If you're thinking about automating your docs workflow with GitHub Actions, I've got five things you should know before you begin.

It's the first day of the month, which is a great time to document something undocumented by making a new README file with my checklist.

We're happy to share that @sovereign.tech invests in Web Security and Privacy Documentation! Over the coming year, Open Web Docs will be working on creating and updating Security and Privacy docs for web developers on @developer.mozilla.org. Full announcement: openwebdocs.org/content/post...

The recording of the talk @emckean.bsky.social and I presented at Open Source Summit Europe is now available. Go here for video, highlights, links, and acknowledgments: ddbeck.com/osseu2025/

The WebDX CG's mission is to improve YOUR experience developing on the web platform. We're behind familiar research and interop efforts like the State of... surveys and Baseline. Let's chat! We're hosting an AMA on r/webdev September 18, but you can post your Qs now web.dev/blog/baselin...

Discount documentation? No thanks! I wrote some suggestions for thinking about "discounts" when a client doesn’t have a lot of cash, but might have other things you value.

Two quick tips (mostly for my future self) on preparing slides for a conference talk ddbeck.com/notes/no-spe...

Hey docs friends! Come hear my talk at Write The Docs: Berlin. It’s going to be a vulnerable, and hopefully helpful, talk about transitioning into a leadership position.

The recording of the talk @emckean.bsky.social and I presented at Open Source Summit Europe is now available. Go here for video, highlights, links, and acknowledgments: ddbeck.com/osseu2025/

happy labor day

It's the first of the month, which is as great time as any to document something undocumented with a README file. Do it! I promise it'll be satisfying.

Was playing around with live coding on Strudel (strudel.cc) and ended up having so much fun making my first track!! File was too big for bsky so youtube it is... youtu.be/ruvd3MhvSCk

Oh, you asked ChatGPT? Well I asked Zombo.com

Discount documentation? No thanks! I wrote some suggestions for thinking about "discounts" when a client doesn’t have a lot of cash, but might have other things you value.

If you saw the talk that @emckean.bsky.social and I presented at Open Source Summit Europe, thank you for coming! I'll have more links and highlights to share later, but you can find the docs advisor and archetypes here.

On August 27, @emckean.bsky.social and I are presenting at Open Source Summit Europe about resources that can help open source maintainers create and maintain docs. I'm looking forward to it (or at least I will be, when I've practiced my outline a few more times). sched.co/25Vub

Last week I shared this silly writing trick. In response, I've been told about other writers publishing in this style (most often FILM CRIT HULK but several others too). Is this what it's like to be part of a literary tradition?

i have compiled a list of free image resources inspired by our conversation about this last week. livelaugh.blog/posts/non-ai...

When inaccurate technical writing has negative value because you bit off more than you can chew, you’re better off deleting it, and figuring out what you can afford to maintain. And when you make trade offs, think twice before sacrificing accuracy.

I wrote about a silly but effective trick I use to get past style issues when editing existing documentation or writing from a specification

Replanting

Today @shockandaudrey.bsky.social acquainted me with the existence of some totally normal universities en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_...

I wrote a little about the benefits of having source code comments with consequences, the build-breaking TODO: ddbeck.com/notes/build-...

I wrote about how to resolve differences between your docs' visual style and what your markup says it is: ddbeck.com/markup-confl...

You should use mktemp more ddbeck.com/notes/you-sh...

As is annual tradition, I am the adopter of none other than "documentation" on @wordnik.com: www.wordnik.com/words/docume...

Here's an underappreciated thing that some of the best technical writers I know do and something I've tried to learn from: If you're trying to solve a big diffuse problem, start by making a spreadsheet.

Skin Deep is really fun and funny. When you're finished, check out the behind-the-scenes deleted level and modding demos. I'm not someone who makes games, but I learned a lot about how a game like this is made (which in turn has made me appreciate more things about games I'm playing recently).

I took some notes on how I got a real (non-VoIP) phone number for the US while abroad because SMS 2FA is still an annoying thing that banks and others continue to insist on ddbeck.com/notes/real-u...

Does your organization rely on MDN for reference docs? Do you often check browser compat on MDN or caniuse.com? Do you use tools like browser DevTools or VSCode in your work? If so, you rely directly on the work that Open Web Docs does and should consider sponsoring. To convince your boss.

I'm legit *excited* to bring this conference back to Europe, and in my home town of Berlin to boot! Get those talk proposals rolling into my eye balls so we can make this an amazing one, and mash the boost button repeatedly! Buy a ticket while you're there. ;-) www.writethedocs.org/conf/berlin/...

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

Brief notes on astroblocking ddbeck.com/notes/2025-0...

I liked watching Andrea Kao’s FOSS Backstage talk, particularly the way Andrea talked about the word “content”: it doesn't just diminish the work, it also diminishes the people do the work. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmwp... I took some longer notes here: ddbeck.com/notes/dimini... #WriteTheDocs

Every school child in America has lived for decades with death threats. Many actually die.

“Wow that’s a sharp bit of writing but I’m not sharing a substack” is a thing I keep thinking as I scroll, and I thought I’d externalize the thought for emphasis

Reposting for visibility

Though age is possible, here's my theory of the declining "fun" of April fools' day: Between scams, dark patterns, and chasing "engagement," tricking people out of their time, attention, and money is an increasingly loud everyday experience. When a brand does April fools, they're rubbing it in.

It's the first of the month, which is as great time as any to document something with a README file. Do it! I promise it'll be satisfying.

Reminder: It's April 1st, so there are going to be a bunch of dumb things on the computer today.

I took some notes on bkt, a really useful command-line stdout/stderr caching tool that makes slow processes feel fast.

Thank God for root beer

I got to go to Now Play This a couple of times, when I lived in the UK. It's a really special thing and I'm glad it existed. I really like that this recap points out that the folks who put on Now Play This on are continuing to do other special things.

If you're critical of the US government and you are planning to cross the US border any time soon, today is a good day to review EFF's border search pocket guide: www.eff.org/document/eff...

A couple decades into my career, it has never once failed me that a person describing others in a community or team as “non-technical” is a reliable indicator that they fundamentally do not understand how technology is created. There’s no such thing as a “non-technical” person.

Brief notes on obscure Unicode separator characters and their even more obscure printable picture characters

I took some notes on how I really like the fish shell's abbr command and what's new about abbreviations in fish 4.0 ddbeck.com/notes/fish-s...

Pulling back the moderation curtain a little bit with notes on how I ask people to correct their behavior, as a volunteer chat moderator for #WriteTheDocs

Brief notes on text.makeup, @aresluna.org's very fun and educational tool for learning more about Unicode ddbeck.com/notes/text-m...

The answer was not the point. The answer was never the point. The process of searching is the process of learning.