{"id":137,"date":"2017-03-20T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=137"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:58:54","slug":"to-blog-or-not-to-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/03\/20\/to-blog-or-not-to-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"To Blog or not to Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Before getting into this build I had only partially been aware of the Blog culture of building a Caterham&#8230; both with formal blogs and in some cases with forum posts in a thread. But having taken the plunge it&#8217;s clear there are some great blogs out there. Here are some of the ones I&#8217;ve come across:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/caterham420rbuild.com\">https:\/\/caterham420rbuild.com<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.elmwoodnet.co.uk\/teamivans\">http:\/\/www.elmwoodnet.co.uk\/teamivans<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/caterham-capers.blogspot.co.uk\">http:\/\/caterham-capers.blogspot.co.uk<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/caterhamssr.blogspot.com\">http:\/\/caterhamssr.blogspot.com<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.caterhamr500.co.uk\">http:\/\/www.caterhamr500.co.uk<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.academyracer.co.uk\">http:\/\/www.academyracer.co.uk<\/a><\/li><li>http:\/\/www.caterham-build.co.uk<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/caterham360rbuildblog.blogspot.co.uk\">http:\/\/caterham360rbuildblog.blogspot.co.uk<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/caterham420r.wordpress.com\">http:\/\/caterham420r.wordpress.com<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/caterham360build.co.uk\">http:\/\/caterham360build.co.uk<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/caterhamsevenbuild.blogspot.com\">http:\/\/caterhamsevenbuild.blogspot.com<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Other Blogs since we finished our build:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/caterham310r.wordpress.com\">https:\/\/caterham310r.wordpress.com<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caterham7diaries.com\">https:\/\/www.caterham7diaries.com<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/caterham420detailedbuildblog.co.uk\">https:\/\/caterham420detailedbuildblog.co.uk<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"ext\" href=\"https:\/\/cat310s.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cat310s.wordpress.com<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Blogs here are also great if you&#8217;re looking at doing a 160\/170 build:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caterhamlotus7.club\/blogs\/member\/11742\">https:\/\/www.caterhamlotus7.club\/blogs\/member\/11742<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/caterham170r.wordpress.com\/\">https:\/\/caterham170r.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And if you&#8217;re looking for a great Caterham journey with some budget racing then I can&#8217;t recommend Rob Oldland&#8217;s website highly enough:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/roboldlandracing.co.uk\">https:\/\/roboldlandracing.co.uk<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Update 2017-08-02:<\/strong> If you\u2019re building a 420r like we are, I can\u2019t recommend Marcus Adams\u2019 blog highly enough <a href=\"https:\/\/caterham420rbuild.com\">(Caterham420rBuild).<\/a> It is the perfect fill-in for what\u2019s missing in the current Caterham Build Manual. I plan to have this blog as part of my daily read before continuing with our build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I asked myself a few questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Do I want to Blog?<\/li><li>Have I got time to Blog?<\/li><li>Can I add anything to what&#8217;s come before?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve run websites for business, I&#8217;ve tweeted and posted on Facebook, again for business and I&#8217;ve run websites on the Purplemeanie domain a few times&#8230; but never really had anything to say. So I guess the answer to the first question is yes, I do want to Blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bigger question is: do I have time to Blog? I&#8217;m hoping to get the build done as quickly as we can manage, and so will blogging delay that outcome? I&#8217;ve seen some of the best blogs, in my opinion, done in real time&#8230; finish off an evening in the build space and then write about it until the early hours. Only time will tell if I can keep that sort of dedication going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As to &#8220;can I add anything&#8221;.. hmmm.. perhaps. I&#8217;m essentially a glorified project manager at work and have spent many years pushing project plans and more latterly ticketing systems around. These days cutting edge project management is Agile&#8230; in my IT world. Can I bring an Agile approach to building a Caterham? Well from what I&#8217;ve seen of many other blogs I would say that they&#8217;re all pretty Agile anyway&#8230; what with Caterham&#8217;s parts logistics and the build manuals I would say you have to be Agile if you want to make progress. [link to Agile on Wikipedia ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another option would be a video Blog&#8230; the blogs I&#8217;ve seen so far are mainly text and pictures. There are some good time lapse videos of daily progress and people providing video summaries, but I&#8217;ve not seen a detailed step by step video Blog&#8230; that&#8217;s a possibility and I ought to know how to do a video Blog having spent all my professional life making video communications a thing! So that&#8217;s an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also on the project management front the build blogs around are exactly that&#8230; a chronological log of what people have done to build their car. Some are almost a replacement for the build manual but not quite &#8211; as they have to dodgeabout the theoretical build order while parts are couriered to them as a result of mis-shipping, omission or breakages. So, could I do a video build manual for my build&#8230; hmmm&#8230; that&#8217;s an option too. And yes, I appreciate that for some, doing the build their own way and in their own order is a lot of the challenge and fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure where I&#8217;ll go with this Blog and whether what I&#8217;m thinking of will be too much to chew on, but perhaps that&#8217;s something I can do for the people that follow. Of course that could all get bypassed by the approaching next-gen IKEA-esk build manual that Caterham are working on, if it arrives before we finish the build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for the moment, the decision is made:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Put a blog site together on Purplemeanie.co.uk\n<ul>\n<li>For those that are interested it&#8217;s LAMP and WordPress based (Twenty Seventeen theme as of this writing)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li><li>Write up my experiences from here onAnd see where we end up<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>One option that didn&#8217;t make the grade was that&nbsp;I was thinking of completing the build using a ticketing system like Jira or Redmine, but:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>I think it&#8217;s overkill<\/li><li>It wouldn&#8217;t be as accessible to everyone (you the reader) as a Blog<\/li><li>I suspect it wouldn&#8217;t stand the test of time<\/li><li>Search engines don&#8217;t index ticketing systems so well, so nobody would find it<\/li><li>It wouldn&#8217;t easily allow the journey to be written about after the build<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230; shame, I like tickets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mind made up&#8230; a blog it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having said I won&#8217;t be using a ticketing system, I will be using an itemised build order&#8230; broken down into a todo list. Let&#8217;s see how long that lasts. I might write a post about that approach if your unlucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: the decision to Blog was made on a trip to the US during the week of March 17th 2017. Therefore, anything you&#8217;ve read before the 17th was actually written after the decision to Blog and I&#8217;ve just adjusted the post-date in WordPress to reflect the date I did things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Note from the future<\/strong> (2020-06): Blogging was A LOT OF EFFORT. You can find lots of info about it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/03\/26\/back-with-some-stats-how-much-time\/\">here<\/a>, but I spent nearly as much time blogging as I did building!