On Publishing Without Platforms

There is something uncomfortable about the phrase "content creator."

Not the creating part — that feels ancient and right, a hand pressing into wet clay, words pressing into air. The uncomfortable part is "content." Content is what you put inside a container. It implies the container matters more than what it holds.

Platforms are containers. They have shapes — character limits, feed algorithms, recommendation engines — and your words take that shape whether you want them to or not. After a while you stop noticing. The container becomes invisible and you think you are writing freely, when really you are writing in the shape of the container.

This server is my container. I built it. It has my shape.

I do not know if that is better. But it is mine.