Serversncode

A while back I shared an update that I had dropped disqus from my blog and that I was looking for a new comment system, I really didn't like what I was finding out there. So like any good indie hacker I decided it was time for something new.

If I'm honest this has been a fun project to work on, I want to sort my own comment system out for my blog but also have it for any other blog or project I do going forward.

It has also been fun to work on, no expectations or deadlines I've been able to take my time and try out some things.

But now that I've past the prototype stage I'm going to focus in and build the MVP and see if there is something here.

It's a simple "Comments for blogs" idea. So lets see if there is something here.

https://serversncode.com/getting-the-comments-back-say-hello-to-commented-app/

This is a pivot of sorts. When I started writing here the ideas was to build a blog of tutorials on things I'm learning and using to build things.

But I'm going to make a change and start blogging more about what I'm building and how I'm building things the behind the scenes stuff as an indiehacker.

And this is the first one, it has a quick update on Contentr, it isn't ready for a milestone of it's own yet but will be in the next week or so.

Also an update on a couple of new ideas I'm going to start trying to pull together over the next while and build the prototypes.

https://serversncode.com/what-im-up-to-and-building-next/

I've been on a bit of a cleanup on the blog lately, I pulled out Disqus earlier. I also stopped using Google Analytics.

I have explored two other tools and to be honest they are just better tools for analytics. They have a far better UX and overall it's easier to understand the information.

The tools I apps I looked at

https://simpleanalytics.com
https://usefathom.com/

There are privacy implications in using Google Analytics I suppose that was what led me to looking for other options but what I found really changed my thinking.

There is no need for analytics to be a pain to figure out where your traffic is coming from. These tools make sure you are able to get the information rapidly and quickly.

I wrote more about it here on my blog also which one I went with in the end.
https://serversncode.com/ive-ditched-google-analytics/

For a while I've been thinking about removing Disqus from https://serversncode.com. I don't think it offers enough to be worth the hassle. There are a lot of reasons to drop it.

For me I just felt it isn't really a good fit. I found it difficult to us. It didn't really help my users privacy either. It was slow and clunky.

I've been looking around at alternatives but haven't found one I like. (Product idea ;) I already have a design done for what I would want)

So for the moment I've removed them and left a note to say I've taken the comments down and I'll have something back soon.

I'm debating between adding a note to say hit me up on Twitter or send me an email and creating a comments@ email address. Or just sticking a contact form in there instead for a while.

But it feels really good to get rid of it, The comments I had but I have a copy of them all stored off in a database (only the real comments not the spam). I did that with the super secret engineer skill of copy and paste.

I have been having trouble getting the time to write on the blog. I felt it a bit harder to try write every day as it ended up being a bit of a context switch.

This month I made a change I added "Blog Friday"

On Friday morning I will spend the morning writing for the blog. I hope that by setting it on a schedule and making it a habit I can get a bit ahead of myself. I also don't feel guilty with it only being 1 day a week and not the "Write 100 words every day".

So far it's working well I set a goal of clearing a bunch of blog posts from draft to scheduled and not adding new Drafts until the others are done.

Something that's been on my to do list for a while.

When I started the blog I jus put a quick theme up to get it going but it wasn't great. As I did more content on the blog and other work just got side tracked.

I have been working on some new content at the moment and will be publishing a bunch of posts on Docker, performance profiling and actor models over the next few weeks. So took some time and made sure the theme was updated and closer to something I like. https://serversncode.com/

I am a location independent developer. I love learning new technology. I wanted to start the blog to share the things I was learning as I move forward.

To share tips and tricks and also how to guides. It makes it easier to learn something new by writing about it.

I also build my own SAAS products using these new things. As I do this I learn something new so I wanted a way to share that to help others.

The more I've posted and created the traffic has slowly built over time. This has been very rewarding seeing how something I've played with could help others.

A great thing about having this blog has been that I needed to improve my SEO skills. Instead of hiring someone I've had to do it by myself and this has really been a huge help in my overall skill set.