Podcast Episode: Return

Pip: Blender Fox has moved the blog again — and honestly, the only constant in blogging is the platform you're leaving.

Mara: This episode covers the move back to WordPress and what prompted it. Let's start with the return itself.

Return

Pip: The question here is simple: why does a blogger pick up and move, and what does the destination say about what they actually need from a writing tool?

Mara: The post is brief and direct — here's what it says: "I've moved everything back to WordPress as micro.blog's writing interface was absolutely horrendous."

Pip: That word — horrendous — is doing a lot of work. When the interface itself becomes the obstacle, the writing stops, and at that point the platform has failed its one job.

Mara: The post is titled simply "Return," which frames this less as a technical migration and more as coming back to something familiar. WordPress isn't presented as a destination so much as a retreat to ground that already works.

Pip: There's something quietly telling about that framing. You don't title a post "Return" if you feel triumphant — you title it that when you've been away long enough to remember why you left, and then long enough again to remember why you came back.

Mara: The post also flags that this isn't necessarily permanent. The closing line is: "I'll keep it here while I look at other options." So WordPress is a stable base for now, not a final answer.

Pip: Which is a reasonable position. Settling on a platform while still keeping an eye open is how most long-term bloggers operate — you stop when something works well enough, not when something works perfectly.

Mara: What the post doesn't detail is what "other options" might look like, but the dissatisfaction with micro.blog's writing interface is the explicit driver here. The functionality may have been fine; the experience of actually sitting down and writing was the problem.

Pip: And that distinction matters more than it sounds. A platform can check every technical box and still make you not want to open it.

Mara: Right — usability at the moment of writing is the thing that either gets out of the way or doesn't.


Pip: A blog that moves platforms is still a blog that's running — and that counts for something.

Mara: The search for the right writing environment continues. Worth watching where it lands next.

Return

You might have noticed the blog change again. I’ve moved everything back to WordPress as micro.blog’s writing interface was absolutely horrendous.

I’ll keep it here while I look at other options

KCNA

I successfully went into, and passed my #KCNA exam. I actually bought the exam coupon last December and just hadn’t got round to doing the exam.

I ended up walking away with only 3 questions wrong. Two I wasn’t sure of anyway, so I’ll assume I got those wrong. The third however, I’m not sure which one I got wrong.

However there was one question in there which technically had no correct answers selectable. The question was this:

Which of the following is a valid Kubernetes pod restart policy?

  • on init
  • on update
  • on startup
  • on failure

None of the above are, strictly speaking, correct. It should be OnFailure and not on failure — see the Kubernetes docs.

I picked on failure as that is the closest to being correct.

I’ll be pretty pissed if they marked me wrong on this question.

I’ve now connected micro.blog to this domain and most of my content from WordPress is sitting here. I might post occasionally. Nowhere as often as I used to previously, but better than nothing, I guess.

Redirects

I’ve now configured a redirector within Google Cloud to handle redirects from the old blog and point them to the WordPress-centric domain. Essentially doing what wordpress.com was doing while the domain was still with them.

I’ll leave this in place until I decide what to do with the blog.

WP Drama

You may already be aware of the mess that is happening with WordPress/Automattic and WP Engine.

This mess has enforced the need for me to disconnect my blog domain from here as quickly as possible, but I still haven’t found any good options.

ClassicPress is one, but trying to find an appropriate host is tricky since it’s not a widely used.

Ghost is another I have considered and am still considering.

Tumblr…. just, nope…

Disconnecting Domain

I’m going to be disconnecting the domain from this blog probably in the next month or so.

I’ll move the domain off WordPress and plug in a redirect to bring it back here for those who have bookmarked my articles.