There have been a number of directories for personal blogs appearing across the web recently. The likes of The Forest, indieblog.page and ooh! directory all aim to simplify the act of discovery.
Despite the regular 'blogging is dead' mantra spouted from various corners of the web, blogging is, and always has been, alive and well. Maybe it's the recent shenanigans over at Twitter that have gotten people excited again as they dust off their sites so as to have a more stable foundation for their online lives.
Discovery has always been the issue – I forget how many times I've written about it over the years.
Now there's another way to find blogs: a GitHub repository called 'non-profit bloggers' as mentioned and linked to by Brandon. It is designed to be a "list of folks who write for the joy of writing and aren't primarily writing to sell a service or merchandise." It came about thanks to a conversation between Brandon and Matthew.
From the repo Readme:
To be added to this list, your blog should meet the following criteria:
- No ads
- Selling services/merchandise shouldn't be the primary goal
- Sponsored posts should be at a bare minimum
- Your blog shouldn't be written by AI
We will prioritize blogs on the list by those who also do not require cookies, and have minimal data tracking.
You can be considered for addition by submitting a Pull Request or creating an Issue on the repository, Brandon also says that you can leave him a comment or drop him an email if you don't have a GitHub account.
Sign me up!
@colinwalker Nice! Added to NetNewsWire.
It's only just started but will hopefully grow over time. I suggested linking to people's GitHub profiles as well (if they have one) and then you have a double whammy of discovery.
@colinwalker I hadn't even thought about that.
@colinwalker Yeah, more the options for discovery, better. I wasn't even aware of Forest and the indieblog.page. They are interesting takes.
@amit Absolutely.
Thanks for the highlight! It's great to see people are onboard. I've always searched around for blogs by passionate writers, I can't believe it took me this long to start a repo for it.
It's a great idea, thanks for setting it up.
@colinwalker thanks for those links! I never really twittered properly but have been keen on blogs and blogging since the 00s. I'm always curious to see how other people do it...