There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about the decline of blogging and Twitter gets the blame, I have to say, I’ve found this to be partly true. I twitter daily, sometimes more than once and I’m not terribly happy about the effect it’s had on my blog. I’m rather fond of this forum and the record it has kept for me of my life the last 5 years (I think I’m close to that anniversary) Crumbs…
I think of the changes wrought in my world, the early blog on the Wibsite, the move to self hosted Movable Type… why did I even do that? I can scarcely tell you but I’ve been faithful to that platform ever since, becoming proficient enough to the point of helping other Movable Typists as well.
I’ve documented monument and trivia and I’d be very disappointed with myself not to continue doing the same. I’d be kidding myself if I thought I had an audience of more than twenty, nor that there’d be much hew and cry if I did quietly wind things down (more than I have done) but I’ve stopped listening to those voices, as others have said before me, the blog’s for me, not the audience. Like I really have anything important to say, I mean, really… (and no I’m not fishing, merely stating the obvious).
So I’ve been wondering about the down turn in my blogging. I could also blame the weight of university study, I could even blog more about that but I doubt there’s much that many would find interesting… eg. “oooh, we talked about internet governance today and what sort of issues there are surrounding the management of TLDS, CCTLDS and whether ICANN can resist a push to be more democratically managed…
See? I saw you glaze over… truth is, I do too… not best practice while you’re sitting in class…
I could blame the fact that I’m not working for anyone but myself and I’m not getting out much due to financial constraints or… and the list goes on. I was thinking about the work thing, and I never blogged about that before and there’s even less scandal when I’m working for myself so where did all my blog fodder go!!!
I could get all introspective about where my life is going, the struggles I’m having with church and the quiet path I seem to be beating to a different congregation… but that’s a bit personal, I could get into the internet dating scene again and try that on… but I don’t see that sitting comfortably either…
So I’m wondering what to do apart from sprucing it up, I do love when the design says more about me, and I’m missing retro girl…
I’m also considering a retrospective publishing of my Epic American/British and European Journeys with my sister from the early 90’s complete with scanned photos from that undertaking and scans of the badges collected along the way. I actually am keen to get some of that stuff published for my own interest and to that end I have transcribed one journal so I’m on the way…. the photo scanning thing… that’s a mammoth task I think..
I’m wondering if I need to plan a programme of blogging… Say 3 posts a week… themed…
Photo of the Week…
Recipe of the Week…
Travel story of the Week…
Over to you… any ideas?
I think the X of the week (or day; other regular periods of time are available) thing is a good idea – my daily photo blogs have been a really good discipline for me.
I’d really enjoying seeing holiday retrospectives – I’m thinking once I finish the daily photo blogs (will run out of Sibiu pictures eventually, and may be leaving Glasgow if a job turns up elsewhere) of starting another photo blog, where I’d like to include both new stuff and look back on life, kind of a retrospective memoir type thing mixing past and present up together.
Except this isn’t about me. Anyway, anything that includes your fab photos is good by me. Also, maybe a “Cat Anecdote of the Week” might be a good addition.
I just passed the 5 year mark too, and I just think that it’s natural that we go through lulls in the blogging. I’ve had periods of little posting, and my most ‘productive’ period was all the time I worked in an office and I blogged for distraction. I’d like to think the content of my posts have slightly improved since then even if it means their frequency goes down.
I would suggest not going down the programme of blogging route more because if you’ve something interesting to say I think you’ll say it… putting a schedule on it might just feel like more homework! Ultimately blogging is a habit – I found myself distracted by facebook for awhile but when I found something to rant about I went straight back to the blog! If you feel it’s growing cold for while do the odd meme.
I personally don’t really like ‘memory’ post because I read blogs to see what someone is currently thinking about, or what tickled or annoyed them on a given day – but I’m probably not representative on that.
Anyway don’t give yourself too hard a time. When you want to say something longer than 160 characters you’ll be back!
I was just musing on a similar subject and thinking that I needed some sort of incentive to get back to blogging.
I tried an (overly) ambitious scheme a couple of Lents back with something different for each day of the week – photo, prayer, quote etc.
Well, whatever you decide to blog about (although perhaps not acronym of the day?), I’ll read it.
Speaking of which AHD you seem to be in one now… right? I haven’t read of your for quite some time!! What’s news?
Oh noes… I just accused you of a blogging slump only to head over to your blog and find the furniture moved around… I clearly have some catching up to do… in the move the RSS feed seems to have become dislodged… can this be fixed? I clicked on the link and it gave me an error!!!
Aware of the problem… have not got around to fixing it yet – mainly to do with laziness!
You could write
blah
um
gee
and make it fascinating…and I’d read it; so go for what calls you. Like Jackie, holiday retrospectives are a favourite of mine — anything personal where people share aboot themselves I find humbling [in that we are brought into someone’s life] and an experience.
blog is for you … and slumps reflect busyiness of life … so if you do you do, if you don’t you don’t … but I’ll still keep checking in :)