Someone told me recently that their blog wasn’t ‘a proper blog’. And I found this a bit confusing as I thought blogs were basically what you made them – though no doubt there are some improper ones out there. 😉
Mine is simply meant as a lighthearted journal – a place to share some of my thoughts and experiences. No specific focus, just whatever comes up. And of course it’s great when people drop by and leave their comments. 🙂
So what about you guys – why did you start your blogs?
casa azahar 
Apart from feeling let down by h2g2 and needing somewhere else online to hang about, I find it useful to have somewhere to dump the contents of my mind every so often. It’s better than a paper journal; here, I’m talking to other people and not just myself.
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Yeah, someone else mentioned the ‘show-off’ factor of blogging – that we are always writing for an audience. And I guess that’s true to the extent that we expect friends will read what we end up scribbling.
But for me that is also the point. I’ve never seen the point of scribbling loads of self-indulgent crap for my eyes only. Much better to inflict it onto others! 😉
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Exactly. What’s the point of being self-indulgent, if nobody knows you’re doing it?
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Originally, I created my blog mostly as a webdesign-learning experience. “Let’s see if I can get the hang of this…”
But the lure of wasy publishing is there, isn’t it? 😉
So I use it to publish writing that may *keeps fingers crossed* have a more, ummm, general approach than what I do on h2g2. Even if I do cross-post some of it.
And photos, of course…
I have this idea, mentioned already when I created my blog, to use it for a full-scale CSS design excercise – half-hidden in my mind is an idea about how it should look, etc.
I have started looking into WordPress, actually – for hosting at my own. Not because I’m thoroughly dissatisfied with blogger, but a few things like categories etc seems better implemented and should be in The New One.
Whenever that happens…
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Just a pure co-incidence I guess… Hootoo started to change and people I wanted to stay in touch with left, and this is away of keeping contact.
Then, admittingly, the possibility to get response to some self-centered rant ain´t that bad..
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I really can’t recommend WordPress enough, SVG. I think I mentioned to you elsewhere that you can import all your Blogger posts and comments here?
One option – you could always do a ‘trial blog’ on WordPress, including your Blogger stuff, have fun playing around with it, and only tell people about it when you’re sure you want to stick with it.
Have you seen the News page here? It’s quite interesting and tells you a lot about what WordPress has to offer (scroll down to see the Archives).
http://wordpress.com/blog/2006/07/14/translate-wordpress/
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It does look good.
I’ll have to dig (more) into the WordPress stuff. It’ll include a small server change on my web hotel – the current one doesn’t support all that makes WordPress run smoothly.
And I’d have to see if there is stuff that only runs if you’re on wordpress.com as well – since I host myself.
All of which just requires time…. 😉
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Well, you’ve totally left me behind there with some of yer geek-talk. Web hotel?
Nog and I decided to go with WordPress when we started up our blogs because we were already using it as the text management thingy on our website (the online shop).
I love how the staff here is not only helpful and friendly but is also always making improvements for their bloggers.
If you have any questions about what you can and can’t do with WordPress you might want to email them and ask – they say that they might not always have the time to reply but they did reply to me when I had a query once.
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Going back to the ‘show off’ and no doubt self-indulgent factor about creating a blog – I don’t reckon this is a BAD THING.
Also, for me – someone who has the memory span of a whaddaya-callit? – it’s nice to see a record of what I’ve thought and said here and there. Not only on my own blog but also when commenting on other blogs.
Yeas ago, BE (before email), I started photocopying my long rambling letters before posting them to people so I could remember what I’d written when they eventually replied to me.
Much easier and more convenient to just have it all here. 🙂
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I started my Blog to replace my journal at h2g2, partly because some of my friends there had already left, and partly because here I have the ability to be more selective about who posts replies.
