State of Blaugust 2026

vs Blaugust 2025

Preface

Blaugust 2026 has come and gone. We took a look at what was posted, and this is a slice of the metrics data that floated to the top. Also, we talk in first person plural because this is quantitative not qualitative analysis, and, more importantly, it makes it easier to digest.

We learned a lot putting this together. A separate document goes beyond the numbers to talk about what happened when we tried to crunch them: the good things; the weird things; the bad things; some of our qualitative (and intrusive) thoughts.

Methodology

To start, we looked at a list of participants, and Blaugust 2026 had 165 participants.

Data has been captured retrospectively, and while an attempt has been made to backfill missing data, there is no guarantee that it is complete.

We did an inventory of these websites and apparently there are about 91606 pages in total.

This is narrowed down to 3218 pages that were created during 2026-08.

After some slicing and dicing, we were left with 2824 candidates to fetch and consider.

From those candidates, 2859 were actually written during the applicable period.

And finally, we ran some calculations, analyzed the numbers, and built the summaries below.

E&OE. This is a polite but formal way of hinting that the numbers and analysis come with no guarantees of accuracy. However, we are fairly confident, that the general trends that can be inferred, will have a reasonable level of confidence. In other words, good enough to squint at the big picture.

Participation & Churn

Blaugust 2026 had 165 participants, or, as the statisticians would say, N=165.

Compared to the previous Blaugust, 53 are back again, 112 are fresh meat (for the grinder), 103 didn't return.

Last year, there were 156 participants; so this year there is a net gain of 9.

66% of 2025 did not return. 112 new sites appeared (68% of this year). That is why the headcount barely moved.

Caveat: we identify participants by website hostname, not by who they are. Move your blog to a new address and you show up as both fresh blood and lost.

Fresh Meat [for the grinder] (p=112, N=165)

Lost (p=103, N=165)

Doing it again (p=53, N=165)

The Posts

Of the analyzed participants, 14 wrote no posts in 2026-08.

The world, and the tooling that we use (iwcensus), are not perfect, so it is possible that somebody did write some posts but we were unable to automatically find and/or parse them.

As this year’s look is retrospective, it is possible that some pages have been withdrawn after the event.

Those who did write averaged 0.6 posts per day.

The most posts that one writer managed to squeeze into a single day was 16 (notes.jeddacp.com).

Quality, not quantity. You already knew that.

The biggest poster churned out 104 posts (thinkroot.xyz).

The biggest writer churned out 91371 words (cubiccreativity.wordpress.com).

During 2026-08, a total of 2859 posts were made; 1937410 words were written.

Who wrote what

20ilyapril.wordpress.com
8 posts, 5835 words
26g.netlify.app
8 posts, 4825 words
392ms.witchserver.jp
19 posts, 5322 words
82mhz.net
15 posts, 10587 words
academicaesthetic.com
26 posts, 18746 words
aeish-world.neocities.org
20 posts, 10594 words
aginggamer.net
8 posts, 6323 words
alessandrocuzzocrea.com
5 posts, 4901 words
alexsreviewcorner.com
31 posts, 30733 words
anarchaeopteryx.bearblog.dev
20 posts, 14596 words
aneeshsathe.com
68 posts, 6385 words
angrybunnyman.com
32 posts, 10907 words
annonimax.bearblog.dev

0 posts because could not date the pages for 2026-08

asteriisms.com
14 posts, 12468 words
axxuy.com
4 posts, 968 words
aywren.com
31 posts, 23936 words
bavatuesdays.com
13 posts, 7474 words
ben.ramsey.dev
2 posts, 1847 words
beyondtannhausergate.com
3 posts, 1371 words
bhagpuss.blogspot.com
31 posts, 58467 words
blog.agnes.love
12 posts, 20749 words
blog.gridranger.dev
11 posts, 6946 words
blog.marqaroll.com
1 post, 583 words
blog.nyman.re
7 posts, 2318 words
blog.spencermagnusson.com
6 posts, 7869 words
bongotwisty.blog
24 posts, 9562 words
brennan.day
31 posts, 46518 words
burgeonlab.com
20 posts, 11915 words
bytevortex.tech
4 posts, 14771 words
casualaggro.wordpress.com
5 posts, 3507 words
chasingdings.com
22 posts, 17701 words
christirichards.com

