Imperfect

upgrade to discover

Update: My posts disappearing from the Discover feed was due to a bug that has since been fixed. All reviewed blogs will show up on the feed regardless of upgrade status.

I published my post, relax your standards, only to find it strangely missing from the Discover feed hours later. After a short investigation and a bunch of clicking, I realized that having posts show up on the feed now requires an upgraded account. In case you frequent said feed and don't find my posts there anymore, this explains why. Funny how this comes along right after getting back into my posting groove.

While I understand that upgrading helps keep the lights on, I'm still curious as to the rationale behind this change. Disclaimer: I'm fine with it and there's no technical obligation to announce it. Although, if I found it confusing, I sense at least one other person feels the same way about it. I hope the resultant disturbance is minimal at best.

My posts' potential for visibility feels much lower now even if it likely isn't. Others' posts experiencing one-off spikes haven't largely produced the persistent uplift I would have expected. The tail becomes even shorter if what found them success isn't carried over to successive posts. Be grateful for being one of the lucky individuals to behold this now even more underground space. Absorb my words and ideas then share them however you see fit. We can even talk shop about your opinions on this change.

Let's be clear: you and I find it valuable enough to preserve my existing content. I don't suspect it nor I will go anywhere. Although, I'm curious how my future output might change without public availability, if at all. It's just another challenge to overcome. Limited traction is fine. I can continue practicing my writing craft and the sky continues being the limit the longer I play. That said, it'll be unfortunate to miss out on some inspirational bloggers' posts because of this change. But how will I know who will be affected?

"Upgrade to discover" makes me think of its reversal: "Discover to upgrade." How could that work for me? While I do receive the occasional email or namedrop, I do wonder if my holding patterns aren't charitable toward a communal online betterment. I'm satisfied with my writing and publishing output but my rate of return feels like it lacks. Are there better spaces more aligned to my tastes to find then champion? It's a good catalyst to explore other free websites and inhabit multiple spaces as I've been meaning to do. I can also afford more initiation to emerge a more resilient but decentralized conversational network from the ground up.

Have external mechanisms like the feed, link referrals, and others been a crutch all along? I could have spent my months proclaiming my existence to people I found inspiring enough to remix. Could that work better than my current strategy? Many bloggers here appear scared to reply to each other or blind to the possibility. I still ponder over how to get my message across better.

I think of moves like switching blog platforms or founding a separate community space. However, these options feel antithetical to the preservation I have advocated for or distasteful given past experiences respectively. This platform has more than what I need to practice creative, textual self-expression. My mind drifts toward end user contribution and minimum viable projects to test demand. Avoiding potential drama is a massive time saver that I'm grateful to have persisted with.

Overall, I'm grateful for how I encouraged myself to get serious about writing, reading, and blogging through this blog platform over the past year or so. I'm a proud member of the hundred club yet acknowledge that there's much larger numbers to achieve. Perhaps the real challenge now is branching out with the knowledge I gained and the lessons I learned. Make myself as abundant as possible, like most of my recent blog posts already prescribe. Invite myself to taste my own medicine for once.

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