Blogger’s life: Januar 2025

Ausnahmsweise gibt es die Blogger’s life Ausgabe für nur einen Monat. Der Grund: Ich will den Rhythmus ändern. Bisher kam das Format immer Anfang eines „ungeraden“ Monats (also Januar, März, etc.). Mit diesem Einschub sollte das Format dann immer Anfang eines „geraden“ Monats kommen.

JANUARY

What has happened

Erinnerung an den Block-Editor Classic Editor

Beim Schreiben des Blog-Jahresrückblicks ist mir aufgefallen, dass ich 2024 irgendwann den Wechsel zum Gutenberg-Editor gemacht habe. Einige Posts waren noch im Block-Editor Classic Editor 😅 Ich habe sogar noch einen Entwurf rumliegen, wo ich über den Gutenberg-Editor geschrieben habe. Aber mal sehen, ob der es noch zu einem veröffentlichten Beitrag schafft.

Edit: Block-Editor = Gutenberg-Editor. Ich meinte den Classic-Editor.

Gedanken während des Blog-Jahresrückblick I

Anfangs dachte ich, dass der Inhalt des Jahresrückblicks sich mit dem Geburtstagspost wiederholen würde. Das tut er auch, aber irgendwie auch nicht. Es war schön, das Jahr chronologisch durchzugehen und mich zu erinnern, was wann gepostet wurde. Wie bei analogen Fotos, kann ich mich an bestimmte Dinge des Entstehens eines Blogposts erinnern. Wie leicht ein Post mir von der Hand ging oder wie oft ich ihn überarbeitet habe bis er die Form angenommen hat wie wir ihn auf dem Blog sehen. Außerdem habe ich im Nachhinein ein paar Posts miteinander verlinkt und eigene Gedanken von vor Monaten hinterfragt oder weitergedacht.

Gedanken während des Blog-Jahresrückblicks II:

Ein bisschen traurig war und bin ich, dass ich all die Jahre vorher keinen Blog-Jahresrückblick gemacht habe 🙃

WordPress APP!?

Keine Ahnung, wie ich Anfang Januar auf die Frage kam, ob es eine WordPress App gibt. Aber ja, die gibt es (zumindest für iOS)! Das macht das Posten einiger Dinge, z. B. Bilder direkt vom Handy, schon um vieles einfacher. I just can’t – ich konnte es nicht fassen, dass ich erst nach 4 Jahren (!) auf die Idee kam, mal danach zu suchen.
Ich gebe zu: Bisher habe ich die App nicht viel benutzt. Am Smartphone arbeite ich generell nicht gerne. Aber mal schnell irgendwas ändern zu können oder Kommentare zeitnah freizugeben, finde ich schon ganz nett. Bei einigen Blogger:innen habe ich mich schon gefragt, wie sie so schnell Kommentare beantworten können. Ob das die Antwort ist? 🧐

Am Blog rumwerkeln und Plugins installieren

Ich war wieder fleißig!

  • Envira für die Erstellung von Fotogalerien. Wozu genau, kommt demnächst. Bis ich mich für Envira entschieden habe, hatte ich noch FooGallery und NextGEN Gallery ausprobiert. Aber diese beiden Plugins konnten mir meine Galeriefotos nicht so anzeigen wie ich es wollte.
  • Blog in Kacheloptik mit Blog Designer Pack. So sehr ich das typische Bloglayout mag und will (vollständiger Post auf der Startseite), habe ich seit einiger Zeit von einer Blogseite in Kacheloptik geträumt. Und nun ist sie da! Sie ist nicht perfekt und ich weiß auch nicht, ob es die sauberste Variante war. Aber es ist ein Anfang! Außerdem habe ich die Nutzung von Shortcodes gelernt (nicht, dass ich davor was davon gehört hatte) 😎

What was posted

Blogger’s life: November + Dezember 2024

I'm starting the year with a Blogger's life post 🤗 Welcome to 2025, where everything can be new - or the tried and tested continues to run its course.

