As I mentioned to the supporters on Ko-fi a week ago, I am currently considering the possibility of pausing the series at the end of this third year, with the last interview going live on August 28th. There are a few reasons for this.
The first reason is that running the series is starting to become more annoying and time-consuming over time. I tried to simplify my life as much as possible, recoded part of my site to make it easier to manage and publish the series, but at the end of the day, it’s a project that relies on other people to exist. And that can be a problem in the long run. The number of emails I need to send out, and the number of times I either get completely ignored or ghosted is trending upwards. I’m at the point where I can send out invitations to 10+ people, and I…
As I mentioned to the supporters on Ko-fi a week ago, I am currently considering the possibility of pausing the series at the end of this third year, with the last interview going live on August 28th. There are a few reasons for this.
The first reason is that running the series is starting to become more annoying and time-consuming over time. I tried to simplify my life as much as possible, recoded part of my site to make it easier to manage and publish the series, but at the end of the day, it’s a project that relies on other people to exist. And that can be a problem in the long run. The number of emails I need to send out, and the number of times I either get completely ignored or ghosted is trending upwards. I’m at the point where I can send out invitations to 10+ people, and I’m not confident that at least 1 of them will result in an actual interview being published. And that sucks.
It sucks because, since day one, I tried to find a good balance between keeping the series running smoothly and not letting guests wait for months and months to get their interview published. But I’m at the point where I can no longer do that. More than a few times, I found myself with the queue completely empty while waiting for dozens of people to get back to me. Every time someone came through in the end, and the series kept marching on week after week, but let me tell you: it’s not fun.
Also not fun is having to chase people. This series is obviously not important in the grand scheme of things, so it’s totally understandable if people forget to reply or can’t find the time to do it. But you’d be surprised by the number of people who, multiple times in a row, emailed me to tell me they were going to end me the answers “next week” only to then disappear into thin air. And I get it, I don’t have hard feelings towards all these people. Shit happens, and we all have busy lives. But it gets tiring after a while.
The other reason is a lack of momentum. If you have worked on any type of side project, you know how things go: you are full of motivation at first, and you can’t wait to get started, and then you slowly lose momentum. And I’m definitely running out of momentum. The main reason for this is that the past few months have been particularly tiring for a multitude of factors, and support for the series isn’t exactly stellar. You’d be surprised by how few people have emailed over the years to either suggest a guest or simply say something nice about it. And if you’re tempted to email me now, after having read this, please don’t.
This brings me to the final reason why I’m tempted to pause the series. I know there are lots of people out there who enjoy it and would love to see it continue. But the reality of the vast majority of projects on the web is that they’re usually either solo projects or they’re run by very small teams that more often than not end up losing momentum and shutting everything down because of a lack of support.
And nothing makes me angrier than seeing people popping up from nowhere to express their sadness when a project gets shut down. Because where the fuck were these people when the creators of these projects needed some help to keep the momentum going? And I’m talking about something as simple as sending a message to them to let them know you appreciate what they do. Sometimes that’s more than enough. And yet even that is so rare these days. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, because it does, but it’s rare.
And so part of me thinks I should stop the series simply because it’s important to remind people that good things can only exist if we all collectively make them happen.
That’s the mental state I’m in right now. Again, if you feel compelled to email me now, I say redirect those good intentions somewhere else and go email someone who works on something else you enjoy and let them know you appreciate what they do.
What’s next for P&B then? For now, the series will continue as usual. There are 6 interviews ready to go at the moment, 12 people have expressed interest in participating, and I have emailed 10 more. I did consider the possibility of making it an every-other-week series rather than weekly, in order to make it less annoying to run. We’ll see what happens. Plenty of time to still think about all this.
