{"id":57959,"date":"2024-12-04T07:02:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T06:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=57959"},"modified":"2025-12-04T02:21:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:21:27","slug":"how-counting-stars-is-made-and-who-decides-what-should-be-covered-in-this-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/04\/how-counting-stars-is-made-and-who-decides-what-should-be-covered-in-this-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"How Counting Stars is made and who decides what should be covered in this blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I've been wanting to write an article like this for a while, explaining what every day is like in this little corner of the web. Let's get to it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/07\/15\/counting-stars-turns-20-years-old-with-the-same-freedom-and-without-any-subvention\/\">Counting Stars turns 20 years old with the same freedom and without any subvention<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/04\/01\/counting-stars-and-credibility\/\">Counting Stars and credibility<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Although its appearance sometimes leads one to think that this is the editorial office of a digital media outlet in which a team of people works, in reality <strong>Counting Stars is a personal blog<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/about-counting-stars\/\">as I explain in the blog profile<\/a>. Perhaps some people find it hard to believe, but <strong>what is published daily here is written by a single person<\/strong>. Maybe this way I take away a bit of the magic from this, but I have never wanted to indicate anything else.<\/p>\n<p><big>The process of choosing article topics<\/big><\/p>\n<p>This website does not have an editorial board. <strong>The topics that are published on the blog are chosen by me.<\/strong> To be honest, sometimes the choice is easy, because <strong>I usually choose topics that interest me and that I have knowledge about<\/strong> (I don't like to write about things I don't know about, which is why you rarely see anything about football here, for example). As a rule, I <strong>try to cover topics that you won't see elsewhere<\/strong> or that the mainstream media doesn't pay attention to, although I also try to <strong>bring a different perspective to everyday issues<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sometimes I get ideas from readers that I think are good<\/strong> for writing an article, and often these ideas come from family members (this blog wouldn't be the same without them). <strong>I also occasionally get pressure from outside<\/strong> to publish something (or not publish it). The authors of these pressures are always left wanting. <strong>This blog has the advantage of not receiving any kind of grant or money from any organization,<\/strong> which allows me to enjoy complete independence when it comes to writing.<\/p>\n<p><big>It's not all about talking about politics<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Generally, <strong>eight posts are published on the blog every day, four in Spanish and four in English<\/strong>. Half of them are about current political and social issues. I try to keep the other half on different topics, generally related to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/defense-aviation\/\">defense<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/explorando_en\/\">exploration<\/a>, which are the topics of two of the main sections of the blog. I cover these last topics first of all because they interest me, but <strong>I also have a rule that I don't just talk about politics<\/strong>, so as not to tire people out and to make the content more varied.<\/p>\n<p><big>The process of writing each article<\/big><\/p>\n<p><strong>I usually start an article by looking for a good title.<\/strong> I know that many people nowadays only read the headlines, and it is a constant challenge to find ways to stop people from reading them (any journalist will tell you this). On the other hand, <strong>I am a layout maniac<\/strong>, so I always try to make sure that the titles fit well with the blog design, both in the desktop version and in the mobile version (a few months ago I introduced some changes to better fit the titles in this version). <strong>As for the text, my big problem is going on too long:<\/strong> I generally write a long text and then start to eliminate what is redundant (for me it is like carving a sculpture), since <strong>my readers spend valuable time reading this blog and I do not want them to waste it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the things that may surprise you the most is that <strong>I always write in HTML format<\/strong>, using the tags of this programming language. The blog management system (WordPress) offers a rich text editor, but <strong>because of my job as a web designer I am used to using HTML<\/strong>, and I find it a better way to locate possible code errors. To give you an idea, <strong>this is how I see the space where I write the articles<\/strong> (in this case you see the editing of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/10\/29\/pytania-polskiego-prezydenta-do-tych-ktorzy-zadaja-aby-ukraina-ustapila-rosji\/\">an article in Polish<\/a>):<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54182461554_a782bd1fc0_h.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54182461554_19a2fe8dbe_b.jpg\" style=\"width:661px; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0; border:2px solid #252525;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>I always try to add links to the sources of the information I publish<\/strong> in my articles, which makes writing a little more cumbersome, but I think this gives readers <strong>the advantage of not having to take my word for it<\/strong>. As a general rule, I always write the article in Spanish first and then translate it into English (and if I see fit, into other languages \u200b\u200bas well: Galician, Polish, Ukrainian...).<\/p>\n<p><big>The choice of images<\/big><\/p>\n<p><strong>After writing the article, it's time to choose the images.<\/strong> I attach a lot of importance to the image on the blog, so I always try to choose photos that look good and, above all, that don't give a cheap or unserious look. <strong>I'm an amateur photographer, so I almost always retouch all the images<\/strong>, in order to improve the brightness and contrast. Lately I've also been trying out <strong>images generated by artificial intelligence<\/strong>, but I limit them to articles that require rather conceptual images.<\/p>\n<p><big>The process of dissemination of each article<\/big><\/p>\n<p><strong>Once I've published a blog post, I share it on my social media channels<\/strong>. I'm methodical about this so I don't have to think about it every time: first Twitter, then Telegram and WhatsApp, and finally LinkedIn, Facebook, and now Threads too. Beforehand, I always run the posts through <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/tools\/debug\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook's Content Debugger<\/a> to check that the previews are working.<\/p>\n<p><strong>After posting the articles on social media, I send them to subscribers via email<\/strong>. The blog has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/boletines\/\">three newsletters in Spanish<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/free-newsletters\/\">three newsletters in English<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><big>Blog maintenance tasks<\/big><\/p>\n<p>In addition to all of the above, <strong>I also manage incoming emails, as well as subscriber and user administration<\/strong> (a constant source of spam attacks). <strong>I designed the blog myself<\/strong> (that's the advantage of being a web designer) based on an old free WordPress template, so if anything needs to be added or removed, I can do it myself. <strong>I usually think about any design changes a lot<\/strong> before implementing them. I'm very particular about details.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, <strong>this whole process is subject to other factors<\/strong>, such as work or any family or personal commitment. After all, <strong>this blog is not for profit<\/strong>, so I don't earn anything from it. I do it because I like it and, in the case of current affairs, <strong>to contribute my grain of sand to the causes I defend<\/strong>, such as the defense of Spain, life and freedom.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I know that many of you will find it hard to believe that all of this is done every day by just one person,<\/strong> but as I have already said, I tend to write quickly. In fact (and this is known by people who have ever seen me working in front of my computer), <strong>watching me do all of this can make anyone dizzy,<\/strong> because of the speed with which I change screens or programs while working.<\/p>\n<p><big>The topics that remain undiscussed<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, <strong>I could publish more content on the blog<\/strong> every day (the record for articles published in a single day is 16, I think), but <strong>I like to publish less content and of better quality<\/strong>. This necessarily implies that many topics that I would like to write about are left unsaid. I have assumed that <strong>I cannot express my opinion on everything that happens in the world on this blog<\/strong>, because I do not have the time or the knowledge to do so. I hope, at least, that what I publish daily is to your liking, and I hope that these lines serve to give you a better understanding of the work behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been wanting to write an article like this for a while, explaining what every day is like in this little corner of the web. Let&#8217;s get to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10689],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-logbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}