Your Name

I've been using Obsidian for some time now. If you don't know what Obsidian is, at a high level it's another note-taking application.

Obsidian offers a Web Clipper extension for Safari to allow you to clip articles or websites, saving minimal versions of those pages with some bits of metadata, e.g. published date, URL, or the author.

The extension is great. I use it all the time to clip articles I've found interesting that I stumble upon from social media, news, or various link aggregator websites.

One thing I've noticed as I've done this recently is how some blogs make it very difficult to find the author's name. My first thought is generally "oh, this is anonymous" or done with a pseudonym.

There are a few tricks I employ to confirm or disprove that theory. I double-check there's no author field near the title that the extension missed which does happen. I check the domain name for firstnamelastname.tld. I check for a copyright notice in the footer.

At that point, I have to start clicking to navigate home, hoping they have a "hi I'm so and so". Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. At that point, I'm on a mission to find an about page. Usually I'll find one. You'd be surprised at the number of about pages that don't say outright "Hi, I'm John Doe", but do include a link to LinkedIn or some other social media with their whole name.

It's a little tiring and has made me think about what it means to have your own little personal space on the web. It's your space. I can understand if you don't want to put your name on it, that's totally fine. But if you are okay with your name on your space, put it there. I want to know you the person.