January’s Thoughts and Interviews
Thoughts On People and Blogs 18th Web, Social Networks, Social Web 18th Yancey Strickler 16th How You Read My Content 13th A moment with tea 12th Bix Frankonis 9th How Do You Read My Content 6th Yearly reminder to use RSS 5th V.H. Belvadi 2nd Year 10 1st
2025 December
What did I read this year 29th A moment with a sunset 28th Lars-Christian Simonsen 26th On simple solutions 21st Thoughts on MCP 20th Kathleen Fisher 19th Age-gating the web 16th IndieWeb Carnival: where do I wish to see the IndieWeb in 2030 14th Nick Heer 12th On open protocols 6th Come on John 5th Stephanie Stimac 5th
November
Double opt-in PSA 30th On eating shit 28th Karen 28th Dealgorithmed 27th A moment in yet another memorial 24th Alexandra Wolfe 21st Y’all are great 16th Nic Chan 14th Following up on input diet 14th Input diet 12th Robb Knight 7th A moment with a decidedly less gloomy church 4th 46.1007188 — 13.5545292 2nd
October
Frank Chimero 31st 46.1186821 — 13.5953544 28th IndieWeb Carnival: On Ego 26th Romina Malta 24th Look, another AI browser 22nd 10 pointless facts about me 21st A newsletter-related PSA 20th Five least favourite tech topics 18th Alice 17th From the Summit 2.0 17th On concrete examples 16th Linda Ma 10th My issue with the two sides 10th Safari and iOS 26: PSA and a rant 8th On public online behaviour 5th Blake Watson 3rd Making things obvious 1st
September
New site, kinda 30th Scoring books 27th Kris Howard 26th Digital fatigue 25th Robert Birming 19th RIP my minimal phone setup 16th Two quick news items 12th Jack Baty 12th On em dashes 10th Blogs don’t need to be so lonely 6th I guess they did not, in fact, make it 5th Louie Mantia 5th On my August challenge 2nd
August
Courtney 29th You will not believe what I just wrote 25th Tom Critchlow 22nd AI this, AI that 17th Loren Stephens 15th First update on the August challenge 10th Alexandra 8th Sticking with it 7th Emma Goto 1st
July
August Challenge 30th The July experiment: week four 28th On books and assumptions 26th Marisabel Munoz 25th Why this matters 25th The July experiment: week three 21st Alex Sirac 18th On using Apple products 17th RSS feeds 16th The July experiment: week two 14th BSAG 11th The July experiment: week one 7th A gift to myself 6th Rewiring the brain 5th Nick Simson 4th Random mid-year update 2nd
June
IndieWeb Carnival: Take Two 30th Experimental June: week four 29th On complaining 28th David Wertheimer 27th Minimal New Page 25th Experimental June: week three 23rd Dave Rupert 20th Digital chains 19th On corpses, selfishness, and ownership 16th Experimental June: week two 15th James A. Reeves 13th A moment on the fields 8th Experimental June: week one 8th Non-negotiables 7th Benji 6th A moment with climbers 6th
May
Sebastián Monía 30th On Browsers, AI, and the web 29th Experimental June 27th The web != the web 24th Seth Werkheiser 23rd A moment with a pizza 19th Celebrating kindness 17th Watts Martin 16th Web Accessibility. A follow-up. 15th Your license is a scam 14th Web Accessibility. Help needed. 13th Sharing, helping, connecting 11th Anh 9th A moment with waves 6th Labeling the mind 5th A moment with concrete 4th A thought on AI and creativity 3rd Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino 2nd Tomorrow 1st
April
IndieWeb Carnival: Renewal 30th Frills 25th Fixing the mind 25th Jeremy Keith 18th When a side project finds you 12th Jedda 11th A moment with long shadows 6th Matt Webb 4th Online counterculture 3rd
March
Maya 28th Ko-Fi Wishlist 27th The cost of getting too big 26th Ben Borgers 21st A moment with snow and trees 15th Keenan 14th How personal should a personal site be? 7th James 7th A moment with someone flying to the moon 5th
February
Marco Giancotti 28th Audience of one 28th The cost of doing the right thing 27th Ben Werdmuller 21st Ephemeral content 20th Confidently incorrect 18th Max Kapur 14th Context 8th Lou Plummer 7th Identity 6th
January
Donny Truong 31st A moment after the rain 28th Sharing “Unplatform” 27th A better list of blog platforms 26th Tiny corners 25th Ava 24th Modern discourse 23rd Awful people are everywhere 22nd Ugh, I’ll have to make myself a portfolio again 22nd Photography 20th Shenanigans 19th Short Long Form 18th Annie Mueller 17th The internet is now five websites 16th On Meta’s moderation changes 15th IndieWeb Carnival: On the importance of friction 14th Bloggers at the right time 13th Toscana 12th A moment of relaxation 11th Steven Garrity 10th A moment amongst the trees 10th A moment in a back alley 9th A moment with the two towers 8th A moment with some leftover Christmas spirit 7th Blogging: you’re doing it right 6th Blog Questions Challenge 5th On Spotify 4th Pauline P. Narvas 3rd Just because you can doesn’t mean you should 2nd Twenty Twenty-Five, codename “Output” 1st