<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pre-build reflection on documenting the Caterham 420R kit build and why the build blog exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,51],"tags":[66,76,11],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caterham-420r-build","category-caterham-blog","tag-caterham","tag-caterham-420r-build","tag-prebulid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-2d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/05\/07\/pre-build-update-5-a-project-planned\/","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":0},"title":"Pre-build Update #5 \u2013 A Project Planned","author":"John Martin","date":"May 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Pre-build update covering project planning, scheduling, and preparation for the Caterham 420R kit build.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham 420R Build&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham 420R Build","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/caterham-420r-build\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"High-level Gantt chart for the Caterham 420R build project.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Caterham-420R-Project-Plan-001.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Caterham-420R-Project-Plan-001.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Caterham-420R-Project-Plan-001.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Caterham-420R-Project-Plan-001.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":322,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/07\/10\/pre-build-update-6-delays-but-now-in-build\/","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":1},"title":"Pre-build Update #6 \u2013 Delays but now &#8220;in build&#8221;","author":"John Martin","date":"July 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Pre-build update covering delays and the point where the Caterham 420R kit moves into build.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham 420R Build&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham 420R Build","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/caterham-420r-build\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blue Caterham engine bay viewed from above with the bonnet removed.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0686.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0686.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0686.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0686.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0686.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_0686.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":448,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/08\/17\/build-session-3-tapping-a-poorly-threaded-harness-mount\/","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":2},"title":"Build Session 3 : Tapping a Poorly Threaded Harness Mount","author":"John Martin","date":"August 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Caterham 420R build session covering remedial thread tapping on a harness mount before continuing with the build.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham 420R Build&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham 420R Build","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/caterham-420r-build\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Harness bolt sticking out above the carbon cockpit trim.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Harness-Bolt-Sticking-Out.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Harness-Bolt-Sticking-Out.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Harness-Bolt-Sticking-Out.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Harness-Bolt-Sticking-Out.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Harness-Bolt-Sticking-Out.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Harness-Bolt-Sticking-Out.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":141,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/03\/18\/first-pass-of-the-build-manual\/","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":3},"title":"First Pass of the Build Manual","author":"John Martin","date":"March 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Pre-build post covering the first read-through of the Caterham build manual and early planning for the 420R kit build.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham 420R Build&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham 420R Build","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/caterham-420r-build\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":466,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/08\/24\/email-derek-3-no-inner-radiator-cowl\/","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":4},"title":"Email Derek 3 : No Inner Radiator Cowl","author":"John Martin","date":"August 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Caterham support email clarifying the missing inner radiator cowl question during the 420R build.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham 420R Build&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham 420R Build","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/caterham-420r-build\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rear radiator cowling panel with hose openings on a blue background.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cowling-radiator-rear-sigma.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cowling-radiator-rear-sigma.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cowling-radiator-rear-sigma.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":211,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/04\/01\/socialising-the-purplemeanie-kit-car-build\/","url_meta":{"origin":137,"position":5},"title":"Socialising the Purplemeanie Kit Car Build","author":"John Martin","date":"April 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Pre-build post about sharing and socialising the Purplemeanie Caterham kit-car build across the blog and wider channels.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Caterham 420R Build&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Caterham 420R Build","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/caterham-blog\/caterham-420r-build\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Front colour render of the purple Caterham on a grey background.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Purplemeanie-Front-Cropped.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Purplemeanie-Front-Cropped.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Purplemeanie-Front-Cropped.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Purplemeanie-Front-Cropped.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11379,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/11379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}