Two weeks ago, I published an article that could be categorized as a “meta post”, where I answered some random questions. It was my first post of this type, and I liked writing it. As I wrote in the conclusion of that post, it’s a good and fun way to spend time writing.
So here is a new one. I read a lot of posts from this “Blog Questions Challenge” here and there, so I decided to take part, even though I was not invited by anyone.
Before starting, here are a few Blog Questions Challenge posts I enjoyed reading, among many others, and which inspired me to write my own post:
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
First, a bit of history
I’ve been making websites since 1999. As soon as I discovered the web, I saw an opportunity to combine two things I enjoyed (and still enjoy): tinkering on my computer and creating stuff. I desperately wanted my own small corner on the web. So, I learned basic HTML and CSS and built my first website, hosted on a free hosting service called Multimania.
But those websites were not what we would later call “blogs”. They were simple personal websites, made up of a few pages showing my interests, and pages linking to friends’ websites. Frames-based and tables-based layouts, MIDI background music playing automatically, animated GIFs, vivid text colors on a black background, “Under construction” banners, visitor counters… it had all the classics and clichés of that personal website era!
Best viewed at 1024 × 768.
Writing the above paragraph and digging up these screenshots of my first websites made me realize how sterile and bland the web has become. My own website looks like thousands of others, lacking any real personality. But it’s more accessible with clean semantic HTML, and crucially, it allows me to write and publish effortlessly.
If you’d like to pursue your reading of this article with a slight late-90s touch, please click on the play button below:
The discovery of blogs
I started blogging a few years later, though. It was summer 2004, when I discovered a blog publishing software called Dotclear. I unfortunately don’t remember how I discovered it or the “blogging” concept, but it was quite a revelation. It would allow me to publish and maintain my content easily directly within a browser, without the need to write directly in HTML and use an FTP client to manage files. Also, it was the beginning of what was called the “blogosphere”, at least that’s when I discovered it, and I was somewhat seduced by this new way to communicate with my internet peers through blog comments, even though I was already familiar with forums.
As I wrote in a previous article, in French and translated here:
These interactions gave a real social dimension to the web, an impression of sincere conversations, without the rush or the ephemeral nature of the social networks that would come later.
So, why did I start blogging in the first place?
For several reasons:
- I had plenty of banal and uninteresting stuff I wanted to write about and share.
- I wanted a space where I would be able to write and publish seamlessly whenever a topic to write about would pop into my mind.
- I was also just getting into photography and wanted a place to publish my photos.
- And I guess I also wanted to be part of the small community I had discovered back then, all of those Dotclear French bloggers I enjoyed reading.
Also, I just enjoy writing. To me, it’s kind of therapeutic, and like a temporary escape from reality. Whatever the topic I’m writing about, it’s a way to stop thinking about negative and toxic stuff that tends to pollute my mind. I’m a bit of a pessimist and anxious guy, daily dealing with and facing my inner demons. When I’m writing, the noise quiets down, I’m only focusing on what I’m writing and my mind won’t wander anywhere else, making me think about stuff that could make my eyes heavy, my mind foggy and sometimes ruin my day.
I guess that was one of the main reasons I wanted to blog. Blogging is an easy way to write, and therefore an easy way for me to escape reality.
So, I installed Dotclear on another free and popular hosting service, (called… Free), found a super original name for my new blog, which was “Le Blog de Tom” (meaning Tom’s Blog), and started to write and publish (and to comment on other French blogs).
I closed this blog in February 2005 and reopened a new one, on the same URL but with a different name, a few months later.
I ended up abandoning this blog after maybe two years. But the desire to write never really left me, and, in 2009, I took advantage of moving abroad to open a new blog, with a new name on a new domain.
Again, I closed and deleted it, about two years later, when I thought it was a good time to do so. But I didn’t want to stop blogging and thus opened another blog with, again, a new name on a new domain.
This blog lasted for a few years, until, again, I deleted everything (but I kept the domain for other uses).
Then I had a long break of several years, during which I continued to write for myself (and I still do). I have dozens of text files filled with personal thoughts, but I didn’t blog at all.
