Okay. It has now been a handful of months and I think I am hitting my stride.
The basic theory of the blog is that Monday will be devoted to “the big essay”, whatever that topic may be. Tuesday is the day I give a full-throated recommendation. Wednesday will have a song posted. Thursday and Friday will have minor essays or stories or discussion topics thrown out there (guest posts *ALWAYS* welcome!). Friday night will have a wine review (if you want to call it that, I’m unlikely to discuss bottles that aren’t good at all as much as tell you not to pay more than 10 bucks for a middlin’ one) or discuss the upcoming weekend. Saturday will be a classic Saturday morning moment (be it a commercial or cartoon theme song or mixture of both) and the discussion of vidya games. Sunday will be the discussion of more passive entertainments like books or stuff you watch on the little screen.
My intention with making the blog was to have a place where I would be positive most of the time, to discuss fun things as fun topics with folks rather than divisive things, and give a place on the site where the expectation would be that discussion was *LIGHT* rather than all heavy and philosophical and stuff.
But, for this thread, let’s turn that stuff off and get critical:
What am I doing wrong? What should I do more of? What am I doing too much of? Is there anything you’d like me to touch on that I haven’t? What are you hoping for in the future?
> Thursday and Friday will have minor essays or stories or
> discussion topics thrown out there (guest posts *ALWAYS*
> welcome!).
I’m feebly trying to get back into the swing of posting, instead of just commenting on other people’s stuff. So if you give me a problem space and a day, I’ll get off my duff and dust off my OP skillz, such as they are. How do you apply to be a coblogger?
> Friday night will have a wine review (if you want to call
> it that, I’m unlikely to discuss bottles that aren’t good at
> all as much as tell you not to pay more than 10 bucks
> for a middlin’ one)
You should push this across the whole site. Friday booze blogging.
> What am I doing wrong?
Nothing glaring springs to mind. Mebbe linking to some other blogs that post on matters less weighty? What goofy crap do you read, if anything?
> What should I do more of?
I like the vid threads, but I’m dusty on it and unlikely to absorb much. Tabletop gaming of either the board or RPG is more to my interest. But I’m hardly the only reader.
> Is there anything you’d like me to touch on that I haven’t?
> What are you hoping for in the future?
This is sort of a odd critique (and I’ve had too much wine tonight, so bear with me). Your posts are pretty well split between nostalgia stuff and modern stuff, but there is a… I dunno, a definite bridge there. You don’t go nostalgia about everything. You’ll do a movie review of a new movie, and tie in stuff about things you’ve watched, but you don’t do movie reviews of old movies. That sort of thing.
That’s hardly a major critique, but that’s all I’m missing right now. Lots of posts that tell me about the Jaybird that is, and how the Jaybird that is tied into the Jaybird that was, but not too many posts about the Jaybird that was and how he’s not the Jaybird that is any more.
Does that make any sense at all?
How do you apply to be a coblogger?
I think you just did.
What goofy crap do you read, if anything?
My problem is that most of my reading is either technical or non-fiction. This site, of all things, is actually forcing me to read stuff that isn’t “serious”.
You’ll do a movie review of a new movie, and tie in stuff about things you’ve watched, but you don’t do movie reviews of old movies.
This is interesting. Movie reviews about old movies. I will try to work these in. (There was a period where I saw two-three movies a week in the theater… college student, worked a restaurant, always had 5-10 dollars in my pocket, always had nothing to do from 7PM-Midnight…)
Lots of posts that tell me about the Jaybird that is, and how the Jaybird that is tied into the Jaybird that was, but not too many posts about the Jaybird that was and how he’s not the Jaybird that is any more.
When I veer too far into navel-gazing, I always try to backspace over it and re-write it to make it somewhat relevant. A sort of “here’s the filter you should read this through and you know what is wheat/chaff from your own experiences of your own tastes” kinda thing.
I don’t really comment much hereabouts, mainly because I just don’t play video games (or drink) and thus have nothing useful to say. (I try to limit useless comments to my own blog, and avoid cluttering up others’.) Even so, I still read almost all of the posts here, simply because I like reading what you write.
I wouldn’t mind more posts about movies, but only because that’s what I know more about myself. There’s really no reason for me to expect your blog to hew more closely to my interests. I really enjoy your contribution to the community here, so I’d be happy if you kept rolling merrily along.
Oh, and it would be great to see posts from Pat. I think Pat’s keen.
I think you are doing great. I cannot think of anything that needs changing. I like the idea about critiquing old movies.
I think your post titles are too emphatic. There’s a whole world of punctuation out there that you’re ignoring. Consider: wouldn’t a question mark have been more appropriate for the title of this one? I bet you could also work in the the occasional dollar sign or caret if you tried.
Other than that, I think you’re doing great. Always happy for the opportunity to talk video games (though I seldom actually seize that opportunity).
Cut out all those exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own jokes.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’ve been doing this for twelve years (a dodecade!) this coming September.
You have the luxury of reader feedback on the site instead of a clicky link which discourages social intercourse. Over time I’ve become quite happy writing into the void because whenever I write FOR an audience everything goes to pot, I am harder on myself and nothing ever gets done. This is based upon the spurious belief that audiences are finicky and have strong demands for content which are insatiable and demand something that’s the love child of Dostoevsky and Hemingway.
Write for yourself. Write about what matters to you. It worked for the early Warner Brothers cartoons where they only did shorts which made the writers and animators laugh rather than pandering to the viewers.
Running a site is a hobby not a profession. It’s okay to skip days but keep the following advice in mind.
One of my bylines is “It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be daily” is the most important rule. You’re already exercising discipline which is a major factor to maintaining an online presence via a journal. Big essays on this day, gaming on another day and so on. Don’t abandon your site without notice and offer closure.