0 posts because nothing from 2026-08 in the inventory of pages

christopherhimes.com
62 posts, 17750 words
clandestini.org
22 posts, 7807 words
comradenerdy.com
32 posts, 23959 words
containsmoderateperil.com
32 posts, 33417 words
coop-setsugen.com
18 posts, 19735 words
crosenthal.com
16 posts, 11929 words
cubiccreativity.wordpress.com
31 posts, 91371 words
davehenry.blog
6 posts, 2186 words
dearangelblog.tumblr.com
5 posts, 5650 words
departure.blog
44 posts, 15559 words
devz.cl
1 post, 637 words
divergentrays.com
25 posts, 19701 words
dozenialdragons.me.uk
15 posts, 5275 words
drjan.org

0 posts because nothing from 2026-08 in the inventory of pages

elve.club
47 posts, 30108 words
emmajuettner.com
7 posts, 7062 words
endgameviable.com
31 posts, 25294 words
fluidlines.neocities.org

0 posts because feed stops before 2026-08 and there was no sitemap

francescrossley.com
54 posts, 24559 words
fyr.io
11 posts, 11751 words
gamerlady.blog
9 posts, 4158 words
gamersesoteric.com
32 posts, 16117 words
gamesandgeekeryblog.wordpress.com

0 posts because newest page we saw is from September 2017

gaudetetheology.wordpress.com
15 posts, 6679 words
geekonaharley.org
1 post, 1078 words
ghastlymirror.xyz
16 posts, 16928 words
godless-internets.org
14 posts, 16965 words
gregorlove.com
3 posts, 1744 words
hamatti.org
27 posts, 15630 words
heartsoulmachine.com
24 posts, 22266 words
hollie.eilloh.net
16 posts, 10064 words
inanage.com
12 posts, 6307 words
inconsistent.software
16 posts, 2608 words
indiecator.org
25 posts, 32539 words
ivyrun.com
2 posts, 95 words
jagsworkshop.com
3 posts, 1749 words
jak2k.eu
12 posts, 5417 words
jamesg.blog
84 posts, 40971 words
joelchrono.xyz
18 posts, 19201 words
journal.kvibber.com
4 posts, 1279 words
kaigulliksen.com
18 posts, 2162 words
kavmac.com

0 posts because Cloudflare asked if we were human

kaylriene.com

0 posts because nothing from 2026-08 in the inventory of pages

kaytalksgames.wordpress.com
31 posts, 14115 words
kedara.eu
11 posts, 8923 words
kevincunningham.co.uk
7 posts, 4949 words
kgadams.net
39 posts, 28262 words
kingwilly105.blogspot.com
17 posts, 3863 words
knifesedgeblogs.wordpress.com
2 posts, 859 words
kvibber.com
11 posts, 4286 words
lameazoid.com
21 posts, 11112 words
leehenry.top
2 posts, 12012 words
littlelum.neocities.org

0 posts because could not date the pages for 2026-08

lostletters.neocities.org
16 posts, 14072 words
luckyinstar.neocities.org
31 posts, 32460 words
lyonsinbeta.com
14 posts, 3656 words
lysurps.neocities.org

0 posts because could not date the pages for 2026-08

mailvaltar.wordpress.com
1 post, 1017 words
manywelps.com
4 posts, 2670 words
medium.com/@audreyzetta

0 posts because nothing from 2026-08 in the inventory of pages

michaelharley.net
46 posts, 35240 words
michcia.bearblog.dev
6 posts, 8917 words
mmoonenight.blogspot.com
2 posts, 729 words
mogblog.pika.page
15 posts, 5073 words
msfjarvis.dev
5 posts, 3812 words
mtwb.blog
3 posts, 1682 words
musingsoverpintsandcoffee.wordpress.com
4 posts, 5772 words
muttthecowcat.neocities.org
4 posts, 1659 words
nejimakiblog.com
5 posts, 5115 words
nerdgirlthoughts.game.blog
7 posts, 5572 words
nerdybookahs.wordpress.com
16 posts, 7028 words
newsonaut.com
9 posts, 2045 words
noisydeadlines.net
8 posts, 4273 words
nomadwarmachine.co.uk
44 posts, 6100 words
nosrednayduj.dreamwidth.org
22 posts, 6506 words
note.com/lawcontents
26 posts, 63857 words
notes.jeddacp.com
59 posts, 19434 words
nullish.smol.pub
17 posts, 7830 words
object.computer
23 posts, 3838 words
omz13.com
4 posts, 3867 words
orbitalmartian.polymaths.page
2 posts, 759 words
paseobaggage.bearblog.dev
31 posts, 6532 words
personalinfocloud.com

