Testing a Plugin by Writing About Not Knowing What to Write About
There’s probably something deeply fitting about testing a WordPress plugin for the AT Protocol by writing an article about not knowing what to write about.
Very recursive.
Very internet.
Very me.
I installed the ATmosphere WordPress plugin because I wanted to experiment with publishing into the broader AT Protocol ecosystem without duct taping together fifteen APIs, a cron job, and whatever remains of my sanity after a week of coding.
The problem?
I immediately ran into the oldest issue every writer, blogger, developer, and over-caffeinated Gen-X nerd eventually hits.
“What exactly am I supposed to post here?”
Do I write about the AT Protocol stuff I’m building? Because honestly, that’s consuming a lot of my brain right now.
I’m deep into experimenting with decentralization, identity, portability, orchestration layers, federation, and trying to build something that feel useful instead of “Web3 but somehow with more buzzwords.”
And I’m learning a ridiculous amount while doing it. Half the time I feel like I’m making progress. The other half feels like I’ve opened seventeen browser tabs directly into the architecture diagram of the future internet.
Still fun though.
Then there’s the writing side.
Ironically, my actual fiction writing is mostly on pause while I build things.
That’s the dangerous thing about being both a developer and a writer. I feel like building systems scratches the same itch as building worlds. At least for me. One minute you’re outlining a novel.
The next minute you’re implementing OAuth authentication flows at 1:30 AM while telling yourself this absolutely counts as “creative work.”
It probably does.
But my sci-fi characters are starting to look at me like abandoned Sims.
Then again, maybe I should write about work.
Open banking.
Automation.
Process engineering.
The weird intersection of where I live most of the week days. I in between where regulation, technology, and humans all collide in glorious enterprise chaos.
There’s actually a lot of fascinating stuff there.
But there’s also the constant challenge of figuring out what’s interesting to other people versus what causes me to lean forward excitedly and say things like, “wait until you see this workflow engine.”
Which, admittedly, has limited mass-market appeal. I get excited talking about it and you can see the eyes of colleagues (or my wife sometimes, although she really tries hard to hear me out.)
And somewhere in the middle of all this, because apparently I needed another hobby, I picked up an FPV controller.
Not an actual drone yet. I’m not emotionally or financially prepared to lawn dart expensive electronics into a tree at 70 km/h.
So I’m doing the responsible thing, logging simulator hours first.
Which honestly feels strangely similar to software development.
A lot of crashing.
A lot of overcorrecting.
A brief moment where you think, “Oh, I get it now.” Immediately followed by impact.
But maybe that’s the actual answer.
Maybe the thing to write about isn’t choosing one identity.
Maybe it’s the overlap.
The weird Venn diagram between writer, developer, technologist, veteran, coffee addict, sci-fi nerd, decentralization advocate, and middle-aged guy trying not to accidentally acquire more hobbies than remaining free time.
Because that’s the real story anyway.
Not polished expertise.
Not influencer nonsense.
Not pretending to have everything figured out.
Just building things, scratching the itch to learning things and definitely breaking things. Then writing about the process, and occasionally remembering to hit “publish.”
Which, now that I think about it, means this article technically succeeded.
And more importantly…
I tested the plugin. So, give me a like and a comment on the post ( I really want to see the comments working ). Coffee is on.

Jason G. Butterfield
@kraft.im , @pfefferle.org, the new ATmosphere plugin worked like a charm. Well done and thanks!