Roadmap ahead

I'm so glad I kept this blog up, and that I keep it updated. It took a while to eventually realize that this place is a sort of lifeline to me.

I've described the Kaleidoughscope of Writings to people IRL as a sanctuary, an oasis in the chaos that the internet is at times. The internet is not at all the same as it was when I first started writing here in 2007. It's a little scary, actually, when I consider the sheer volume of technological progress that has been made in the online world, with many positives and negatives being added to the equation of human life as lived online and offline.

In other words, I will keep writing. I will keep blogging. And I have ideas - many ideas - for the future of this place, and I know that some if not all will come to fruition. Here's a list of ten things I want to make happen here, in no particular order, and with currently no specific deadline for any of them:

• Standalone web domain; maybe still powered by Google/Blogger, but as someone who spends hours on the computer every single day, it's inexcusable that I don't have my own website.
• Tags for all my past and future posts; this is a lot of work, but not difficult to do. It's just the sheer quantity of entries - hundreds without tags - that is a bit overwhelming, but only I can really set the theme for some of the more cryptic posts. And I've been tagging for a couple years now, so I've already started this objective. 
• A place to make it easy to suggest topics, or, to contribute; probably the biggest weakness of my sanctuary is that it's not very social. That's mostly by design, but I do want to connect with my readers more. Ideally, I'd want more readers, but not because of some viral marketing gimmick or because I want to be popular. No, I want them to be here because it's a joyful or at the very least interesting place to be. Tried joining a random Discord server one too many times; not doing that again.
  
• Modernize the layout; but keep one of the most important things: the random button. So that at any time, I can click it and instantly be transported to a place in time in the past. Just the way I like it. Edit = You could try it, too. It's almost certainly not a jump scare, and if it is, well, too bad.
  
• A 30-31 day challenge; to publish a post every day for a month. And not just throwaway/freewriting posts - actual planned topics, or writing based around a theme for the month. To prove to myself that I can, and perhaps aim for more difficult challenges later.
  
• More multimedia - vlogs, podcasts, photos; I've done all three in the past (mostly photography) and gotten good feedback about continuing to do vlogs, for example, but as I've gotten older I've gotten shyer, I guess.
• Guest writers; to network a bit more, and introduce my audience to other content creators. Similar to point 3, really.
• A place to donate; tucked away somewhere, "Buy me a coffee"-style, contribute if you are so inclined. Maybe Bitcoin-only. To support and encourage what I do here, and help keep everything independent. May 2024: For now, still not accepting donations unless you know my personal e-mail.
  
• More self-made artwork; i.e. no AI influence for my visual pieces, and if I use ChatGPT, a very clear mention of the **prompts and the fact that I used it to assist with a blog post. As of today (Feb 16th 2024), I have yet to use ChatGPT for anything on my blog - not even layout suggestions.* This may change, as I've seen how useful that Generative Pre-trained Transformer can be when used properly.
  
• More humour; lawd oh lawd can this place be dreary, "ranty", and downright miserable at times. Sometimes my fury can lead to some pretty interesting rants, but I want this place to be more joyful moving forward and humour is an excellent way of doing that.
  

Bonus: A search button somewhere, so that I (and other readers) don't have to click through the different months and different years to find a specific blog post. Related to point #2, tags should help, but specific things I've said won't come up without a proper search tool. SUCCESS!!!

 *Actually come to think of it, ChatGPT helped me debug an issue I was having with YouTube embeds on my posts. This was only very recently, this month actually. The point still stands.

** Nah. But I will of course say when I've used it specifically for the post, but a good magician cannot reveal all his tricks - even if the tricks are robot-based.