Tag: blogging

Look Who is Blogging Again

Here comes a wander. Be warned.

There are some bulbs along our driveway that were here when we bought our house in 1984. In the Spring, they put up a bunch of large green, strappy leaves which dry and fade away as the Summer heat comes on. Then, come Autumn, large pink crocus-like flowers emerge. The surprise was delightful the first time and still is, 30-some years later. (Turns out they are probably Giant Colchicum – Autumn Crocus).

Image of an Autumn Crocus in full bloom against a neutral light blue background.
From https://www.gardenia.net/plant/colchicum-the-giant

So blogging… I’m not sure if it is because I’m paying attention differently, or if there is something emerging around personal blogging like the crocus. It is alive all year long. It sends up shoots in the Spring then disappears again, and then it flowers. Is a new cycle starting? People whose blogs I used to read consistently but who have faded out over the years are blogging again. There is crosslinking around the topic at hand. Look who is blogging again!! I’m so delighted. (AND: I need a better feedreader, email subscriptions are not as useful, help!)

Blogging is different than participating in social media for me. But it takes more time and attention. It is quieter for the most part. Sometimes solitary. Sometimes it connects. Sometimes it needs the permanency of a url so it can sit, and later, even much later, the flowers can emerge. It is NOT feed of the moment for me.

I wrote yesterday about my Blogiversary. One of the observations was the power of thinking out loud in a blog post and the tantalizing possibility that others may chime in, counter, improve or simply show they were “there” in a comment. As Chris Corrigan noted, the satisfaction is NOT like the (addictive, distracting, destructive) “likes” or “retweets” of FB, Instagram and Twitter. I feel something visceral in this. Cellular versus a visual stimulation that comes and goes in an instant.

Dave Pollard wonders out loud about the role of relationship in our blogging. About how relationships do or do not inform our sense of identity. Euan Semple riffs on the relationship and self knowing. ( I find Euan’s post today on non-identifying usefully troublesome and need to think about what is surfacing for me, about the down side of non-identifying when one is from a dominant culture, race, gender etc. Claiming non-identification can also be an abdication of the negative impact of privilege but that is another topic for pondering.)

What we all have in common is that we wonder out loud in our blogs.

P.S. If you don’t blog, and are INTERESTED, check out these suggestions from Chris.

From the Archives: X years of blogging and what’s next

Agenda from BlogHer 2005

May 1st, 2004 was the first post to this iteration of my blog. 18 years of writing blog posts in one place. The previous blog waffled, wandered and the digital artifacts are for the most part, lost. But even those four years were instrumental to my discovery and learning. (I used the first blog mostly to curate resources for clients!)

In 2017, my dear friend Lilia Efimova reflected on her blogging history. She is, happily for me, still blogging, as is Ton Zylstra, whose post triggered Lilia’s. Those two were pioneers for me, and their writing still inspires and teaches me. (The list of other people whose blogs were/are still dear to me should be added to this post. Someday, right?)

Ton’s post on 15 Years of Blogging made me realise that I had reached similar milestone last June. In this post I look into “more blogging, less FB” issues and outline several points to work on.

Lilia Efimova

Source: 15 years of blogging, FB and what’s next — Mathemagenic

Lilia reflected back then on the wider range of places we can write, share, post, connect and most directly reflected on the borg that is Facebook. The proliferation of other socially-oriented platforms definitely had an impact on blogging in general, and directly for me.

Ton wrote:

When I started blogging it was the source of a tremendous proliferation of new connections, a whole new peer network emerged practically overnight. Distributed conversations became face to face meetings and brought us to places like the Blogtalk and Reboot conferences. Many of the people I regard as a major source of learning, inspiration I met because of this blog. Many over time have become dear friends. That alone is enough to keep blogging.

Ton Zylstra

Back in the day blogging was so many things. It created an online identity, connected me with people who have been essential in my life and formation. It triggered F2F things like Blogging conferences (Northern Voice! BlogHer!)

For me blogging is still primarily a place to think out loud together. Since fewer people blog/read blog posts/comment, the level of connection has shrunk. There has been no group F2F for years. But the last four months of regular blogging have reenergized some of those connections. And reaffirmed the value of thinking out loud together. Thank you for reading… and happy Blogiversary to me!

