines, Pets, Embroidery, Sewing, Pottery, Beverages (Coffee, Matcha, ...), Observations from the Coffee Shop, University Life, Indie Web, Link Collections, Repairing or modifying the tech you have, Tech Positivity (like The Good Internet magazine!)
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Published 09 Jun, 2025