Moving From Tumblr
I’ve decided to move Hack/Make and my personal blog off of Tumblr to a self-hosted blogging engine called Second Crack, created by Marco Arment. I’ll be finalizing this transition in the next couple of days and this is likely the last post you’ll see in your Tumblr dashboard.
I’ve recently moved away from Google products as well, but this move is proactive rather than caused by privacy concerns and worsening products. I like Tumblr, but Second Crack gives me more control—now and in the future.
Second Crack is a lightweight server-side application that generates
static HTML from markdown files. It uses Dropbox to sync files I write
on Mac, iPhone, or iPad to the server. This makes publishing posts as
easy as saving a text file into the proper folder. No need to write in
wonderful applications like Byword
just to copy and paste it to Tumblr. Less friction publishing makes
writing more enjoyable. Moving to second crack also gives me more
control long-term because it moves away from their unusual URL path of
/post/12345678/post-title-slug. I can be confident that
even if I want to move to a different blog service in the future they
will more likely support the more standard
/YYYY/MM/post-title-slug URL structure which helps to
maintain valid links across the Internet without having to write out
hundreds of 301 redirects (again). Having text files of everything I’ve
posted living on my computer is nice too.
This move makes it easier to write and future proofs my articles but by moving from Tumblr I’m leaving one thing that’s important to me: the community. Tumblr was built with great social features and they’ve helped me meet new people and share ideas. Being able to see what gets reblogged and loved on Tumblr helps me know what interests you. Part of what’s great about publishing is sharing ideas while seeing them spread and become greater through your input. You won’t be able to reblog my posts anymore, but sharing with friends or blogging a link along with your thoughts is just as good.
If you love Tumblr’s dashboard and are going to miss seeing Hack/Make posts there, I’m sorry. You can subscribe to the RSS feed or follow the Twitter feed @hackmake. Thanks for following.