Update on the Blog Draft Archives Project

a picture from a balcony looking down at people walking, watching, connecting at the Guggenheim Museum, New York City.
People watching, people connecting…

Of the original 419 blog post drafts, 76 drafts remain. From the first post of this silly project in early December until today’s post, I’ve revived/edited or nearly simply reposted 68 posts. That nearly eclipses my early blogging frenzy in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when I posted snippets nearly daily… many of those posts are now inaccessible due to transitions of blog archives, but they are not lost. One day I will figure out if I should (and how to) reconnect them here.

I am now posting 2-3 per week. Of the remaining drafts, I estimate there are up to 40-50 viable posts. Some require real work, others just some light editing. Probably fewer of the latter. I’ve weeded out most of the drafts that refer to links that are now broken, unable to connect to the sources that inspired the post. That makes me sad.

Happily, some of you have left comments and we have reconnected — sweetness. It reminded me of the importance of leaving comments. Euan Semple, I keep trying to comment on your blog, but I fear I have so many different WordPress identities, I keep failing at logging on. I will work on that but I’ve posted imaginary comments quite a few times in the past few months. Harold Jarche, I was thrilled you were happy to get a comment from me on YOUR blog. Ton, Alan, Darcy, Joitske, Mark, Christy, Monica, Robyn, Patrick, and Stephen, thanks for your comments so far. The 10 of you give me more energy than you might imagine!

Why I Love D’Arcy Norman’s Blog

IMG_4652I have lost track of my blog readers, buffeted by eddies of excess digital content. I stumbled back upon D’Arcy Norman’s blog this afternoon with pure delight. (The is one of his Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr … sometimes I prefer to just watch someone’s Flickr stream instead of read so much. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to set that up on an iPad for an idiot like me?)

It has been a long time since I visited D’Arcy’s blog. I new Alan Levine was heading that way and since I’ve been following Alan’s trip, the time felt right. I did not head for one post, I just read and scrolled. Kismet. Serendipity. This seems appropriate during August, where I am cutting myself some slack, in anticipation of an insane Fall work schedule. (Thus the gardening posts and food themed Tweets.)

My networks are now for the most part serendipity networks because they have become too large for me to track. When I need to research, interact, I can activate them for sure. But now they are like going to the candy store, staring at the counter for a few minutes, then picking a chocolate or two.

Here are a few chocolates from D’Arcy’s recent blogs.

he rides a steel cable. A link to a mind blowing YouTube video of a person who rides bikes where most of us can’t even imagine. I’ve watched it twice already.

ds106 campfire jam.  Friends jamming F2F and online.

photo(s) friday: dock life. Beautiful family photos.
And my favorite, which is so good I have to copy snippets that D’Arcy quoted… Thanks, D’Arcy!

on conformity through positive reinforcement.

From Neil Strauss’ article in the WSJ:

Just as stand-up comedians are trained to be funny by observing which of their lines and expressions are greeted with laughter, so too are our thoughts online molded to conform to popular opinion by these buttons. A status update that is met with no likes (or a clever tweet that isn’t retweeted) becomes the equivalent of a joke met with silence. It must be rethought and rewritten. And so we don’t show our true selves online, but a mask designed to conform to the opinions of those around us.

and contrasting Like culture with the power of positive narcissism:

“Like” culture is antithetical to the concept of self-esteem, which a healthy individual should be developing from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Instead, we are shaped by our stats, which include not just “likes” but the number of comments generated in response to what we write and the number of friends or followers we have. I’ve seen rock stars agonize over the fact that another artist has far more Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers than they do.

and on freedom from Like culture:

So let’s rise up against the tyranny of the “like” button. Share what makes you different from everyone else, not what makes you exactly the same. Write about what’s important to you, not what you think everyone else wants to hear. Form your own opinions of something you’re reading, rather than looking at the feedback for cues about what to think. And, unless you truly believe that microblogging is your art form, don’t waste your time in pursuit of a quick fix of self-esteem and start focusing on your true passions.

Hallefrackinglujah.

Indeed, Hallefrackinglujah. And let’s hear it for summer serendipity.