Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Blogging and Its Discontents

Tuesday, November 17th, 2020

The good news: Yesterday, I got linked from Instapundit twice! Since the purpose of a blog is to communicate, this means a big bump in daily visit statistics!

The bad new: Yesterday, I got linked from Instapundit twice! The increased traffic displayed, yet again, how creaky and unreliable BlueHost’s services have become.

Pretty much every time I’m linked from Instapundit, people complain “Oh, we killed Lawrence’s server again!” Variegated 404, 500 and Site Unavailable errors abound.

Every time I point out to BlueHost that they seem to be running my blog on a severely resource-constrained server (most likely a virtual cloud server of some sort, time-shared with a whole bunch of other websites/blogs), they always go “Well, it’s not our problem! Your site is just too unoptimized!” and point me to gtmetrix. Evidently embedded Tweets use up a huge number of resources, which makes me wonder why Twitchy doesn’t seem to have these problems at much higher loads.

Keep in mind that I’m running an old stock version of WordPress, with the bare minimum of necessary plugins (like AntispamBee) with BlueHost’s stock tools. So it’s not like I’m doing something wacky and unorthodox.

When I mention these problems on Twitter, other hosting companies come out of the woodwork and say “Yeah, you could improve some things, but there’s no reason for BlueHost to suck so bad.”

To improve speed, I’m looking at several different cache plugins for WordPress, including:

  • WP Super Cache
  • Autoptimize
  • Jetpack
  • WP-Optimize
  • WP fastest Cache
  • All are rated between four to five stars, all have a majority of users who say “Wow, this really sped up my site,” and all have a small number of reviewers who say “Agggggh, this trashed my site! Stay far away!”

    If you’re a WordPress blogger reading this, let me know if you have experience with any of those and how well the worked for you.

    I just did a manual backup of my WordPress database, but I should probably install some sort of backup plugin as well. Here’s another area WordPress users can tell me what works best for them.

    During Instalanches, some worried whether I’d been deplatformed, since WordPress is evidently kicking Conservative Treehouse off their platform. The answer is no, it’s just BlueHost sucking, and the Treehouse guys get a lot more traffic than I do. I’m sure I would be irritating enough to deplatform if Big Tech were more aware of me, but right now I seem to enjoy security through obscurity.

    Some have asked whether they can donate to get me a new server. While that would be swell (and see the donation button below), my immediate preference would be for BlueHost to stop sucking so I don’t have to go through the pain of transferring my blog to a new provider.

    BattleSwarm is, at best, a break-even proposition for me, after donations and Amazon affiliate links are factored in, specially since I haven’t let anyone put their crappy adware on my site. For several years now, I’ve managed to put up a blog post every single day. I started blogging due to outrage during the Obama Administration (and because Dwight took the plunge first), and if Biden manages to make his stolen election stick, I certainly don’t see less reason to blog. But it would be nice to get paid more for it.

    In the past I’ve done the occasional piece in places like National Review or Reason, but I’m not sure any of the legacy paying outlets is a good fit or substitute for regular blogging. (And I’m sure as hell not going to write for a sadness factory like The Bulwark.) Ideally I could get paid to contribute to a multi-contributor blog like Instapundit or Legal Insurrection, or some site like Empower Texans. But thus far no one has asked me to contribute to such.

    I don’t ask for donations as much as some blogs because financially I’m doing fine, and technical writing pays well. (Between my house, library and various 401Ks, I’m probably an Almost Millionaire in net worth.) (Maybe I’ll even get enough to move off the default WordPress theme.) But I didn’t get into blogging to get rich, much like one doesn’t become a Trappist monk for the kinky sex and hard drugs.

    Alas, I’m being laid off from my current technical writing job in December. So maybe I should ask for more donations. But I have the sort of skill sets (documenting programming APIs, among many other things) that’s very much in demand, so I don’t expect to be unemployed long. Plus I have another small income stream in the book business. There other Vast Right Wing Bloggers out there much more in need of donations than I.

    So, that’s sort of my State of the Blog roundup. I’m still here and I don’t plan on going anywhere.





    Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

    Sunday, January 1st, 2017

    I’m proud to announce that BattleSwarm Blog has been named to The Fabulous 50 Blog List by Director Blue.

