Hi folks,
Towards the end of February I started trolling through my favourite blogs, so that I could make the most of Old Stuff Day. If you have ever been involved in this community event, you will know that it celebrates a range of blogging activities, but particularly encourages participants to re-post old blog articles. What I found was disheartening, though not entirely unexpected.
Looking back it was clear that many blogs have been inactive for a long time. My blogroll was looking a bit like a time capsule, to be honest. Some of the bloggers I would regularly chat with online aren't a presence on blogger anymore and I hadn't really caught up with them for a long time. Some bloggers have intentionally taken a step back from the hobby, which I totally respect. Many others have shifted to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter because they prefer the format and know that many readers have moved there. I spent a bit of time chasing up a few and reconnecting on their turf, which has been cathartic; Joe (Broken Paintbrush), Greggles (Feed Your Nerd), D Power (I'm Alone with a Dream) and The Mad Mek (The Mad Mek's Workshop) to name a few. But blogging is my jam, yo (see if you can read that with an Aussie accent).
We have already discussed the reasons for these changes, with the societal shift towards more instant gratification on social media being the most obvious culprit. With it, readers have moved away from engaging with the longer form of blogging. Blog views and comments have gone down, which has been disheartening to an extent (depending on your motivation for blogging) and people have moved on. Google+ used to be a good in-between, allowing you to post in the short format but provide easy links for people to follow down the rabbit hole. When it shut down and all the comments on blogs were wiped, it was a bitter pill for me. As I have mentioned previously, comments on a blog are like seems of gold through bedrock. Apart from the obvious appeal of recording my hobby exploits, connecting with readers has been a great pleasure for me the past 6 years, so losing the evidence of this was hard. I have also has some serious spam issues, with malicious links forcing me to moderate comments now (I publish legitimate comments as soon as possible, whether they are positive or negative).
A quick experiment: if you have a blogroll, take a look at how many blogs have not posted anything in the past 3 months, or even 12 months. How many have posted for the final time and said their goodbyes?
What I am going to suggest isn't mind-blowing; you may very well be doing it already. I also don't need it done for my benefit, I am very appreciative of the comments I already get.
If there is a blog that you read regularly and appreciate, but haven't ever personally engaged with, leave them a comment. Introduce yourself and take a risk by sharing your opinion. You may decide to do what I did when I started this journey: pick a shortlist of blogs that you can commit to visiting and supporting with both your time and your opinions. Whilst blogging isn't about getting lots of page reads (we have other reasons to do it) the connections we make with other people help drive us on. There are fewer of us now, so it is worthwhile supporting those link-minded souls.
TL;DR: Toss a comment to your blogger!
See you across the table,
Marc
blogging is dead! Long live blogging!
ReplyDeleteRumors of blogging's death have been greatly exaggerated :-)
DeleteMy biggest problem with blogging is the constant flood of spammers. They even spam on active blogs now. Apart from me having less time it's the one thing that really puts me off.
ReplyDeleteI have had enough of them as well. I don't like having to moderate comments, as I know I like to see any comment I write appear immediately to confirm that it has actually been received. The problem was they were adding malicious links and I wanted to protect my readers.
DeleteSame for me, it's either the extra effort and inconvenience of not seeing your comment until approved or having your mailbox overflow with spam comments.
DeleteAlso, there's all the junk you get from blogs that don't moderate if you dare to ask for a notification.
I can't help but feel a little guilty having taken a break. I know you're cool with it but I'm in total agreement regarding the sentiment of your post. Without those making the effort, regardless of likes, exposure, comments etc. The blogging community will struggle. It won't die, but it becomes an afterthought. There is so much great content but it's not supported unlike other formats. Not sure what the answer is though, maybe you have a point in getting people to 'adopt a blog' 😉
ReplyDeleteI hope I have a point... it may just be the cabin fever :-) I am not sure what the answer is either. Blogger alliances can perform the function but the active ones at the moment are so bloated, it really stretches the concept of a supportive community. Even the Facebook groups we set up to help a few bloggers out have people slipping through the cracks. I have an idea that maybe a group of us could commit to engaging with a certain number of blogs and show a unique badge on our own blogs to encourage others. I haven't though it through yet, but I'm thinking...
