Today marks 21 years since I registered my first domain and started blogging.
21 freakin' years!
The first 5 years on that old domain are lost to the sands of time (this site has posts back to 2008 in the archive) but it's no great loss. 1
The knowledge that I have been doing this for so long and even if I take breaks, which I seem to do with increasing regularity, I always come back is the reassuring part.
# The built-in network effects of major platforms mean many don't see the point of having their own site. Such a shame. It doesn't have to be a blog, just something you own and control. Something that you won't lose if the platform dies or your account is banned or deleted (either by you or the platform.)
# I noticed a while ago that the view transitions when navigating from page tompage weren't working any more.
Initially, I thought I'd broken something but hadn't changed any of the relevant code. I checked across multiple Chromium based browsers on mobile and the Mac and it wasn't working anywhere. The correct flag was definitely set for all. As the viewTransitions API is due to go live (without a flag) in Chromium 126 I wondered if a change had been made in the engine, seeing as we're on v125.
To double check, I thought I'd try Dave Rupert's site as he's usually on top of all this. His transitions weren't working either. So, it's not just me.
On checking the relevant "Chrome for Developers page" I discovered that a new requirement had been added, the following CSS is needed to allow for transitions:
@view-transition {
navigation: auto;
}With this added a browser cached cleared transitions are working again.
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as I have mentioned in the past, there are a few captures from the early days on the Internet Archive that show the old SharePoint blog ↩
Congratulations, Colin. That's a long time! 🎉
I've been sorely tempted to return to platforms like WordPress.com or Substack for their network effect, but I'm glad I've chosen to go independent (self-hosted WordPress without Jetpack) again. It takes longer for people to find and engage with your site, but it feels a lot better. And, in the end, it pays off, in many ways.
Congratulations! I'm not sure when I registered my first domain name, but it was definitely in early 2003, maybe late 2002. The Internet Archive has copies of some of the stuff I posted back then.
Internet Archive is a treasure.
I started blogging (on Blogger) in about 2007, but I don't think I bought my first domain until about 2010/2011. A bit late to the party compared to you and Colin. 😊