I’ve long wanted to write an article like this one. However, as Apple continued to add to its list of failures, poor Apple, I kept pushing back the deadline. This summer, however, the timing was right. Here’s what I did differently this time.

A few months ago, I started gathering a list of Apple’s failures in a Craft document. I wanted to cover the period from when Tim Cook took over as Apple’s leader, following Steve Jobs’ passing, up until now. For each failure, I wrote a summary that included a description, some context, and a list of potential collateral damage to Apple’s reputation and brand. Then, I turned to ChatGPT for help.

I set up a space to upload files, one for each failure, and began a separate “conversation” to explore areas I hadn’t already covered. This process took a few weeks. I’d revisit one of the failures every other day and continue the conversation until I was satisfied.

Next, I started creating a first draft based on all the conversations in this ChatGPT writing project. It took many prompts to refine the base content before exporting it as a Markdown file. Then, I set up a new conversation, uploaded the file, and asked ChatGPT to continue working on the article, this time in canvas mode. It took many more iterations and manual edits to finish around 85% of the writing process.

After that, I imported the text back into Craft and kept adding relevant facts and comments. As I went along, I started searching for photos that could illustrate each section. I used Kagi Search for all my image searches. For each photo, I wrote a brief caption that gave a unique perspective on the failure it was highlighting.

It’s also worth noting the role of Grammarly. As I finished writing in Craft, I used Grammarly to rephrase parts I didn’t quite like. I ended up keeping around half of Grammarly’s suggested rephrases.

In summary, generative AI was a significant contributor to my writing, either through the use of ChatGPT or with Grammarly’s constant supervision. I’m not sure how I should feel about this, nor how you should think about it, now that you know. Make no mistake, the original writing project idea is mine. The selection of Apple’s failures is mine. The starting point of research is mine. The selection of images is mine. Supervision of ChatGPT’s contribution is mine. But is the final product mine? Anyway, complete transparency, now you know.

While searching for blog posts on numericcitizen.me, I discovered a few duplicates and some that were no longer relevant. I removed the duplicates, likely caused by previous migration processes, and decided to unpublish the outdated posts. There seems to be a debate about whether we should delete past publications. Some argue that all blog posts, regardless of relevance, reflect our identity and showcase what we once considered important. Others believe that removing irrelevant posts, which they refer to as noise, helps the remaining content stand out. As I agree to both arguments, I’m allowing myself to do some cleanup, from time to time, and it’s ok.

The Who Is Numeric Citizen? website has moved from Cloudflare’s Workers app to Chillidog Hosting. This change was necessary to support PHP, which is required for Elements CMS. Additionally, the publishing workflow is now more straightforward since I no longer need to use a GitHub repository, which was necessary for hosting a static website on Cloudflare. It is rare to simplify a workflow while adding more features, in this case, PHP to implement a CMS component on the News page.

The migration process was relatively simple, thanks to Chillidog support, which was fantastic BTW. The process involved republishing my website using a new configuration publishing setup, which pointed to Chillidog. The setup was straightforward because Chillidog is familiar with Elements, which allows you to download a configuration settings file directly into Elements for setting up the FTP connection. Once republished, I made a DNS change at CloudFlare to replace a CNAME record with an A record to one of Chillidog’s servers. After 15 minutes, it was a done deal.

I’m getting ready to use the upcoming Elements CMS feature when it becomes stable enough for production use. Today, I pushed out a big update to “Who Is Numeric Citizen?” website where I decided to split the Highlights section into four as I’m expecting them to grow over time. As for the CMS feature, it will require a change of my hosting solution. The website is currently hosted on Cloudflare as a worker-based app. I’ll first move the content to Chillidog hosting first, then I’ll start adding the CMS feature in those areas: site news, redo the best articles section and add a tech wish list as CMS entries.

My main website, numericcitizen.me, is now officially using Ghost 6 which was released today. It was a short and painless process to upgrade. While Ghost.org will grandfather current plans, I discovered a price increase for my subscription tier (Creator), going from $25/month to $29/month. It seems that under my current plan, I can get all the juiced up analytics, which is nice. Yet, Ghost.org is a pricey service for a blogger like me.

Because I’m getting email inquiries many times a week for SEO improvement offers, link insertion, ads, etc. I decided to create my official response for these sketchy offers. I hope they understand the message, provided that they read it, of course, which I highly doubt. It’s probably a lost cause.

I finally completed the replication of content from the Craft-hosted website to Micro.blog-hosted website. I initiated this migration to reduce my dependency on Craft to host such content. Numeric Citizen I/O still points to Craft-hosted website (https://world.numericcitizen.io/meta), but 95% of the content is now available on Micro.blog via meta.numericcitizen.me.

Am I leaving Craft behind, not anytime soon, but I’m certainly continuing to consolidate my online presence under more open platforms.

In the blogging space, “open” can mean different things depending on who you ask. There are open-source tools and services. Opening yourself up while blogging is another example. Giving a behind-the-scenes look at your workflows is another. Furthermore, being an open blogger also means a desire to write about writing and blogging.

Open blogging, a new movement (my creation 😃), also means creating, maintaining and sharing a digital garden. It contains many things, such as a list of upcoming blog posts, work-in-progress articles, never-published articles, and other digital artifacts, all accessible just by following links within the digital garden. You can even peek at my website’s analytics, too, thanks to Plausible. It’s all there. Just be curious.

Being an open blogger also means using open-source tools and services whenever possible. Such services include Ghost, GitHub, Plausible, and Micro.blog. I believe that basic, foundational tools and platforms aren’t well served when big corporations own them. Oh, did I mention being part of Fediverse is also part of my platform choices?

Supporting open-source initiatives like Plausible, Commento, and Ghost is an act of support for web openness. I subscribed to all those services because it’s like defending a principle (and because they’re of great value, too!).

On a more personal note, I openly share my anxieties about the challenges of being a blogger, writer, and content creator. Isn’t the website hosting this article, its mission after all? If you’re someone who reads all my content, on all the platforms I use, you can build a pretty good picture of who I am, what’s my values, my interests, my challenges. Each website fills a specific niche, but taken together, they form a web of content reflecting my interests in life.

I like writing about my experiences. Did you know that between 2009 and 2013, I was developing iPhone applications? While doing so, I attempted to maintain a blog about it. I wrote and published articles about my experience and the lessons I learned from iPhone intricacies. Today, I would like to write about blogging and share my experience with the applications and services I use for that purpose. I like doing this so much that I created this website about it: Numeric Citizen I/O. I maintain a meta-blog that exposes the behind-the-scenes of my workflow. Different context, same objectives. It’s my small contribution to this complicated world.

Thanks for reading.