I’ve been pretty busy tinkering in the background with Blot. I don’t really know what I’m going but I enjoy figuring it out as I go along. A new template will be going live sometime soon I hope.

One of the main challenges for me has been to devise a low friction publishing workflow from any device. (I am writing this on my phone).

So far…

1. I run a shortcut on my phone that asks for a date (or just uses Now) and a post title.
2. The shortcut saves the file in my Dropbox as a draft post.
3. I find the post in Ulysses
4. I write the post and complete the metadata (which has been partially pre-populated by the shortcut)
5. I move the file out of the drafts folder to a ‘live folder’ which Blot then publishes
6. At some point I save the file to my offline archives (although it will already be synced offline to my computer, I like to have everything together in my archives proper)

To do…

• Update the shortcut to ask me to choose pre-defined metadata (such as tags)
• More tinkering with the template before it goes live
• • I want the main feed, and entry page to look right before it goes live
    • Then I will update other pages such as archives
• Create custom RSS feeds to assist my publishing workflow on other platforms.
• Work some more on my photo publishing shortcut
• Write. More. Often.

Goals…

• Make this site my go-to place to publish on-the-fly
• That is super-easy to use to publish text AND images
• And use it as a platform of notes, research, and thoughts
• That may help me create larger projects
• And actively form the structure for those potential projects

Cons…

• One of the main issues for me is how well Dropbox is supported by various iOS markdown apps. (Not very well). I like Ulysses but ouch £40/year.
• This may be wider than a Dropbox issue. If Blot were to support iCloud I’m not sure my options would improve much.