blogs:

  1. Journal catch all (you're here)
  2. travel journal
  3. seasonal reflections
  4. photo journal
  5. AI/technology/knowledge management thoughts
  6. gaming journal
  7. music journal

sites:

  1. personal site (you're here)
  2. Halloween site
  3. Wiki
  4. digital garden
  5. Small sites that need less updates

spaces:

  1. Leaflet pages
  2. are.na collections
  3. thoughts.page

In the last few months I've seen the question travel around blogs about why people keep multiple blogs/sites. Sometimes it's a geniuine curiosity as to why people do it and sometimes it's a post about why someone does it.

I've been thinking about it. it seems when people talk about it they feel like they need to justify taking up more space on the internet. they need a "valid" reason for spreading out, which I find fascinating. this isn't like land, you're not actually taking up space. but mentally I can see how it might feel that way.

since I got online in 1998 and started making things I have been a categorical site creator. I currently keep 7 blogs and more than one website. is it annoying for people to keep track and follow me? probably :) but at the end of the day I blog to blog, and I've tried the 1 blog multiple categories thing and it didn't work. I didn't blog. it removed the desire.

somehow with multiple separate places I feel free to expand on each topic and get into a depth that I don't feel comfortable doing when they're all consolidated into one place. for a while I thought it was influenced by apps and social media, this idea of one platform per format.

I realized this isn't just a digital habit for me, though. it's something I've been doing since I was a child with notebooks, too. I always love to see people's yearly notebooks that are linear and dated but I keep 4+ notebooks at any given time and some of them I don't date. in retrospect it's difficult to piece together but in processing it's exactly what I need.

so I read more into this and learned some stuff about myself. To be clear I'm not implying this is why all people do it, or that it's better than any other method - just that this is what works for me, and here's why (I think).

  1. This is how I process information - things may be related, but each topic gets its space to grow before I bring them all together. I'm thorough.
  2. Each blog (or site or journal) is a contextualized mental space for that topic. It's like entering a room and fixating on that one topic for a few hours. Keeping just 1 spot feels more like entering a room with conflicting noise and it's harder to focus. It's not just topics though. It's mood, velocity, level of reflection vs research... the whole process of writing is different per location. I think I feel more cluttered and less clear when all those moods are in the same room.
  3. Each blog or site or journal has a different format and presentation and delivery method. I've had highly customized sites before where each category had a different look to accommodate different information. so for example, photo posts looked like a photo blog, music posts had different metadata for recording music details, etc. that's a lot of site maintenance that I didn't like doing.
  4. on that note, it's not that I 100% want to eliminate all hand coding or customization. it's that I don't want or need it for every blog I keep. some I just want a platform that supports getting my ideas out quickly (I use Bearblog). Some I want to spend hours coding a specific layout for the details.
  5. Frankly, I grew up online and saw the culture shift from total creativity to unified branding and back again. depending on your goals online you may prefer to have one site with a unified look and feel so people immediately recognize your work. I don't need that to happen. I like having different sites that don't all look the exact same.
  6. everything has a home and I know exactly where it is. you could probably make this case for the single site approach too, but this is easier for me to keep track of. it's a whole tactile experience. I don't just remember writing something somewhere, I remember exactly where and what it felt like making it and how it looked afterwards. and if I change design for 1 type of content it doesn't change for all the others; that archival memory is kept in tact.
  7. I enjoy content management :) I like having multiple sites with files and posts and pages to keep track of. it's not causing any friction and I miss the work involved if I only have 1 place to manage.

Generally to me, separation isn't fragmentation, but rather it creates clarity. I have a clear path and place to go for anything I might want to write about. I find joy in creating different spaces for threads in my mind. I don't like centralization of expression; it doesn't work for me.

I do try to consolidate blogs by making lists or aggregators so my friends and people can find my words if they're interested. But I'm in this for myself, my own needs for expression, documentation, sharing, and creativity. It's nice when people have interest, and it really enhances the experience to find new friends online, but my creative process is so moody and based on immediate needs that I can't be bothered to ensure I meet everyone's desires in the output. There are trade offs but I'm not trying to become known, so it's ok if people don't find all the things I say.​