Advent of Bloggers 2021: Day 20

I am writing a blog post every day from December 1st to December 24th, 2021, about a blogger whose writing or site I follow. My aim for this series is to help you discover new blogs and to help get the word out about content creators whose blogs I appreciate. You can read more about this series in the inaugural Day 1 post.

@theadhocracy.co.uk

The first post I remember reading on Murray Adcock's blog, theAdhocracy, was his "One Year in the IndieWeb" reflection post. In the article, Murray talks about his personal relationship with the IndieWeb and what it means to him. There was one key point in the essay that has remained with me: the IndieWeb is a toolkit. Murray eloquently shared that the IndieWeb community is not about implementing standards and achieving arbitrary goals as much as it is about building your online identity in line with your needs. You can use tools like Micropub to post content on your site but you don't have to do so.

Murray's feeling about having to implement "all the things" is one that resonates with me. As I have learned about the IndieWeb, I have learned both what does and does not work for me. Many features in the community, such as posting many social interactions, do not resonate with me. I implement what I think is useful and support others in doing so when I can. There are plenty of other great points in the aforementioned essay too, such as the benefits of open standards and how the IndieWeb manages its community. It's a must-ead for anyone who is participating in the IndieWeb.

There is plenty more to explore on Murray's blog. I recently read two of his posts on vinyl:

• Recording Records
• Vinyl Scratchings [#20]

These posts were about keeping track of a record collection and why Murray buys vinyl, respectively. These two posts convey a personal tone which resonates with me and can be found across Murray's site. There are also posts on topics like web hosting, CraftCMS, and many other topics.

Murray's blog is bright and colourful, using gradients for key components such as calendar banners. The banners above post cards on archive pages (which provide context on articles before you click on one to read) use coloured gradients too. I love this design choice. Every page catches my eye from a visual perspective.

Murray publishes short-form notes and reviews on his site, too. The reviews section of his site is full of ratings for movies and television shows. As I visited the page, I found that Murray has been watching Superstore, a U.S. sitcom that I love. Every post is tagged with a "series & collections" label so you can see other reviews in similar categories. The reviews page itself provides high level reviews. You can click on individual reviews to read more. I love the idea of reviewing media you have seen on your site. I can see this being an excellent way to keep track of the media you have watched (and might assist in answering the question "have I already seen this?" if you are not sure!).

Last but certainly not least, Murray's blog has an excellent search feature powered by Algolia. It's easy to find any blog post in Murray's archives by using this feature. I love seeing search features on one's own blog. Murray's search is styled just like the rest of his blog and provides an effective means of navigation. I'd love to see more search features on personal sites.

That's it for this post! Stay tuned (or whatever the appropriate equivalent is for blogs) for the next post and have a great day!