In which a conundrum is discussed

[winterkoninkje]

Now that the hectic chaos of last semester is past, I've been thinking of getting back into blogging again. I started tweeting a few months back, and since then I've gotten back into activism and gathered a new batch of friends who talk about all manner of interesting things. Both of these —friendships and activism— have long been motivating forces for my thinking and writing. And so, excited by tweeting, I've been wanting to write again in a less ephemeral medium.

But I face something of a conundrum.

When I started blogging it was always just a place for me to ramble out thoughts on whatever passes through my head. It was never my goal to keep the blog focused on any particular topic. After leaving Portland, and lacking the wide network of friends I was used to there, I dove headlong into the Haskell community. In addition, a few years back, I started working on a major Haskell project (from which most of my published Haskell code derives). So, for a time, the vast majority of my blogging was dominated by Haskell, which is why I signed up to be syndicated on Haskell Planet.

To be clear, I have no intention of leaving the Haskell community for the foreseeable future. I still use Haskell regularly, still teach it to others, etc. However, of late, my thoughts have been elsewhere. Computationally I've been focusing more on type theory and category theory themselves, rather than their uses and applications in Haskell per se. Linguistically I've been looking more into semantic issues, as well as some of the newer models for incorporating syntax into NLP. Sociologically I've been, as I said, thinking a lot more about social justice issues. Not to mention more casual things like reading, gaming, cooking, and all that.

Back when I joined the Planet it was pretty active and had lots of material which was only loosely related to Haskell; e.g., all the musicians and live coders who used Haskell for their work. I loved this wide-ranging view of Haskell, and this diversity is a big part of why I fell in love with the community. In such an environment, I think my blog fits well enough. However, over the years I've noticed the Planet becoming far more narrow and focused on code development alone. I think Phil Wadler is probably the only one who goes on about other stuff these days. Given this trend, it's not so clear that my ramblings would mesh well with the Planet as it stands.

So that's where I'm at. Not sure whether to quit syndicating to Haskell Planet, or to make a special filtered feed for the Haskell-only stuff, or what. If you have any opinions on the matter, please do comment. Otherwise I'll prolly just start writing and wait for people to complain.

Comments

Don't quit!

[http://openid-provider.appspot.com/jpmoresmau]

I always enjoy reading you, and I've reached that post through Planet Haskell. So don't quit. Yes, a lot of people, including myself, tend to keep a narrow focus on Haskell development, but I like, as you say, more loosely related matter too.