Featured images are friction

Henrique commented on my “Just hit publish” post with:

As a designer, I feel that the Post Featured Image blocks me from writing much more than ‘normal’ people would think. I need time to conceive and prepare it—which makes quick daily posts impossible. Maybe I should review my blog template and get rid of them as a test to blog more.

I agree! I think I dropped my post template’s reliance on a featured image in 2021, when I noticed that coming up with an image was getting in the way of just hitting publish.

I still have featured images in some posts, but my post template works with or without them. Archive templates, too. The Site Editor makes this easy…if there is a featured image it populates, but if not no placeholder or markup gets loaded. I often have featured image on project-type posts like my woodworking, but the majority of my posts do not have one. This is a big difference from 10 years ago when every post had a featured image.

While we are on the topic of optional features of posts, I also think titles are optional. You don’t need titles on Twitter, Bluesky, or Mastodon, so why do you need them on your blog?

My standard post type does use titles, but my Micro and Likes post types do not. I like separating my streams of content that way, but that is personal preference.

It is worth noting that ma.tt and scripting.com both treat titles as optional. Featured images, too.