NOVEMBER

What has happened

Plugins for the creation of maps | For the first Madeira post , I have used the plugin WP Go Maps (formerly WP Google Maps) . Without Premium, however, I can only create one (1) map (LOL!?). Since I have started to recap the Japan trip in 2023 for the blog and would like to include a map again, this is: impractical. Since I don't want to buy the premium version because I don't think it's worth it (for me and my blog), I've installed and tried the plugin MapPress Google Maps and Leaflet Maps as an alternative. I'm still not entirely sure whether I'll use it in the long term.

Online meets offline-comment, darning edition | A comment that connected my online life with my offline life in a beautiful way accompanied me throughout November and December. When I read the comment by Cinzia under the post Darning socks fever , I was totally blown away. She offered to gift me a pair of self-knitted socks because she thought it would be nice if I darned the sock once it will become necessary. I felt and still feel so appreciated and was totally euphoric about the comment and the gesture behind it. I then got in touch with her and we messaged each other for a while - including about a pair of socks for me. I have now received the result of this exchange 🧦

What was posted

DECEMBER

What has happened

Plugin for comment replies | Quite spontaneously, I've working on how I can make it easier for commenters to track replies to their own comments. I know all too well that I want to know what the blogger has replied to my comment. Some blogs have a function that informs me of a new comment by email and I am very grateful for this. And I wanted to offer this service on my blog too. In the end, I ended up using the plugin Comment Reply Email Notification . It seems to work so far and I'm happy with it.
The only thing I haven't been able to solve yet is the fact that the automated email is very likely to end up in the spam folder. I tried the Brevo plugin, but that was not successful.

DeepL and the english translation of my posts | While I was translating Internet findings (5) with DeepL, I had to laugh at myself for a moment. One of the internet findings is about the energy consumption of Generative AI and I associate DeepL with Generative AI. I don't know whether this is true in detail, but I found the situation somewhat ironic. This has rekindled my thoughts about whether I should stop translating my blog posts from German to English. I translate my posts by pasting the whole text into DeepL, then I revise it myself to make my posts at least somewhat being me. But the translation step makes blogging more exhausting. It is de facto a separate and therefore additional step. A completely automated translation (100 % copy paste or plugin that is embedded on the blog and translates directly on the blog) is out of the question for me right now because it doesn't suit me. I'd rather not offer an English version at all. The thought of English-speaking friends no longer being able to read the blog hurts (I don't even know if and how many of them do read my blog, but I didn't want that hurdle). But I also realise that I would be relieved to know that the translation step wouldn't be there anymore. Phew. 

What was posted

Blogger's life: September + October 2024

It's time again for a post of the kind Blogger’s life and what I've been up to in the last two months with and for my blog.

SEPTEMBER

What has happened

September was ages ago (after all, it has been two moons!). September was an exciting month from a blogging perspective. In a few bullet points, here's what I've been up to:

  • Networking and visibility: I had my blog added to Jim Grey's list of analogue photo blogs. I thought about it for a while and then I pulled myself together and did it.
  • My About me-page was updated: tadah
  • Installed a plugin to get an arrow 'Back to Top'. I use WPFront Scroll Top. So far so good.
  • About a post from jenni.works I came across the Webring uberblogr.de – once again the topic networking and visibility. Therefore: Was I interested? Yes! Ten days later, I officially joined the webring. Yay! You can see this in the footer of my blog now. You seem to know my blog already, but what about those of my neighbours (left and right arrows)?
  • I have set-up up a rough plan for October as to which posts should be published and I actually implemented it. I'm proud of myself hihi
  • The series about Madeira is over. As much as I liked this series, I'm also a bit glad that it's over now. Somehow I didn't want to disturb the series too much with other posts, so I didn't post that much between the Madeira posts. That's probably where the anticipation from the previous bullet point comes from, that some other texts and pictures are already waiting to get published.

What was posted

OCTOBER

What has happened

  • It was my blog's birthday and I do celebrate every birthday post from other bloggers. So I was very excited to prepare mine. It was actually the first time that I did it with a few weeks in advance.
  • For November, too, I have set-up up a rough plan and once again I implemented it. Two in a row 👀

What was posted