I’ve seen this self-reflection questionnaire making the rounds among independent bloggers, so I figured it was worth answering.
1. How often does this blog get updated?
It depends entirely on mood. In slow stretches, a new post might appear once a quarter; in busy ones, you’ll see something new every month. Consistency is not exactly the strong suit here.
2. When was the last update?
The last update went live in early August. But if we’re talking about genuinely new material, the trail goes back to June. July and August were mostly archive posts from Mastodon and one technical article—nothing I’d count as serious writing.
3. Are the posts original?
For non-technical writing, yes—completely. If I borrow from someone for a technical piece, I make a point of citing the source clearly. No vague ‘somewhere on the internet’ references.
4. Do you think your writing helps other people?
The technical posts seem to have been useful, judging by traffic and feedback. But my favorite section is the lifestyle column I call Living. It’s mostly a record of everyday life, and it’s also the main direction I want this blog to keep going.
5. When did you last change the blog’s theme or platform?
So long ago that I can’t remember the date. I used to hop between platforms constantly, but after settling on the current setup I’ve stayed put.
6. When did you last tinker with the theme code?
When I built the current version. The entire UI was modeled on SSPAI.
7. Do you customize your theme?
There wasn’t a second round of development—only the first one. I built the whole blog from scratch. The public-facing pages use CSS and jQuery; the admin pages use LayUI; the backend API is built with PHP’s Laravel. Right now I’m hoping to use this gap period to refactor the blog with Vue.js for the public pages, Element Plus for the admin side, and a NestJS API on Node.js.
8. How often do you open your own blog just to admire it?
Maybe because I’m a programmer, I can’t get excited about the current technical stack. I keep feeling it needs a proper rebuild. As for the content, it’s mostly a record, so I usually only go back to old posts when I want to revisit the past. Good memories are worth keeping.
9. How do you feel about your domain name these days?
What feelings? It’s been the same domain for years—don’t make things up. Staying true to the original intention is hard! Sometimes you have to ask yourself: after all these years, has traffic gone up? Have you been writing seriously?
10. Do you check traffic statistics every day?
I used to bother installing Baidu Analytics code and checking the numbers now and then. These days I’ve let it go completely. I don’t even glance at it.
11. Have you made money from ads on the blog?
The blog is clean—there isn’t a trace of advertising, so there’s no money-making route to speak of. Honestly, I’ve never thought about earning anything from this small independent blog.
12. Why do you browse other people’s blogs or websites?
Partly because I’m intensely curious about the daily lives of other independent bloggers. Partly because leaving a comment or a footprint might bring a little traffic back to my own blog. I don’t care much about traffic, but if nobody ever responds, it does feel a little lonely.
13. When someone shares an article, what’s your first reaction?
Maybe it’s the programmer in me: when a site loads very quickly, I’m genuinely impressed. But content matters more. That’s the real soul of an independent blog.
14. Which part of blogging matters more to you?
My own happiness and pleasure, without question. For me, an independent blog also has a special meaning: it lets me stay away from overcorrected text censorship and write freely.
15. What have you gained from blogging recently?
Lately, it’s been recording the pitfalls I’ve run into. If I hit the same problem again, I can find the solution quickly.