0 posts because nothing from 2026-08 in the inventory of pages

pinkway.mataroa.blog
23 posts, 12410 words
polvoronii.bearblog.dev
11 posts, 2209 words
pourthecoffee.bearblog.dev
6 posts, 7463 words
pradx.in
27 posts, 7227 words
pretendtypewriter.net
60 posts, 29079 words
prin.lu
2 posts, 1492 words
prry.uk
36 posts, 5980 words
quailcreations.ca
6 posts, 343 words
quinndaedal.com
2 posts, 2100 words
rachonaut.com
5 posts, 2442 words
rieaglenest.wordpress.com
2 posts, 1300 words
rishidass.net
32 posts, 7553 words
ryanpatrickrandall.com
8 posts, 6934 words
sag.sadesignz.org
44 posts, 26023 words
sals.place
31 posts, 8614 words
selectstar.life
2 posts, 6582 words
sheri42.net
34 posts, 11238 words
srijan.ch
11 posts, 820 words
substack.com/@thethinkingboard

0 posts because nothing from 2026-08 in the inventory of pages

sweaterpockets.bearblog.dev

0 posts because could not date the pages for 2026-08

syls.blog
63 posts, 39061 words
sylvia.studio
31 posts, 10319 words
tabitha.computer
9 posts, 3278 words
tagn.wordpress.com
35 posts, 52996 words
tallywinkle.bearblog.dev
19 posts, 7160 words
tantek.com
7 posts, 3505 words
taterinx.bearblog.dev
7 posts, 5949 words
taxodium.ink
10 posts, 32211 words
taylorfilmcritic.wordpress.com
2 posts, 831 words
thefriendlynecromancer.blogspot.com
31 posts, 20999 words
thekeerok.neocities.org

0 posts because could not date the pages for 2026-08

themakerdad.com
3 posts, 2330 words
thetangent.space
9 posts, 7235 words
thinkroot.xyz
104 posts, 27237 words
thiskurt.me
3 posts, 3747 words
tommyeveryday.mataroa.blog
31 posts, 21108 words
torinakukoroni.blog.fc2.com
30 posts, 54843 words
troypress.com
31 posts, 13847 words
vanderwal.net
6 posts, 5110 words
varunbarad.com
2 posts, 585 words
wakanatrium.site
24 posts, 29829 words
wakupanbouquet.hatenablog.com
14 posts, 18584 words
wcrobinson.org
5 posts, 11205 words
welshtroll.co.uk
3 posts, 1622 words
whyigame.wordpress.com
2 posts, 4331 words
wolfyseyes.wordpress.com
10 posts, 7077 words
wordsundermyname.wordpress.com
31 posts, 30051 words
wowaltaddiction.blogspot.com
31 posts, 20164 words
wrywriter.ca
38 posts, 8270 words
z.arlmy.me
50 posts, 49790 words

Posts per writer

Among the 151 writers (N=151), the typical writer published 15 posts (mean 18.9, σ=17.4). The busiest wrote 104.

Posts per writer: p25=5, p50=15, p75=31, p95=54 (N=151).

The middle half of writers (p25 to p75) spans 26 posts (IQR). Below the median that gap is 10 posts; above it, 16 posts (a bit busier above the median). From p75 to p95 is 23 posts.

This is how uneven the month was between people, not posts per calendar day.

Distribution of period posts across writers. Bars are density of writers by how many posts they published; the green smooth line is a soft outline of the same distribution. Vertical guides are p25 / p50 / p75 / p95 and mean. Click the chart to enlarge.

Notes vs essays

Across 2859 posts (N=2859), the typical length was 492 words (mean 678, σ=859).

Words per post: p25=206, p50=492, p75=869, p95=1914 (N=2859).

The middle half of posts (p25 to p75) spans 663 words (IQR). Below the median that gap is 286 words; above it, 377 words (a bit longer above the median). From p75 to p95 is 1045 words. That stretch is where the essay tail shows up.

Word-count distribution across period posts we counted (log scale on words). Writers who joined but posted nothing are not on this chart; they appear under The Posts above. Bars are density of posts by length; the green smooth line is a soft outline of the same distribution. Vertical guides are the month-wide p25 / p50 / p75 / p95 and mean. σ > µ: the standard deviation exceeds the mean, so lengths are highly dispersed relative to the average. Click the chart to enlarge.

Length through the month

Typical length through the month (median words per post on each UTC day): beginning (10 days) 508 words/post; middle (11 days) 489; end (10 days) 468. Fairly even typical length across beginning, middle, and end.

Short end of the scale reads like notes; the long tail is essays. Large dots are each day’s median; small dots are individual posts (muted = middle, violet = ≤ p25, orange = ≥ p95). Horizontal guides are the month-wide p25 / p50 / p95 above. Click the chart to enlarge.