DeleteGreat post. Your sentiments very much echo my own. I go through phases of being completely disheartened with blogging, particularly with the more readily available gratification of social media. These days I tend to get pretty minimal page views and only the odd comments, which kinda stings. But that said, I'm bloody guilty of it too! Either I just dont have the time to visit all the blogs I want to visit, or I have a quick look, but dont bother to comment. Even a little "nice work" goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ross :-) What do you think it would take to get people engaging with blogs a little deeper? Have I got your blog on my Honour Roll?
DeleteYou do now (thank you!), and I've added you to my own. I'm not sure what it would take tbh, although little prods like this certainly help remind me of why we all do it, and the fact that we should support each other in this endeavour, in even the smallest of ways!
DeleteThis is a comment. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
ReplyDeleteGood to see that there are those keeping a candle burning for those who have wandered away.
My comment and I know that what counts in blogging is not the words we say, the nods of agreement, nor the lols we make. We know that it is the connections that count. We will connect ...
DeleteI'm still here and active! I lament the shift to Insta-gratification as I am old and don't 'do' social media... but still plenty of decent blogs in my blogroll, and I often look at other blogs to skim their blogrolls and add some to replace long dead ones in the blogroll.
ReplyDeleteI have just gone through the process of adding some new blogs as well. I am constantly amazed by how many good blogs are still fighting the good fight, but that I have never seen before!
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ReplyDeleteA good reminder to simply take a little longer after looking through a blogpost and leave a comment!
ReplyDeleteWhilst screaming into the void can feel good sometimes, it's neat if the void whispers something back.
I was whispering to the void for a looooong time before it whispered back :-) Thanks for dropping by.
DeleteIt's interesting to see how hobby blogs have declined in the past few years. However, there are still plenty of people out there doing excellent work both on the hobby and blogging fronts. I for one, will keep trying to leave comments where I can.
ReplyDeleteCheers mate :-) It takes a long and a harsh drought to sort the weaker saplings out.
DeleteGreat post Marc. I am thankful for the comments I got on 262krieg and have tried to sprinkle my thoughts across the blogsphere in return as time allows.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate, I am setting aside a bit of time once a week to try and engage with a few more blogs that I have been enjoying.
DeleteIn many ways I've not noticed the change as much as other, my blog has never been very big or had many comments, so the drop in both has been less noticable over the last 5 years. However, I'm pretty guilty for not commenting on other blogs, mostly as I'm usually trying to read posts between dealing with the kids and when I finish reading a blog I move quickly on to the next to try and get that read too. I should take more time to comment really l, as there are lots of really good post out there that I've felt like I should comment on.
ReplyDeleteI hope blogging is not completely dead, I just started a blog six months ago after years of reading other's posts for many years. And who knows, with recent changes in all our routines, blogging may make a comeback :-)
ReplyDeleteI found your blog many months ago as a link on someone else's page. We share two of the same gaming loves, Battletech and Dark Angels. I loved the picture from your year in review of a bunch of gamers huddled around some hex maps. Keep up the good work!
It is definitely not dead, we have just lost a lot of bloggers to other formats. The one's who remain are those that prefer to write more in-depth about the hobby. As a teacher (and department head) my routine hasn't changed in Australia, I am just doing ~2 times as much work. I hope I can keep up with things! I have just painted my first BattleTech models in a while, it was so good to get back to my roots in gaming. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteIt’s certainly a sad state of affairs and I know I’m guilty of it too, I keep trying to post stuff regularly but with more time spent at work it’s difficult, plus various thing have conspired to stop me posting at various times so far this year.
ReplyDeleteI’ll keep posting when I can though!
I think we all go through rough patches when it comes to blogging. Last year was terrible for me; I didn't realise just how bad it was until I started coming out of it. Keep posting when you can, I love your work!
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