2024 December
Was 2024 a good year? 31st A solved Bluesky conundrum 31st The Bluesky conundrum 30th Kindness in a transactional world 29th Jatan Mehta 27th A moment on my favorite bench 27th On featured images in blog posts 26th Meta blog post 24th Zinzy 20th On asking 16th Moonlight 15th Sunday update 15th Chris DeLuca 13th Digital responsibilities 12th Topic blockers 9th Erica Fustero 6th Life on pause 6th The correct amount of ads is zero 5th On blogging, substacking (?), and owning digital real estate 4th Personal philosophy 1st
November
Lucy Bellwood 29th On Bluesky 22nd Em 22nd Media diet 21st An appreciation of the “mark all as read” button 16th Small scale is the best scale 15th Sara Jakša 15th Housekeeping 14th A moment of natural therapy 11th Dalton Mabery 8th Regaining focus 7th An afternoon of early November 6th Westley Winks 1st
October
A moment in yet another Airbnb 31st Denny Henke 25th Constraints in video games 18th Steyn Viljoen 18th Creation and Curation 14th Chris O’Donnell 11th A Ko-Fi PSA 5th Xanthe Tynehorne 4th A moment with morning light in the kitchen 3rd IndieWeb Carnival: multilingualism in a global Web 2nd On personal websites and social web 1st
September
Justin Duke 27th Internet commentary 26th It should be easy to say “My bad, I was wrong” 24th Giles Turnbull 20th Thoughts on the new iOS control centre 19th Discovering new blogs is stupid hard 16th Naz Hamid 13th The EU vs US iPhone debate 9th Steve Ledlow 6th IndieWeb Carnival: Power Underneath Despair 5th On People and Blogs and courtesy 5th The internet used to be great 3rd The social web 1st
August
Marty Day 30th On email addresses (again) 29th My software stack is old 28th Yelling at the web clouds 27th Thoughts on symbols 24th Robert Kingett 24th On the value of context 20th On hobbies, side projects, and money 17th Ploum 16th IndieWeb Carnival: Rituals 13th Fifty shades of people and their blogs 11th Georgie Cooke 9th Digital nudges 7th The “blowing smoke up your ass” theory of AI 3rd Anne Sturdivant 2nd
July
Thoughts on politics and communities 29th A moment among the trees 26th Daniel Miller 26th On goals, online projects, and the usefulness of money 24th Mismatch 22nd Thoughts on digital communities 21st Luke Harris 19th Should you give up social media? 18th One hundred 14th Andrew Stephens 12th A moment walking towards the sunset 9th Some more thoughts on TBC 9th A moment with my 35th bday 6th Anton Podviaznikov 5th A moment of morning light 5th Shared reality 2nd On being humble and accepting success 1st
June
The Mimo Diaries: Feedback and Directory 30th Everything is freeware 29th Alison Wilder 28th Ads hypocrisy 27th Fighting bots 23rd A moment of blissful relaxation 22nd Jennifer Devastatia del Gato 21st On “What Money Can’t Buy” 19th Blocking bots 16th Jessica Nickelsen 14th Celebrating failure 12th The money conundrum 11th JF Martin 7th How to converse online 6th They might not make it 3rd Slashes 1st
May
Matthew Graybosch 31st AI and the English language 30th Bearblog is fun 29th Consumption-to-creation ratio 28th Rebecca Toh 24th A moment with a birthday good boy 23rd My blogging workflow 21st A moment of daily practice 20th A moment with a choice 19th A moment from a misty morning 18th Om Malik 17th Curation, search, and the future of the web 15th It’s fun to do silly things 14th A comment on the Apple iPad ad controversy 12th Sharing too much about too little 11th Riccardo Mori 10th The webs 9th On guestbooks 8th The kitchen s(l)ink post 5th Cory Dransfeldt 3rd IndieWeb Carnival: Natural creativity 2nd
April
The web is not dying 27th Veronique 26th Too little, and too much, self-promotion 25th Re: Growth is a mind cancer 24th Simone Silvestroni 19th A comment on comments 16th Tracy Durnell 12th On video podcasts 10th Matt Stein 5th IndieWeb Carnival: Good enough and the search for perfection 2nd Pay per scroll 1st
March
Why I write 31st Adrianna Tan 29th Writing about writing 25th Growth is a mind cancer 23rd Taylor Troesh 22nd Why I don’t write dev posts 21st A moment with a bunch of fun sheep 20th From ink to pixel to ink 19th Sara Joy 15th A moment with a sunset 14th Housekeeping 12th Digital walled gardens 9th Brad Barrish 8th Guestbooks are cool 7th It’s Time to Give Up on Everything but Email 5th IndieWeb Carnival: Accessibility in the Small Web 4th IndieWeb Carnival: Roundup 3rd Cassidy Williams 1st
February