But, once again, I wanted to blog. So, here enters Cafélog, which I opened in summer 2022. It was at first motivated by the discovery of DALL-E, which I was somewhat bewitched by and wanted to write about and share my creations. I wrote a few articles back then (which I deleted later), and I found pleasure in writing and blogging again, so I continued to blog and I’ve never stopped since then, until this very day of August 2025 where I’m currently writing this post.
As for the future of Cafélog, we’ll see how things will turn out. I hope I’ll keep it for a long time.
What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why do you use it?
I’m currently using WordPress, the most popular blogging and website building platform on the web. I tried other methods and platforms, but I’ve always ended up coming back to WordPress. I chose it a bit by default, as there were not a lot of other free and reliable self-hosted blogging platforms when I discovered WordPress back in the mid-2000s. It has always been easy to install and, since the beginning, it runs well and simply lets me do what I wanted to do in the first place: write and blog.
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
Oh yes, I tried a lot of them: Dotclear at first, and in recent years, I made test blogs with Blot, Bearblog, Pika… to see if I would switch from WordPress to run Cafélog. But I stayed on WordPress.
I also experimented with a homemade static website for a few months in 2025, but I went back to WordPress. I wrote something about that, in French: De retour sur WordPress (“Back to WordPress”).
How do you write your posts?
Most of the time, I write my posts with iA Writer, using Markdown syntax. Sometimes I go full screen and dive deep into writing mode without anything else on the screen. Sometimes I use half of the screen to write and the other half to display resources, draft notes…
I rarely write directly in the WordPress editor, except to make small updates or fix typos.
Regarding the notes and drafts I write when I have an idea in mind, I mainly use Apple Notes, synced between my iPhone and my MacBook Pro. I also use Things to quickly write down simple ideas and topics, which is also synced between my devices.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
There are three different types of “moments”:
- Those when topic ideas and subjects I’d like to write an article about suddenly pop into my mind.
- Those when I’m thinking about a draft article I’ve already started. My mind wanders around the subject: I think of new points to cover, ideas connect and sentence structures form in my head.
- Finally, those I specifically dedicate to writing articles, when I focus solely on that task.
Moments 1 and 2 mostly happen at any time of the day or night, when I’m doing something totally unrelated to writing, like: driving the car, taking a shower, walking down the street, having a stroll, lying in my bed, listening to music… Times when my mind wanders freely and some random thoughts appear. When something pops into my mind, I write it down in Apple Notes or Things, or sometimes record an audio note.
Moment 3 is different, though. It’s a chunk of time I dedicate to writing, and I focus on it. Usually, I don’t plan them in advance, but obviously I make sure I have enough free time ahead of me to dive into deep writing mode. I’m most inspired and ready to focus when I’m alone, and when I know I won’t be disturbed for the hours to come. It can be any time during the day if I’m not busy with something enjoyable or dealing with a less-pleasurable responsible-adult-obligation-moment. It can be in the morning, the afternoon, the evening or late at night, it doesn’t really matter. During those moments, I either sit at my desk and plug my closed laptop into an external monitor (like I’m doing now), or sit anywhere that seems comfortable enough and start to write on my laptop. Sometimes I listen to music when I write.
Also, I’m taking the train twice a week for a couple of hours, so if I’m comfortably settled in, it could turn into a good moment to write.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
It can take me a long time (from hours to weeks) to write an article. But once I finish the writing, though, I tend to quickly publish it. I paste it into the WordPress editor, format it, give it a final proofreading, and I publish it. So I can move on to something else.
It’s not rare for me to come back to a published article to rearrange a phrase, fix a typo, add or update some content…
What’s your favorite post on your blog?
I don’t have a particular post I like better than others. However, I find great pleasure in making my photo series called “Framing Japan”, which currently has seven parts. The searching for photos, the hunting on Google Street View, the writing… I enjoy it all.
Any future plans for your blog?
Not really. But given my past, who knows what could happen. I could change platforms then come back again to WordPress, I could change how it looks… or I could delete everything (but I really hope I won’t).
For now, I’m happy with how it is and I just want to write and publish.
Who’s next?
Well. I don’t really like to (or dare to?) ask other people to write these kinds of “meta posts”. So I’m not tagging anyone. However, if this post made you want to take part in this Blog Questions Challenge, please let me know!