Are personal blogs back? My personal blog ten years ago (even twenty years ago) received a lot of direct traffic on all sorts of things from the primary search engines and so on. Nowadays, the only search engine that delivers any traffic to my site is Kagi! Looking back, I haven't changed my style of writing very much, so I suspect the reality is that I've just fallen behind in a comparative sense. There are much better things nowadays to access.

It's probably similar to the street-side musician. In old times, he may have been the only musician around you might hear. Nowadays, he's got to compete with a perfect recording of Hotel California by the Eagles.

Every blog is a niche blog because blogging is a niche. It never was and never will be mainstream. Social media began as an attempt to make the spirit of blogging a low lift for the noobs.

Today, you’re talking to an audience that is online, willing to venture outside social media, and opting to actively read content rather than passively listen or watch. That’s far from everyone and that’s okay.

Two years ago I started a niche blog and tech site focused on hardware and software guides for Linux creatives. Even set up a forum because I was fed up with digging through scattered mailing lists and Discord servers for information. I like to think it has helped some people and it gives me a chance to practice writing human-readable documentation.

> But with the revival of personal blogs well underway

Is it? I haven't seen anyone in my circle return to blogging, nor kids of this generation.

Discoverability is going to be a massive problem, since search engines are dead. Maybe word-of-mouth through social media is enough?

I have been blogging for decades, personal and work. I look at traffic patterns and see all the comments coming through.

I don't think personal blogs are back.

AI scrapes niche blogs, Google deranks or spam drowns them out. It's really not a good time to be starting niche blogs.

If you’re looking to put one up, try https://bearblog.dev (no connection, just appreciate Herman’s work).

It’s got just the features you need, is built by a solo dev, and it’s got a very fair split between free and paid features. I used it to put up my personal site and have been very happy with the experience.

While there are ~ millions of blog engines out there, what is the current state of commenting and trackbacks?

I was wondering what the definition of "niche" was going to be:

   Kottke is one of the better known blogs that does not have a specific speciality. 

If you want to setup a super minimal blog checkout Neat CSS.

https://neat.joeldare.com

Don't call it a comeback. We've been here for years.

I want to start one myself. More of a public journal, but all the same. I keep having fits and starts and things distract me from the habit. That, and I'm never satisfied with my implementation in the end and I always want to try new or different things.

Niche forums. Federated.

I didn’t know they ever went out

I’ve maintained my own domain since 2010 and know plenty of others that still do as well

My page is one of my favorite places on the internet cause it’s in my opinion the original purpose of the internet which is to share your personal research and places to document and share personal ideas with infinite distribution.

Isn't there a cycle - blogs, aggregators, email lists, back to blogs...?