A few years ago, before Twitter and Facebook cleaned the clock of the blogosphere, I used to do all my posting here, and sent regular email updates summarizing activity at Birdhouse. But like most bloggers, the meteoric rise of Twitter and Facebook took a lot of the wind out of the sails of this site, and I started posting a lot of content at social networks instead.
Contrary to popular belief, Twitter did not “kill” this blog. I’ve been posting here all along, just with much less frequency. If you stopped reading when I started Tweeting, scroll back through the past couple of years – there’s still been action on Birdhouse.
Still, I’ve never quite felt comfortable with putting so much on the social networks. I want to own my content. I want to control the design. I want to control how media and code samples are embedded. I don’t always like being restricted to length limits. I really really don’t like that almost everything posted to Facebook is invisible to most of the world (I feel strongly that the internet is at its best when it’s a public square).
Long story short, in 2011 I intend to start posting more content to Birdhouse. And I’m resurrecting Birdhouse Updates, the email digest version of this site. Want to get occasional updates of new stuff happening here? Enter your email on the Birdhouse Subscribe page and reply to the confirmation email you’ll receive. (If you’re reading this via email, you’re already subscribed).
For the geeks among you, I’ve written a new WordPress plugin called SoloMail, which I’ll be using to send the updates. Let me know if you find it useful.
Blogging isn’t dead! (it just smells funny :) Happy 2011.