[rbdr/blog.unlimited.pizza] / posts / 2 / the-linkblog-a-few-links-in.gmi

# The linkblog a few links in.

If I wrote a post for every time I said "I want to post more on the blog", this would be one of the most prolific publications online.

This time around, I decided to try things different and reduce the barriers to posting by integrating it into one of my well-honed routines: reading news and blogs. For this to succeed, I needed to be able to post from any device I was reading from. This was a bit harder than I anticipated, because until then the blog was just a `cli` tool that took in some text and generated the static assets.

After a few wilder ideas (eg. let's build an iOS gemtext editor that lets me post to a webhook), I landed on something a bit simpler†: I'll save the post to pinboard with the tag `linkblog`, and save my comments as gemtext in the description field; on the other end, a cron job fetches the bookmarks, generates gemtext and replaces the tag, and updates the blog using the CLI.

It took a few goes to get the cron working correctly, but it worked! Not just on the technical side, but on the habit-forming side: This month I've written as many posts as I had since 2017. Maybe next year I can hit that first milestone of at least one post a week!
Commit	Line	Data
81f8a4e6 RBR	1	# The linkblog a few links in.
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	3	If I wrote a post for every time I said "I want to post more on the blog", this would be one of the most prolific publications online.
	4
	5	This time around, I decided to try things different and reduce the barriers to posting by integrating it into one of my well-honed routines: reading news and blogs. For this to succeed, I needed to be able to post from any device I was reading from. This was a bit harder than I anticipated, because until then the blog was just a `cli` tool that took in some text and generated the static assets.
	6
	7	After a few wilder ideas (eg. let's build an iOS gemtext editor that lets me post to a webhook), I landed on something a bit simpler†: I'll save the post to pinboard with the tag `linkblog`, and save my comments as gemtext in the description field; on the other end, a cron job fetches the bookmarks, generates gemtext and replaces the tag, and updates the blog using the CLI.
	8
	9	It took a few goes to get the cron working correctly, but it worked! Not just on the technical side, but on the habit-forming side: This month I've written as many posts as I had since 2017. Maybe next year I can hit that first milestone of at least one post a week!