Chris Coyier smells like donkeys 29th On POSSE 27th IndieWeb Carnival: February is almost at the end 26th I have a new* website 25th Society and technology 24th Herman Martinus 23rd On dreams and goals 18th Peter Rukavina 16th Ai and Robots 14th On climbing and design 13th Housekeeping 12th Phil Gyford 9th The great list of all the blog platforms 8th A rant on ARC Search 7th Routines 5th The Mimo Diaries: Streams and Menus 3rd Winnie Lim 2nd On digital relationships 1st
January
IndieWeb Carnival: Digital Relationships 31st Best laptop of 2024 30th A People and Blogs PSA 27th Ran Prieur 26th Positive Internalization 25th Private conversations in public 22nd Tom MacWright 19th Indieweb Carnival 18th If a human does it 16th On enjoying the process 14th Rachel Smith 12th The Mimo Diaries 10th A moment with a great book 6th Arun Venkatesan 5th Answers to my analytics inquiry 3rd Create more. Consume less. 2nd Yet another year of living without 1st
2023 December
Analytics inquiry 30th Derek Sivers 29th Reflecting on learned things 27th A moment up high on a lake 26th Chris Butler 22nd Pirating social media 16th Jamie Thingelstad 15th I’m taking over Minimalissimo…for real this time 14th Eli Mellen 8th The personality of a personal website 7th One a Month 6th More new mindsets, fewer new technologies 2nd Nicolas Magand 1st
November
Housekeeping 28th Human connection 27th Robin Rendle 24th On creating beautiful things 22nd On Ad Blockers 20th Chris Coyier 17th Conversation enders 15th App Defaults 11th Piper Haywood 10th The beauty of broken things 5th Jamie Crisman 3rd On subscriptions 1st
October
Why I’ll never do podcasts 28th Ray Thomas 27th A moment with a hardware bug 25th Jim Nielsen 20th Shoes dilemma 15th Ana Rodrigues 13th How to make a blog 12th Internet culture outsider 7th Andrea Contino 6th My issue with the modern NBA 4th
September
Toby Shorin 29th Bots, Spiders, and Crawlers: The Results 27th Brian Koberlein 22nd Bots, Spiders, and Crawlers 20th Housekeeping 19th I don’t want your data 18th Kev Quirk 15th A moment up on the mountains 11th Rachel J. Kwon 8th Use a custom domain name 7th Website flexibility 6th Places on the web 2nd Manton Reece 1st
August
Housekeeping 25th People and Blogs 17th A moment on the 2nd biggest lake 15th Self-promotion 5th Who is to blame? 2nd Unscalable businesses 1st
July
My three rules for online interactions 31st The web I want 25th Carl has a new blog 23rd Who are you writing for? 19th Links 14th I am not a writer 9th A moment with some proper mountains 8th On the state of the web 2nd
June
A moment with things not going as planned 30th Clients and budgets 28th AI will not replace you 16th A moment with a cloudy sky 13th Small communities are the best communities 1st
May
A moment thinking about decisions 28th Answering machines 26th I’m taking over Minimalissimo… 22nd Spotify and the bullshit podcast ads situation 18th Focus 14th Poking around my server logs 10th Financial transparency 9th Digital simplicity 6th My verified online presence 5th
April
A moment with my crazy dog 28th Usernames roulette 26th Criticising is the easy part 21st I hate internal linking 19th Incentives and motivations 13th A note on Substack 12th Writing about writing 10th 10000 URLs 9th Let people contact you 6th RSS excerpts 5th
March
Sysadmin 28th Verified human 24th Writing voice and beginner’s mind 22nd Bandwidth consumption 20th Thoughts on an unpolished note 18th A personal blog doesn’t need a homepage 17th A rant on web font licenses 10th Minimum viable blog 9th Monetising online content 7th I’ll read it 4th Website complexities 2nd A moment on yet another lake 1st
February
Human curation 16th How much is a friendship worth? 14th A moment with a not-so-distant past 13th Good enough 9th Consumismo ed integrità morale 8th Great software is timeless 5th
January
A moment with sand and waves 30th A less artificial future 27th Shared understanding 23rd Unsolicited blogging advice 17th A moment in Italy’s green heart 14th Quitting 7th RSS feeds for everyone 6th Money is one of the reasons why today’s internet fucking sucks 5th A moment of sleepiness 2nd
2022 December
How to start a successful blog in 2023 26th End of year book review 21st Free speech absolutism vs the real world 19th Quirky search engine 18th On the current decentralisation movement 16th To the moon 13th Another year of living without 11th On public email addresses 7th How to consume the news 4th A quick word on scrolljacking and new tab fuckery 1st
November
A moment with real and fake birds 21st On internet silos 8th A moment of clouds and light 4th Letting go 1st
October
On the struggles of the mind 30th My attempt to answer the question "What is too minimal?" 21st A moment of sunlight after the rain 3rd
September
Who owns a conversation? 30th Selfishness 14th The web is failing us 12th A moment of urban patience 11th [#Shorts 9th ](https://manuelmoreale.com/th