Blogging
Blogging
Every decision and experiment behind running this blog: tech choices, domains, comments on and off again, going multilingual, RSS, and other labors of love.
🌸 Lv.4 Bloom
A little method I use to motivate myself to write.
Behind the blog
This is where I document every decision and experiment behind running this blog.
An independent blog is built on countless small choices:
- Tech and design - From the stack and the domain to CSS details
- Feature trade-offs - Comments turned off, on, and off again
- Language strategy - Chinese-first, the cost of multilingual, the birth of the Japanese edition
- Playing the long game - RSS, SEO, and writing for my future self
This blog is my own territory on the internet.
In your own kingdom, you make the rules.
Posts in this collection
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Reading my own blog in Japanese to practice Japanese
Four reasons I added a Japanese edition to my site: warming up for my book's Japanese release, linking my Japanese app, getting more Japanese into my life, and a practice method built just for me.
August 24, 2026
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Why I turned off comments
I tried enabling comments for a month. Here's why I shut them down.
May 22, 2026
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Blog questions challenge
Answering the 8 blog questions challenge: why I started blogging, what platform I use, how I find inspiration, my favourite post, future plans, and more.
April 22, 2026
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Should a blog have a comments section?
A question that's been bugging me for a while. Let's see what others think, then try it out.
April 13, 2026
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Your RSS posts might only live half as long as everyone else's
If you self-host a static site and don't handle publish times, your posts might not even last 24 hours in your readers' RSS feeds.
April 10, 2026
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Auto-spacing between Chinese and English text with CSS
Manual spacing between CJK and Latin characters is typesetting's job, not the writer's. CSS text-autospace lets the browser handle it.
April 9, 2026
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How to choose a good domain name
A domain name is your address on the internet. Pick the wrong one, and it's like opening a shop in an alley no one walks through. Pick the right one, and people remember you after seeing it once.
December 18, 2025
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Prioritizing Chinese
I decided to change my website's primary language from English to Chinese. Instead of clinging to vanity, I chose to face reality honestly.
October 13, 2025
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Maintaining a multilingual blog is hard
The challenges of maintaining a multilingual blog and why I'm giving up (for now)
March 20, 2025
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Starting a new blog at 34 years old
Why start a new blog now, when I've procrastinated for decades?
August 1, 2024