Over the past 7+ years that I have been blogging, the blog has undergone many transformations... changes in themes, purposes, and intentions. I've been very happy to have it as an online presence....and it's been a great way for me to share information, ideas, and current projects.
I've also found it to be highly motivating - encouraging me to create, make and share. In spite of all of the good, there seems to have been a bit of a shortage of energy here lately for me.
Just in case I missed the fact that I don't know people in all of the 47 different countries listed on my Google Analytics page – or even people in 47 countries, for that matter....ha ha! – recent events have proved that there are many 'strangers' lurking in my midst, and visiting my blog. I'm not going to really get into what has transpired, but suffice is to say that it's left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth and zapped my blogging mojo.
Despite all of this, I still want to be here in this space. I want to make it work. For me. I haven't got a firm plan yet, but I have decided a few things. Baby steps. So here is the plan, for now....
1. Bye Bye Comments
I've come to the conclusion that the Comment feature was/is just dragging me down. Too much spam. Too few comments. Bothersome snarky comments. Too much guilt about reciprocating and feeling obligated to reply. And, really, why does any of it matter, anyway? I don't want to care about the comments or have to worry about them any more.
So this morning I changed my settings and turned off/hid all of the comments. You can always contact me via email (fisheyerugs AT hotmail DOT com) if you want to share your thoughts or have questions. I welcome real comments from real people, at all times - and I promise that if you email me, I will email you back....just maybe not for a day or two... ;-)
2. More pictures, less text?
Writing blog posts takes a lot of time - at least for me it does! I probably spend an hour writing a typical post. And well it might be time well spent, it also pulls time away from all of the other things I have going on. I have the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else, and I am finding it's just not enough to do everything I should be doing - not to mention everything I want to be doing. So blogging has become an easy sacrifice. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, maybe I should spend just a little more time on taking pictures - instead of the explanatory text? Plus, it will be more practice for my new camera. Win-win.
3. No commitment to post
I'm tired of feeling guilty about not posting regularly. Tired of feeling behind in sharing projects or ideas. From now on, I am going to try to give myself the gift of freedom to post only what - and when - I want to share. Whether this translates into posts on back-to-back days or weeks apart, that remains to be seen....but I am really intrigued by the whole idea of "slow blogging". So setting up feed reader (to alert you to new posts) might be a good idea, if you want to avoid the frustration of returning here to no new content....
Apart from the comments that I have hidden (this is the only way I could find to permanently turn them off - any other ideas?), all of the old content and pictures will remain here indefinitely for now.
So this is where I am at.... ;-)
See you when I see you, and hope you are well.
xxoo
