{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://rednafi.com/misc/link-blog/",
  "description": "Build a link blog without a backend using Hugo and markdown. Track reading, articles, and activities with yearly detail pages and RSS filtering.",
  "path": "/misc/link-blog/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-01-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:fgtm2c26vfcj74rfmeggbyqj/site.standard.publication/3mnl6f7ob462z",
  "tags": [
    "Essay",
    "Hugo",
    "Web"
  ],
  "textContent": "One of my 2025 resolutions is doing things that don't scale and doing them faster without\noverthinking. The idea is to focus on doing more while worrying less about scalability and\nsustainability in the things I do outside of work. With that in mind, I've been thinking for\na while about tracking some of my out-of-band activities on this blog. The goal is to:\n\n- List the things I do, books and articles I read, and talks I grok.\n- Add some commentary or quote something I liked from the content, verbatim, for posterity.\n- Not spam people who just want to read the regular articles.\n- Not turn into a content junkie, churning out slop I wouldn't want to read myself.\n\nThis isn't about getting more eyeballs on what I publish. It's about tracking what I do so I\ncan look back at the end of the year and enjoy a nice little lull of accomplishment. Plus,\nhaving a place to post stuff regularly nudges me to read more, explore more, and do more of\nthe things I actually want to do.\n\nSocial media is usually where people do this, but digging up old posts and reviewing them\nlater is a pain. Plus, platforms like Twitter tank your posts' visibility if they have links\nto other sites. A simple link blog solves all that for me.\n\nHaving a dynamic backend would make setting up a link blog trivial. But I'm too lazy to\nmaintain one. Right now, this site is just a [static Hugo build with some custom CSS flair].\nAdding a link blog without a dedicated backend is the tricky part.\n\nIf you don't mind maintaining a dynamic site, Simon Willison has a [great piece on running a\nlink blog].\n\nHere's what has worked for me\n\nI went with a dead simple approach that has worked for me for the past 5 months:\n\n- Detail view: Have a single markdown page dedicated to each year and add the links\n  there. See [2025 feed detail view].\n- List view: Cluster the detail pages in a list view named [feed].\n\nDetail view\n\nEach year gets its own detail page where I add links in reverse chronological order. The\ncontent has the following structure in markdown:\n\nHugo renders the detail view like this:\n\n![Link blog detail view showing curated links with dates and commentary][img_1]\n\nList view\n\nHugo automatically creates a list view from the yearly pages.\n\n![Link blog list view showing yearly feed pages][img_2]\n\nTo avoid spamming people, the entries in the link blog are filtered out of the main RSS\nfeed. Also, the client-side search functionality allows me to look for a particular link\nwithout having to maintain any extra infra.\n\nThis solution is simple and has been working well for me. I started it in August last year,\nand the [2024 feed page] already has enough entries to make me feel good when I reviewed\nthem at the end of the year.\n\n\n\n\n[static hugo build with some custom css flair]:\n    /misc/behind-the-blog/\n\n[great piece on running a link blog]:\n    https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/\n\n[2025 feed detail view]:\n    /feed/2025\n\n[feed]:\n    /feed\n\n[2024 feed page]:\n    /feed/2024\n\n[img_1]:\n    https://blob.rednafi.com/static/images/link_blog/img_1.png\n\n[img_2]:\n    https://blob.rednafi.com/static/images/link_blog/img_2.png",
  "title": "Link blog in a static site"
}