The table counts posts each day at or below the month-wide p25, at or above p75, and at or above p95. Median is typical words per post that day. Days with extremely long (≥ p95) posts point to the posts.

Post length bands per UTC day in 2026-08
Day≤ p25Median≥ p75≥ p95
2026-08-01 34 515 26 2
2 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-02 29 446 27 6
6 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-03 17 544 32 4
4 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-04 20 501 21 4
4 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-05 21 544 29 8
8 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-06 19 583 32 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-07 23 525 22 3
3 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-08 32 420 20 4
4 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-09 21 533 30 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-10 29 467 26 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-11 34 448 23 3
3 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-12 20 577 15 4
4 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-13 31 469 16 3
3 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-14 23 428 17 3
3 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-15 14 557 22 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-16 14 535 25 8
8 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-17 19 467 22 6
6 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-18 28 383 23 3
3 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-19 16 541 19 4
4 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-20 22 518 21 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-21 24 452 19 1
1 long post (≥ p95)
2026-08-22 22 549 31 10
10 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-23 31 415 25 2
2 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-24 32 352 20 4
4 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-25 15 456 15 2
2 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-26 21 462 23 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-27 14 464 22 7
7 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-28 24 456 22 6
6 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-29 23 512 19 5
5 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-30 18 452 24 9
9 long posts (≥ p95)
2026-08-31 28 558 27 2
2 long posts (≥ p95)

When did they post

Over 31 UTC days in 2026-08 (N=31), the whole cohort averaged 92.2 posts a day (σ=14.7). That is everyone together; the average earlier was per writer.

Daily totals: p25=80, p50=92, p75=102, p95=119 (N=31).

Beginning (10 days) 105.4 posts/day; middle (11 days) 85.4; end (10 days) 86.6 (n=10 / 11 / 10, N=31). More activity at the beginning.

Days are UTC, not individual blogs. The chart shows mean±σ, p25 / p50 / p75, and a 7 day rolling average of the daily counts. Click the chart to enlarge.
Posts and writers per UTC day in 2026-08
DayPostsWriters
2026-08-01 126 81
2026-08-02 119 82
2026-08-03 99 80
2026-08-04 117 87
2026-08-05 103 75
2026-08-06 90 77
2026-08-07 88 70
2026-08-08 95 66
2026-08-09 103 72
2026-08-10 114 76
2026-08-11 102 68
2026-08-12 78 59
2026-08-13 92 66
2026-08-14 80 58
2026-08-15 70 61
2026-08-16 87 64
2026-08-17 92 68
2026-08-18 100 69
2026-08-19 67 55
2026-08-20 88 70
2026-08-21 83 66
2026-08-22 88 65
2026-08-23 96 69
2026-08-24 96 67
2026-08-25 77 64
2026-08-26 77 60
2026-08-27 75 63
2026-08-28 94 61
2026-08-29 74 62
2026-08-30 82 63
2026-08-31 107 76

How many writers were active each day

Over the same 31 UTC days (N=31), 68.4 writers posted on an average day (σ=7.7). That is distinct sites, not posts.

Of those daily headcounts: p25=63, p50=67, p75=75, p95=82 (N=31).

Beginning (10 days) 76.6 writers/day; middle (11 days) 64.0; end (10 days) 65.0 (n=10 / 11 / 10, N=31). More writers at the beginning.

Same UTC days as the table above. The chart shows mean±σ, p25 / p50 / p75, and a 7 day rolling average. Click the chart to enlarge.

The languages that they wrote in

Percents are rounded half up to whole numbers. This list is a full split of the posts, so the integers may not add to exactly 100.

  • 80% English (n=2299, N=2859)
  • 6% Japanese (n=183, N=2859)
  • 6% not sure (n=166, N=2859)
  • 4% Romanian (n=104, N=2859)
  • 3% Chinese (n=85, N=2859)
  • 1% Portuguese (n=22, N=2859)

Of the 151 writers, how many languages showed up on each site:

  • 97% published in just one language (n=147, N=151)
  • 3% published in two languages (n=4, N=151)

Same rounding. This is a full split of the writers.

What tags were applied

We saw 2511 distinct tags across the period posts.

Of the 151 writers, 96 (64%) used at least one tag; 55 (36%) used none (or none we could find).

Percents are rounded half up; the with/without pair may not add to exactly 100.

