Blog

Kev asked how we handle our notes. I couldn't help myself. Here's a quick overview of how I create and manage notes.

Kev asks in his blog about how we take notes, I'm happy to answer. I'm taking this question as an opportunity to write a little about my setup, without getting too technical. I'll be writing about the technology in several posts – and I already did.

I have two important rules for note-taking without which it won't work:

The heart of my setup still is Obsidian. I've equipped Obsidian with a few plugins, but I'm cautious not to fall into the optimization trap. I want to use Obsidian for writing, not for tinkering with it. Plugins, yes, but only if they are really useful and I don't have to deal with them all the time.

Today, a new blog I'm involved in went live. We've launched the Sociabli blog, and we'll be writing a bit about ourselves there, but especially about Mastodon, Bluesky, and later other connected networks.

So if you're interested in tips and tricks for Mastodon and Bluesky, check it out. It's still very minimalistic; this is the first time I've implemented a blog with 11ty, and we're slowly getting to grips with it. Unfortunately, there's no RSS feed or anything like that yet, but that's coming. Of course, you can follow us on Mastodon and Bluesky to be informed about new posts, and I'll certainly link to some of them.

Today we're going live with a general post explaining why we started Sociabli in the first place. Next week, we'll continue with the first Mastodon tips.

Sociabli was created to solve a simple problem: easily sharing content across social media. Starting with a single Mastodon post, we’re building a seamless workflow for creators like you.

You can’t really get around podcasts these days. Twenty years ago, I started podcasting myself, and it looked a bit different back then. Also: 20 years?! WTF?!

"I'm also throwing something in the bowl: elbrauschen.de splash. Flush! narcissistic ass.

Still one of my favorite forum posts. Elbrauschen, that was our Podcast. At the time of this lovely forum comment, I was already running it on my own.

And this podcast, which eventually found its way into the virtual toilet of the internet – which I find especially fitting because blogs had been described a few years earlier as the toilet walls of the internet – this podcast went online exactly 20 years ago today.

Twenty years ago, the intro jingle played for the first time, and Steffen and I welcomed our first listeners with:
“Elbrauschen – Podcasting from the Waterkant.”

Podcasts were brand new. Just the other day, I got an email from Apple celebrating the 20-year anniversary of Apple Podcasts.

We have released two new Kirby plugins that will help us – and hopefully, you, too – with planning and publishing posts.

There's the AutoPublish plugin, which does exactly what the name suggests. In the panel, you can activate the AutoPublish function for each page and then set a time for when the page should be published.

That way, you can let the page slumber as a draft, and the plugin will then take care of publishing it at the appropriate time. All common hooks will be triggered, so other plugins may also notice.

If you want to know when your pages go live, our new Calendar-View Plugin can help you. It provides a subscribable calendar that displays all scheduled posts. You have the option to configure sources and filters. In your calendar app, you can then see when posts are scheduled or have gone live.

Although I am a developer by profession, a significant part of my (work) day consists of planning, sketching, writing, and publishing contributions. Of course, here on my website, but also on all the channels that we operate within the company. And these are becoming increasingly more.

For many who are thinking about how to implement their blog, the underlying system is already set: WordPress. Today, more than ever, it’s the market leader among content management systems. But there are adequate alternatives to consider.

A post from the series of Blogwochen 2025.

There’s a lot to discuss why this is the case. From my experience, it’s now largely due to the fact that everyone has heard of WordPress or knows a website that’s been implemented with it. When working with clients, they often don’t even ask about another CMS. A personal website === WordPress.

As a developer, I then see it as my task to weigh things and, if necessary, refer to other systems that might be better suited for the client.

When I started blogging, the question of WordPress didn't even arise because it didn't exist at the time. When it emerged into the light, I tried it out and stayed with it for a long time. At that time, WordPress was more of a blogging system than a CMS. The focus was on posts, comments, and trackbacks/pingbacks. Additionally, there was still the need to be able to create "static" pages because an imprint was required or an "About" page was nice.