Of course, the reasons I’d started the journal at h2g2 which I’ve replaced with this Blog have as much to do with my being too busy (or lazy?) to maintain consistently decent contact with everyone I want to as with self-indulgence. But I do like hearing myself talk. 😀
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I was just looking at my blog stats and saw that someone had visited my blog from this page:
growing blogs
I’ve never seen that page before. So apparently at some point yesterday my blog was one of the busier ones. 😯
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SVG, you might find this interesting…
Importing from Blogger to WordPress
I found that whilst googling for info about RSS feeds for comments on Blogger but so far haven’t been able to find a thing – looks like it just ain’t possible.
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I think I started blogging to give myself an official space to BE a writer. I mean, yes, I should be happily typing away at my assorted novel ideas with no need for reference to the rest of the planet. Obviously. That’s the way to be a writer.
But it is very isolating. And what with my chronic neurotic insecurity, I felt I needed to discuss what I was doing and how I felt about it with a few people and maybe look puppy-eyed and appealing until someone told me I was cute. *sigh*. Pathetic, isn’t it? And it’s quite hard to do in RL. You need to give people space in which they decide whether they want to participate or just observe. Or you just become the party bore. Blogs are the perfect answer to all this.
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Chronic neurotic insecurity? You mean I’m not the only one?
Funny about writing. Nog asked me this morning if I’d ‘talk through’ a book he’d started a few months ago…he’d kind of got sidetracked and lost the plot and so just wanted to toss around a few ideas.
Then he asked me about the novel I wrote about 8-9 years ago (unfinished but I’ve got about 400 pages). And while I was telling him the story I got interested in it again and ended up hauling it out for another look – hadn’t looked at it in years – and I’m starting to think it might be salvagable. So watch out – I might soon be posting excerpts of it here.
But I agree with you, Ag, that doing that on a blog is much less intrusive than handing someone 10-20 pages and waiting around for a response.
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Well, I am starting to wonder why I am blogging. I am spending an inordinate amount of time on my computer and learning a lot and getting very frustrated. For example, I went and did some stuff with widgets like you suggested, very nifty. EXCEPT! I put a blogroll on my side bar and the only thing it will up up there is the wordpress stuff. I have clicked on “Add to blogroll” on Casa Az and over at Hypatias Garden and also Psychocandy’s blog. But they don’t show up on my page. When I go and look at my blogroll they are uncategorized. I have not been able to discover how to change them from uncategorized to blogroll or friends or whatever. Help, please
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Okay, okay … nipping over to your place to explain it, just hang on a sec …
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Well I don’t, yet anyway.
Having lurked on H2G2 every now and then, and had a couple of conversations with your good self, that led me here.
I had never thought about blogging – that it might be something that “normal” people do. So I suppose, rather cheekily, that I am using your blog as something to look at and see how they work.
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Hey Johnny – long time no see.
Blogging really isn’t unlike the h2g2 journals I used to write, only here I have a lot more options and personal freedom.
Anyhow, feel free to join in any of the posts here. And who are you calling “normal”? 😉
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Thanks for the welcome, and the invite – I shall partake.
As far as “normal” goes, I thought about ordinary – but decided that definitely wasn’t right.
😉
Not sure how smileys work here. But I guess I’m about to find out.
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Okay, if you don’t mind Johnny, I’ll just remove the last seven ‘testing smilies’ comments here between us and direct you over here, which should give you some info about it all.
http://azahar2.wordpress.com/smilies/
🙂
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Fine by me
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This evening I was having a lurk around h2g2 as I haven’t been there much lately and I came across a thread where people were discussing blogs and bloggers and one comment was “the blog seems to be the preserve of the self-important and over-verbose”.
I don’t get it. As if to say there are no self-important and overly-verbose people on h2g2? 🙄
Meanwhile, most blogs I visit are quite individual and are set up to suit the needs of each person. The variety is really quite fun and often very interesting.
It think the main thing I don’t like about blogs is that stupid name … BLOG. Ick.
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I’m prepared to bet that the ‘self-important and overly-verbose’ comment was made by someone who matches that description.
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Now that you mention it . . . 😉
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Oh, do tell… (Email, of course.)
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