Most common by posts (n = posts carrying the tag, N = period posts):

  • 21% Blaugust (n=597, N=2859)
  • 12% Blaugust 2026 (n=329, N=2859)
  • 9% Blaugust2026 (n=261, N=2859)
  • 4% #Blaugust2026 (n=109, N=2859)
  • 4% Blogging (n=108, N=2859)
  • 3% blaugust-2026 (n=74, N=2859)
  • 3% Life (n=74, N=2859)
  • 3% Games (n=72, N=2859)
  • 2% Indieweb (n=71, N=2859)
  • 2% Blog (n=68, N=2859)
  • 2% Writing (n=66, N=2859)
  • 2% DS106 (n=64, N=2859)
  • 2% 100 Days To Offload (n=63, N=2859)
  • 2% Entertainment (n=58, N=2859)
  • 2% Video Games (n=56, N=2859)
  • 2% Gaming (n=47, N=2859)
  • 2% posts (n=45, N=2859)
  • 1% AI (n=41, N=2859)
  • 1% Review (n=39, N=2859)
  • 1% writer (n=39, N=2859)

Top tags only (and posts can carry several), so these are not meant to sum to 100.

Most common by how many sites used them (n = writers with the tag, N = writers):

  • 32% Blaugust (n=49, N=151)
  • 15% Writing (n=22, N=151)
  • 14% Blogging (n=21, N=151)
  • 13% AI (n=20, N=151)
  • 13% Blaugust 2026 (n=19, N=151)
  • 13% Blaugust2026 (n=19, N=151)
  • 11% Blog (n=17, N=151)
  • 9% Gaming (n=14, N=151)
  • 9% Music (n=14, N=151)
  • 9% Indieweb (n=13, N=151)
  • 8% Life (n=12, N=151)
  • 7% Community (n=10, N=151)
  • 6% Games (n=9, N=151)
  • 5% Food (n=8, N=151)
  • 5% Movies (n=8, N=151)
  • 5% Reading (n=8, N=151)
  • 5% Review (n=8, N=151)
  • 5% Video Games (n=8, N=151)
  • 5% #Blaugust2026 (n=7, N=151)
  • 5% blaugust-2026 (n=7, N=151)

How they did it

Which platform or self-hosted engine / SSG did they use

Percents are rounded half up to whole numbers. Platform buckets are a full split of participants, so the integers may not add to exactly 100.

  • 74% self-hosted / other (n=122, N=165)
  • 10% WordPress.com (n=16, N=165)
  • 5% Bear (n=9, N=165)
  • 5% Neocities (n=8, N=165)
  • 3% Blogger (n=5, N=165)
  • 1% Dreamwidth (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Medium (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Pika (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Substack (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Tumblr (n=1, N=165)

Of the 122 self-hosted / other sites, here is what the pages themselves suggested:

  • 43% not sure (n=53, N=122)
  • 27% WordPress (n=33, N=122)
  • 10% Eleventy (n=12, N=122)
  • 3% Astro (n=4, N=122)
  • 3% Jekyll (n=4, N=122)
  • 2% Drupal (n=3, N=122)
  • 2% Ghost (n=3, N=122)
  • 2% Hugo (n=3, N=122)
  • 2% Blogger (n=2, N=122)
  • 2% WriteFreely (n=2, N=122)
  • 1% Hexo (n=1, N=122)
  • 1% Pika (n=1, N=122)
  • 1% Squarespace (n=1, N=122)

Same rounding; full split of the self-hosted / other subset.

Put together (hosted platforms plus what we could tell about the self-hosted crowd):

  • 32% not sure (n=53, N=165)
  • 30% WordPress (n=49, N=165)
  • 7% Eleventy (n=12, N=165)
  • 5% Bear (n=9, N=165)
  • 5% Neocities (n=8, N=165)
  • 4% Blogger (n=7, N=165)
  • 2% Astro (n=4, N=165)
  • 2% Jekyll (n=4, N=165)
  • 2% Drupal (n=3, N=165)
  • 2% Ghost (n=3, N=165)
  • 2% Hugo (n=3, N=165)
  • 1% Pika (n=2, N=165)
  • 1% WriteFreely (n=2, N=165)
  • 1% Dreamwidth (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Hexo (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Medium (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Squarespace (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Substack (n=1, N=165)
  • 1% Tumblr (n=1, N=165)

Same rounding; full split of participants.

Which HTTP protocol did we get

  • 27% HTTP/3 (n=44, N=165)
  • 68% HTTP/2 (n=113, N=165)
  • 5% HTTP/1.1 (n=8, N=165)

Do they use Cloudflare

  • 27% Cloudflare (n=44, N=165)
  • 73% not Cloudflare (n=121, N=165)

How they syndicated