Over time in Micro.blog, I started forming a habit of blog “maintenance” that I usually do, whether or not I have a post waiting. Habit for my blog? This means an org-mode capture template!

But even if you don’t use Emacs, you might find some of the steps helpful. Here it is:

    *Blog Stuff
    
    - [ ] tinylytics
      - [ ] most popular posts in the last month
      - [ ] most popular countries?
    - [ ] new webmentions (under *Account* on the Micro.blog site)?
    - [ ] Linkrot:
      - [ ] "On this day" if exist:
        - [ ] check for typos
        - [ ] check for links/broken images/missing emojis
      - [ ] if no post, see OTD below
    - [ ] check plugins
    - [ ] photo page / movies page fixes
    
     **If you need a post (OTD):
    
    - Check RSS feeds for stuff to save and comment on
    - Fosstodon (check the org-mode feed)
    - Reddit (org-mode)
    - Journal
    - Take a random picture? of something you like

First, I want to check on TinyLytics, which is a privacy-conscious analytics tool, kind of like Google Analytics, just not as evil. TL tells me which days I get more traffic, and for which pages (which usually translates to posts). It’s no surprise that my more popular posts are Emacs or org-mode related.

TL also tells me which browsers are the most popular on my site (Firefox bit Safari recently, Chrome is a close third), which operating systems (macOS, no big surprise, followed by Linux, which is not shocking considering where I hang out online), and which countries (USA is first by a long shot, but Germany has always been second which I find interesting).

Webmentions are something I’m still not too clear about. I set it up on my site a while back, but usually my blog gets mentioned on someone’s list of lists, which seems automated. Every now and then though someone mentions me directly from their blog, and I’d love to thank them for that, so this is what it’s for.

Linkrot is important for anyone who has a site, I think. It’s pretty straightforward. For plugins, I check to see if a new version exists on the backend of Micro.blog. Finally, since a change that was introduced on Micro.blog a while back, some of the images on my Photos page shouldn’t be there (it sometimes captures screenshots or other boring photos that are not really worthy being on the photo page), and then the Movies page needs a “kick” sometimes - refreshing and rebuilding the site so it captures the RSS feed from letterboxd, which is where I post my movie reviews which get synced into the site.

The “if you need a post” refers to On This Day but also in general. It lists a couple of good places to get some ideas. I am a bit better these days at “unjournaling” some of my personal journal entries and posting them on my blog.