    Quote:

    Best Grassroots Blog
    Lawrence Person’s BattleSwarm: Person’s LinkSwarms extract pure wheat from chaff.”

    Thanks! And there are a lot of other great blogs in the fab 50 list worth checking out.

    Blog Shootup/Meetup October 10, 2015

    Sunday, September 20th, 2015

    Dwight Brown of Whipped Cream Difficulties and I are putting on a gunny/VRWC blog shooting meetup/Tweetup at the Eagle Peak Gun Range in Leander on Saturday, October 10, at 5 PM, to be followed by a group dinner at the Oasis at 7 PM. Bring ear and eye protection as well as any weapon you’d like to shoot (no full metal jacket ammo, as per range rules). You can come to the shoot and skip dinner, or vice versa.

    If you’re interested in attending, drop me a line (lawrenceperson at gmail dot com) so I know how many people to expect at the range and for dinner).

    Congratulations to Ace of Spades HQ for the Headline of the Year

    Friday, July 17th, 2015

    This is just a post to offer my hearty congratulations to Ace of Spades HQ for penning the headline of the year.

    And yeah, it’s about Gawker.

    AoSHQonGawker

    Belated News: Grand Jury No-Bills John Daub

    Thursday, June 25th, 2015

    I missed this good news when it came out on June 2, but a Travis County Grand Jury has declined to indict John Daub in the self-defense shooting death of a home intruder who turned out to be autistic.

    And his blog, Stuff from Hsoi, is available again.

    Hsoi/John Daub Shooting Follow-Up

    Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

    A bit more information on the Hsoi/John Daub self-defense shooting of autistic home invader Jared James has come to light that wasn’t in my original story.

    The original news reports said things like James “forced his way onto the threshold of one of the homes.” What they actual meant was he battered at the door so hard he broke the frame:

    Also, new information shows that the late Mr. James was not quite the “gentle giant” some reports tried to paint:

    This fall, for reasons that she [the mother] didn’t understand, [Catalina] Leverette [the mother] said her son had developed a tendency toward unpredictable outbursts, at times running through the house yelling. She knew the police had responded to calls about her son, and newly obtained police reports show two calls in 2014 for an “emotionally disturbed person” involving James.

    Also this:

    “On Dec. 11, [police] took James to a psychiatric hospital under court order.”

    The James shooting was a tragedy, all right, but it was a tragedy of the health system not being able to get a mentally ill man the type help he obviously needed.

    Iowahawk Held Hostage: Day 175

    Monday, April 1st, 2013

    175 days after it started, there’s still no resolution to the Iowahawk hostage crises, with the web pundit still held in captivity by the leftwing Al-Bama Dignity Brigade terrorist group.

    “No more shall the infidel insult our prophet (peace be upon him) or make fun our sacred texts!”

    Al-Bama has held Iowahawk captive “somewhere in the greater Des Moines area” since October 9, 2012, when a daring midnight raid snatched him from his fortified garage compound. Since then nothing has been heard from the beloved pundit except occasional tweets and pictures of hot rods.

    The terrorist group has repeatedly threatened to kill the pundit, sending various media outlets severed piston rods from a 1931 Ford Model A to prove their seriousness.

    Police promises to find the pundit (“Yeah, we’ll get right on that,” said a spokesman who asked not to be identified or disturbed while the NCAA basketball tournament was on) have thus far been fruitless.

    Al-Bama’s initial demands were for the immediate imposition of comprehensive gun control, universal socialized medicine, $10 million in ransom, and the public flogging of radio personality Rush Limbaugh. When these demands were not met, Al-Bama gradually reduced them. Their most recent demands were for $325, a public apology from Bill O’Riley “for living,” and 12 cases of Olde Main beer.

    Those with information on Iowahawk’s current whereabouts are urged to contact the National Bloggers Club.

    Conservative Blog Meetup Dinner Query for Saturday, March 23, at 6 PM

    Thursday, March 14th, 2013

    Dwight of Whipped Cream Difficulties and I are contemplating a conservative/gunner blogger meetup Saturday, March 23, at 6 PM, venue TBD (but not too close to the SXSW madness downtown). Drop me a line at lawrenceperson at gmail dot com if you’re interested in attending.