Postrolls and Comments
A Postroll
If you've been around the blogosphere much, you may have happened across blogrolls. A list of links that says, "here's some other blogs that I like; you might like them too!"
I've been unsure about having one myself. Providing a link to another website, it's practically an endorsement. And that's not necessarily a problem. But to my brain it's now an ongoing item on my to-do list - periodically check all the sites on the list and vet them to make sure I'm still comfortable linking to them.
I realize this is completely, totally, a me problem. I just can't help but recognize that people and sites and circumstances change all the time, and what if my site and one of these other sites just start drifting apart? Again I recognize, this is me overthinking things like I usually do.
This is why I was intrigued by JCProbably's post about this very issue. (Their reasoning against a blogroll makes far more sense than mine.) Inspired by their usage of a rotating "postroll" instead, I started looking into options for that. As a Feedbin user for years now, I'd been using their Star feature to mark favorites for a long time already. On top of that, they provide a separate feed for my Starred posts!
Next was finding a way to get that feed into a page. I didn't have the time to code a whole thing to parse XML and put out HTML, so I'm happy to have found RSS 2 HTML - a really simple way to just paste in a <script>, do a little styling, and have it work. You can check it out now!
Comments
In previous iterations of the blog, I've attempted different kinds of comment systems. I haven't been super happy with any of them. Not having the ability to comment on a post is like having a brick wall in front of you. So, encouraging discourse is something I want to do.
Inspired by multiple other blogs, I've found something simple that I quite like: Reply by email. While a standard open comment system is like putting holes in the brick wall for people to talk to me and each other through, reply by email is more like a door. (I know, this metaphor isn't holding up too well.)
It's an explicit invitation to come into my space and share your thoughts. I find that email conversations vs typical comment strings has conversation that's more thoughtful, intimate, and positive for both reader and writer.
So that'll be at the bottom of all the blog posts now, thanks to Bear Blog's post template. If you feel like sharing a response, give it a try. I welcome all new digital penpals: