Online Neighbors

“A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near.”

A “blogroll” is the web’s oldest form of connection — two sites pointing to each other. In SEO terms it builds backlinks; in human terms it means we became neighbors through writing. Most of these people I’ve never met in person, but the internet closed the distance. That’s the part I find beautiful.

My understanding of a blogroll: maximize real connection while satisfying the basic mutual-link need.

It works in both directions, and requires initiative:

  1. The basic bar: we each find value in the other’s work
  2. Every description here is written by me — not copy-pasted from someone else’s bio
  3. I subscribe to every neighbor via RSS and check in from time to time (comments, etc.)

Neighbors

Most neighbors write primarily in Chinese. Brief English context provided.

  • forecho — U.S. stock investing / software engineering / productivity tools. He has many open-source projects on GitHub. One of the first people I learned from when I started building with Hexo.

  • Jason — Independent developer who ships and shares daily. Built Klib, iPic, iText, iPaste — tools that feel native to macOS. Daily updates on life and thinking.

  • 把酒诗代码，趁乱写年华 — PHP developer in Shenzhen. I enjoy reading his travel writing and life notes.

  • OwenYoung — Creator of the Immersive Translate browser extension (one of my most-used tools). His blog is one of the best digital garden + blog combinations I’ve seen. Also helped me set up DemoChen’s Clip.

  • 胡涂说 — Reads and writes for pleasure. Thoughtful book reviews and reflections. Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life by Ezra Vogel is one I’d second from his list.

  • Macin — Life in Chongqing and beyond. His travel writing puts you in the scene better than any vlog.

  • guoqing’s blog — Frontend engineer, indie SaaS. Also runs the 0xFFFF tech community and built weibo-rss — turns Weibo feeds into RSS. Useful if you’re into RSS.

  • 千古壹号 — Frontend dev and prolific writer. His web frontend tutorial has helped a lot of people learn. Writes code, designs, and manages products — doesn’t drop a single thread.

  • Elizen — Not just a great dad (though also that). Check his Memos for bite-sized updates. If you watch films, his viewing log is worth following.

  • 印记 — “Plain living and high thinking.” Probably the youngest blogger in this list. Weekly log, consistently updated.

  • 韩宇 — Author of 川流. Ultimate tinkerer. Helped me significantly with a site upgrade; the kind of person who’ll code all night for the right layout.

  • 拾月 — Self-hoster and product manager. Runs 拾月书签 (a curated reading archive, RSS-subscribable) and 拾月微博 for short-form updates.

  • 陈仓颉 — Film reviews worth reading after every major holiday season. Also runs 仿生猫不会梦见电子猫粮 — a TiddlyWiki digital garden.

  • 梁某银 — Daily writer. Life in Guizhou and Shenzhen. Simple, full, consistent.

  • 月晖 — Born in 2007. Read 1,000 books before 18. Writing consistently on Xiaohongshu since 15. Genuinely astonishing. Read My High School Had Four Years.

  • 完美的胖达 — Practitioner and thinker. Independent thinking, strong conviction, consistent follow-through.

  • 安全代码 — Security engineer with interests in investing and reading.

  • 碎言博客 — Technical writing (Python, JS, Java) and honest personal reflection.

  • 元否的研究室 — Product/interaction designer with strong build skills. Built his blog on Hugo + Notion, solving the static-site CMS problem elegantly.

  • 潦草学者 — Product manager building real things. Built Wechat 2 Reader to solve a genuine pain point. Now going all-in on AI.

  • 日志屿 — Ten years of writing, 330,000+ words. The consistency is the thing.

  • 张洪Heo — Designer-developer. The best-looking blog I’ve encountered. Impressive.

  • 效率工具指南@彭宏豪 — Productivity tools, consistently. Doing what I aspire to.

  • Aaron Zhu — Backend dev (C, embedded, Java). High output. Good if you’re in that world.

  • Eric Wong — Developer and lifelong learner. Writes since 2003. If you use Neovim, probably already know him.

  • 文武科技柜@斌仔 — Resources, tools, site-building tutorials. Frequently updated.

  • Junhua’s Blog — Java engineer. Been quiet for a while — hope to see more.

This blog has been listed by forecho’s blogroll, 今日热榜, chinese-independent-blogs, BlogFinder, 博友圈, and others. Good places to find more interesting writers.

❤️ Want to exchange links? Add my info to your blog first, then leave a comment below or email me. Note: I write my own descriptions — please don’t send me yours to use.

Name: The Outlier (特立独行的异类)

URL: https://www.demochen.com

Description: Break the loop, embrace uncertainty, benefit from randomness

Avatar: https://demochen.com/images/avatar.png

Edited: 2026-01-19